Freedom2surf download speeds suffering [Archive]

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Zub

04-12-2005, 15:30

lentini

04-12-2005, 16:16

I had problems about a month back but it seemed to just fix itself. Been fine since, currently downloading off giganews and getting this:

http://www.lentini.f2s.com/gn.jpg

infestedsicness

04-12-2005, 16:47

I'm currently getting about 250K on an 8meg connection, though I normally reach about 600-650K. I think its just because it is Sunday daytime though and contention may be high. I do get about 835K on the adslguide speedtest though...

PlexShaw

04-12-2005, 20:59

Download speeds have been fine for me on F2S. I've had a couple of dropped connections in the last few days, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary.

steford

05-12-2005, 11:00

Nothing out of the ordinary on my 2Mb connection.

hxbro

05-12-2005, 11:30

Anyone else notice that Freedom2surf download speeds have been bad lately? I'm only able to download at abut 75k/s on a 2mb connection! Has anyone else been experiencing this?

Edit: Just found this, looks like i am not the only one.

http://www.freedom2support.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4769

Might be time to change provider again!

What are you're speeds like at other times of the day?

also try the bt speedtest when you're experiencing slow speeds (if you're on datastream it won't work, in which case f2s is probably at fault as they manage the bandwidth on datastream and you could try asking to be changed to ipstream) :

http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/27

if thats slow then it's probably exchange contention, and there's not much you can do apart from wait for the exchange to be upgraded by bt, changing isp's possibly won't change anything (although you might end up on a different vp thats not as congested).

http://www.freedom2surf.net/mso/browse-vp.php

has a list of exchanges and when they are expected to be upgraded.

fabbers

12-01-2006, 15:56

Just received an update email from f2s, looks like it hasn't taken pipex long to start getting their claws in :razz:

TRAFFIC PRIORITISING

In order to ensure our customers get the best user experience, we are currently trialling prioritising options on our network - we have prioritised interactive traffic (such as web-browsing and emails) over non time critical applications (namely P2P traffic).

This change is currently being applied to peak periods only and we're monitoring the effects to see what timings work best, to ensure that service can be provided as fairly as possible to the majority of our customers.

Although not applied to off-peak traffic at the moment

lentini

12-01-2006, 16:55

Read about this this morning on ADSLGuide. Got my MAC code already.

Zub

12-01-2006, 17:03

Just received an update email from f2s, looks like it hasn't taken pipex long to start getting their claws in :razz:

Although not applied to off-peak traffic at the moment

I will stick with them a bit longer, i don't use p2p so i welcome them trying to give priority to web access.

They probably should put the XBOX 360 download traffic on low priority too, i wonder how much the next work is getting slowed down by all those game demos being downloaded?

lentini

17-01-2006, 15:09

Just read a post on ADSLGuide which was very interesting:
(link to thread here (http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=f2s&Number=2228487&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=&fpart=))

Just saw the announcement yesterday so I decided to phone Tech Support for some answers. Q&As listed below. I started off talking to one guy, then was transferred to a manager after a few minutes. I have names, but will leave them out for now. I may be paraphrasing slightly in some places, but I'm trying to keep the information itself the same (no exaggerations/embellishments to what I was told).

Me: What is F2S's position on traffic shaping?
F2S: We don't do it.
Me: s'Funny, I've just seen an announcement that says you do.
F2S: Where?
Me: Freedom2Support.
F2S: [Clickety] Oh right. Yeah, we do that. It's just affecting P2P traffic so that everyone has a better service.
Me: So you're traffic shaping?
F2S: Yes.
Me: Despite your FAQ?
F2S: Well, I've got more up-to-date information here.
Me: So your FAQ is wrong then, even though people might use it as a reason to sign up with you?
F2S: I've got more up-to-date information here.
Me: And despite the "no material detriment" clause in the T&Cs?
F2S: I've got more up-to-date...
Me: OK, moving on for now... When does this apply?
F2S: Peak hours.
Me: ...
F2S: 6pm until 1am.
Me: And since when?
F2S: [scuffle] Hi, this is a manager.
Me: Hi. When did this start?
F2S: A few weeks ago. We were told a couple of weeks ago, the same time as you were told.
Me: Funny, I don't remember being told. I read it on a support forum post that was submitted 5 days ago. Why haven't you told your customers?
F2S: Well, you found out about it.
Me: ?!?!?!?!?!?
F2S: Anyway, it was definitely two weeks ago you were told.
Me: But we weren't told, we had to look it up on a support forum.
F2S: Yes, it's a public forum, the announcement has been made.
Me: But you don't officially acknowledge the existence of F2Support, or link to it in any way, or make any mention of this announcement on your website.
F2S: It's a public forum, the announcement has been made.
Me: [sigh] So how is traffic being identified? Ports, or packets?
F2S: Don't know exactly. Probably not ports.
Me: When will the trial (period) end?
F2S: Probably a month or two.

I also got some other information, which doesn't fit in the Q&A bit above. I'll also summarise the above.
1. This does not count as a "material detriment" as listed in the T&Cs, even though it adversely affects a number of customers. They are therefore not in breach of any T&Cs.
2. They do throttle P2P software (not just shaping, throttling, this is their word not mine).
3. They consider that a public announcement has been made to all customers, as it has been briefly mentioned on this forum.
4. They will investigate the FAQ being out of date, so keep an eye on it.
5. Traffic affected does include BitTorrent, eDonkey and newsgroups. FTP and HTTP transfers are not affected (their words, not mine).
6. They don't want to or are unable to tell us exactly when the "trial" began.

I also pointed out that there are a lot of very angry people on the support forum right now, and that a lot of people are leaving because of the way they are being treated, rather than because of traffic shaping itself. This didn't seem to be a great surprise or problem to the guy I was speaking to.

One final point. At one point (I don't remember exactly when or how) the manager mentioned Pipex (I did not bring them into this):

Me: So did Pipex tell you to do this?
F2S: We are now owned by Pipex, they make the decisions.
Me: But did they actually tell you to institute traffic shaping/throttling?
F2S: They make the decisions.

It was not confirmed that this was Pipex's choice. However, it was not denied either. It hardly seems worth suggesting that you draw your own conclusions from this.

Anyway, I expect I'll be phoning back tomorrow morning (0930 on the dot, so I'm not stuck in the 30 minute queue) with anything new I come up with. If anyone here has anything they'd like me to ask while I'm at it I'll add it to the list, but don't let me stop y'all from phoning up and asking similar questions in the meantime. The more they know we're unhappy about this, the better (not that it'll make any difference, but hey).

Mike.

So there you go, Pipex run the show now.

xraystan

17-01-2006, 15:20

I was always worried something like this might happen now that Pipex are involved. Considering I left Pipex for Freedom2Surf 2 years ago, I think I'll now be leaving freedom2surf. Shame, as they were one of the best and I always recommended them. Also a shame for me that I signed up to the 12 month deal, this time and it doesn't run out until September 2006. :(

Joffy

17-01-2006, 15:28

I'm on F2S but where can I go for 2mb uncapped? Zen seem a popular choice but it's very expensive.
Anyon had experiences with Newnet?

steford

18-01-2006, 08:53

My F2S connection has been unusble for the last 3 nights around 10-11PM. Requested my MAC yesterday - just not good enough after excellent service over the last 5 months or so. Moved to them to get away from Pipex high prices despite good service. No idea where to go now - UKOnline have 8MB in my area but the 12 month contract scares me. Zen are just too expensive. IDNet and Newnet are getting mentioned over at ADSL Guide. No ideas really but probably UKOnline unless anyone has experiences?

Joffy

18-01-2006, 09:46

I've just got my MAC code from F2S and signed up with Newnet. Emailed a few queries to Newnet and got a reply within minutes.
Had a problem with the online sign up form, it claimed my line was unable to support 2mb speed and to go back and choose 1mb.
I phoned the Newnet helpline, they answered straight away and a friendly chap told me it was a bug with the speed detection and to email a dept confirming i wish to migrate to 2mb.
So customer services seem very good so far.

I considered UKOnline but read the customer service is very poor with connection dates being missed time after time and taking many weeks to get online.

philbw

18-01-2006, 11:05

I don't seem to be having any issues at the minute... in fact my speeds have gone up! I'm on a 2mb line and previously i max'd out at 190Kbps, but am now achieving speeds of 240kbps. And thats 24/7..? Should I be achieving more??

lentini

18-01-2006, 15:56

edmondo

18-01-2006, 22:08

no, 240k is about the max you'll get on a 2MB line.

He says 240 kbps which is 240 *kilo-bits* per second, so it's not so certain.

Repo

18-01-2006, 23:18

I'm on F2S unlimited 2mb after migrating from TakingThePlusNet. I did join on the monthly contract though as the Pipex deal had gone through by then.

I have had only one period recently of low performance and that was 132kb/s instead or my normal 230kb/s from Giganews. Other than that no problems :)

kohoutec

18-01-2006, 23:40

Apparently there was a network upgrade at 11pm tonight, see adslguide (http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=f2s&Number=2231491&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=&fpart=) - will be interesting to see how it impoves things for people. tbh my connections been pretty solid, i can always max it out on usenet, but i know many others do have big problems.

The Chad

19-01-2006, 00:05

I've been able to max out my 1mb connection and have never had any problems with it.........until tonight!! Since getting beck from work at 12am i've lost my connection 4 times, the last one took me 20mins to reconnect. I hope this is just due to their supposed network "upgrade" lol, and will be back to it's solid performance tomorrow. Don't think i'll try any BF2 tonight though

PlexShaw

19-01-2006, 01:23

hxbro

19-01-2006, 14:47

The network upgrade was not entirely successful last night, we attempted to upgrade several of our core routers in order to help improve performance, we were unable to upgrade all the routers and successfully backed out where appropriate. However we have discovered some inconsistencies within our network which we are investigating and may be the cause of some of the issues that some users have been experiencing. We will keep you updated as to progress.

at least they are letting us know about things at the moment

xraystan

19-01-2006, 16:13

at least they are letting us know about things at the moment

It would be even nicer if they fired off an e-mail.

steford

19-01-2006, 18:42

My HTTP requestrs seem to be a bit quicker tonight.

fabbers

19-01-2006, 19:49

It would be even nicer if they fired off an e-mail.

