Managing dial-up ISP traffic.

Hi,

since I'm not using M$loth, the ISP help desk clowns can't
answer any questions. They can just ask 'what is my error number'.

Based on the weather and time of day/week I can reliably
estimate if I'll be able to get on line or not:
* whether the kids are out playing ball or congesting the line;
* whether the mid-day office workers are on line;
* whether the TV offerings are unpopular and users go online.

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].

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 ?

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

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 ?

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 ?

Thanks for any info.

== Chris Glur.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> since I'm not using M$loth, the ISP help desk clowns can't
> answer any questions. They can just ask 'what is my error number'.
>
> Based on the weather and time of day/week I can reliably
> estimate if I'll be able to get on line or not:
> * whether the kids are out playing ball or congesting the line;
> * whether the mid-day office workers are on line;
> * whether the TV offerings are unpopular and users go online.
>
> 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].
>
> 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 ?
>
> Q- is it true that telco transmission channels degrade for high traffic;
> possibly by cross talk ....etc .
>
> 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 ?
>
> 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 ?
>
> Thanks for any info.
>
> == Chris Glur.
>
I didnt read your whole post, but are you on ADSL or 56k Dialup. Maybe a
bad phone line? What about your neighbors, their friends, or the kids
playing outside? Do Their links get slow too? Get in contact with the
other people using your ISP.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote in news:1bCdnbLhqsxPavXfRVn-(E-Mail Removed):

> 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