Whirlpool

Has Exetel started to block some certain (popular) torrent trackers? The Site browsing is fine yet the trackers remain permanently offline. Is this a new move?
Or is this popular tracker having current difficulties? They've been offline for about a week....

Welcome to Whirlpool :)

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Even though you haven't provided any specific information and that I am not an exetel employee, I am going to say:

jdoez writes...

Has Exetel started to block some certain (popular) torrent trackers?
No

Is this a new move?
No

Or is this popular tracker having current difficulties?
Possibly

Last night I downloaded around 2 gb using a "certain (popular) torrent tracker"

If you would like help resolving your issue, you will have to post more information.

hibernator writes...

Welcome to Whirlpool :)

Living up to the one post wonder Whingepool :)

jdoez writes...

Has Exetel started to block some certain (popular) torrent trackers? The Site browsing is fine yet the trackers remain permanently offline. Is this a new move?
Or is this popular tracker having current difficulties? They've been offline for about a week....

Possibly? I'm having the same symptoms.

having the same problems too...seems like it doesn't connect to a lot of trackers which previously, connected with no problem. something fishy is going on....

Yeah this has been happening for the past few days I wonder what's going on now.

I can also concur that I am experiencing the same issue.

Definitely something strange going on.

Yeah same here.

The fact that others are experiencing the same issue at least tells me It's not an issue on my end.

I'd like to mention specific details, but I can't because of the rules. Suffice to say if you've been affected you'll know which popular tracker I mean.

The owner doesn't want y'all getting in trouble while he is away.

Lest exetel do away the 1,800 (p2p junkies)

jdoez writes...

at least tells me It's not an issue on my end.

It still may be an issue at your end.

Additionally changing things 'at your end' should always be tried. eg. a different client.

It makes no sense for Exetel, or any other ISP to block access to specific torrent sites.

I'd suggest the problems being experienced would likely be due to:

1) A problem with the sites torrent tracker.

2) A problem with the Exetel P2P cache.

My money would be on number one.

I'm not able to connect to certain trackers as well, and I know for a fact it used to work a while ago. Just spent an hour looking through all my settings to realise it's not my part that's faulting.

Jaike writes...

It still may be an issue at your end.

Additionally changing things 'at your end' should always be tried. eg. a different client.

I doubt it. I did however try 3 different clients, changed ports and still the same offline/timeout error. Other sites/trackers are fine, it's just this particular sites trackers.

I considered Exetel blocking unlikely, but not impossible. I'm just trying to narrow down 'possible' causes.

I am also having the same problem and I don't think it's my end or the tracker site having problems. Here's why:

I tried another client (uTorrent and Vuze) and both are getting offline status on most trackers.
I logged into work via VPN and I can get to the sites fine from there.

xnor writes...

It makes no sense for Exetel, or any other ISP to block access to specific torrent sites.

Makes perfect $en$e!

Blocked torrents = Inability to download at full speed which lowers ability to max out connection.

Unable to max out connection = Able to spread the bandwidth to more users.

This has been happening to me for nearly a week and I'm in QLD. It is NOT one but MULTIPLE trackers offline. The ones I am obtaining better speeds from are the lesser known/new ones!

^^^^^

So... tracker works with Node but NOT Exetel.

Trackers from "certain tracker site" are working fine here.

Using utorrent with a Internode ADSL 1 connection.

^^

I'm using a private site and maxing out my connection here.

'That' tracker however is not resolving for myself.

ZepperLepper writes...

This has been happening to me for nearly a week and I'm in QLD. It is NOT one but MULTIPLE trackers offline. The ones I am obtaining better speeds from are the lesser known/new ones!

It is a fair number of trackers and discovered in the Exetel forums: http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=294&t=28021&p=214967&hilit=torrent#p214967

I also believe it has nothing to do with speed throttling, but rather perhaps legal pressures from certain companies. Who knows.

EDIT: People, there is a reason why this is in an Exetel board and not Internode. Exetel users are the ones experiencing the problem and hence it is a problem related to the ISP rather than the tracker itself.

renegade-zero writes...

