Shaped and unshaped ADSL

Also lost it!

So Gaboon, can you use some sort of download manager on newsgroups? Afrihost has moved my account to IS, and my download rate has dropped siginificantly ie 4mb line at 1mb/s. Currently using torrents which I assume is heavily shaped, even after hours
 
so what would be the fastest option on a 384k line, I am getting download speeds of like 20-30kb/s

The max you would get on that line is about 38KB/s. You should pretty much get that if you get one of those accounts but it's less worth it to you being on a slow line because you can't fully take advantage of the account.
 
Butcherman, rory can you okes please explain in simple terms what u talking about?

Before the "web" there was still the internet (and even some networks before that). Theres a protocol for "news" servers and originally they were briefly about actual news but turned more into discussion groups. Your ISP would have a news server and they would sync this with other news servers around the world. You could then "subscribe" to certain "groups" in your news client and then your news client would download all the new posts made in that group while you were dialled up and then you could read the stuff offline, make a new post in the group to reply etc. Someone started a "group" called alt.bin (alternative category, binaries - ie. files) where stuff would get posted. alt.binz has a z in it because haxxors and pirates like to use X and Z ;) That's where the app Alt.Binz got it's name from.

Anyway, these news servers still run but don't get used nearly as much, mostly because they got the shit spammed out of them. One of the limitations though is that posts on news servers can only be about 1mb or so, so if you want to share a 20mb file it has to be 20 parts. This is where NZB files come in. They are an index of all the "posts" that contain the parts of the file you want. The NZB's can be shared online legally etc because they don't actually contain any of the files. You'd use this with an app that's more specialised at downloading than reading any news but it still uses the same protocols and the news servers. It would however reassemble the file for you etc.

Now you can use your ISP's news server and use it with "local only" bandwidth but they might now have everything. If you have an uncapped account you may as well use international bandwidth as well, then you can pay for an account at an international news server. These generally will give you higher download speeds and access to more stuff than your ISP's news server.
 
Would this work with a local 384k ADSL line?

Like Rory said, it will work but you'll probably take about 4 or 5 days to download a movie....

so what would be the fastest option on a 384k line, I am getting download speeds of like 20-30kb/s

384k your max DL spped would be 48kB/s if running at 100%, so 30kB/s is not too bad.
 
Before the "web" there was still the internet (and even some networks before that). Theres a protocol for "news" servers and originally they were briefly about actual news but turned more into discussion groups. Your ISP would have a news server and they would sync this with other news servers around the world. You could then "subscribe" to certain "groups" in your news client and then your news client would download all the new posts made in that group while you were dialled up and then you could read the stuff offline, make a new post in the group to reply etc. Someone started a "group" called alt.bin (alternative category, binaries - ie. files) where stuff would get posted. alt.binz has a z in it because haxxors and pirates like to use X and Z ;) That's where the app Alt.Binz got it's name from.

Anyway, these news servers still run but don't get used nearly as much, mostly because they got the shit spammed out of them. One of the limitations though is that posts on news servers can only be about 1mb or so, so if you want to share a 20mb file it has to be 20 parts. This is where NZB files come in. They are an index of all the "posts" that contain the parts of the file you want. The NZB's can be shared online legally etc because they don't actually contain any of the files. You'd use this with an app that's more specialised at downloading than reading any news but it still uses the same protocols and the news servers. It would however reassemble the file for you etc.

Now you can use your ISP's news server and use it with "local only" bandwidth but they might now have everything. If you have an uncapped account you may as well use international bandwidth as well, then you can pay for an account at an international news server. These generally will give you higher download speeds and access to more stuff than your ISP's news server.

Good explanation Rory!

Also, the international servers generally store the data for longer, eg. Mweb only has a retention of about 220 days or so, where Astraweb has a retention of 860 or something days.
 
Like Rory said, it will work but you'll probably take about 4 or 5 days to download a movie....



384k your max DL spped would be 48kB/s if running at 100%, so 30kB/s is not too bad.

That 48 is 384/8 to convert from bits to bytes but there are overheads on the protocol etc. In reality you will never get more than 40 or so.
 
Another cool thing with alt.binz is you can set it to automatically download a series as it comes out. So for instance mine is set to download top gear. As a new episode is released my computer automatically downloads the new episode. The episode's are available to download approximate 1 day after there original airing overseas. As for movies, you can download the latests movies in blu-ray quality around 1 week after they are released on the international circuit.
 
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Manic, please can i come get some stuff off you? Pm me details if thats acceptable? :p

I have a 384kbps line at home, downloading takes me waaaay too long :(
 
wow thanks gents great answers. One day if telkom decides to put ADSL on the line im gona give u okes a shout
 
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