maratsade wrote:
- You could not turn the video data saver off (permanently)*
- The bandwidth per video stream/download to known recreational video sites was roughly cut in half
Neither of these are accurate (certainly not the first one, as the VDS was never locked so it could not be turned off). Where are you getting this information?
Although I could "turn off" the VDS from the screen, it was obvious from basic testing (or just watching the task manager) that it was still on at some level even in less busy times. This may have been a measure dependent on beam, but when this went back to the way it was before a couple of months ago (with it actually being off) the difference was easy to see.
I vaguely remember someone else noticing this too, but I don't know what thread it was--perhaps they can chime in.
Anyway, as video streaming is the big bandwidth pig, it is the common and obvious target ISPs go after to optimise work/productive things. Many other ISPs use plans with a very tight data saver policy that can not be turned off -- with the pandemic measures, where is an ISP going to get extra bandwidth? Based on what I could see from keeping data usage logs from every day, I maintain that it came by trimming back on what was available to the recreation video sites to make way for zoom/webex/teams/etc.
When you turned your VDS off during this time period, were you able to download a video at a higher rate or watch HD without buffering? Do you have any information regarding where the extra bandwidth came from? The following phrase strongly implies giving priority to critical sites, which means reducing priority to non-critical sites:
"To help people working from home, we have optimized Cloud-based business applications. We have also optimized online educational apps, and are working with teachers to identify the websites and learning tools on which they depend."
They even asked for users to report sites they were having trouble with. As for me, I could see WebEx and Teams seemed to be operating in spectacular fashion while at the same time YouTube was pinched.
*edit
And yet those optimised sites may not work for everyone. I can't use Zoom or Teams, and have had no problems at all with YouTube. There's more to this than optimisation. Traffic and internet congestion play a very large role, optimisation or no. Generalising is not helpful when there are so many variables.
MrBuster wrote:"To help people working from home, we have optimized Cloud-based business applications. We have also optimized online educational apps, and are working with teachers to identify the websites and learning tools on which they depend."
They even asked for users to report sites they were having trouble with. As for me, I could see WebEx and Teams seemed to be operating in spectacular fashion while at the same time YouTube was pinched.
No word on when/if the permanent snooze function will return, but once we find out we'll let you know.
-Liz
maratsade wrote:And yet those optimised sites may not work for everyone. I can't use Zoom or Teams, and have had no problems at all with YouTube. There's more to this than optimisation. Traffic and internet congestion play a very large role, optimisation or no. Generalising is not helpful when there are so many variables.
Yes, certainly traffic and congestion plays a role. Before the changes, I would dread doing a meeting from 7pm to 9pm because it would be painful and I had a batch in January that were as expected. Now, Teams seems to work so good it is almost as if someone has some serious voodoo going on. I just hoped off one just a minute ago, and it was fast and smooth. Maybe they can do something to adjust what you are seeing?
Any information about how long the permanent snooze lasts now, or has this now been reverted for the last two months? I say this because my VDS does not seems to have turned back on by itself, and is staying off like it did before. I don't watch a lot of videos and when I do, I prefer to adjust the data rate from the video site, so I normally only turn it on when the kids with the menagerie of devices come.
"Before the changes, I would dread doing a meeting from 7pm to 9pm because it would be painful and I had a batch in January that were as expected. Now, Teams seems to work so good it is almost as if someone has some serious voodoo going on. I just hoped off one just a minute ago, and it was fast and smooth. Maybe they can do something to adjust what you are seeing? "
I had fewer problems before with Teams, etc.. The optimisation worked in reverse for me. I find workarounds, though, such as phoning into Zoom meetings.
In terms of VDS, starting around April and up until a couple weeks ago, toggling off VDS was not permanent. You could toggle it off at any point through the day, and it would remain off, until midnight, at which point it would reset and turn itself back on. I had to turn it off each day.
It does seem however that within the past couple weeks this change was reverted back to its old functionality - I toggled it off and it hasn't reset itself again yet.
In terms of Teams, Zoom, and media streaming, I have found everything works best when running through a VPN. Without the VPN, I have had some services, websites, and apps that would take extremely long times to load, or simply timeout. Upload speeds when trying to share out files were non-existent, and again many times timeout. Once I began using a VPN, speeds seemed to balance out and "work better" - at least on my two computers. Unfortunately all my other home devices cannot run through VPN, so continue to be excessively slow or non-functional due to timeouts.