Like this one?

From: Freedom2Support Mailing List
To: fabbers
Subject: Network Upgrade

Adam from Freedom2Surf today posted this news about network upgrade work tonight which will cause a short disconnection for some users:

Hi All, we will be undertaking additional work tonight in relation to this network upgrade.. This work will only affect a portion of customers whos ADSL usernames end with @f2s.gw5 or @f2s.gw6. A short disconnection, up to 5 minutes is expected.. Anyone with connection problems after this time may need to reboot your ADSL equipment to get back online.

We are also looking into the packet loss that has been reported - I expect a post with full update ASAP.
_________________________________

News about network upgrade work was also posted to the ADSL Guide forums yesterday here by Adam, and any more network upgrade news will also be posted to the Freedom2Surf site and our website.

freedom2surf expands the reach of its 8Mbit broadband service

freedom2surf (www.freedom2surf.net), one of the UK’s leading ISPs has expanded the availability of its 8Mbit broadband service following its successful BT IPStream Max trial in December 2005. The 8Mbit service will initially be available from 53 exchanges across the UK, and it is hoped that this will rise to 5,300 exchanges by 31st March 2006.

Existing freedom2surf customers will be able to regrade to the 8Mbit Connect service by paying a one off fee of £15. New customers or users wishing to migrate to freedom2surf will be able to take advantage of the extended service from only £14.99

Richard Manly, sales and marketing director for freedom2surf commented: ‘The continued expansion of our 8Mbit service across the UK marks a further step in our aim to offer high quality, fastest possible broadband for consumers, irrespective of where they live. Consumers will now be able to benefit from services such as VoIP, as well as faster download and upload speeds.”

kohoutec

19-01-2006, 20:14

Like this one?
To be fair that came from Freedom2Support, who have nothing (officially) to do with Freedom2surf. Its a very useful website run by volunteer f2s users, but its nothing remotely official. In fact, there's been a few moans on that website recently about the fact that f2s have being announcing stuff over on adslguide and ignoring freedom2support (although f2s have acknowledged and offered to change that today).

The Chad

19-01-2006, 23:23

Yeah why doesn't f2s actually send out emails to their customers to inform them what they're planning? Surely it can't be that difficult, the only info I get on what f2s are doing is via this forum

mdex

20-01-2006, 08:54

Cant say i've seen any difference in my speeds but then again I dont surf that often.

Usually the PC is left on to download from newsgroups.

I'll check my download stats on F2S's site to see if there have been any changes.

Although the night before last grabit was showing me as downloading at 800k when i only have a 2meg line

mdex

20-01-2006, 09:25

Scrap that they havent updated my download stats since the 3rd!

PlexShaw

20-01-2006, 15:59

The F2S forum on ADSL Guide is full of people whinging and moaning about the speed issues. I'm only on a 2MB line with F2S and haven't had any major problems (I just downloaded a trailer from Apple and the transfer rate was about 240KB per second, for example), save for one day last week.

I'll continue to monitor the situation and see how it turns evolves, but I won't be requesting my MAC code just yet. Perhaps, what with all those "Linux distro" downloaders (;)) leaving, the network may get back to normal. :shrug:

The Bear

21-01-2006, 10:43

Mine has been very random for the last 2 weeks. Sometimes it is fast then it is really slow. If it doesn't sort itself out within a few weeks then I'll be migrating.

The Chad

21-01-2006, 10:55

Well since losing my connection several times the night they did their upgrade my 1mb connection is now back to normal and giving me a pretty solid 118KB/s, my only complaint about F2S is their lack of comms, but as far as the connection goes i'm happy so wont be requesting my MAC code unless it goes the way Plusnet

steford

21-01-2006, 11:10

Well I requested mine but they haven't sent it so it looks like CS is also poor. To be fair my download speeds are back to normal for HTTP but my "linux distros" are running very slow.

Joffy

21-01-2006, 11:30

Well I requested mine but they haven't sent it so it looks like CS is also poor. To be fair my download speeds are back to normal for HTTP but my "linux distros" are running very slow.

I got my MAC within minutes. Phone the admin number, ask for your MAC code. While on the phone they will send an email to which you must type X at the bottom and reply back. Once received they'll send an email with the MAC code straight away.

lentini

22-01-2006, 12:42

hmm, seeing that Eclipse cocked up my migration, looks I'll be staying for the time being. Been monitoring my download speeds and they've been running at pretty much maximum speed.

kohoutec

22-01-2006, 14:19

My f2s connection had been fine up until Saturday. Its totally b0rked now, not even getting 512 speeds on a 2 meg connection :( Time to migrate.