[GRLUG] An ISP question

[Daniel Rysztak]

Having previously worked in the Cable industry as a Tier 3 Network 
Engineer (not for Comcast but another of the big 4), typically they 
don't get overly fancy in this stuff.  A lot of KISS goes into it.

We really didn't have time in our day to come up with "fun ways to annoy 
our customers".  I'd doubt that they're limiting per stream (but I don't 
know that for sure.)  It probably has to do with limits of the PC, 
router, switch, server, etc.  As you start to dive down into queues you 
realize that data gets handled differently than you thought.  While you 
may have an 8 Mbps pipe, you may be getting randomly less than 8 Mbps 
per session as other connections need to have use of the queue.  Queues 
are typically smaller than the throughput of their ports (1 Gbps ports 
typically have a 200 Mbps queue available to them in the Cisco world.)  
So it may just be an inherent flaw of the Internet as some pipe between 
you and your server may be backing you down just a smidge to allow for 
other connections.  Now, when you create multiple streams, the routers 
between you and the server would be capping your traffic per flow as 
opposed to per IP (as they don't believe you have a throughput limit per 
IP) so overall you can take more than a single session would get.

That's just my thought....

-Daniel Rysztak

Bob Kline wrote:
> On 8/11/06, Michael Mol <mikemol at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> On 8/11/06, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> Yes,  multiple data streams.
>>>
>>> I'm not quite sure what Comcast's game
>>> would be if it is capping data rates.  I have
>>> a personal account,  and while it's still
>>> possible for there to be multiple users,
>>> I'm not sure why Comcast would fold that
>>> in to its package.
>>>       
>> Have you called their tech support lately?  Makes me want to get a
>> speakerphone.  I'm sure they do anything they can to reduce their call
>> volume.
>>
>> I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if they capped individual TCP
>> streams to keep people with routers with bad QoS rules from adding to
>> their tech support queue length.  In my experience, the average
>> computer user blames the service providor for problems without looking
>> for a cause closer to home.
>>
>> Erm...Not that I'm accusing you of that. :)
>>
>>     
>
>
> But,  in your own way,  you bring up a another
> test.  I am indeed behind a router.  I'll hook my
> PC up directly to the cable modem and see if
> that makes any difference.  Good point.
>
> And yes,  I would like to find someone to blame.
> Just not me.....  ;-)
>
>     -Bob
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