This is old news that have already appeared since 2007 (roughly) as FAQ from the streamyx web site.

The info was extracted from here...



Yes, TM do throttle the speed when you use P2P to download.

When you use BT (bittorrent), you are effectively downloading and uploading at the same time... downloading from a seed from someone else PC for parts of the file that you don't have and uploading to others for those parts that you have already downloaded. This is what Peer-To-Peer network is all about. The more people sharing the same seed, the faster are your downloads. One have to consider 2 factors for faster download. One, your streamyx speed. Two, how many people are using the same seed to download. For example, the latest TVB drama will have fastest (relatively) download speed as maybe about 100,000 PCs are interconected to each other to up/download with multiple seeds. Now, when you want to download a very old drama, you may only get slooooooow speed because only about 1000 PCs are interconnected. With that said, it is still popular and understandably everyone's PC becomes a server (for upload to others) and client (for downloading from others) so this is causing a HUGE strain and very high bandwidth usage which is costly for the ISP (streamyx) to maintain.

Unlike those fixed servers (example, Rapidshare, MegaUpload servers which stores the files) which pays for the huge bandwidth usage, streamyx have to bear the bandwidth cost because your PC becomes a virtual server which sends and fetches files. This is why people pay premium subscriptions to "Rapidshare, etc" to get full download speed while free users will be restricted. The founder of bittorrent hit on this idea to save cost where the PC users share the bandwidth instead of from the actual site that sends the file for you to download. This has caused a global phenomenon since the Nineties and many ISP (streamyx, singtel, etc) have already clamped down on P2P by limiting bandwidth usage when they detect your PC is acting as a client/server simultaneously.

TM can detect whether your IP is at the same time simultaneously download and upload. Personally, I did use BT or any P2P since 1998 but stopped as I don't like it as I can only get reasonable speeds for latest popular files. Well, many will disagree with me as some files are only available from P2P.

I can't remember the actual date the info about the P2P appeared in streamyx site but I did remember reading it since 2007.

Right now, I have upgraded from 1 Mbps to 4 Mbps (4 mb down/ 512 kb up) since October 2010. I have so far been getting a constant average of about 38 GB download in 24 hrs non-stop. This is only possible when I have 4 Mbps speed streamyx and a paid premium subscription to Rapidshare, etc. BT is at an advantage as its free but when I tested, I only manage to get about 2 GB in 24 hrs due to the speed throttling by streamyx.

In short, this news about the P2P is very old and such P2P speed throttling are also done by many many other ISPs including streamyx. At present, streamyx do NOT throttle down your download speeds if you don't peer-to-peer (P2P). Maybe I am the lucky few but I have never had any slow download speeds since getting streamyx in 1997 with 512 kbps, then 1 mbps and now 4 mbps. Since 2007, I only had slow download speeds whenever I tried to use P2P. Oh, I am not working and am not affiliated to TM or streamyx in any way. I am about retire from my It Technical job very soon.

My apologies for this extremely loooong comments.

Wishing eveyone a very Happy New Year 2011 !!

Well... I cannot blame anybody for suspecting me an employee of TM eventhough honestly I am not. This is the world wide web and one can browse the web anonymously and no one will truly believe anyone's identity no matter how anyone tries to proof it unless you actually met the person and knows him/her.

If you google search around using the keywords... "fair usage policy internet", you will be able to find out just what is actually happening in the world, not only for streamyx.

Here's some links for your reading...



For one thing, many in the world, including myself DON'T like broadband ISP throttling our speed when we subscribe to the so-called "unlimited usage". I actually hated what streamyx is doing on this P2P speed throttling but at the same time I am merely stating the fact that this is happening everywhere with many ISPs including streamyx, Maxis, Celcom, Singtel, AOL Brandband, UK Online. Unfortunately, I found out that this P2P throttling also did happen to me when I was in London for 3 months in 2009 using UK Online (through my friend's subscription). For other countries such as many in Europe, there are also many ISPs that specially provide such services for heavy P2P users but one burns the pocket as it is expensive. While there's no such thing as a free lunch, streamyx is in fact overcharging us and making fat profits.