People, there is a reason why this is in an Exetel board and not Internode. Exetel users are the ones experiencing the problem and hence it is a problem related to the ISP rather than the tracker itself.

Yes, we were helping clear up the theory it is the tracker its self.

Can thank us if you like.

~Doug~ writes...

Yes, we were helping clear up the theory it is the tracker its self.

Yup, just trying to help the elimination process.

As said before, could be any number of things causing it, but if you can get other users from different ISP's to test the trackers and post if they were ok or not it would help narrow down the problem.

Hope you all having probs get it all sorted out.

^^

Thanks Doug and Wolfe :)

ZepperLepper writes...

Makes perfect $en$e!

Blocked torrents = Inability to download at full speed which lowers ability to max out connection.

Exetel already have hardware in place to slow all P2P traffic. Why would they want to block a specific tracker?

xnor writes...

Why would they want to block a specific tracker?

Why would they want to slow all P2P traffic?

~Doug~ writes...

Why would they want to slow all P2P traffic?

There are many reasons none of which have anything to do with the topic at hand.

xnor writes...

Exetel already have hardware in place to slow all P2P traffic. Why would they want to block a specific tracker?

To stem the tide of copyright infringement notices arriving on their doorstep.

I am not saying this is the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if exetel decided that they would prefer to lose the p2p dependant customers than to spend massive amounts of resources on legal resourcing.

See the TIO strategy for instance.

I wonder if it has anything to do with AFACT contacting Exetel regarding Exetel users downloading illegal content.

http://johnl.blogs.exetel.com.au/
(9th & 12th July)

Nice way to protect its users, block them from the trackers all together then AFACT can't collect any evidence. Yeah I know not all torrents are illegal, that's why the popular illegal torrent sites are blocked and not p2p altogether.

Xenu writes...

To stem the tide of copyright infringement notices arriving on their doorstep.

I'd suggest that the majority of copyright infringement notices come from public trackers, not private ones.

Exetel have never blocked any websites or ports and I really can't see them starting now.

It should also be noted that there are millions of P2P websites and apps out there, blocking one or two would achieve nothing.

They're also blocking emule servers. I was house sitting at a mates house for 2 months, he has Optus, and there was no problem with connecting to the best servers. I come back home to my exetel connection and all but the bottom scraps are blocked (they were also blocked before I left). I'm moving house soon, and I will never return to Exetel.

ZepperLepper writes...

Makes perfect $en$e!

Blocked torrents = Inability to download at full speed which lowers ability to max out connection.

Unable to max out connection = Able to spread the bandwidth to more users.

It is school holidays. Exetel make no secret they limit P2P traffic at certain times of the day to something like 50% of all traffic (I forget now) They copped heaps of flack for annoucing they were doing this. We found out later most other ISPs do it too.

They do not and have never blocked any particular site. They would tell you.

Exetel are honest in their dealings with customers, often harshly so.

Maybe the Exetel domain has been banned somehow? It has happened before for some sites.

xnor writes...

Exetel have never blocked any websites or ports and I really can't see them starting now.

Care to explain what is happening now then?

~Doug~ writes...

Care to explain what is happening now then?

/forum-replies.cfm?t=1017198#r13

xnor writes...

/forum-replies.cfm?t=1017198#r13

You know that 100%? because you seem to rule out Exetel blocking anything on purpose.

Do you work for Exetel? How do you know for sure they are not purposely blocking the tracker?

It does appears as if it is blocked, I'm not sure what else you would call it. Exetel users can not access it. Seems like blocking to me.

~Doug~ writes...

Can thank us if you like.

Wulfe writes...

Yup, just trying to help the elimination process.

Thanks guys. It does help.

All signs seem to be pointing to Exetel blocking these trackers. The P2P throttling is one thing, but if they are blocking trackers then it's absolute BS.

xnor writes...

Exetel already have hardware in place to slow all P2P traffic. Why would they want to block a specific tracker?

