Attention VirginMedia Customers

from Stardock Forums

I've had an engineer out today (totally un-needed, but thats what you get from incompetent Tech Support), he said they had a Memo sometime back concerning VM and p2p...which they DO NOT support (what that means exactly, i am not sure...he wouldn't go into details).

Needless to say, if you are experiencing the "lag spikes" as seen in other posts you have two options...change provider, or get a refund for the game.

3,893 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Don't be stupid. P2P refers to BitTorrent. The "we don't support it" thing should be taken literally - they will not give you support if you have trouble with it.

They are not referring to Demigod, and if they ARE doing something to hamper P2P... it will not affect Demigod, because it discriminates BitTorrent.

People on this forum should stop with their silly assumptions about ISPs and P2P. Use your head. P2P as in Demigod's context is few connections to other consumers. There is no way to block this unless you block all connections. P2P in BitTorrent's context is many connections to other consumers. BT connections also have a structure which, if your ISP is blocking P2P, will look for.

tl;dr You don't know what you're talking about, Virgin (or any other ISP, for that matter) don't block Demigod. Oh, and if you call your ISP and ask for support regarding Counter Strike or WC3, they'll also tell you they don't support it.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Bittorrent is just one form of p2p protocol used under the umbrella "p2p".

Riddle me this noodle, why do i experience the -exact- same issue (upload saturation, resulting in lag/drop) in both Demigod -AND- Dawn of War 2? The only similarity between both games....p2p utilization.

If you didn't tl;dr you'd realize i said "IF" you experience these issues.

I never claimed they blocked the game (the simple fact i get into the game...only to see it flounder around proves that), merely that their lack of support of p2p protocols is whats causing the issue.

Feel free to phone them up, listen to Vivaldi for a few hours and discuss the issue with them.

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

 

comanoodle,

I have personal experience with ISP's "prioritizing" traffic, and it IS easy as hell for any competent ISP to screw with ANY type of P2P traffic.  Even if they simply drop a few P2P packets here and there you will have issues with Demigod and games setup up like it.  Period.

Now can you please stop calling XSive_Death an idiot?  thanks!  ;P

the Monk

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Yeah... just because they can look at packets to try to determine their nature doesn't mean they do. It would be unsurprising to find out they just screw with traffic over certain ports. People should complain and raise hell, change providers, and get other people to do the same.

It's all well and good that they want to do this stuff. It's just up to the consumer to force them to be technically competent and do it in a way that doesn't screw the customer.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

yep Deep Packet Inspection is massively more expensive in terms of software and CPU cycles than simple behavioral analisys.

 

the internet as cheap crappy companies like Virgin Media see it is client server, so their p2p filters will be based on the amount of active connections and what ports yada yada. this also protects them from any claims of spying on the content of what their customers are downloading (though im sure they will be quite happy doing so if it means more marketing profits).

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Unfortunately, as of the latest beta patch I can no longer play Demigod. Due to the new lag screen which boots players who build up 30 seconds of lag during a game I get booted from every single game. I'm not sure of the problem yet, but I've tried everything I can think of on my end. This leads me to believe it is the game or my ISP, which is Virgin Media.

It makes me very sad face : (

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

I've only noticed lag spikes when Virgin STM my connection, you may want to check to see if they're throttling your connection during those periods.

 

http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

No issue for me. I'm on virgin 50mb cable (not DSL). 

Any altering of packet handling for P2P will become less tolerant in the future. It's not just dodgy people doing it now-a-days; Blizzard use bittorrent, as does the PS3 when it comes to metal gear solid updates. 

It's important to remember 'we do not support' essentially only means if you got problems with P2P, our tech support won't help you make it work.

Besides, there's only so much Virgin are allowed to do without a court order for legal interception of your data.