Sky and capping torrents

[theymademedoit]

Hi,
I am very close to changing from Virgin to Sky 20mb unlimited.
When I spoke to the Virgin guy he said that with Sky I will only be allowed 40gb downloads and that torrents wont work during the day. He said that I can only use torrents between midnight to 6am.
Is this true or was he only trying to scare me into staying with them?
Cheers,
Al

[lincsat]

The Sky adverts do say totally unlimited. Virgin certainly have caps with throttling when you reach a limit. I believe they are also heavily throttling P2P during the day as well.

[bonghitt]

when i was on 20meg virgin broadband i used to get capped nearly every day down to 2n a half megs.its a right p1sser

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by bonghitt

when i was on 20meg virgin broadband i used to get capped nearly every day down to 2n a half megs.its a right p1sser

But, if were honest, so is downloading that amount of data on a daily basis from what is effectively a domestic connection. Thats effectively a DVD during peak hours every day (no doubt you were also downloading much more during off-peak). It would be interesting to know why you needed that much bandwidth on a constant basis ?

[unadkat]

Correct if am wrong but am sure I have heard that VM cap there 20MB customers when they exceed the 4GB limit.

Which would explain if your downloading a DVD movie as stated above then it doesn't surprise me that they are capping you. However if memory serves me well .. they capped there customers for 4pm - 9pm and after you could download as much as you like or something like anyway.

If hes using Torrents then I assume the seeding was pretty much killing the bandwidth.

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by theymademedoit

Hi,
I am very close to changing from Virgin to Sky 20mb unlimited.
When I spoke to the Virgin guy he said that with Sky I will only be allowed 40gb downloads and that torrents wont work during the day. He said that I can only use torrents between midnight to 6am.
Is this true or was he only trying to scare me into staying with them?

It depends which of the sky broadband services you sign up for and also, to some extent, your location.

Many places still dont offer Sky ADSL directly (ie, sky's equipment not installed in local exchange) but you can still purchase indirectly (Sky ADSL carried over BT equipment). For this service I believe there are limits imposed by BT constraints

There are also multiple packages offered by Sky (or at least there were not too long ago) and the lower ones have various limitations. The top package (which I think is what your going for), afaik, is 'unlimited' at this time.

Note. There is always a limit of some form whether it be via an acceptable use policy or some other means. ADSL itself has a contention ratio where you may be competing with other 'local' users for llimited local bandwidth - this is one of the reasons ADSL can have very variable speeds. Cable also has a contention but its usually of a more limited form.

[bonghitt]

Originally Posted by TheCoder

But, if were honest, so is downloading that amount of data on a daily basis from what is effectively a domestic connection. Thats effectively a DVD during peak hours every day (no doubt you were also downloading much more during off-peak). It would be interesting to know why you needed that much bandwidth on a constant basis ?

what can i say i download a lot of films,games and music.

i have 50meg now and dont get capped..it was only 4 pound more a month n all ..bargain.

[dingle78]

i moved from virgin to sky about 5 months ago and was worried about the internet,but so far its been fine,and i dont seem to get capped

[iphonejunkie]

To be honest i wouldn't trust anything that a company says about their competitors, i've had the same issue with car insurance, they'll say anything to try and get you to stay with them!