Multimax

[jgdaffy]

Is any one else having problems with multimax internet??
Been with multimax now a couple of yrs..with no problems ive even recomended other people to them,
i use to be on 2mb then 3mb then 5mb never having any problems.so now moved onto the new upto 15mb
since then having nothing but trouble. it all started with some of our laptops not connecting to the net.multimax
told me it must be my router so bought a brand new one..all singing and dancing 300mb tp link.took it to multimax
shop and they configed it. got home and it works a treat but my connection early morning is around 5-10 mb
but every night it goes down to between 0.5 -2 mb ive rang multimax 3 or 4 times to be told that thers nothing wrong
with my connection..the last couple of times ive rang them they say some one will ring me back but nothing..
so wondering if this is normal for the connection speed to be so low..when you have 3 kids all on there laptops
i cant get on myself..frustrating..would like to able to watch some tv now and then but with this speed not
a hope in hell..

[Smiler]

We had a similar problem and it turned out that we were exceeding out download/upload limits (which we weren't aware of!) Below is the info I got sent from Multimax and since we changed the way we used our internet (scheduling downloads for off peak times) it has been a million times better! This may not be what is causing your problem but it might be worth a try!

Sorry if this is a bit long.........


What is traffic management?

On any given day, the vast majority of our customers, those who use broadband for emailing, browsing, gaming, listening to music and watching films and TV online won’t be affected at all by traffic management. Traffic management is only applied to a small minority of customers downloading and uploading atypical volumes of data during those peak times.

There will always be some broadband users who download and upload a lot more than most of us. Without traffic management this small number of people would flood the network with data traffic during peak times, which can slow things down for everyone else.

We think there is a fairer way of doing things so we use traffic management to put a temporary speed restriction on the heaviest users during peak times only. We don’t limit the amount of data they can upload or download, just the speed at which they can do it during peak times. We think it’s the best way to make sure everyone can enjoy the best possible broadband speeds across our network.



Cont....

[Smiler]

How does traffic management apply to me?

If you are one of our customers using broadband for emailing, browsing, gaming and listening to music it’s highly unlikely that traffic management will apply to you. You will only ever be traffic managed if you’ve been uploading or downloading a very large amount of data during peak times, and reached the limit set for your broadband tier.

What times are considered peak and off peak?

Off peak is from midnight to midday. Peak is from midday to midnight.

What are the actual volumes that trigger these traffic management policies and what effect do they have?

Regardless of what package you are on any downloading or uploading during off peak periods has no effect at all on your connection in terms of traffic management regardless of how much you upload or download during these times. During peak hours the exact volumes that will trigger the traffic management policies vary from package to package and are detailed below.

20mbs package. In a given day usage in excess of 4Gbytes of uploaded and downloaded data during peak periods will trigger the first tier of traffic management which will restrict your connection down to 5mbs until midnight that same day, at which time the connection returns to normal once more. After another 4Gbytes of downloaded and uploaded data during peak hours the second tier of traffic management will limit the speeds of the connection down to 2.5mbs until midnight that same day at which time the connection returns to normal once more.

15mbs package. In a given day usage in excess of 2Gbytes of uploaded and downloaded data during peak periods will trigger the first tier of traffic management which will restrict your connection down to 3mbs until midnight that same day, at which time the connection returns to normal once more. After another 2Gbytes of downloaded and uploaded data during peak hours the second tier of traffic management will limit the speeds of the connection down to 1mbs until midnight that same day at which time the connection returns to normal once more.

Cont..

[Smiler]

How do I avoid traffic management?

Save heavy downloads and uploads for overnight, set them running just before bed. Just leave your computer to do it overnight, from midnight onwards. The best bit is waking up the next morning to find it all done. This is important if you use peer-to-peer (P2P) networks a lot. P2P is software such as BitTorrent which allows you to download files that are stored on the hard drives of other users. These can use up large chunks of your broadband connection. To stop this many P2P programs have a scheduler already installed or available as a plugin, allowing you to control the times and speeds of your uploads and downloads.

For more tips on managing your downloads, see: How to schedule downloads (from virgin media's website) http://help.virginmedia.com/system/view ... 0C07CC9A73

If you are using an IP TV set top box during peak periods please remember to turn off or put in standby both the set top box as well as the TV when you have finished viewing. If you just turn the TV off but leave the set top box running it will continue to download data which will count towards the traffic management thresholds needlessly and may lead to your connection speed being temporarily reduced unnecessarily.

Ends

[kbasat]

If some of your laptops are connecting and some are not, it cannot be Multimax problem.

If phone support is not working well for you, you should try logging into your user control panel and fill out a support ticket, at least this way we have a reference number to check against.

15Mbit Max package is not suitable for several people using the internet as well as it is not suitable for Internet TV. For these purposes, you are advised to switch to 20Mbit Max package.

Kemal

[kbasat]

Thanks Smiler for copy/pasting the information that was provided to you.

Unfortunately it is not help and might be grossly misleading for most cases, this is why instead of making this information very openly public, we are only sharing it with people who are suffering from this.

There are multi level traffic management systems in place in Multimax in order to protect and maintain proper service levels for all customers. I will not go into all details here as too technical and long to explain, but:

The limits on Multimax traffic management system is set so high that you need to at least achieve 500%+ usage from your packages average to start getting noticed, and 1000%+ usage from your packages average so that you start feeling something.

about 80% of our customers never experience this problem, about 15% experience it less than 5 days a month and only 5% suffers 5day-20days in a month (nobody above 20 days, in March).

No disrespect, but I strongly suggest everybody to ignore Smiler's post unless you know for sure you are downloading too much data. It is always best to try different Multimax help channels and get to the bottom of YOUR problem.

Slow Internet speeds may be result of 20 or more different reasons. Multimax, having thousands of customers on north side of mountains alone, are bound to have a few customers with connection problems.

Unless you wish to set up a therapy group(only fun intended), knowing whether somebody else has an issue does not help them or you much.

Kemal

[Smiler]

I appreciate all you have said Kemal and please note that I did say that this may not be the original poster's problem. I am fully aware that there can be any number of reasons but I just thought it might be helpful for people (particularly those who have multiple users on one connection) to know that there are some "limits" or "restrictions" that they may not have been aware of, as we were not. My posting was not to be critical of Multimax but purely to offer some potential assistance.

Whilst you are online Kemal, a small suggestion for you - on renewing our contract recently I was asked to sign the contract, which I did stupidly without reading as it was quite extensive, but I didn't get given a copy of it to take home with me. Perhaps in future you might provide customers with a copy to read at their leisure or just keep for their records?

[jgdaffy]

As stated dont have problems anymore with laptops connecting.
I never use to have problems with how much i downloaded before but that was when i was
on 2-5 mb proberbly didnt notice any differance when the restriction went on.
i always thought it was unlimited download. and if i want to watch tv or a film with my android tv box then my limit will
definatley be met as if it is only 2gb when the first flag comes up ive got no chance..
didnt read the small print did i...

[kbasat]

@jgdaffy, there is no limit on how much you can download, there is only limit at how much you can download at higher speeds, and this is a multi tier procedure, and this does not apply to all times of the day. Read Smiler's messages if you want to figure out how that works. As I have said before, very small % of people are suffering from this, and if you are one of the victims, there are many precautions you can take to avoid it (and also respect other users by using your internet more responsibly).

You can email me at [email protected] and I will look into your problem.

K.

[jgdaffy]

so does that mean if my kids are watching you tube videos or on the psn network i cant watch tv?cause i cant control how much speed there using?

[kbasat]

No, it doesnt mean that.

What I am saying is that:
1. If you want full benefits of streaming media, we strongly recommend 20MbitMax connection, it is much better suited package for that purpose.
2. There may be more than 20 reasons why your connection is slow, we need to figure out what is going on so that it means 'something' to start with.
3. Once the reason is found, we can then come up with solution/suggestions for your specific case.

Thank you.