I have to accept what streamyx is providing as I stay in Mentakab, Pahang as there is no other choice. Maxis Wireless Broadband limits us to 3 GB download per month and Celcom is 5GB. For the price we are paying at RM 88 for 1MB and RM168 for 4 MB, we have been overcharged and should NOT be penalised for using P2P. Only for Klang valley, they are now just rolling out 25GB speed for UniFli but not nationwide. We poor Malaysians are being fleeced and have been overcharged for the poor quality TM service. Look at what subscribers are being charged...


If you look at Orange Brandband in UK, the charges are £7.50 per month for an 18 month contract. This works out to about RM 31 and its a whopping 20 MB speed. For streamyx at 1MB, we are charged a hefty RM 88 per month. With such unreasonable charges, I don't like TM to throttle our P2P speed as they are already earning a fat profit !!

I was only making a statement that P2P speed throtting is happening also in other countries but people in the West, they have a choice to pay more to ISP to get what they want. We, Malaysians don't have that choice. Malaysia Boleh !!

I also did make a second statement (with due respect to this thread poster) that this P2P announcement by TM is not recent news and they have already been doing this already. Not "speed will soon be throttled in future". This poll by here is okay but will streamyx listen to us since they practically monopolise the line streamyx nationwide?

I welcome anyone to point out where I am wrong and criticise to my comments here.

Thanks.

I have to go out of this topic thread on P2P speed throttling to answer the above questions.

Yes, its true people in different areas got very poor to good speeds from their streamyx connection. This boils down to the bad TM infrastructure where the majority of cables, ISP server stations, ports jumpers, etc are still ancient dinosaur equipment that have still not been upgraded !!

Even in KL with newer optical cables, there are also other factors such as number of ports for the huge number of subscribers in a certain location.

I manage websites for my sister and was forced to stay in Taman Suria, Sungei Buloh for about 7 months in 2009 before my mum's death due to cancer. My bro-in-law don't have streamyx there so I applied for 4 mb as I need it for my work. In 3 days, they installed the phone and after only 16 days, they phoned me to say that 4 mb is not available in that area so I was forced to accept 1 mb. Then, after 6 days, they came and installed streamyx. The first few days was ok speed at an average of 100 kbps. Then on the 4th day, I got about 10 disconnections in every hour so I called 100 to complain. 3 days later, they came and checked, later changed the port. After that, again I got the same disconnections but with terrible average 60 kbps speeds. Complained and this time changed the port and jumper and later again got the same problems. TM technical people came again and again and finally they said the area around Taman Suria still uses very old copper cables and it have problems and can't handle the speeds. Later they said they are in the process of upgrading the cables to optical fibre and expected to completed by December 2009. I can't wait and terminated my streamyx but they told me that I will be penalised with the balance number of unused subscribed months which is RM 88 x 10 = RM 880. I protested that its not my fault as I have not been able to use streamyx for about 3 months and TM still can't solve their problems. Finally they agreed. I have no choice and got Maxis Broadband.

I went back to my hometown in Mentakab, Pahang since 2010 and subscribed to 1 mb. During September, I applied for the 1Malaysia Promo Package 4 MB speed at RM 30 (line rental) + RM 50 (streamyx) - RM 88 which is cheaper. I can't transfer my existing 1 MB subscription so I applied for a new one.

Oh god ! They came 8 days later to install the phone. Incredibly, after another 2 weeks, the streamyx installer came and installed only 1 MB connection. I asked the installer why and he said I applied for 1 MB. I protested and he told me to check with TMPoint Mentakab. I allowed him to install as half bread is better than no bread at all.

I then got terrible speeds at 90 kbps for this 1 MB connection ! I went to TMPoint and complained and the guy there said I applied for the 1Malaysia - 1 MB speed. I asked them to take my application out as proof as I personally ticked the 4 mb one. He said he will check it later as the form is in Kuantan. Boy ! Am I mad ! Later I waited and waited, called 100 and also contacted the TMPoint manager by phone but still waited. Finally, I submitted a complaint at TM website and only 1 month later that I received an email from the TM Support Manager informing that this matter will be handled immediately. 1 week later, the installer came and activated the 4 MB speed.

Inintially with the 4 MB, I only managed to get an average of about 170 kbps so I complained again. They changed the jumper and a few times later, finally after 3 weeks, I managed to get about 450 kbps average.

To vapeace...

Using DOS Prompt or modem interface to ping shows only the response time that a server takes to reply. Data travels as small packets so pinging a small data packet does not show the average download speed. Only when you mentioned using Torrents <10kBps shows the average download speed. I did mention before there are 2 factors for download speed. How fast you get for Torrents will also depend on how many internet user's PC are simultaneous connected to the same seed. I did a test 2 weeks ago and managed to only get about 7 kbps for torrents. Well... maybe due to speed throttling.

To gregy...

I am sorry that you got 0 kbps using (RS) Rapidshare Premium. I really don't know the answer and it sucks. Did you use any download accelerator software such as Internet Download Manager (IDM) or JDownloader to download from RS ? Did you set to split to max (12) connections per single file download ? I bought online the retail version of IDM and have been using it to get about 400 to 500 kbps download speeds. With my 4 mb connection, I only got this speed after I complained twice and they changed the ports. I think I can get this speed only after TM had changed the undergound cables to fibre-optic since 2007 in my town area and here the number of subscribers is much fewer than those in KL. I got lousy speeds when I was in Sungei Buloh in 2009.

Generally, I can only guess that about 75 % of streamyx subscribers nationwide only gets terrible download speeds so maybe I am the "lucky" few. Now add this problem to P2P speed throttling and everyone will scream "MALAYSIA BOLEH !"

Apologies again for typing too much. I hope I have not offended anyone, sorry if I have.

Thanks.

Yea... me dumber dumber too. Was already shot dead with multiple 16 calibre wounds and was wondering where I failed to live for more than 2 milliseconds... until I found out that I was dumb enough not to realise that there are cheat codes so I was reborn knowing that death and rebirth is just a matter of a few keystrokes away, hehehe.

Part of my comments...

Your comment...
Hi wKkaY,

Please read the sentences that you quoted from me carefully. I appreciate your comment here but I wonder what is not correct about my comments above. Maybe you have misunderstood my poorly constructed comments.

Allow me to explain...

"Unlike those fixed servers (example, Rapidshare, MegaUpload servers which stores the files) which pays for the huge bandwidth usage" which means Rapidshare, MegaUpload, etc pays for the bandwidth usage when people downloads from their fixed servers as they sends the files to us. I only say Rapidshare pay for bandwidth BUT I didn't say they pay to TMnet.

"streamyx have to bear the bandwidth cost because your PC becomes a virtual server which sends and fetches files." which means Streamyx pays for the bandwidth whenever people uses non fixed servers to download (I mean BT, torrents) when our PC receives and also sends files to/from other people's PC. There are no fixed server location to deliver the files that bears the bandwidth costs.

My interpretation of what you commented...
That's not correct. Rapidshare and Megaupload certainly do not pay TMnet to deliver their traffic for them!

I apologise if my english is very poor but I could not see where I mentioned anything or suggested that "Rapidshare and Megaupload pay TMnet to deliver their traffic for them"

Peace and a Happy New Year 2011 !

New Addition : Further explanation. The increased bandwidth cost by, example Rapidshare, is NOT paid to TMnet. Rapidshare pay to either the web-hosting company that maintains a greater capacity server to handle bandwidth due to the increased traffic OR they maintain their own servers and bear the costs of upgrading to more servers to handle more bandwidth. Therefore, Rapidshare, etc pay for maintaining more servers and they don't pay TMnet as TMnet don't own or maintain Rapidshare servers.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: Jan 1 2011, 08:38 PM