Netflix to Pay Comcast to Shape in Their Favour

The following link is a Bing New Search:

• Bing: Netflix to Pay Comcast to Shape in Their Favour

We don't shape. We've heard that statement time and time again from ISPs during the "discussions" around Net Neutrality on both sides of the border.

For those of us that work in technology supporting clients in various regions around the world the reality is quite different.

How many of us have been stuck where a client is unable to reach a resource via point-to-point because a hop in between the two sites happened to belong to a competing Internet infrastructure provider that just happened to be in the middle of a spat with the provider at both ends?

How many of us have experienced quality degradation in services we access on the Internet that reside outside our ISP's borders and the ISP just happened to provide a similar _paid_ service?

Unfortunately for us the Internet and its infrastructure is not treated in the same way as our public road systems.

That means that the IPSs have the upper hand. They control what packets go where. They control how fast those packets get from point to point. And, it all remains hidden.

They can 401 their own service's packets (the 401 is a high speed high-volume highway here in Canada) while they restrict packets destined for YouTube, Netflix, and others to 80KM/H or sideline them on a two lane low speed highway.

We here pay quite high prices for our "high speed" access. Our connections are shaped and have quotas assigned to them. We've grown accustomed to this practice however we still have fairly open access to most sites.

The Sad Direction We Are Going In

At some point our regulators need to have ISPs clarify their shaping policies like ingredients in food.

Or, our ISPs could offer "streaming" plans and the like that more than likely will be a lot more expensive but allow the end user to be free to view whatever content they choose with little to no shaping.

Whether either happens will be left to be seen. In the end we lose out.

ISPs have been crying for a piece of the pie for years, now they will get it and more as they hold keys to the kingdom.

• Wikipedia: Traffic Shaping

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

The Verdict: 2 Months in and Xplornet Does Indeed Trump Hotlink Wireless Service

Here we are two months later after posting this:

• Rural Wireless ISP Review – Hotlink Wireless Versus Xplornet WiMax

We signed up for the 10Gbit plan and have been more than happy with the service.

One thing that is readily apparent for us, or will become so for those making the transition, is that Windows 8 is bandwidth hungry.

Wherever there are two or more Win8 profiles hooked into a Microsoft ID any changes made on one, depending on the services, will be replicated to the others.

Well, I download a lot of music on my Windows Phone 8 device and thus that gets replicated to all Win8 machines I sign into with my Microsoft ID or domain account that has that ID integrated.

Our network at home that Xplornet services is our primary video, television (we do not subscribe to cable/satellite), movie, and entertainment via Zune/Xbox Music Pass and Netflix.

Other than the occasional stutter on the standard definition movies we have streamed in via Zune/Music Pass (which look _way_ better than Netflix) we don’t see much.

The shaping becomes apparent when downloading content like updates, large PDFs, and other files. We can get several downloads going at around 125KB/Second despite our connection being 10Gbit. One would expect one download, like Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 would come down at 800KB to 900KB per second. Nope.

We can however have several downloads going at the 125KB/Second rate.

So, we leave the large downloads for our office connection. :)

In the end our decision to change our ISP provider from Hotlink has been a very positive one. The step up in the monthly fee has been more than worth the ability to have five to eight stable RDP sessions to our client sites at any one time.

Plus Internet streaming content comes down at a reasonable rate with very little interruption.

Our recommendation: Choose Xplornet WiMax if there is an option between Hotlink and Xplornet.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Rural Wireless ISP Review – Hotlink Wireless Versus Xplornet WiMax

When we first moved out to our acreage we went with the same ISP that the previous owners had: Hotlink Wireless.

When we signed up we were assured that at some point our 3Mbit connection would be updated to 6Gbit. So, we signed up for the SOHO package that stated we would automatically receive the upgrade when made available.

Now, the communication that we received from Hotlink, the installer, and subsequent support folks was confusing at best.

Ultimately, we ended up with a low bandwidth high latency connection that just did not work for the type of Internet based work I do from home!

After asking various Hotlink folks we finally hit upon the reason for our speed/latency issue: We were on the wrong side of the tower (line of sight ~.5KM away)! South of us are a bunch of subdivisions. Thus, the South side of the tower has all of the high bandwidth equipment installed.

On the North side of the tower not so much. And, that happens to be where we were located. Bummer. :(

The Xplornet installer finished up about an hour ago and we now have a high bandwidth low latency connection to the Internet!

We will continue to monitor the speeds we get especially when the rest of the world gets home from work as it is mid-afternoon here right now.

A caveat with Xplornet:

• Default IP out of the box with the service is on a private subnet.
• IP: 192.168.207.23

Since we are running Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials at home we preferred to have a public IP to allow Remote Web Access to the home setup.

We called into Xplornet's support number and had a fellow explain to us that the only way to get a publically routable IP was to have a static IP assigned for an additional fee ($9.99) per month.

After affirming the static IP charge it took him about 10 minutes to provision the IP and update our newly installed radio's firmware to allow for the new setup.

