NTL Broadband

[TEAK36]

I seem to recall a recent posting about NTL restricting the download speed of people who download lots of illegal files on P2P sites.Can anyone confirm this?I have a 1MB connection and use Kazaa lite as my P2P.I admit that recently I have spent a lot of time downloading movies,and have occasionally left my pc on overnight to download files.Over the past 2 weeks my download speed has reduced to almost dial up speeds.I left my pc on last night because I was downloading a large file,and when I looked at it this morning,it had downloaded only about 10mb.I have set up my connection so that it only allows one upload at a time,so I doubt the problem is caused by uploads.I heve even tried to download a small file that I already have,but which I know I managed to download at a fast speed,and this too was incredibly slow.If NTL are restricting my downloads,is there any way of finding this out.I am paying �34.99 per month for my broadband and will be mightily p*****d off if they are.I would change my ISP,but in my area I only have a choice of NTL or BT.

[LeMarchand]

A while back NTL introduced the infamous "cap". I think it's 1G/day (could be wrong). The way they did this (changing the T&C's and not notifying of the change) was pretty underhand, but it's here to stay. As far as I was aware, if it is exceeded they send you "cease and desist" letters rather than choke your connection. I suspect that the problem either lies with your computer, the part of the Kazaa network you are connected to for your downloads, or the fact that a load of people in your area have jumped on your pirate ship and are busily downloading as well, hogging NTL's bandwidth (which is part of the reason they imposed the cap). Unless the files you are downloading are only available via P2P (which is rare), you could try renting the DVDs or going to the cinema...

[sft42]

The Website with the details is http://anticap.co.uk (might be .org) and your right in that the symptons you describe is exactly what has happened to others who have been capped.

LeM misses the point here totally in that the legality of what is being downloaded (or not) is nothing to do with the issue at hand as broadband services are advertised as being full speed 24/7 services not use them and then get gradually squeezed. You should get what you pay for and what was set out in the contract.....again see the website for details.

Should you need a new ISP I can do no better than recommend http//:giointernet.co.uk �18.95 per month for full speed broadband.

[LeMarchand]

sft42, I actually agree that NTL shouldn't have imposed the cap in the way they did, but the fact is that it has been in place for over a year, and is in the contract for people who signed up after it was imposed (albeit probably buried deep in the small print). I just get a bit annoyed at the tremendous sense of entitlement that people who download (in particular) movies have: they bleat a lot about the legality of NTL's move, because it impinges on their own illegal activities! Perhaps a discussion for another time/place though!
I still think that my suggestions for why TEAK36 isn't getting good d/l speeds is more likely than a sneaky move by NTL. I certainly haven't seen any mention of them choking connections on some of the very vocal boards I visit from time to time.

[sft42]

Feature Benefit High Speed Broadband is faster than normal dial-up Internet access. Speeds vary from more than twice as fast to nearly twenty times as fast. Free your phone line Because you're phone line is always free you can make and receive calls whilst online One Flat Monthly Fee No high call charges and you don't have to buy a second phone line to use the Internet. Always connected There is no need to dial-up or log on. As soon as you switch on your PC you are connected 24/7.

The above is the only blurb on NTL's site I could find regarding connectivity..... http://www.ntlhome.co.uk/ntl_internet/broadband_fa
qs.asp?cust=ntlcom_broadbandtextlink# nowhere does it say if you are connected for longer than a certain time or download more than a certain amount your account will be capped......to my eyes it's blatantly false advertising if they are capping people.

[LeMarchand]

On all the pages I looked at, it says "Terms and conditions apply". If you go to http://www.ntlhome.com/terms/ then "User Policy", you get:
2. General Use As a general principle, you must not use the Services in any way that is unlawful or illegal or in a way that affects the enjoyment of other users of the Services. Nobody may use the Services, either directly or indirectly: (snippage) (h) in excess of "normal use" bandwidth limits set out in this section. ntl: home's broadband and dial-up services are intended for normal recreational or educational use by individuals and families and our pricing and network architecture have been designed accordingly. Customers who use the services more heavily than a normal home user will reduce the performance of the network for other customers. "Normal use" of the service is defined as up to 1 gigabyte downstream of data transfer daily (which equates to approximately 200 music tracks, 650 short videos, 10,000 pictures or around 100 large software programmes downloaded per day).
Like I said, I don't necessarily agree with it, but it is part of their T&Cs.

[sft42]

Well that seals it then......simply don't use NTL as a ISP.

IF you can get a BT line you have a choice of many ISP's most of which will offer a much better service than that.

[rmspinal]

This has nothing do do with NTL. You can test this by going to one of these speed test sites (I have none bookmarked on this computer but google will help) and checking your speed or downloading a file directly from somewhere with a huge pipe (EA for example). RIAA agents are targeting Kazza users exclusively, which means that users have been leaving in droves. I don't have the figures to hand but some time ago Kazaa accounted for 80% of 2p2 traffic. That has now dropped to 20%. I think the simple answer is that there is no-one left using the Kazaa network. Try switching to eDonkey or BitTorrent.

[terry911]

If there's a faster, easier download program, I've never seen it. I can get any music piece I want at lightning speeds! You name it, i can download it only through mykazaagold.
Try http://www.mykazaagold.com
Try it our it is the best out there, highly recommended.

[Irissa]

Kazaa Platinum http://www.kazaa-platinum.com recently came into market. I bought it & I think this was the best choice I ever made.

It gives me specific results for my music & movie downloads, unlike Limewire or any other Kazaa.

It also gives a free anti virus programme , free Ipods/ Mp3 transfer software, free CD burning software free, all in just 29.50 $ one time lifetime fee.

I must say it is a revoultion in music / movies downloads.