With the recent bandwidth ups and downs on the Allied Telesis Yokota network it has been hard for some users to find solace while trying to use higher end applications such as high quality video streaming, file transfer protocols, newsgroups, or even Bittorrent type applications.  By all indications from our investigation, there is no port blocking occurring on the Allied network or cut backs in available bandwidth by Allied Telesis, but there apparently is some sort of bandwidth shaping occurring as there are apparently limited numbers of simultaneous connections per user.

We ran some low end general user diagnostic tools that would not impact the Allied network and determined that we were unable to open more than 100 simultaneous connections at the same time.  After doing a little research there are several ISP’s, such as Comcast, starting to run technologies similar to NetEqualizer which places limits on connections in effort to balance the available amount of bandwidth to all users, but we are unsure if similar units have been deployed on Yokota though it would appear that something similar has been put into place.

While we agree that there should be neutrality of bandwidth usage across a customer base,especially since there is usually a handful of users who use 75 to 85 percent of the available bandwidth on any ISP, but there has to be a happy medium where your median bandwidth users are not penalized for using higher bandwidth applications, when they do, so that they can leverage the bandwidth option they purchased without limits.  By all appearances, Allied Telesis Yokota has been trying to find the happy median where there are appropriate limitations placed on connections of those who have little to no break in their bandwidth consumption (full tilt 24/7), while still providing quality of service to their other customers.  While in an ideal world bandwidth should be available in amounts there are not limited, but in all practicality it would an outrageous expectation on the customer’s part to expect there to be limitless amounts of bandwidth at their beck and call 24/7.

According to the current customer agreement, users are to utilize no more than 30GB of aggregate bandwidth in a single month.  While we disagree with the 30GB limitation in the contract, Allied Telesis Yokota has been kind enough to only warn the extreme users of their use vs. cutting them off or sending them a bill for its over use.

My spouse grew up in the age of the 14.4Kbps modems that went to the 28.8Kbps modems that turned into the 56Kbps X2 and Flex modems and ISDN connections.  Prior to joining the Air Force he worked for ISP’s back in the states providing internet access to residential and commercial customers alike so he is aware of what the capabilities, limitations, and pitfalls of ISP networks are.  While he is not a total fan of Allied Telesis’s services at Yokota even he will admit admit that at times he has been a bit of bandwidth hog.  However, he curtails his activities and places limits on his full download potential to ensure that he doesn’t bother what I am doing too much, but more importantly he does it at times of day where there is the least amount of impact to the base population.

Take a page out of his book Yokota bandwidth hogs, set some limitations.  Have a modicum of respect for your community and try to realize that being cool isn’t about filling your new terabyte hard drive the fastest, but rather having the ability to discriminate between what you need vs. what you want.