Why does
Irvine OnLine manages its network
with one goal: to deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to
all of its customers. High-speed bandwidth and network resources are not
unlimited. Managing the network is essential to promote the use and enjoyment
of the Internet by all of our customers. We use reasonable network management
practices that are consistent with industry standards. We also try to use tools
and technologies that are minimally intrusive. Just as the Internet continues
to change and evolve, so too, will our network management practices to address
the challenges and threats on the Internet.
All Internet service providers need to manage their networks
and Irvine OnLine is no different. In fact, many of
them use the same or similar tools that Irvine OnLine
does. If we didn't manage our network, our customers would be subject to the
negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and
other risks and degradations of the service. By engaging in reasonable and
responsible network management, Irvine OnLine can
deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its
customers.
How
does
Irvine OnLine uses various tools
and techniques to manage its network, deliver its service, and ensure
compliance with the Acceptable Use Policy and the Customer Agreement for
Residential Services available at http://www.irvineonline.net/subscriberagreement.html. These tools and
techniques are dynamic, like the network and its usage, and can and do change
frequently. For example, these network management activities may include
identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer email accounts,
detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses
or other harmful code or content and using other tools and techniques that Irvine
OnLine may be required to implement in order to meet
its goal of delivering the best possible broadband Internet experience to all
of its customers.
Does
network management change over time?
Yes. The Internet is highly dynamic. As the Internet and
related technologies continue to evolve and advance, Irvine OnLine's
network management tools will evolve and keep pace so that we can deliver an
excellent, reliable, and safe online experience to all of our customers. We
will provide updates here and in other appropriate locations if we make
important or significant changes to our network management techniques.
How
does the current congestion management technique work?
The current congestion management technique works as follows:
If a certain area of the network nears a state of congestion,
the technique will ensure that all customers have a fair share of access to the
network. It will identify which customer accounts are using the greatest
amounts of bandwidth and their Internet traffic will be temporarily managed until
the period of congestion passes. Customers will still be able to do anything
they want to online, and many activities will be unaffected, but they could
experience things like: longer times to download or upload files, surfing the
Web may seem somewhat slower, or playing games online
may seem somewhat sluggish.
The technique does not manage congestion based on the online
activities, protocols or applications a customer uses; it only focuses on the
heaviest users in real time, so the periods of congestion typically tend to be
very fleeting and sporadic.
It is important to note that the effect of this technique is
temporary and it has nothing to do with a customer’s aggregate monthly data
usage. Rather, it is dynamic and based on prevailing network conditions as well
as a customer’s data usage over a very recent period of time.
Does the congestion management technique
target peer-to-peer ("P2P") or other applications, or make decisions
about the content of my traffic?
No. The technique is "protocol-agnostic," which
means that the system does not manage congestion based on the applications
being used by customers. It is also content neutral, so it does not depend on
the type of content that is generating traffic congestion. Said another way,
customer traffic is congestion-managed not based on the applications or content
being used, but based on current network conditions and recent amounts of data
transferred by users.
How
does the congestion management technique impact me and my use of
With this technique, most customers will notice no change in
their Internet experience. The goal of congestion management is to enable all
users to have access to a fair share of the network at peak times, when
congestion occasionally occurs. Congestion management focuses on the
consumption activity of individual customer accounts that are using a
disproportionate amount of bandwidth. As a result, and based on our experience
with this technique, we have determined that the large majority of customers will
not be affected by it. In fact, based on our experience, we find that on
average less than one percent of our Internet customers are affected by the
approach. Our experience also shows that when our systems apply the congestion
management technique to an individual user’s account, it is usually only in
effect for a relatively brief period of time.
How
often does
Based on our experience using this system, Irvine OnLine has determined that select portions of the network
tend to be in a congested state only for relatively small portions of the day,
if at all.
Irvine OnLine monitors how user traffic is affected by this system and will make the adjustments reasonably necessary to ensure that Internet customers have a high-quality online experience. Irvine OnLine also routinely evaluates its overall network performance and periodically enhances its network by adding capacity to address congestion and other performance issues. Since the technique is dynamic and works in real time, any traffic regulation depends on a number of factors including overall usage, time of day and the number of applications a customer might be running at the same time. First, the local network must be approaching a congested state for our technique to even look for traffic to manage.
A significant amount of normal Internet usage by our customers
does not last over 15 minutes. For example, most downloads would have
completed within that time, and the majority of streaming and downloading will
not exceed the threshold to be eligible for congestion management. And the
majority of longer-running applications, such as VoIP,
video conferencing, and streaming video content (including HD streaming on most
sites) will not exceed these thresholds either.
The point of the technique is to deliver the best overall
online experience possible. The technique should help ensure that all customers
get their fair share of bandwidth resources to enjoy all that the Internet has
to offer and that includes surfing the web, reading email, downloading movies,
watching streaming video, gaming or listening to music.
Does this congestion management
technique apply to both Commercial and Residential services and
Yes.
Is
Irvine OnLine VoIP
Telephone service is a separate facilities-based IP phone service that is not
affected by this technique. This phone service also does not affect the last
mile capacity for, or the performance of, the Irvine OnLine
Internet service.
Irvine OnLine customers who use VoIP providers that rely on delivering calls over the
public Internet who are also using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth
during a period when this congestion management technique goes into effect may
experience a degradation of their call quality at times of network congestion.
It is important to note, however, that VoIP calling
in and of itself does not use a significant amount of
bandwidth. Furthermore, our experience with this technique does not indicate
any significant change in the quality of VoIP calls,
even for managed customer traffic during periods of congestion.
What
about streaming video or video downloads? What will happen to them?
During periods of congestion, any customers who are using a
disproportionate amount of bandwidth, no matter what type or content of the
online activity, may be affected by this technique.
Our technique also has no ability to determine the
applications or protocols being used or the content, source or destination.
Does
No. Irvine OnLine does not block
P2P traffic or applications like BitTorrent,
Gnutella, or others as part of its current network congestion management
technique.
Does
No.
Irvine OnLine provides its customers with full access
to all the lawful content, services, and applications that the Internet has to
offer. However, we are committed to protecting customers from spam, phishing, and other unwanted or harmful online content and
activities. Irvine OnLine uses industry standard
tools and generally accepted best practices and policies to help it meet this
customer commitment. In cases where these tools and policies identify certain
online content as harmful and unwanted, such as spam or phishing
Web sites, this content is usually prevented from reaching customers. In other
cases, these tools and policies may permit customers to identify certain
content that is not clearly harmful or unwanted, such as bulk email or Web
sites with questionable security ratings, and enable those customers to inspect
the content further if they want to do so.
Does
Yes. As described above, Irvine OnLine
employs a number of practices to help prevent unwanted communications such as
spam as well as protect the security of our customers and network. Irvine OnLine limits the number of login, SMTP, DNS, and DHCP
transactions per second (at levels far above ‘normal’ rates) that customers can
send to Irvine OnLine’s servers in order to protect
them against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. We do
not disclose the exact rate limits in order to maintain the effectiveness of
these measures, which ensure that these critical services are available for all
of our customers. In order to further protect
our customers, Irvine OnLine blocks a limited number
of ports that are commonly used to send spam, launch malicious attacks, or
steal a customer’s information, for example.
Does
Irvine OnLine provides all cable
modems used in conjunction with the Irvine OnLine
internet service in order to ensure proper integration with Irvine OnLine’s network and systems.
How
can I contact
Irvine OnLine can be contacted via
email to irvtv@irvineonline.net or
by telephone at 606-723-4240 or 606-723-3668.