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What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Moominfish
Grafter
Posts: 213
Registered: ‎19-03-2010

What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Just wondering what's actually classed as peer to peer as I was gaming in the early hours of this morning and it shows in my usage for Monday the 29th paid for usage (so far) 16 megabytes lol, and free usage 1.14 gigabytes and all I did was game on a us server for COD4 and download about 669 megabytes of maps using their downloader program, and it shows me as using,
7% web (paid for) and 12% web (free)
3% gaming (paid for) 1% gaming (free)
0% streaming (paid for) 5% streaming (free)
0% peer to peer (paid for) 30% peer to peer (free)
0% other (paid for) 42% other (free)
So what is all this 42% other etc? All a bit baffling to me lol.
8 REPLIES 8
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Hi there,
The classification isn't always 100% correct, the traffic management system we use identifies your traffic using a combination of protocol, signature and port, and then determines the traffic priority.
It's not uncommon for some gaming traffic to be identified as web.
Other is basically anything that the traffic management system cannot identify.
Moominfish
Grafter
Posts: 213
Registered: ‎19-03-2010

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Okay, thanks for that  Smiley
Moominfish
Grafter
Posts: 213
Registered: ‎19-03-2010

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

What is actually classed as peer to peer then? Sorry I meant to ask again last time, because I heard downloading from Steam is classed as peer to peer and i'm only asking because I don't know if general downloading from websites etc etc is also classed as peer to peer or indeed how a certain thing gets classified as peer to peer.
Thank you.
zubel
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,793
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Generally, anything that occurs from within your web browser is either Web or FTP.
Stream is classified as gaming traffic, and gets top priority (believe me, I just reinstalled my OS and downloaded all my steam games which came down at line speed! Smiley
P2P will usually be an external program (either uTorrent/Vuze or similar).  However, there are other products that use P2P for their delivery mechanisms (eg the World of Warcraft updater) which will also be classified as P2P
The other category which are rate limited are Download servers (such as Akamai, Rapidshare etc). 
Cheers
B.
dave
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 12,257
Thanks: 306
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Hi,
Just to add, Other also includes traffic that isn't represented in one of the other categories like VPN, SSH, RDP and other remote access applications, network service traffic like DNS and ping as well as the unidentified traffic. P2P includes traffic like BitTorrent, eMule, Limewire, DCC, Share, PPLive, Hotline, WinMX and a bunch of other stuff like that.
Downloads of websites, unless it's a binary usenet provider like Easynews will get classed as Web although stuff like Rapidshare is counted in the Download Sites category so depending on which product you're on may be rate limited at certain times of the day.
I need to double check on how Steam works as I can't remember off hand but I think it will either be in the P2P or Other category.
Dave Tomlinson
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Peer to Peer is where you are file sharing by uploading as well as downloading and normally requires a specific client such as bit torrent to be installed and running
For information Steam is not Peer to Peer and is probably classed as a download site
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

At last i can talk about wireshark once more  Smiley
You can run wireshark and then start say a download and see what prioity PN's traffic mangment gives them certain packets of data
Download the app here http://www.wireshark.org/
instructions here on how to use wireshark and at the bottom there is a list of the hex values that go with which prioity (gold, bronze ect
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/troubleshooting/wireshark.shtml
and a bit more on what class goes with which sort of traffic
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/plusnet_essential/experience/traffic_prioriti...
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: What is classed as Peer to Peer?

Just loaded steam and one game updated - at full speed with a signature of 0x80 Gold