Transfer Cap linked to Scheduler

[severedsolo]

i would like to see the Transfer cap introduced in 2.0 linked to the scheduler so that different transfer caps can apply at different times of the day,

for example, I am on an unlimited downloads package with my ISP, but there is a catch, if i download/upload more than 7000MB between 10am and 4pm, or download/upload more than 3500MB/1400MB between 4pm and 9pm my connection gets throttled back to 25% for 5 hours, at the moment i manually adjust the caps at the different time frames, but it would be nice to see them linked to the scheduler so i can set it up automatically,

[Husare]

Good god , what ISPs do that. What a shi**y deal is that? o.O

[severedsolo]

its virgin media (uk), i dont know whether your aware but the uk broadband network is in an appalling state, and over subscription is a real issue, so to maximise profits most ISP's have some sort of "traffic shaping" policy, supposedly to stop torrenting from impacting their network

to be honest it doesnt bother me, on my 5 meg line its impossible to hit the 10-4 limit unless the connection is running pretty much at maximum for 4 out of those 6 hours, (iv actually tried) the problem is i set the limit lower than the threshold (because id like to use my internet for other things as well) and its just annoying having to switch the cap over at 4 manually, the problem is in march my exchange is going over to ADSL2+ with my expected line speed expected to be somewhere between 12-15Mb/s which means that there is a real possibility of me hitting this cap rather quickly,

as for it being a bad deal, i dont consider it to be, most ISP's offering "unlimited" actually cap it at about 40GB/month with their "fair usage policy" at least with virgin it actually is unlimited, (albeit with a reduced rate if i push it too far, but even if i keep within these limits at a potential 10.5GB a day it still works out at a much better deal)

[Husare]

Wow, hear that the first time, didn't know at all about the bad state of the British broadband network.

Well for now you could use the standard scheduler to lower up and donwload speed during those critical time spans. You could calculate maximum speed over time to get the volume over time with the calculated speed. Of course you have to set it to the worst case (3500MB) so you capacity will not be used optimal, because you cannot set speed separately.

And by the way: with µTP, what is introduced officially with µTorrent 2.0, you are now able to surf while uploading to the max. uTP backoffs automatically when your line is under heavy load. And when your router supports prioritizing, you could use it too. I set my router to cap speed of my µTorrent port, everything has higher priority than µTorrent. And I set upload to unlimited in Torrent, works fine for me. Well, of course not every router has port prioritization (I use AVM FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7170), maybe µTP is the way for you to go.

[plumb121]

That is something that would really help, great idea severedsolo, and fingers crossed !.

[severedsolo]

And by the way: with µTP, what is introduced officially with µTorrent 2.0, you are now able to surf while uploading to the max. uTP backoffs automatically when your line is under heavy load.

think you may have misunderstood me, the reason i set the cap lower than the limit isnt because of speeds, its because i dont want to hit the throttling limit with other stuff....

for example, lets imagine its 7pm, and iv downloaded 3500MB since 4pm, so the transfer cap has kicked in, if i then go and watch something on BBC Iplayer, i hit the throttling limit in loading the page and am throttled back to 1Mb/s until midnight,

so to avoid this, i set the cap to 2500MB allowing myself 1000MB to play with, (as the average iplayer program can be between 400 and 700MB its a fairly safe number so i get some browsing in too)

[Husare]

I understand you well. And you request is a good one, since I know from you that threre DSL enduser contracts like you described. µTP was just a sidenote that I wanted to mention.

Let me describe what I meant:

Lets chose the worst case, that is clearly the 1400MB threshold from 4pm to 9pm for the upload, as I undestand they are not combined but each count by it self as a threshold. You want maybe left some upload because even for donloading you need upload due to SYN and ACK packages for TCP flow control. I guess 200MB would be more than sufficient. Now you plan to use up 1400MB-200MB = 1200MB just for torrent upload. In the scheduler you set now upload speed to 67kB/s for 4pm-9pm (67kB/s * 5hours = 1206MB). And of course you want also to download, asuming you want 1000MB for browsing and Youtube, BBC etc. that leaves you 3500MB-1000MB = 2500MB free to use for torrent download. So you set the scheduler max download to 140kB/s (140kB/s *5 hours = 2520). Now you set the scheduler to limit speeds from 11am(!)-9pm. And do not set cap limits since you cap throu timed speed limits.

Now lets summe up what that settings cause (asuming the torrent speed is allways reaching its highest possible speed given by the scheduler) :

10am-4pm:

maximum download: 5Mb/s*1hour(10am-11am) + 140kB/s*5hours(11am-4pm) = 2250MB + 2520MB = 4770MB

maximum upload: <your max upload> *1hour(10am-11am) + 67kB/s*5hours = 242MB + 1206MB (unfortunately I don't know you max upoad speed I took 67kB/s as max) =1448MB

combined up and download: 4770MB + 1448MB = 6218MB

That is leaving you about 800MB for own use, maybe 700MB because of TCP overhead.

4pm-9pm:

max down: 140kB/s*5hours = 2520MB

max up: 67kB/s*5hours = 1206MB

Like I calculated above already you are left with 1000MB for own use.

What do you think? Sounds for me like a plan, doesn't it? Although a timebased cap would be more efficient of course.

[severedsolo]

ahh i see what you mean now, actually thats a good idea, especially for the download, upload is perhaps not so important for me, assuing your calculations are correct (and im sure they are) at 443Kb/s up, (my max upload rate, ) i cant hit the upload cap either, but the download is quite easy to hit at peak time, but with your limits, it wont hit the download limit at the "critical" 4pm-9pm timeframe, and of course if im waiting for a film to watch ill just have to wait til after 9p for it to complete or set it up the day before,

[Husare]

Will you try out my suggestion? If you do so, tell me if it worked for you, just to assure my calculator works right.

if im waiting for a film to watch ill just have to wait til after 9p for it to complete or set it up the day before

Why would you have to wait till after 9pm to watch a downloaded video via Torrent? I watch it right away, while it is uploading at the same time. Maybe another misunderstanding, again.

[severedsolo]

i mean downloading, i have a small hard drive, so i tend to download content, watch it, seed to 100% then upload it to my webspace and delete it from my Hard drive, so i download things which i want to watch *now* if that makes sense?

and yes i will try out your suggestion, the point is moot at the moment as their servers are broken and its almost impossible to torrent after 4pm anyway, but when its fixed ill try iy