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Thread ID: 71420 2006-08-05 11:21:00 Xtra blocking/slowing p2p traffic Kindel (6640) Press F1
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476271 2006-08-05 11:21:00 I have just gotten off the phone to Xtra after enquiring why all my p2p downloads seem to be running at rather pathetic rates. I was told they are now blocking certain traffic types. ANd here it is in there terms "We adopt network management practices for peer to peer traffic types which may reduce the speed of the product using these applications." (xtra.co.nz)

My question is this: do they do this by blocking certain common p2p ports, or by some other means? If they only block ports, I could easily circumvent this. But if it is traffic type...well, that's the final nail in their coffin for me, I'm changing ISP (unless they all do it, if so are there any who don't)?. Any answers would be appreciated, thanks in advance
Kindel (6640)
476272 2006-08-05 11:32:00 They have done that for ages. They started off with just port blocking, but that didn't work very well so I'm fairly sure they are also using packet inspection now. Greven (91)
476273 2006-08-05 11:36:00 Is there a way to circuvent packet inspection? Kindel (6640)
476274 2006-08-05 11:36:00 All ISPs do this, as P2P traffic is a huge percentage of all traffic and they want to make web traffic run quickly (since to a lot of people the internet is just WWW).

I doubt they block port entirely but definitely traffic shape them. Use higher port numbers, use traffic encryption options, try at different times of the day - these MAY help.

Of course make sure your firewall/port forwarding is setup correctly and realise that often the problem is that the people you are connecting to are not sharing fairly...

The truth is that they (the ISP) inspect actual data packets these days to determine what type of traffic is it, so changing port numbers doesn't help. They may also just slow your traffic down once you hit levels of GB downloaded, or some other sort of pattern in your data use is detected.

Changing ISPs may help ..as long as you can find one that has very little heavy P2P users ...as they tui ads say "Yeah right"
gibler (49)
476275 2006-08-05 11:40:00 Yeah I mean when I'm still under my dl quota. ANd yup I've checked all the settings (utorrent even has a thing to check if ports are forwarded right). Also, if I use the 'encrypt' option in uTorrent, will this solve the problem of Xtra being evil to my BT dls? Kindel (6640)
476276 2006-08-05 12:38:00 Also, if I use the 'encrypt' option in uTorrent, will this solve the problem of Xtra being evil to my BT dls?

I won’t have thought that would make any change.

If I was you I would just forget BT’s or put up with the crap speeds my :2cents:
stu161204 (123)
476277 2006-08-05 13:56:00 Thing is I'm actually using it for LEGAL purposes, I'm downloading RTW mods. Grrr. Considering p2p probably accounts for most of the traffic on the internet you'd think some ISPs would be going out of their way to serve that area of the market, but no =( Kindel (6640)
476278 2006-08-05 22:29:00 as far as choking portsI have suspected this for a while. The reason is that I connect to overseas severs at the same speed as I did on 256 kb adsl. even when I am downloading at 200 kbps and up at 60 in fact there is no difference for my connection to a gaming server untill my p2p transfer goes over that.ie using the full 80-90 up and 350-400 down.

BTW the only way I found to get those p2p speeds is to use transport encryption and cycle the ports randomly in the upper port ranges (as has been mentioned). I also find that the down speed is directly related to howmuch I can up
stumagoo (10748)
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