Perhaps someone has told them it would in their best interests to do so.

Ok I did this and one of my 2 downloads started working immediately. Thanks

rossj_au writes...

Ok I did this and one of my 2 downloads started working immediately. Thanks

They start off GREEN but go to RED arrows shortly after.

Give it time and then write back. I just had a look and they are still offline :(

According to this thread http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=28028

Exetel is on a DNS blacklist at Backscatter.org

Could this be the issue here?

It may be tracker websites don't like Exetel because of its cache.

rossj_au writes...

Ok I did this and one of my 2 downloads started working immediately. Thanks

That'll happen quite often just because you rebooted uTorrent, whether you change any settings or not.

It can be a very fussy program at times.

1) A problem with the sites torrent tracker.

Ah heck I had a bad feeling about that. The entity with the biggest 'problem' with this issue by far, I suggest from reading the trackers list, is the greedy fat cat /AFACT.

We know this group is behind the lobbying/threatening of internet services behind our backs ie when they're not setting honey traps to incriminate teens and less technically skilled saps. This type of gouger attempts to limit peoples access to tv shows, when we have viewing times etc,their misguided practices suck. They want all trackers banned/ offline so bittorrent can be stopped.

In the meantime hopefully some proxy solution will overcome the security threat under p2p and limit yet another distasteful invasion of user privacy online.

Even if you aren't on exetel's route, tracker(s) being 'blocked' can and will eventually affect you through your current/next supplier. It will be dealt with quietly as is the case with p2p filter/peak throttling. By then how many subscribers will have lost the meat of their downloads? :o

Yep, i am still connected to my tracker. I tried downloading the same torrent on my Macbook Pro using Transmission (plain vanilla) and no connects.

I will remove those setting in uTorrent and do a restart of the app...

Result 0:
Tracker Status: offline (timed out)

Result 1:
Tracker Status: offline (timed out)

with settings applied
Tracker Status: Proxy connect error..... then after a while...
Tracker Status: working

The time it took to connect with the setting was shorter than the time a waited for the tracker status, furthermore i haven't been able to access this tracker for several days.

I agree Midnight Rider, restarting torrent clients affect the torrent you are downloading, as it will have to reconnect to the tracker to find seeds from scratch and reestablish the links to all the peers again, an analogy of this is just like a queue, if u move out of the queue you will have to join the end and progress up through the order

Also the update tracker function doesn't really display its execution in the uTorrent interface intrinsically though i am not complaining LOL.

I hope it will never come to that hibernator, though there is a flavour of bittorent which is a decentralised p2p service (i.e. does not require a tracker) but i have not heard much from it.

This is becomming a growing problem, with the opposition to these "laws" with strong numbers but with weak legal presence. What is the point of a democratic society where every one has a fair say, when a corporation with their money and influence can stem the tide of a legal system (Aus is not that bad its another country) to their own gains. Hypocritical?

Copyright in principle is a good thing, people have the right to be acknowledge as the owners of their intellectual property and they should be rewarded, but to what extent, at this current time that extent is ever increasing, if everyone adhered to these laws today it would been an age of stagnant growth.

Imagine if we had to wait 70 year after pythagoras died to be able to use pythagoras theorum wihtout paying royalties or to use this in applications in trigonometry?

Public domain is how we as a race got to where we are today, the free movement of ideas allows the transportation of development in any field to accelerate in all forms of efficiency, safety, quality.

Try some other proxies here is where i got the first when i have now changed it to one with a smaller latency

http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/socks5-list/

Good Luck!!!

loki_asgard writes...

Try some other proxies here is where i got the first when i have now changed it to one with a smaller latency

Do Proxies actually work in an effort to thwart tracker / ip blocking problems? This is the path I haven't tried, but I can't see it working as they'd just block the proxy ip... wouldn't they?

Anyone had success with proxys?

Has there been any response from Exetel yet??

^^^^^
If you take a look at the exetel forum link below (from page 2) ... SILENCE!

http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=294&t=28021&p=214967&hilit=torrent#p214967

If you have DHT enabled can you still make connections even without the tracker?

(It has been a long time since I have used P2P so please excuse my lack of understanding)

Proxies will work with ip blocking, as you are not connecting to the tracker directly. Its like asking a friend to deliver a message for you and receiving a message through that friend. Your communications are essentially channeled through a server which acts on your behalf.

Yes they should be able to just block that proxy ip, but that raises more issues about privacy, its like they can block me from making a phone call to a person (that is still wrong imo), but to do that would be like bleeping out your conversation with someone, for instance bleeping out anything i would have to say, imo, about the quality of my service, or if i was in another country, talking about democracy.

I have had so far some success in using proxies, some of the trackers were offline some that were online probably wont respond through proxies, probably due to the nature of the proxy itself.

****BUT, i have been able to access a popular tracker which is online, the torrent itself had only that tracker listed and would only connect when using a proxy.

Several, Exetel customers have been having this issue, and so have I, I have been trying to access that particular tracker since mid way last week, a proxy has resolved these issues with a certain tracker.

I'm getting the same thing....can d;load but even some files iwth a large number of seeders I'm unable to d/load the file.

Thought it was just me, but now I see that it's a general issue.

Suppose we just have to wait for Exetel to fix it.

.

Seems someone at exetel is looking into it.

Post by DylanF on Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:55 pm

I have asked someone to investigate this further.

http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=294&t=28021&p=214967&hilit=torrent#p214967

PS. I've dealt with DylanF when I first joined... good bloke :)

Leave no stone unturned; the truth is out there!

Post by DylanF on Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:55 pm
I have asked someone to investigate this further.

Sure glad Dylan is on the case... best luck to our mate

MajorBlink writes...

If you have DHT enabled can you still make connections even without the tracker?

Sure can – depending on the health of the torrent – there seem to be a smaller percentage of the swarm using DHT than listed from a tracker scrape.

With the tracker offline I'm still connected to 96 peers and downloading at 1.2MB/s.

Check this thread at Exetel forum

http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=294&t=28021

According to the Network Admin by accessing a tracker site you you are breaching the Exetel service terms and conditions which expressly forbids you to use your connection for that purpose

Maybe they are doing it?

i think its clear now that exetel is enforcing blocking on certain public trackers they deem that it is a breach of contract....

Bear in mind, we as customers have had no such communications of any sort- apart from forums, about these changes.

Seems like Exetel can do whatever they want, when they want, how they want...all in their own best interest...as they say..

Gee...is this a first for an Australian ISP?

Ohhh man Exetel are about to get SMASHED.

Credibility is about to fall below zero.

So they have ALLOWED their customers in the past couple of years to have access to these trackers whilst at the same time increasing their $$$$$$$ and customer base! SLY!

Can anyone recommend a non sneaky ISP?

i'm ready to leave exetel if this continues, even if i have to pay the $100 early exit fee......

I'll allow them one more week for the benefit of the doubt then it's time to leave.

hmm...start of the month, a bad time to churn...

for those who want to churn, better make up your mind soon or else you'll be stuck with exetel for another month!

Sony Cat writes...

i think its clear now that exetel is enforcing blocking on certain public trackers they deem that it is a breach of contract....

I still think the most likely reason is incompetence, they have probably misconfigured their P2P shaper tool.

Exetel are brazen enough to tell us to our faces if they were blocking.

VeeP writes...

Exetel are brazen enough to tell us to our faces if they were blocking.

http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=294&t=28021

Says it all.

We're cheaper than everyone else. If you don't like it, piss off.

VeeP writes...

I still think the most likely reason is incompetence, they have probably misconfigured their P2P shaper tool

as if...to be honest, very unlikely. this problem has been for days...By now, they would have realised if they have misconfigured their p2p settings by some noob at exetel.

SO what is the point of having 48 GIG Off-Peak to download NOW PEOPLE? You see, eXITel are biting the hand that feeds it!

.

hooray

If we get clarification from Exetel that they are indeed blocking some sites then it'll be front page material very quickly.