Once we plugged the new IP settings into our router and Xplornet's DNS server IPs into our Forwarders tab in SBSE's DNS Server service we were up and running.

And wow! The difference is amazing.

Typing remotely via RDP no longer has a pause before the letters appear or a pause while Web browsing and having something come up after clicking on it.

When given a choice between service providers we now know that Xplornet would have been the better way to go originally.

Some factors that need to influence choice:

• What are our speed/latency requirements?
• Netflix and other media streaming did _not_ work well with the Hotlink connection. Even when SD movies were chosen no other machine could access the Internet while the movie was streaming or the movie would start pausing.
• Where are the towers relative to our location?
• No fluff response by the provider's sales person on this question. Make sure to hammer down where the tower is. Distance and line of sight may be important depending on the technology the radio uses.
• A tower and/or high mount may be required depending on the tower location.
• Real world bandwidth/latency test results?
• Ask for some real world test results/referrals if possible.
• For the installer:
• Have a proper shielded cable installed.
• Cable must be grounded properly on both ends.
• Surge suppression is a must and grounded outside the house is a must.
• Xplornet did both of the above while Hotlink did not.

We certainly took our Shaw high speed Internet connection for granted back in town (St. Albert). 50Mbit down and 5Mbit up was our rated speeds with downloads easily hitting 2.5MB/Second to 3.5MB/Second depending on what and where.

Happily Xplornet does not block 443 inbound:

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for reading! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

One Reason For Having a Remote Management Module In All Servers

Among the many reasons, having an Intel Remote Management Module (RMM), Dell iDRAC Enterprise, HP iLO Advanced, and other add-in remote management module is the ability to have console KVM access to that box under virtually any condition.

Caveat: Obviously, no power or Internet means no access. :)

The above screenshot is a snip taken on our back shop’s desktop.

We are in the process of setting up a 2 node cluster on behalf of a client. Because we have Intel RMM3 modules in both nodes we are able to have both consoles running side-by-side so as to run _all_ configuration steps at the same time.

Thus, besides full remote management capabilities we have the ability to work on both systems without messing around with a physical KVM (the servers are just behind the shop desktop).

Having this ability reduces the possibility that a mistake would be made configuring the nodes as we can keep an eye on both systems simultaneously.

Once the OS configuration has been complete up to the domain join point, all of the cluster components will be loaded up in their boxes and delivered to our client site for the next phase of the cluster setup . . . all done remotely once the systems are fired up and the remote connection is tested.

Static IPs

Note that we request that all of our clients have at least one static IP address with our preference being for two (Certain ISP’s DHCP reservation for the IP are _not_ static IPs IMNSHO).

One IP is configured for their remote access. The other IP would be used for the RMM.

For this particular client we just got off the phone with Nucleus (our preferred DSL provider here in Alberta and BC) to add a third static IP address that the new standalone DC’s RMM will be plugged into.

Once we have finished the migration and the original SBS 2003 server has been decommissioned we will call Nucleus and release the IP associated with the original SBS server’s RMM2.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Moving From 3G CDMA to 3G+ HSPA In Canada

We just picked up a Sierra Wireless 306 USB HSPA (SW 306) 3G+ cellular modem that runs on the CDMA carrier’s networks here in Canada.

Now, with the Sierra Wireless 598 3G modem, there was no real worry about hitting the 1GB data plan’s soft limit as the modem rarely gave us over 20KB/sec despite the 3Mb connection claim it made when it connected to the Internet.

This is definitely _not_ the case when it comes to the SW 306. While no speed claims are made when the connection to the Internet completes, we have already seen the need to do some downloading of drivers and other software packages using the new modem.

Thus, we have a very practical view of just how fast this thing is . . . and it is _really_ fast!

One Microsoft download came down at close to 1MB/Sec.

This morning, as a test, we downloaded IE8 for Windows XP:

In the above screenshot the SW 306 3G+ cellular modem is on par with our close to the Central Office ADSL 6Mb connection that runs closer to 7.5Mb.

So, what does that mean for us? It means that we need to be aware of our RDP settings when connecting to remote systems for the day. 32bit colour depth is not necessary, nor is full screen on a larger high definition laptop screen.

We will need to keep an eye on our usage via our provider’s online portal that allows us to do so.

It also means that our Canadian cellular data providers will be needing to restructure their data plans that span 500MB to 5GB per month. Obviously, even the 5GB soft limit will not be enough for bandwidth intensive users.

Though, with little competition between the providers up here, there is really not a lot of incentive to do that.

We have clients that have one of the provider’s early unlimited data plans. The provider has a policy of taking away great plans and replacing them with whatever is current, and more restrictive, than the previous plan. So, we are going to encourage our clients to hold onto that plan and their current SW 598 modems as long as possible.

And one more thing. We are required to pay an extra $5/Mth per device that requires any form of PPTP/L2TP VPN access. VPN connections are not allowed out of the box.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer