Slow Astraweb

Hello! i have recently jumped on to the usenet wagon after using torrents for years(which i now regret! :D ).I bought a one off 180gb from astraweb just 4 days ago to test the waters and im using the Alt.Binz program.Im from europe so im using the EU SSL server.Anyway to the point! the first few days were fantastic i was getting 700kbps per second on my 8mbit connection which i have only seen once in my life on torrents because my ISP called eclipse throttles badly.But now for two days solid i only hover around the 120kbps to 160kbps :( i have tried changing the different ports and increasing/decreasing connections and still no luck.If i run a speed test im getting 6.4mbps,is this an astraweb issue or is it possible for my ISP to throttle usenet even through SSL?

Thankyou and any suggestions welcome!

Speed test sites are usually not much use in determining ISP throttling because the download is often too small to trigger the throttle. (better yet, download a big file while watching a bandwidth graph)

It appears it's not a problem that originates at Astraweb's end - they have super-fast connections and don't throttle - and your internet connection (between the Astraweb server and you) was previously capable of much higher speeds, so there's no reason for the slowdown -- unless your ISP is (intentionally) throttling you.

Maybe you found yourself in Hog Heaven and downloaded so much your first few days of having usenet that you tripped the ISP's "bandwidth hog" switch? :)

It helps to use a standalone bandwidth meter to check things out (I use NetMeter - www.metal-machine.de/readerror/ ) instead of relying on "speed test" sites or watching numbers.

But even if your ISP is throttling you, there might still be ways around it.

There are many ways a ISP can throttle you: by (total) internet connection, by connection stream, by port, by packet-signature, by destination IP address, etc. Ok, so the goal is to thwart each of the other possible throttling methods. You've already tried changing ports and increasing connection streams and using SSL on port 443. (So maybe try downloading from multiple IP addresses at once?)

Some things to try:

Download a file from Astraweb using just one connection (watch the speed)
with usenet downloads running, then download a file from some HTTP or FTP site. Does your total bandwidth increase?

Have you tried downloading from more than one of Astraweb's 4 servers at a time? (set each file to download from a different server) or 2 NSPs at once?

You might also try a trial usenet account from another company or a VPN/proxy.

If, in the end, none of this works to increase your speed, then it's possible that your entire ISP connection is being throttled. In which case there's nothing you can do.

This happens all the time to me after about 3 days, un plug you modem and router for abut 5 minutes re-plug in and you should have you speeds back, unless you ISP is thottling you at "certain times of the day" which some ISP do, during peak time.

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Originally Posted by SonsOfLiberty

unless you ISP is thottling you at "certain times of the day" which some ISP do, during peak time.

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Any way to get around this? It'd be cool to download during the daytime as well. My ISP is Virgin cable UK. At present I have to download after 9pm and my parents don't think it's so cool for me to leave the PC on all night (sucks for me I know, only another year till i move out though :p)

Scheduler on Alt.Binz lets you set times to leech.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turtles

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SonsOfLiberty

unless you ISP is thottling you at "certain times of the day" which some ISP do, during peak time.

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Any way to get around this? It'd be cool to download during the daytime as well. My ISP is Virgin cable UK. At present I have to download after 9pm and my parents don't think it's so cool for me to leave the PC on all night (sucks for me I know, only another year till i move out though :p)

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Get a different ISP...Virgin throttles, heard this from many Usenet users...also, just use a timer to shut down you PC before your parents get up, if they get up at 7AM set your time for 6AM :lol:

I use this one, just so if I leave for a day or so, and I leave my PC on to finish updating or downloading and dont want to wait, I just set teh timer to shut it down.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/.../Shutter.shtml

If the throttling isn't that bad, well I mean if you can still get "ok" speeds, just let it download, or course if you hogging the network it would make evenyone come to a crawl.

Cheers SOL :)

Would ideally like to change ISP, but not going to happen atm. Apart from the throttling during peak time thing Virgin do the job fine for everything else :p