Anyway around Virgin newsgroup capping ?

[nilrem]

Evening all,

After taking a short break from downloading from Newsgroups I now find that I can only achieve a near 50 mbit download speed after midnight.

I opened a trouble ticket with my Newsgroup provider and they advised that Virgin are now restricting Newsgroup traffic during the day.

Needless to say I'm not happy paying for something I can't use to its potential until after midnight.

Anyone know if there is a way around this ?

I've tried using diff ports and servers but nada so far

Cheers

 

[nilrem]

Sorted it found that by using SSL on port 443 this by passed their restrictions.

Hope this help's anyone else out

 

[dibbers]

i'm using grabit, can you tell me what you did matey?

 

[turner brown]

providing you news hoster has ssl server
change the sever to the ssl address and change port
should sort your problem

 

[witchy]

There is a thread on here already about this.

Apparently, changing port - even if it is SSL - makes absolutely no difference as they can still sniff out the protocols in use and if it is NNTP then traffic management kicks in.

 

[Captin]

There is a thread on here already about this.

Apparently, changing port - even if it is SSL - makes absolutely no difference as they can still sniff out the protocols in use and if it is NNTP then traffic management kicks in.

They may be able to manage it, but I don't think they are. After changing ports from 563 to 443 my download speeds were massively different. On port 563 I couldn't get full speed during the day, using port 443 I did.

I understand that if they are packet sniffing it doesn't matter what route the packets take they are still the same, so they can block them. But I don't think they can watch and block every port as it will impact on other services.

 

[dibbers]

when i change grab it it too ssl and 443 then i get no connection when retrieving rar's or updating groups??!? any thing I'm missing?

 

[oneman]

when i change grab it it too ssl and 443 then i get no connection when retrieving rar's or updating groups??!? any thing I'm missing?

your newsgroup provider has to support SSL as well, not all of them do.

 

[phawk754]

when i change grab it it too ssl and 443 then i get no connection when retrieving rar's or updating groups??!? any thing I'm missing?

you need to check and make sure your newsgroup supports port 443 on ssl as ngroups do not ,that is my one :-(


i just phoned up virgin media to have a go at them and there have just told me there do not have any caps on the 50mb ...lol ,,,great support .......i did tell them it was the QOS ,there said again there is no caps on 50mb ,,,,,,,,

 

[lorrebreaker]

when i change grab it it too ssl and 443 then i get no connection when retrieving rar's or updating groups??!? any thing I'm missing?

Also dont forget the server address on ssl wil be different too.

 

[dibbers]

ah maybe that's it then, what is it mate, i'm using news.virginmedia.com ?

just a thought the OP isn't using virmin.newsgroups..... my bad.....

 

[lorrebreaker]

ah maybe that's it then, what is it mate, i'm using news.virginmedia.com ?

just a thought the OP isn't using virmin.newsgroups..... my bad.....

Yep virgin dont provide a ssl server.

 

[Captin]

i just phoned up virgin media to have a go at them and there have just told me there do not have any caps on the 50mb ...lol ,,,great support .......i did tell them it was the QOS ,there said again there is no caps on 50mb ,,,,,,,,

Yes but we all know that's BS.

They have openly admitted fiddling with the ports to restrict p2p and newsgroups.

 

[chookey]

I have a diamond account with giganews, they provide free vpn with this account. This bypasses the restrictions that are set between 4-12 midnight.

Chookey

 

[nilrem]

Sorry guys I should have mentioned that I'm with Supernews and found that they use SSL Ports 563 & 443 and Virmin haven't restricted Port 443 traffic....yet

I got this from a Virmin support forum

File sharing

We moderate the total volume of file sharing traffic on our network between 5pm and midnight on weekdays and midday and midnight on weekends. This policy is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)This policy does not impact any applications other than Peer to Peer and Newsgroups, so things like watching iPlayer, online gaming, making calls via Skype, downloading music tracks from iTunes or streaming them from Spotify and sending an email or normal browsing are unaffected.

It's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply at peak times when speeds are most likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share. Outside of peak times we do not manage traffic.

 

[oneman]

Details about CAP periods and QoS can be found on the virgin media site,

Virgin Media Traffic management policy

 

[Captin]

I have a diamond account with giganews, they provide free vpn with this account. This bypasses the restrictions that are set between 4-12 midnight.

Chookey

Is it worth the extra money as I use Astraweb and is costs $11 for the exact same service as I was getting for $25 on Giganews. How much more is the diamond service.

I always download overnight any way so the cap & qos dont affect me.

 

[oneman]

I always download overnight any way so the cap & qos dont affect me.

If you are not having problems with astra web then I would stay with them. Giganews can max out a 100mb connection, have something like 800days retention (if that matters) and pretty good completion rates. However I have noticed some missing posts (read about 360 rips in particular) due to copyright enforcement.

 

[Captin]

If you are not having problems with astra web then I would stay with them. Giganews can max out a 100mb connection, have something like 800days retention (if that matters) and pretty good completion rates. However I have noticed some missing posts (read about 360 rips in particular) due to copyright enforcement.

Astraweb can also max out a 100mb connection and have over 840 days retention and 99% completetion rates. I haven't had any problems since switching from Giganews to save money. Not noticed any missing posts yet.

I was just wondering if the VPN was worth the extra bucks, $29 I believe it is for the diamond. Thats like $216 (£137) more than astraweb over 12 months.

 

[oneman]

Astraweb can also max out a 100mb connection and have over 840 days retention and 99% completetion rates. I haven't had any problems since switching from Giganews to save money. Not noticed any missing posts yet.

I was just wondering if the VPN was worth the extra bucks, $29 I believe it is for the diamond. Thats like $216 (£137) more than astraweb over 12 months.

if you downloading overnight and not effected by QoS then I can't see any reason for switching.