Types of Network Traffic
Instant, Realtime Services
Although our intention is to never shape, sometimes, during outages and special circumstances, we may be required to shape some real-time services. Your connection speed will be as fast as your line allows for realtime traffic.*
Realtime services include:
- Web Hosting (HTTP)
- Live Streaming (YouTube)
- Secure Browsing (HTTPS)
- Voice Over IP (Skype)
- Gaming (Online Multiplayer)
- Terminal Services (SSH)
Non-Realtime Services
Non‑Realtime services are shaped on a sliding scale, with higher bandwidth users getting shaped more than low bandwidth users - But only on non‑realtime services, never on realtime services. This helps ensure that our network does not get congested, and that all of our clients have an overall good broadband experience.
If left completely unchecked, torrents and non‑realtime downloads could use most of the network capacity, which can result in other more less interactive types of traffic becoming slow and unstable. We need to manage the non‑realtime services of our higher bandwidth users so that everyone (including them) can have a great realtime broadband experience.
Non-Realtime services include:
- HTTP Downloads (Downloading files from your browser)
- Torrents (Bittorrent)
- News Servers (NNTP)
You can visit our Network Management page to see examples of how dynamic shaping works on our network.