Well James Linton has confirmed that they do not block anything and it is most likely a network issue.

I believe him.

The Linton's don't lie, they don't care what you think of them.

VeeP writes...

The Lintons don't lie, they don't care what you think of them.

This much is true.

But JohnL is away...

Cody Wilson writes...

But JohnL is away...

I know :)

Quick guys .......... hurry up!

I've just come on board with Exetel as well....not much of a start if they are indeed going to block this sort of activity.

Just did a test on a couple of popular torrents with 100's of seeds and most trackers reported back as being offline and speeds were pathetic for the half an hour i let it go for hovering around 20/30kbs max, even the Usenet was pathetic this arvo hovering around 80kbs on my ADSL1 connection for about an hour never getting anywhere the normal 160+kbs tried different ports but no change.

Exetel are doing something to annoy us in to moving on and by the sound of they are going to have some success shortly.

I pay $55pm – if i left 2 months early ( now 4 months into contract) and paid the $100 term fee i should effectively break even rather than stay and pay another $110 for another 2 months sufference just to avoid the $100 term fee ?

by James on Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:13 pm...

It is almost certainly the first, Exetel is not blocking anything to my knowledge – i'm sure whatever is wrong will be resolved asap.

James
Exetel Staff

http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=294&t=28021

EDIT. I've dealt with James as well in the past. Top Bloke! :)

hooray!!

Maybe their setting up some P2P monitoring equipment to monitor data transfers for this copyright infringement stuff ?

Nothing like a good conspiracy theory to set the forums on fire.

hooray!!

Midnight Rider writes...

Nothing like a good conspiracy theory to set the forums on fire.

??

I can assure you the issue is very real.

Blu` writes...

I can assure you the issue is very real.

I wasn't referring to the issue.

ZepperLepper writes...

Can anyone recommend a non sneaky ISP?

and pricy...
internode iiNet

wayne349 writes...

Maybe their setting up some P2P monitoring equipment to monitor data transfers for this copyright infringement stuff ?

That would be totally illegal.

Bonus!
Issue resolved :)

Seems to be working again

HOORAY! .... it is! Only took a week :)

now I have speed!

Thanks exetel

hooray

Cody Wilson writes...

Someones looking into it is not helpful.

But it was a start :)

Working here also.

Cheers/hurray Exetel good stuff

Downloaded triple my Peak allowance for free (shaped), but all at full-speeds... So I can't complain or comfirm there was a problem here ;)

has shaping kicked in yet Wanderlei??

Steve touches upon the subject in his latest blog post.
http://steve.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/112-How-stupid-would-you-have-to-be....html

They chase exetel over 10 bad apples? I would have though it higher than that.

Is this issue resolved? It seems to be according to the Exetel forum.

ZepperLepper writes...

Only took a week :)

apparently school holiday gone and exetel management decided to lift blockade.

Is this confirmed or speculation as a previous post stated that Exetel don't block anything in the Exetel forum – so were they or were'nt they blocking and would'nt admit it when it was happening ?

yeah seems a nice little coincidence.

.. and PeerGuardian2 lists from sourceforge are now accessible again too ;-)

With only a handful of complaints Will Exetel try this again next school holidays.Should we expect technical difficulties next school holiday period?

ßarry writes...

.. and PeerGuardian2 lists from sourceforge are now accessible again too ;-)

Never used PG2 (didn't know what it was) but I have just been doing a bit of reading/research for the last ½ hour. Looks good. Not so much for blocking trackers as such but helps prevent spoof data/data tracking of sorts. Might have to try it :)

jaja23 writes...

apparently school holiday gone and exetel management decided to lift blockade.

School holidays must be different to that of NSW... as school (public) went back on the 14/15th in QLD.

OFFICIALLY WORKING.
An important tracker that was OFFLINE is now WORKING.
That's my verdict. We'll I'm happy.
So any hint as to what caused the problem.

Cody Wilson writes...

So any hint as to what caused the problem.

I heard it was their annual "lets piss off customers" party :P

wayne349 writes...

so were they or were'nt they blocking and would'nt admit it when it was happening ?

It should be remembered that Exetel already have hardware that is capable of slowing all P2P traffic to whatever extent they wish. If Exetel wanted to save some bandwidth it would be much simpler and more effective for them to de-prioritise P2P globally by a few percent than it would to block a few specific trackers.

So chances are we won't know exactly where/what the problem was or if it is something that might occur again.

Not that we should be expected to know every little detail, but given that Exetel generally does give alot of info regarding its network/resolutions etc, i'm surprised that more info wasn't divulged in this case.

I started a 350Meg torrent about 20 mins ago and my upload is set at 17kbs ( 1500/236 connection) so far i've uploaded twice as much as i've downloaded because of Exetels poor/capped speed, trackers are all reporting ok atm.

Other people are d/loading at 200 to +300 kbs even a guy on Dodo who started 5 mins after me has nearly finished where as i've still got 7 hours roughly according to the client, so even Dodo is better than Exetel at the moment on torrents.

wayne349 writes...

Other people are d/loading at 200 to +300 kbs

How can you see?

started 5 mins after me has nearly finished where as i've still got 7 hours roughly according to the client

How big is the file?

so far i've uploaded twice as much as i've downloaded because of Exetels poor/capped speed, trackers are all reporting ok atm.

In some cases that's true for me but not as much. My uploads are set anywhere from 10 – 30kb/s depending on my download speed, but I always try to make sure that my downlaod speed is faster than my uploading (hence the need to cap the upload speed to 1kb/s at some times).

TheLaminator writes...

(hence the need to cap the upload speed to 1kb/s at some times).

uTorrent (and possibly others) kill your connection when you try doing that. To see it in action, do it with the main-settings while the speed-graph is running in the background. It's got set-numbers it works on. Can't remember of the top of my head.

Say limiting to 8KB up caps your down to 50KB kinda thing. Up it to 9KB & it allows unlimited download.

wayne349 writes...

so even Dodo is better than Exetel at the moment on torrents.

It's never-ever that simple, and I've never even seen suggestions on all my connections (any ISP, anytime). It always comes-down to other things. Like maybe my ratio, the amount of clients-connected etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

What speed's he on... Who knows. There is SOOOO much that can play-into it.

Above-and-beyond-all... If it's a pubic-tracker, warranty/support is void – They're rubbish most/all of the time.

xnor writes...

it would be much simpler and more effective for them to de-prioritise P2P globally by a few percent than it would to block a few specific trackers.

So far, their current system has paid dividends for me, living off the cache, PIPE etc. within the system, all while shaped, SO many little nuggets coming-through at full speeds :)

I don't generally post on here but reading all the people defending exetel for there slow network performance as of late is silly.

The last 2-3 weeks have been seriously slow. Last night trying to even play a game of Warcraft 3 i struggled to even connect to the B.net servers. Mean while my friends all on other isp's (IInet, Amcom, Internode etc) All connected instantly. Also every night from the day i joined as soon as it hits 11pm. My wc3 game will be so Laggy that i am unable to play or my game will disconnect from wc3.

No it isn't my PC / my network settings. I know how to setup my network i do it for a living.

So i myself have been totally unimpressed by Exetels service if you could even call it a service.

Everyone else good luck with your exetel service and hope it gets better for you but i am no longer going to put up with unbearable internet service.

I can see because my client provides info about peer download speed and the % they have of it and if you had of read my original post correctly in the first four words i stated how big the file was...

My download just finished 5 hours after starting it, my download speed is set to unlimited – only my upload is capped and i did'nt have to seed it because my ratio was already 2:0 and other people were able to download the same file in just over half an hour at the same time i was at +130kbs speeds when i peaked at 25kbs and they were using iinet/aanet/dodo/soul and optus – i used to be able to get those speeds as well for the last 6 years before comming to Exetel and since churning to Exetel from Westnet my torrent speeds have been absolutely crap even the Usenet is slow at around 80kbs when it used to max out my connection at Westnet and Internode.

i've regreted churing ever since and when my contracts up i'm gone just to save a few bucks is'nt worth the frustration and double checking your own system for issues when it's at their end.

