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I was surprised to see the Service Information comment on the Status page this weekend concerning heavy usage on the ADSL 'Central Pipes'.
I hadn't experienced any problems myself, but I thought I would try to offer some advice and background info for Freeola Broadband customers that aren't aware of the setup and also show users how to display the Central Pipes.
NB. This is just my interpretation as a Freeola user and is not an official Freeola statement :¬)
Freeola Broadband customers connect to the internet via 6 Central Pipes - often referred to as Centrals. These Centrals can provide a speed up to 7.2mb/s which is the maximum speed you can get from an 'up to' 8mb broadband connection due to 'overheads'.
See my Understanding ADSL Max for more info. Obviously your line may not support the maximum speed (due to line length, distance from exchange, etc.).
At different times of the day/week the Central usage will change - a nice cold and wet 'off-peak' weekend will often see some congestion when the Centrals are fully loaded with everyone stuck indoors!
To ensure users continue to get a good broadband experience at busy times a system called the ALT (Anti-Loss Tool)comes in to play. This limits the speed of some downloads etc. (but only when a Central is full to capacity) to ensure normal users web browsing and game playing is unaffected during any busy periods. Nearly all providers have some sort of tuning system in place and by many the ALT is seen as the best of the bunch!
The logic (supplied by BT Wholesale) which resolves which Central you use is rather hit and miss. i.e. There doesn't appear to be any obvious load balancing going on. This means that occasionally some Centrals may be nearly full when others are half empty.
Central Pipe Status
Here's a page that displays the status of all the Centrals and also shows you which one you are currently using:
Very occasionally if you find you are on a congested Central when the others look fine you can try to 'move' yourself. You need to disconnect your ADSL session and then reconnect a few minutes later. Then recheck your Central to see if you managed to connect on a different one.
Most routers have an option to disconnect rather than re-boot the router. You don't want to drop your 'line sync' as you could end up affecting your IP Profile if you do it too many times!!! (See Understanding ADSL Max)
Hope this is useful...
Search Freeola Chat
I hadn't experienced any problems myself, but I thought I would try to offer some advice and background info for Freeola Broadband customers that aren't aware of the setup and also show users how to display the Central Pipes.
NB. This is just my interpretation as a Freeola user and is not an official Freeola statement :¬)
Freeola Broadband customers connect to the internet via 6 Central Pipes - often referred to as Centrals. These Centrals can provide a speed up to 7.2mb/s which is the maximum speed you can get from an 'up to' 8mb broadband connection due to 'overheads'.
See my Understanding ADSL Max for more info. Obviously your line may not support the maximum speed (due to line length, distance from exchange, etc.).
At different times of the day/week the Central usage will change - a nice cold and wet 'off-peak' weekend will often see some congestion when the Centrals are fully loaded with everyone stuck indoors!
To ensure users continue to get a good broadband experience at busy times a system called the ALT (Anti-Loss Tool)comes in to play. This limits the speed of some downloads etc. (but only when a Central is full to capacity) to ensure normal users web browsing and game playing is unaffected during any busy periods. Nearly all providers have some sort of tuning system in place and by many the ALT is seen as the best of the bunch!
The logic (supplied by BT Wholesale) which resolves which Central you use is rather hit and miss. i.e. There doesn't appear to be any obvious load balancing going on. This means that occasionally some Centrals may be nearly full when others are half empty.
Central Pipe Status
Here's a page that displays the status of all the Centrals and also shows you which one you are currently using:
View Centrals (This will only work for Freeola broadband users)Very occasionally if you find you are on a congested Central when the others look fine you can try to 'move' yourself. You need to disconnect your ADSL session and then reconnect a few minutes later. Then recheck your Central to see if you managed to connect on a different one.
Most routers have an option to disconnect rather than re-boot the router. You don't want to drop your 'line sync' as you could end up affecting your IP Profile if you do it too many times!!! (See Understanding ADSL Max)
Hope this is useful...
