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Broadband In Australia Just Got Slower
liquidx writes: "Seems like broadband Down Under is getting more and more restrictive. First we had our _unlimited_ plans changed to capped usage plans, then incoming port 80 traffic was blocked (due to Code Red/Nmida worms) and now file-sharing protocol ports are filtered due to 'load balancing issues'! Whirlpool reports that Optus@Home throttled traffic to ports 6700-6702 (ex-Napster ports) without telling its users. Read the letter and article here. Are there any other broadband services, other than the ones in Australia, continually degrading their service to customers? When will this stop?"
Maybe it isn't possible for them to make money on accounts that use these P2P-type services. I wonder how (un)popular it would be if they only filtered/capped the ports outside of their network - most* of their cost comes when traffic leaves their network to peers.
*Not all, of course. There's a limited capacity within their network, too.
> If we pay to get on the Net, we should be full nodes, no caps, no limits. The only things that should restrict that are our hardware components, not theirs. My ISP restricts upload speeds, but I have yet to hear a cogent argument as to why. I fork over for the privilege. I should get to use it. Period.
Get a T-1 or what ever fits your bandwidth needs and pay the money. A lot more than $40 a month isn't it. All companies I've dealt with when ordering T-1's et al don't care what you run if it isn't illegal. If you want to engage in illegal activity then you're out of luck.
Why not be your own provider? Right...because you don't want to spend the money and no one will give it to you for free. I got ya.
Grow up.
In a nutshell, broadband providers have a lot to gain by restricting users' access, and users have a lot to lose if they let the industry move toward new usage models.
I have to say that on the whole I've been very impressed with the service. Although there were a few throughput issues when I initially joined, I've been on the whole very impressed with the service. They even allow servers (with suitable resitrctions, max 10 connections per cable modem and it must be private, password protected), and the only limits they place on normal traffic is a transparent proxy for all port 80 traffic (which I am sure actually speeds up the service rather than slowing it down). I get a constant 64kb/sec transfer rate downloading where possible (and thanks to the transparent caches this is relativly often). The only thing I can say against them is that their mail server often (once a month or so) gets backed up and takes three or four hours to send emails - but they're running some Microsoft SMTP solution at the moment, so perhaps that's to be expected ;) Oh, that and they're part owned by Microsoft. But they don't mind that I only have linux boxen connected to their CM..
So basically, to all those who have replied 'well what do you expect, the economic model isn't viable!', I beg to differ.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
The real problem is that the ex-monopoly provider of all of the main pipes in Australia charges monopolistic amounts for bandwidth. Want ADSL with a 20GB monthly quota? That will be US$1500, thanks... And that's the wholesale price!
h tm for Australian pricing.
In the US it is easy to get bandwidth for under US$2 per month, which is about 30x cheaper!See http://telstra.com.au/bigpond/direct/adslpricing.