Exetel are a ISP that are cheap and thats exactly what the ADSL service you get as well – you pay for what you get even people on Dodo are getting better torrent speeds.

wayne349 writes...

I can see because my client provides info

I'm not sure who you're replying to here Wayne. To reply to someone's post, drag the mouse over their text while replying, and then click the InsertQuote button.

The client only gives you a snapshot of information, (especiallyabout other users), one tiny piece of the puzzle. He could've been on crap speeds for 5 hours, and then rocketed in 1hr. There are countless odd things that happen, and your client won't tell you about. He could be using multiple trackers, be connected to more people (as mentioned), or a magnitude of other things.

only my upload is capped

As also mentioned, this effects your downloads too. Too high or too low, and you will have problems.

Mr LaG writes...

I don't generally post on here but reading all the people defending exetel for there slow network performance as of late is silly.

Only an idiot would post rainbows while their connection was crap. I've used sooo many connections here in Vic, along with handfuls while living overseas, and the only probs I get like what's forever mentioned at WP is ID10T errors, or external probs. Knowing how to use Usenet, Torrents, and the net in general has helped me avoid these supposed ISP-wide issues I read about every week.

Everyone else good luck with your exetel service and hope it gets better for you but i am no longer going to put up with unbearable internet service.

Guess we'll see you in another 12mths for 1 post? :P

Yer, the speed issue appears to impacting connections outside of NSW.....

Now I'm not necessarily suggesting some of you are downloading authorised content (or otherwise) but you know your ISP was threatened some weeks back? exetel was to terminate 100 accounts which had pirated some music album.

Subsequently, the owner forks out thou$ands to pour cold water over them flames – billed 3 grand by exetel's legal advisor whose alias online might be Corry Plover, not too sure on that – but JohnL saves those accounts worth chips to him anyway.

Anyone like to thank JohnL for the album(s) he supposedly covered you for worth 30 bucks? Dun' think so

The 100 customers saved are surely worth chips if their downloads consist of this type of media. So... perhaps senior Linton has a rebellious side and is looking out for his fellows of the Caribbean (myself included- when I occasionally falter)... or maybe it is pride to not want to 'jinx' exetel's often repeated claim of growing customers successively month over month from its inception.

Trackers are back 'n all's well that ends well I would say.....

hibernator writes...

you know your ISP was threatened some weeks back? exetel was to terminate 100 accounts which had pirated some music album.

I never heard about that, where was this posted?

xnor writes...

wayne349 writes...Maybe their setting up some P2P monitoring equipment to monitor data transfers for this copyright infringement stuff ?

That would be totally illegal.

According to Wiki they already do it -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exetel

"Copyright issues
In 2005, legal action by MIPI against another ISP resulted in a third ISP being found guilty of breaching copyright by allowing hosting of illegally acquired content.

Exetel believed it necessary to monitor content stored on servers under its control."

7twenty writes...

hibernator writes...you know your ISP was threatened some weeks back? exetel was to terminate 100 accounts which had pirated some music album.

I never heard about that, where was this posted?

Some info :

http://www.theage.com.au/news/troubleshooter/a-few-notes-of-caution/2007/07/14/1183833827956.html

wayne349 writes...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/troubleshooter/a-few-notes-of-caution/2007/07/14/1183833827956.html

wayne349 writes...

Exetel believed it necessary to monitor content stored on servers under its control."

Both of these posts refer to a user's free web space hosted on Exetel's servers – not monitoring of the network as has been implied. Exetel has taken this measure to limit the amount of copyrighted material hosted on their servers.

If you hold the copyright for a given item, or it is open source or whatever you simply email them and your hosting will be exempt from the nightly deletions.

This has nothing to do with trackers and what not... lets try to keep it on topic :)

7twenty writes...

I never heard about that, where was this posted?

"