Author: James

IT Manager - Network, Web coding, MS SQL and Online Mapping expert

BT Infinity and Torrent speed checks

I recently upgraded my Internet connection from an 8mb ADSL2+ circuit to an up to 40mb fibre to the cabinet service from British Telecom (last leg to premises is via cable).
 
I ran some tests to compare the two circuits – these were from the UK:
 
8mb old ADSL2+ circuit – Speedtest.net reported 7mbps:
1. Testmy.net: 100mb file downloaded from Dallas – 304KBps = 2.8mbps 
2. Thinkbroadband.com: 100mb file downloaded in UK – 830KBps = 6.6mbps
3. msdn.microsoft.com: 2.766GB file download – 850KBps = 6.8mbps
4. uTorrent encrypted: on BT – 300-680KBps = 3-5.5mbps
5. uTorrent encrypted: on Proxy VPN – 400-500KBps = 3.2-4mbps
 
40mb new VDSL2 Infinity circuit – Speedtest.net reported 34mbps:
1. Testmy.net: 100mb file downloaded from Dallas – 1700KBps = 14mbps 
2. Thinkbroadband.com: 100mb file downloaded in UK – 2400KBps = 19.2mbps
3. msdn.microsoft.com: 2.766GB file download – 4600KBps = 36.8mbps
4. uTorrent encrypted: on BT – 2000-4000KBps = 16-32mbps
5. uTorrent encrypted: on Proxy VPN – 1300KBps max = 10.5mbps
 
Pretty good huh!
 
It shows that using protocol encryption in Utorrent stops BT from throttling – without PE I was getting 10KBps!
It also shows that there is a limit to my VPN Proxy connection.
It also shows how crap some ISPs bandwidth is compared to someone like Microsoft.
 
The uTorrent tests were done using one torrent file. I also had another torrent on pause while doing these tests but forgot to pause it at one point when I reloaded uTorrent – suddenly I started getting 3500KBps on this torrent and 1100KBps on the test torrent – 4600KBps in total! It turned out that although the test torrent had more peers (4200) they were all fairly low bandwidth. The other torrent had 2200 peers but many more were of high bandwidth (a couple over 1000KBps). So if you connect to quality peers (like myself now!) then you can max out your connection. Happy days.
 
I did read up on the protocol encryption in uTorrent clients – this merely makes torrent traffic invisible to the ISPs throttling, it does not obscure your IP number etc like a proxy would – swings and roundabouts. The best would still be a proxy with high bandwidth – but then you would probably be paying $100s a year, so might as well buy the DVD 🙂
 
PS. Can report that I am consistently getting 4500-4700 KBps on most torrent downloads.
PPS. Can confirm that protocol encryption does not stop BT from throttling bittorrent traffic. During restricted times (see: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10495/~/broadband-usage-policy section B) I am getting 10KBps if i’m lucky! Outside of restricted times I am getting the maximum approx 4600KBps. Please also note that althought they say it is restricted at weekends I have been getting maximum during the day but it drops right down to 10KBps again after 4pm.

How to block LSO’s (Flash cookies)

Traditionally it has been difficult to lock down flash so that locally stored objects (flash cookies) are blocked – LSO’s are not required for flash to work and are purely used for tracking. But, the latest version of Flash has completely changed its privacy system.

It now obeys the browsers settings.

So if you have IE set to delete all content on exit (like I do) the flash cookies will also be deleted.

Good stuff, but this does not prevent flash cookies in the first place – however, you can set flash to block all LSO’s by right clicking, choosing Global Settings and setting block options. This seems to work for all sites I have come across i.e. flash still works and nothing is created.

I assume this change has come about due to the new European privacy laws on cookies coming into force 🙂

Note: if you do not want to block all cookies you still have to use the old method on the Adobe site settings page: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. This is also the only place where you can turn off allowing third party flash cookies – browser settings are not used for this.

Blocking LSOs (Flash Cookies) and the BBC

I wanted to block LSOs (Locally Stored Objects) commonly known as Flash cookies in Internet Explorer – for those of you who don’t know what LSOs are: they are an alternative to cookies as a means of tracking your online usage
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object).

I used the Adobe settings that they provide by right clicking on a flash image and choosing global settings. Adobe has an unusual way of allowing you to change your settings – rather than the settings menu being within the local flash plugin they send you to an Adobe website location. This seems dodgy in itself but that’s another story and there are other ways of blocking LSOs (see: https://nodpi.org/forum for IE; Use BetterPrivacy plugin for Firefox). Under the Global Storage Settings Panel you can set storage to zero, tick never ask again, untick Allow 3rd party content – this seems to block LSOs from being created (remember to delete your currently stored LSOs under the Peer-Assisted Networking Panel).

However, I did not have any problems viewing flash content until I tried viewing a news article on the BBC website – http://news.bbc.co.uk. The flash video would not run, despite trying to fiddle with the LSO settings the video either failed to start or I got a message that the content could not be displayed. It seemed that the BBC was using a 3rd party provider and that they require 3rd party content access and some storage space otherwise the video will not load.

The BBC website helpdesk was no help at all – did not have a clue what I was on about. Eventually I came across the following article on the BBC forums: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs

This explains why the BBC was the only site I had a problem with. I am still awaiting a resolution to this.

Update October 2010: still no word on when the BBC is going to resolve the problem. I am pressing them for a response.

Update November 2010: The BBC have responded (see: BBC Response. