# Sympatico throttling?



## BRN (Nov 26, 2004)

Does sympatico throttle downloads? In the last week or so my connect has become really slow. I have had High Speed service for several years now. Not their Total Home stuff. I download from P2P and FTP on a regular basis without problems until lately.


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## gennybeans (Oct 25, 2007)

i can't be positive, but from what i hear, they're beginning to.
it could also just be bell's service, because i remember when i was with them, the connection was not always consistent.


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## wcg (Oct 13, 2007)

I've been following this since I found that Rogers was throttling BitTorrent - even after trying different tricks to get around it (for example using the VOIP port worked for awhile). From what I've read an add-on module for large scale Cisco routers does the trick for reducing P2P traffic. I've also heard that this is indiscriminate and can throttle all encrypted traffic so it can effect SSH and SSL traffic. 

It's bound to happen since, apparently, 35% of all Internet traffic is BitTorrent. I've also heard they are throttling iTunes traffic as well. Don't know how true that is.

Unfortunately, ISPs can't even hope to fulfill there advertised download and upload speeds for every customer so they go after the heavy users.


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## wizardly (Oct 17, 2007)

I've been using Sympatico since 1998 or so and I've yet to experience any sort of throttling. I'd go as far as saying in the past year my speeds have been the best I've seen.


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## gennybeans (Oct 25, 2007)

wizardly said:


> I've been using Sympatico since 1998 or so and I've yet to experience any sort of throttling. I'd go as far as saying in the past year my speeds have been the best I've seen.


that's impressive. and i guess some are luckier than others. 

and i agree with wcg, there is absolutely NO way ISPs will ever be able to actually deliver the advertised speeds that they apparently offer. when i was with bell, i signed up for the 3MB high speed, and i was lucky if downloads went as fast as 2MB.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

BRN said:


> Does sympatico throttle downloads? In the last week or so my connect has become really slow. I have had High Speed service for several years now. Not their Total Home stuff. I download from P2P and FTP on a regular basis without problems until lately.


I have been noticing the same thing recently. The month or so I have noticed a considerable drop in my download speeds.


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## BRN (Nov 26, 2004)

Okay my DSL connection hasn't been working well for a week or so. Webpages loading sloooowly or not at all. Torrent downloads slow. Uploads to my iDisk not working. DSL light on modem going off. Thought it was Bell throttling but the webpages not working confued me. Called Bell support and after an hour with Tech support and several line tests he said it was the splitter I was using on the wall jack. Took it off and plugged modem straight in. Worked better all day long. Next evening DSL light started going off again and everything slowed down. Any ideas? Could there be something wrong with my computer (eMac with 10.4)? Or is it probably Bells wires?


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

My sympatico has been messed up lately as well... except for when I stop bittorrent downloads. I think it has something directly to do with the bittorrent. I guess Bell is really targeting bittorrent users.


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## zenith (Sep 22, 2007)

Shaw, although they denied and later admitted it, have been throttling downloads for quite some time now. Rogers also does it, so it would seem natural that Sympatico would follow suit.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

fyrefly said:


> My sympatico has been messed up lately as well... except for when I stop bittorrent downloads. I think it has something directly to do with the bittorrent. I guess Bell is really targeting bittorrent users.


Yea I am fairly certain it has something to do with Torrents. I', going to do some research, and i'll get back to everybody here.

Does anyone know what the bandwith usage limit is for Sympatico High Speed?

I got charged an extra $30 this month!


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## 8127972 (Sep 8, 2005)

This should clear things up:

Bell Sympatico Admits to Throttling - But insists it's for the customers' own good - dslreports.com

More details below:

p2pnet.net - the original daily p2p and digital media news site » Blog Archive » Bell Sympatico P2P Black List


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## Edwill (Oct 22, 2007)

Bell's Sympatico serves me very well from April 2002, thank you. In the beginning, I had bad luck with two consecutive faulty modems, but after replacing them all works just fine. 
One of my neighbours, who had a problem with his notebook, but thought it was Sympatico's fault, has switched to Rogers. Now, he's not very happy, again... In rush hours of usage, its broadband speed slows down. Moral of the story: Don't jump to premature conclusions.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

Edwill said:


> Bell's Sympatico serves me very well from April 2002, thank you. In the beginning, I had bad luck with two consecutive faulty modems, but after replacing them all works just fine.
> One of my neighbours, who had a problem with his notebook, but thought it was Sympatico's fault, has switched to Rogers. Now, he's not very happy, again... In rush hours of usage, its broadband speed slows down. Moral of the story: Don't jump to premature conclusions.


No one is jumping to premature conclusions.

The two links above show Bell has publicly admitting to throttling.


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## 8127972 (Sep 8, 2005)

Here's a followup from DSL Reports:

Bell Sympatico's War On 'Network Abusers' - Company admits throttling, prevents 'hogs' from going to competitors... - dslreports.com


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## bryanc (Jan 16, 2004)

Rogers not only throttles, they slow anything they're not sure is legit.

So if you use encrypted iChat, or any encrypted data for that matter, Rogers will only let it through at the slowest imaginable rate.

I've complained about this, and they've said 'turn off encryption'. So if you want to send data over Rogers network, you've got to let anyone listen in.

But they've got the only game in town, so it's not like we have much choice.

I'd really like to see someone with the money to pay for the kind of infrastructure involved take these bastards on. I'd switch to a company that didn't assume I was a criminal, even if they cost a little more, in a second if I had the option.

Cheers


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## 8127972 (Sep 8, 2005)

bryanc said:


> Rogers not only throttles, they slow anything they're not sure is legit.
> 
> So if you use encrypted iChat, or any encrypted data for that matter, Rogers will only let it through at the slowest imaginable rate.
> 
> I've complained about this, and they've said 'turn off encryption'. So if you want to send data over Rogers network, you've got to let anyone listen in.


This is an issue with us as the Windows app that we make runs over SSL (port 443) and Rogers stupidity slows the speed of our product. This also is true of Lotus Notes, SSL based VPN's, and using MS Outlook connected to an Exchange 2007 server outside your corporate network. 

What fools. That's why we're with Teksavvy at home.


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## BRN (Nov 26, 2004)

What are the alternatives to Sympatico? I'm in Peterborough.


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## 8127972 (Sep 8, 2005)

BRN said:


> What are the alternatives to Sympatico? I'm in Peterborough.


Try Teksavvy:

TekSavvy Solutions Inc.


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2007)

Believe it or not I've actually gotten download speeds _faster_ than what I am supposed to get from Rogers ... not on Torrents of course, but I do occasionally get some insanely fast download speeds.

All the major ISP's are throttling these days, they think that everyone using bittorrent is doing illegal things (not always the case, but I guess that the majority rules). What really sucks is that a lot of the major linux distros are now making their DVD images available only through torrents, and it takes days (sometimes longer) to download something that should come down in 4-5 hours tops.

I wish there was another alternative besides DSL ... I don't want to have to pay extortion fees to Bell/Rogers for a phone line that's capable of carring DSL, but I would love to get service from someone besides Rogers ... and in my area I have no choice besides Rogers for a hi-speed connection. When I was in the downtown core it was great to have SDSL + a dry copper pair (the copper pair was $8/mth) but in Etobicoke ... no such luck.


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2007)

bryanc said:


> Rogers not only throttles, they slow anything they're not sure is legit.
> 
> So if you use encrypted iChat, or any encrypted data for that matter, Rogers will only let it through at the slowest imaginable rate.
> 
> I've complained about this, and they've said 'turn off encryption'. So if you want to send data over Rogers network, you've got to let anyone listen in.


Hmm that's interesting, I'll have to do some tests on my end of things. Lately I've noticed a HUGE slowdown using sshfs filesystem stuff .. so this might explain things.


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## Edwill (Oct 22, 2007)

To titans88:

Sorry, but you misunderstood me. I was not questioning the existence of Sympatico's throttling. I had in mind the mistake made by my neighbour.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

Edwill said:


> To titans88:
> 
> Sorry, but you misunderstood me. I was not questioning the existence of Sympatico's throttling. I had in mind the mistake made by my neighbour.


Sorry for the misunderstanding!


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