Re: Managing dial-up ISP traffic.

From: Jim Berwick (jimb_at_snip.net)
Date: 04/24/05

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    Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 05:34:20 +0000

    news@absamail.co.za wrote in news:1bCdnbLhqsxPavXfRVn-3A@is.co.za:

    > The ISP help desk claims that no-where near their capacity
    > is utilised. And when I tell of the strict relationship between
    > expected traffic volume and my inablitity to logon PLUS the
    > fact that during confirmed can't-logon-for-congestion times,
    > I can logon to their branch in the 40Km distant town [at extra
    > telco cost].

    More than likely the problem is that you have a problem with your local
    telco. Dialing out of town routes your calls through your LT/LD
    provider, eliminating the part that isn't working.

    > Q- is it common to feed-back the load/congestion to the modems
    > to give an early warning engaged signal, instead of allowing the
    > caller [paying in my case] get through the dialin to just be dropped,
    > or if possible to be kept in a long queue ?

    Can't say I speak for everyone, but I've never found it better to make
    people not connect instead of connecting then dropping. Not connecting
    = instant phone call to tech support.

    > Q- is it true that telco transmission channels degrade for high
    > traffic; possibly by cross talk ....etc .

    If the lines in your area are poor, yes, definite possibility and it
    happens more than you would think.
     
    > Q - is it a reasonable analysis that my email is slow when fetched
    > via the distant town, yet other services : news & http; are not,
    > because the mailServer in my home town is congested when I need
    > to log on via the distant town, but other services don't use the
    > home town ?

    No idea how your providers network is structured, but no matter where
    you dial in at you are going to need at minimum RADIUS servers and DNS.
    Unless your provider maintains multiple DNS servers at different
    locations and assigns you DNS based on where you dial in at, you need to
    use some stuff from their home office.

    > Q - although as expected I have good connectivety after midnight,
    > what would be the reason that I can't connect at 4:00...; perhaps
    > the
    > ISP [a bank] has a cron job, or uses the extra capacity for itself
    > ?

    I can't imagine an ISP running a job at 4:00PM that uses so many
    resources it prevents paying customers from using the service. If that
    turns out to be the case, switch ISPs

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