Search Freeola Chat
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I was surprised to see the Service Information comment on the Status page this weekend concerning heavy usage on the ADSL 'Central Pipes'.
I hadn't experienced any problems myself, but I thought I would try to offer some advice and background info for Freeola Broadband customers that aren't aware of the setup and also show users how to display the Central Pipes.
NB. This is just my interpretation as a Freeola user and is not an official Freeola statement :¬)
Freeola Broadband customers connect to the internet via 6 Central Pipes - often referred to as Centrals. These Centrals can provide a speed up to 7.2mb/s which is the maximum speed you can get from an 'up to' 8mb broadband connection due to 'overheads'.
See my Understanding ADSL Max for more info. Obviously your line may not support the maximum speed (due to line length, distance from exchange, etc.).
At different times of the day/week the Central usage will change - a nice cold and wet 'off-peak' weekend will often see some congestion when the Centrals are fully loaded with everyone stuck indoors!
To ensure users continue to get a good broadband experience at busy times a system called the ALT (Anti-Loss Tool)comes in to play. This limits the speed of some downloads etc. (but only when a Central is full to capacity) to ensure normal users web browsing and game playing is unaffected during any busy periods. Nearly all providers have some sort of tuning system in place and by many the ALT is seen as the best of the bunch!
The logic (supplied by BT Wholesale) which resolves which Central you use is rather hit and miss. i.e. There doesn't appear to be any obvious load balancing going on. This means that occasionally some Centrals may be nearly full when others are half empty.
Central Pipe Status
Here's a page that displays the status of all the Centrals and also shows you which one you are currently using:
Very occasionally if you find you are on a congested Central when the others look fine you can try to 'move' yourself. You need to disconnect your ADSL session and then reconnect a few minutes later. Then recheck your Central to see if you managed to connect on a different one.
Most routers have an option to disconnect rather than re-boot the router. You don't want to drop your 'line sync' as you could end up affecting your IP Profile if you do it too many times!!! (See Understanding ADSL Max)
Hope this is useful...
Search Freeola Chat
I hadn't experienced any problems myself, but I thought I would try to offer some advice and background info for Freeola Broadband customers that aren't aware of the setup and also show users how to display the Central Pipes.
NB. This is just my interpretation as a Freeola user and is not an official Freeola statement :¬)
Freeola Broadband customers connect to the internet via 6 Central Pipes - often referred to as Centrals. These Centrals can provide a speed up to 7.2mb/s which is the maximum speed you can get from an 'up to' 8mb broadband connection due to 'overheads'.
See my Understanding ADSL Max for more info. Obviously your line may not support the maximum speed (due to line length, distance from exchange, etc.).
At different times of the day/week the Central usage will change - a nice cold and wet 'off-peak' weekend will often see some congestion when the Centrals are fully loaded with everyone stuck indoors!
To ensure users continue to get a good broadband experience at busy times a system called the ALT (Anti-Loss Tool)comes in to play. This limits the speed of some downloads etc. (but only when a Central is full to capacity) to ensure normal users web browsing and game playing is unaffected during any busy periods. Nearly all providers have some sort of tuning system in place and by many the ALT is seen as the best of the bunch!
The logic (supplied by BT Wholesale) which resolves which Central you use is rather hit and miss. i.e. There doesn't appear to be any obvious load balancing going on. This means that occasionally some Centrals may be nearly full when others are half empty.
Central Pipe Status
Here's a page that displays the status of all the Centrals and also shows you which one you are currently using:
View Centrals (This will only work for Freeola broadband users)Very occasionally if you find you are on a congested Central when the others look fine you can try to 'move' yourself. You need to disconnect your ADSL session and then reconnect a few minutes later. Then recheck your Central to see if you managed to connect on a different one.
Most routers have an option to disconnect rather than re-boot the router. You don't want to drop your 'line sync' as you could end up affecting your IP Profile if you do it too many times!!! (See Understanding ADSL Max)
Hope this is useful...
Search Freeola Chat