New GWR wifi limits?

[whole diary]

[t0m]

I just spotted for the first time on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) wifi that they now limit usage per person to 15mb in standard class and 40mb in first class. It doesn't say over what time period. Is this new?

Seems a little mean.. be interesting to see how the wifi keeps working once my allocation runs out (if indeed I can find out that my allocation has run out). But perhaps it might at least mean the wifi is usable...

I think season ticket holders should at least get a more limited pass though..!

[SandTEngineer]

Interestingly, I found that out by accident on Saturday (04 March 2017) when I couldn't log on during my (3 hour journey home from London to the far Southwest)

[grahame]

I just spotted for the first time on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) wifi that they now limit usage per person to 15mb in standard class and 40mb in first class. It doesn't say over what time period. Is this new?

Seems a little mean.. be interesting to see how the wifi keeps working once my allocation runs out (if indeed I can find out that my allocation has run out). But perhaps it might at least mean the wifi is usable...

I think season ticket holders should at least get a more limited pass though..!

It actually says that you can have that amount at full speed and you then get pulled back to spread the resource fairly amongst the passengers - it's not a hard limit after which you get disconnected.

I like the new data provided -

Interestingly, I found that out by accident on Saturday (04 March 2017) when I couldn't log on during my (3 hour journey home to the far Southwest

I suspect that's the system running out of dynamic IP addresses rather than the limit.

[JayMac]

Average web page size is 2mb.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s miserly wifi limit means, if you're in Std Class, just 7 web pages can be viewed at 'full speed' before you are throttled.

My experience is that 'full speed' is rarely above 2Mbit/s, even when there are few users and the train is in a strong signal area.

What GWR have done with these limits and throttling, attempting to provide access for all, is make the WiFi barely useful for anyone.

Wasn't there a commitment in the franchise extension to upgrade the WiFi? Spreading the current provision thinner is not an upgrade.

[SandTEngineer]

Grahame, I 'm not really an IT savvy person.  All I can say is that it kept asking me to register but then nothing happened.  Perhaps there was a fault in the coach I was travelling in?  The coach was only about 30% occupied.

[John R]

I have to say I used it once more for interest and it was so slow I've never gone back. I only have a 2GB monthly allowance but that is more than adequate, even with 2 hrs per day on the train, and a fair amount of browsing during that time.

[grahame]

I guess I tend to be reading Coffee Shop posts, writing responses and reading simple emails. The Coffee Shop is much more tuned (a combination of design and accident) to be small download / fast loading pages even on a grotty connection, without resorting to oodles of JavaScript in JQuery libraries.  Further, I'm not peak hour crushed trains in and out of Paddington - I was on six trains today, only had to stand on one, had to share my seat pair on one other, and the other 4 were uncrowded. Three of those four has WiFi - 2 x HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and one 158, and it was fine.  The other three trains had no WiFi ... but in fact I carry my own connection and can use it if I need to, up to 15 By per month.   So my metrics aren't the same as they are for others looking to use WiFi on peak-er trains, and if I have a problem I just tend to use my fallback (and vice versa).

[ChrisB]

It is a mean allowance in STD, but I suspect the number of available DNS^▸ (Domain name service) connections per HST^▸ (High Speed Train) are over subscribed, certainly in the peaks. Each router has a max of 256 connections ( I think), so unless there are multiple routers, say one for each pair of coaches), this wiukd be a way of sharing reasonBly the available bandwidth. I guess they're hoping pax give up once down on the slower speeds.

Another problem us that pax are selfish. Many connect multiple devices - laptop & phone are regulars, I've seen someone with a work laptop, personal tablet & a phone! Tgere ought to be a way for one person/ine login frankly.

Chiltern are pioneering an improved service, moving up to offering 4G where it exists, and the individual allowance went up twice - to 75Mb & is now 125Mb...but its still only 1Mb/sec on 3G where 4G isn't yet available.

[grahame]

It is a mean allowance in STD, but I suspect the number of available DNS^▸ (Domain name service) connections per HST^▸ (High Speed Train) are over subscribed, certainly in the peaks. Each router has a max of 256 connections ( I think), so unless there are multiple routers, say one for each pair of coaches), this wiukd be a way of sharing reasonBly the available bandwidth. I guess they're hoping pax give up once down on the slower speeds.

What is the lease length?     Take an HST from coming up from the west country to London.    There are 160 user on the network by the time it gets to Taunton.  30 of them get off and another 30 join, but the usage goes up to 190 for the following (guess!) 30 minutes. 10 get off at Castle Cary and 30 on - you're up to 220 in use for 10 minutes then the leases in use to Taunton are released and you're back down to 190.   Come Westbury and of course a lot of people get off, because there's a really heavy flow from the West Country that changes there for stations Bath to Portsmouth - let's say 60 off an 80 on - and the available lease pool is overrun as 270 leases are wanted;   10 come back a few minutes later, but when the train stops at Melksham and a further 50 people board, there's no internet access for them and there won't be until somewhere after Chippenham when the leases in use by crowd who got off at Westbury are returned to the pool.

Are lease reset at the termini? Or do connections that have been "bagged" on the incoming train still get held on the outgoing train until 30 minutes after it had arrived?

[ChrisB]

No, they connection is dropped quite quickly after it detects no activity - no bandwidth being used. Its a few minutes, thats all.

[JayMac]

I've seen someone with a work laptop, personal tablet & a phone!

And you were so nosy you ascertained that this person had connected all three devices to the onboard wifi? How did you categorically confirm this selfishness?

Could they not have been using one device as a mobile hotspot, connected to their own mobile carrier, with the other two connected to that?

If you did categorically confirm they'd connected all three devices to the onboard wifi may I make a suggestion? Stop snooping. Mind your own business.

 

[TonyK]

It is all a bit like being at a standstill on the M5 next to a temporary speed limit sign. I, for one, will laugh and say "I wish I could do 40 mph!"

I have never trusted WiFi on trains. I see it as a bonus if it works for a bit. I've been using XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) and Virgin trains lately, and you get nothing for free in standard class, so even a slow GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service beats that. So if it doesn't work, then I will use 4G. Or back to the Times crossword. Or I might even talk to Mrs FT, N!...

[JayMac]

Or I might even talk to Mrs FT, N!...

Or you could nosily look at what others are doing, then post here about their supposed transgressions. 

[TonyK]

Or I might even talk to Mrs FT, N!...

Or you could nosily look at what others are doing, then post here about their supposed transgressions. 

Ooh, I hadn't thought of that! That'd pass the time of day between Bath Spa and Didcot Parkway, and I'd still have the crossword to do in bed (if not doing Mrs FT, N!, that is*), and I can see the obvious fun.

Where DO you get your ideas for such amusing diversions, BNM old chap? 

(*AKA^▸ (also known as) "getting 1 Across")

[t0m]

Good discussion! And I have to report despite the wifi telling me it had a fairly strong signal and low utilisation it still didn't work. Which speaks volumes really.

After the wifi roll out I pointed out to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that it was unusable only to be told their commitment was to install wifi on the trains - which they have done. The problem is now that the track side connections aren't good enough so need to be upgraded. Passing the buck..