O Canada! > Canadian > Shaw > BT slowdowns in Greater Vancouver?

reply to will2k

Re: BT slowdowns?

reply to will2k
Oi, when I read this topic 2 nights ago, I was relived I wasn't the only guy experiencing this (I live in the Vancouver area as well).

Anyway, I get speeds of 2-3kb/s. I left the torrent on for like 2 hours and it managed to get back to full speed (15kb/s, not much, but I have Lite, which is the fastest).

reply to geebutbut

reply to will2k
How interesting. The night after I call them and tell them that my BT upload, and only my upload is suffering, it's miraculously doing better. I wonder if there's any correlation...

reply to will2k
I tried to download from Red Hat and Debian torrent sites and those does not work. Those are legal torrents. Make those your excuses for opening up the access.

reply to will2k
Not that it will help solve anything. But I dropped another quick mention of all this on my blog. Highly doubt it will have any benefit. But at least it's another outlet covering the story - so to speak.

I've asked about 120 people at school today (actuall number) all who said there bittorrent speeds have been shit.

My kazaa speeds seem to be fine though, but check the "cap on bandwith thread" to see what me and the shaw rep went through.

reply to will2k
argggggg
this is realli pissing me off ~
i have been downloading for 3 whole days for 1 torrent and all i have is 900mb/2gigs ~ and yes i do restart now and then for my com
and YES there are ppl seeding it too ~
i don't care how shaw fix it ~ just fix it already ~

the saddest part is that i just upgraded to xtreme-I this month ~
*cries* ~

hi guys
well i've been following the topic for a bit now. i too have been neurotically checking my bt download speeds. i live in gvrd and top out at 20kB/s. using regular shaw cable internet with the sb3100, azureus.
now i do think something has happened with shaw and the bittorent network recently. however there is a work around i've found and its a crummy one but its keeping me alive. only download torrents with massive seeds/leech ratios. somehow that still lets you max out. for example torrentbits has awsome seeders and downloading anything from them i get the speeds i'm used to getting (150 kB/s). but only on torrents with like 90 seeders and 30 leechers. something magical about this 3:1 ratio works. i know this isn't an answer, and i will be switching to telus shortly. but in the meantime, i throw this observation out there. if anything for the psycological benefits. download something with tons of seeders and feel better for a little while.
cheers

reply to Gbz
Let me know if your pissed enough to do something, I've got a reporter for the province putting together a small story for Friday's paper.

reply to will2k
Listen to this, a response from my last week's repsonse to the SP2 email.

Thank you for contacting Shaw Internet technical support.

This information is based upon the posts of a user in a discussion forum rather than on an official statement issued by Shaw. While posters in forums do often make claims of having inside knowledge of the issues with the service in question (whether that service is Shaw or otherwise), there is no way to confirm the accuracy of the information being posted by that user, not to mention the fact that the poster may or may not even be in a position to acquire that information. The only information about the Shaw network which should be taken as fact is that information released by Shaw. At present, Shaw has not taken any position on the situation regarding peer to peer filesharing speeds, and is investigating the situation in order to determine the cause of the issue. If you could provide us with the following information, we would be better able to investigate the problem and take the appropriate action to address it.

When using P2P file sharing, which program(s) are you using? That is, does this affect anything other than BitTorrent? Are you finding that your upload speeds are affected, or your download speeds? Or both? What sort of speeds are you seeing in your filesharing application? What kinds of speeds are you seeing for your connection as a whole? The best way to test your speed would be through »speedtest.shaw.ca, since this is entirely within our network. Do you find that your speeds vary according to the time of day when accessing through peer to peer? If you could let us know, we would be better able to investigate and address this situation as soon as possible.

Thank you for choosing Shaw.

James
Vancouver E-Mail Support Team
Shaw High-Speed Internet Service
van.help@sjrb.ca

reply to will2k
Yes, I'm pissed enough. What should I do? Let the journalist know that there are legit uses of BT such as Half Life, WoW and almost all linux distros are distributed that way. Linux distros have conventional ftp too, but they're usually congested when new distros are first released, so BT is the best thing going.

reply to will2k
I did a few test today. Seems like it's definately some packet filter or could be traffic shape to popular trackers trackers. I have noticed suprnova and torrentreactor has like super super slow speed 1.5 kb/s to 10 kb/s at max. But when I went to some chinese torrent sites it seems to go up to 60kb down and 40kb up which is more reasonable. But still pretty sh*tty. I checked ethereal logs and seems like there are a lot of ACK packets on 6881 but no actual data. I suspect they are just filter packets based on IP level.

This is the last time I'm going to explain this, the difference between Public and Private trackers is the encryption. Ellacoya.com cannot monitor encrypted data right now, it would take way too long and slowdown EVERYTHING. Private trackers like Empornium and Tvtorrents use an encrypted connection to the tracker making it (impossible?) to scan the packets for P2P protocols.

(SHAZE UPDATE)
Called corporate (AGAIN) today and was told that "the project was created in, and is subject to Vancouver's success". And so I was transferred to Bandwith Support in Vancouver, who also didn't "confirm" the existence of the switches but was good enough to pass me up the corporate ladder a little. I'm recording my phone calls and as soon as they confirm that yes they are using them, I'm gonna procede with a lawsuit false advertisment. For the Extreme-I's "Unlimited Access to the Internet" advertisment. Meh, I just want my connection back, I've invested too much money in this company to switch to crappy Telus (Non-SMTP forwarding) connection.

reply to will2k
From my understanding, the whole two month slowdown is attributed by integrating this new software into each area's node (Or router or service area or whatever). The use of Ellacoya's service (Or any of those offered from these new startups), are to basically kill off the high levels of Layer-7 traffic flow. The Network routers operate on Layer-3, and are not able to handle this traffic or the sheer volume of traffic.

Most of the aggravation I read about stems from the obvious limiting of services. There's also a general feeling that Shaw is working purely through self-interest. What else is new. I won't feign ignorance about it, they are a National business. They are profit centric. Shaw makes decisions and actions to keep things running, but also to maximize profits. To them, it's "good" business sense to cut out this congestion. They undoubtedly now have a slot open to throw a promotion on Xtreme-1(Or globally) for the "Holliday season". With the file-trading clog lulled, naturally Shaw will push to sign-up and sell to the the 20-30% overhead they stand to gain.

Oh yeah, and then there's the whole illicit file-trading thing. I haven't heard of anybody being sent legal notices through Shaw (As opposed to Telus) ... but assuredly there's little doubt Shaw is immune from the issue. Even though Shaw was a main defendant in the file-trading case - I saw that as a simple front for subscribers to stay (and snag more). Now, Shaw will is playing it both ways.

Switching over to Telus won’t be a saving grace (Especially if you still get cablevision from Shaw). That's the same kind of "Quick-Fix" mentality Shaw is working off. As already mentioned, there's nothing stopping Telus from taking the same recourse. Remember that Shaw seems to be the test company here in Canada, if the results are good - it'll spread.

I am no network tech, but there are other solutions here, albeit costly. If you really want something done at all - it'll be done through negotiation and sacrifice. Complaining to a service rep or poking in the dark at a tech wont't remedy anything. Attacking Shaw's advertising department seems like a dead end. The best case scenario for that is they add an asterisk ... *Some Restrictions Apply ... Hell, it's probably already there. You'd get more done by graffitiying Shaw Communication's advertisements (Not that I condone it ...).

If we're to get something back, the onus is on the power-users to buckle down. They'll have curb their consumption on a day-to-day basis. There has to be an effort of sustainability.

If we want a positive resolution, then why not work towards one?

reply to will2k
Shaw cable; ZEIG HEIL!

A Narc would have said the issue is SP2.
I just want to see an end of this ordeal.
Most hopefully one where we can be content, maybe even proud about.


"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis approaches one"

reply to will2k
I think we will see a lawsuit from some people pretty soon. Apparently, world of warcraft beta is distributing through torrents packets.

»signup.worldofwarcraft.com/menu.html

There is no reason why it will be slow and crappy on a LEGIT server. They have no reason to BS their way out of this one. Blizzard has a really reliable tracker.

Someone go complain, too bad I am on 3web, or I will go straight up the management level and ask for an explaination.

reply to will2k
You won't get anywhere contacting shaw and asking why they're blocking legitimate file sharing, for example linux distros and the WoW beta.

Theoretically what I think happened is shaw's fiber network is starting to hit the maximum or over maximum capacity and causing connectivity problems and slowdowns.

For the time being they need to find a quick fix so they can give their customers the service they guaranteed in the first place. The temporary solutions would be to throttle all file sharing packets as this is what is destroying their network.

They can now concentrate on expanding their network capacity so they can accommodate the massive amounts of bandwidth being used by their customers and future customers.

Just a thought, however it could totally be incorrect.

I've been using torrentbits.org for a long time and haven't noticed a speed decrease, they make you use non-standard ports.

Cut from their FAQ:

Why do I get a "rejected by tracker - Port xxxx is blacklisted" error?

Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default bittorrent ports (6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.

TorrentBits does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols. The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports (that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).

The blocked ports list include, but is not necessarily limited to, the following:

Direct Connect
411 - 413
Kazaa
1214
eDonkey
4662
Gnutella
6346 - 6347
BitTorrent
6881 - 6889

In order to use use our tracker you must configure your client to use any port range that does not contain those ports ****CUT OUT THIS SECTION INCASE SHAW SPYS ARE LOOKING AT THIS FORUM!@!#!@# ^_^ SPYS@!@#!@# THEY COULD POSSIBLE ADD THE WHOLE PORT RANGE TO THE THROTTLING SOLUTION THEY'RE USING*****

These ports are used for connections between peers, not client to tracker. Therefore this change will not interfere with your ability to use other trackers (in fact it should increase your speed with torrents from any tracker, not just ours). Your client will also still be able to connect to peers that are using the standard ports. If your client does not allow custom ports to be used, you will have to switch to one that does.

Do not ask us, or in the forums, which ports you should choose. The more random the choice is the harder it will be for ISPs to catch on to us and start limiting speeds on the ports we use. If we simply define another range ISPs will start throttling that range also.

Finally, remember to forward the chosen ports in your router and/or open them in your firewall, should you have them. See the Why am I listed as not connectable? section and links therein for more information on this.

reply to will2k
Ah! I thought I was going crazy. I read something about the new azureus client being the problem (I use bittornado), but then I thought if speeds were being throttled just today.

In Vancouver, I'm using Shaw xtreme, XP SP1, random ports 51000-52000 and my uploads are rock bottom. Downloads are fine if it's really well seeded (like the new firefox download) but uploads are definitely slow. 1-2k at best, it's chipping away my ratio at almost all the torrent sites I visit.

EDIT: Okay I just read the entire thread; nothing constructive to add except I'm thinking of the quick-fix Telus solution.