Homechoice - Short IP address leases

Hi All,

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).

The cynic in me thinks that Homechoice is using this to discourage
people from using Skype (so they make normal calls that Homechoice can
charge for) and to throttle bandwidth for Bittorrent users. Has anyone
else run into this problem? I'm going to take it up with them, but I'd
like to hear of any similar experiences.

Cheers

Simon

In message <(E-Mail Removed) .com>,
(E-Mail Removed) writes
>The cynic in me thinks that Homechoice is using this to discourage
>people from using Skype (so they make normal calls that Homechoice can
>charge for) and to throttle bandwidth for Bittorrent users. Has anyone
>else run into this problem? I'm going to take it up with them, but I'd
>like to hear of any similar experiences.

You'd spend a small fortune before you got any tech support person who
knew what you are talking about. Vote with your feet and walk.
--
Pete Devlin
[{//////news03//////at\\\\\secondrow/////co\\\\\uk}]
"And don’t forget my dog, fixed and consequent"

>
> You'd spend a small fortune before you got any tech support person who
> knew what you are talking about. Vote with your feet and walk.
> --

Hey, I'd love to walk to another provider, but (as usual) there is a
minimum term contract. I could possibly argue with them that they are
not upholding their end of the service agreement and bring the contract
to an early end, but I'd rather have them just fix the "problem".

Besides, they're obviously stiffing a bunch of other punters out there
who use their Homechoice internet connection for things other than
emailing and browsing the web. I think Homechoice customers deserve
more than what they're currently getting.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
> leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
> the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
> address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
> redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
> means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
> lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).
>
> The cynic in me thinks that Homechoice is using this to discourage
> people from using Skype (so they make normal calls that Homechoice can
> charge for) and to throttle bandwidth for Bittorrent users. Has anyone
> else run into this problem? I'm going to take it up with them, but I'd
> like to hear of any similar experiences.
>
> Cheers
>
> Simon


You need to share this question with uk.telecom.voip for a wider interested
audience.

7 wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
>> leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
>> the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
>> address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
>> redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
>> means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
>> lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).
>>
>> The cynic in me thinks that Homechoice is using this to discourage
>> people from using Skype (so they make normal calls that Homechoice can
>> charge for) and to throttle bandwidth for Bittorrent users. Has anyone
>> else run into this problem? I'm going to take it up with them, but I'd
>> like to hear of any similar experiences.
>>
It's only a problem if you're being forced to change IP address every
time you renew. If it gives you back the same IP address each time then
lease renewal is transparent and shouldn't affect anything currently in
progress.

--
Dave
mail da (E-Mail Removed) (without the space)
http://www.llondel.org
So many gadgets, so little time

> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
>> leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
>> the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
>> address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
>> redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
>> means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
>> lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).
>>
>> The cynic in me thinks that Homechoice is using this to discourage
>> people from using Skype (so they make normal calls that Homechoice can
>> charge for) and to throttle bandwidth for Bittorrent users. Has anyone
>> else run into this problem? I'm going to take it up with them, but I'd
>> like to hear of any similar experiences.

Assuming that they are doing what you say for the reasons you suggest,
that is very clever.

Dave {Reply Address in.Sig} wrote:
> >>
> It's only a problem if you're being forced to change IP address every
> time you renew. If it gives you back the same IP address each time then
> lease renewal is transparent and shouldn't affect anything currently in
> progress.
>
> --

Yep. That's what they're doing; forcing a new IP address onto me every
5-10 minutes. It also wreaks havoc with the dynamic DNS service I use
to host my website from home. The DNS updater really struggles to keep
up with frequently changing IP address.

In uk.telecom.voip Paul Cupis <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> >> I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
> >> leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
> >> the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
> >> address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
> >> redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
> >> means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
> >> lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).
> >>

> Assuming that they are doing what you say for the reasons you suggest,
> that is very clever.

Not really clever, just stupid. The only thing a connection
that changes IP every 5-10 minutes would be good for is the loading of
small web pages. This would break a lot of other things, not just VoIP,
such as: long file transfers, an ssh connection, any type of instant
messaging client that relies on a constant connection, a VPN
connection, etc...

If they really are doing that to you, it's time to look for a
new provider.

B. Wright wrote:
> In uk.telecom.voip Paul Cupis <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>> I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
>>>> leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
>>>> the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
>>>> address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
>>>> redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
>>>> means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
>>>> lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).
>
>> Assuming that they are doing what you say for the reasons you suggest,
>> that is very clever.
>
> Not really clever, just stupid. The only thing a connection
> that changes IP every 5-10 minutes would be good for is the loading of
> small web pages.

Small web pages -> pages that load in less than, say, 1 minute? That
will be most.

> This would break a lot of other things, not just VoIP,
> such as: long file transfers, an ssh connection, any type of instant
> messaging client that relies on a constant connection, a VPN
> connection, etc...

Yes, by design. The OP suggests that they do this with the explicit
intent of disrupting VoIP, P2P etc.

> If they really are doing that to you, it's time to look for a
> new provider.

No argument here.

B. Wright wrote:
> In uk.telecom.voip Paul Cupis <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>> I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Homechoice's IP address
>>>> leases. When I'm using Skype or Bittorrent Homechoice seems to increase
>>>> the frequency of lease renewal (approx. 5-10 minutes) for my IP
>>>> address. That means that my Skype calls get cutoff and I have to
>>>> redial, and also Bittorrent needs to reconnect to all it's peers (which
>>>> means downloads take longer). When I am not using Skype/Bittorrent the
>>>> lease renewal happens far less frequently (hours or days).
>>>>
>
>> Assuming that they are doing what you say for the reasons you suggest,
>> that is very clever.
>
> Not really clever, just stupid. The only thing a connection
> that changes IP every 5-10 minutes would be good for is the loading of
> small web pages. This would break a lot of other things, not just VoIP,
> such as: long file transfers, an ssh connection, any type of instant
> messaging client that relies on a constant connection, a VPN
> connection, etc...
>
Not to mention online gaming, streaming audio/video (which is a
capability a lot of ISPs seem to try to sell their service on).

I'd have said that excluding web browsing (which it would be an
annoyance, remembering that with windows the socket manager will in this
event close all sockets and report an error to the applications) this
will interrupt just about anything you use.

A lot of home users like sending big emails, like films etc. (and bloody
office staff), This would more-or-less be impossible.

I can't think of any application where this wouldn't be an annoyance,
even web browsing, if every 5 to 10 minutes the page you are trying to
load will bring up an error message. (some people go to more than 1 site
every few minutes)

> If they really are doing that to you, it's time to look for a
> new provider.
>
Incredible that anyone would do that, but agreed.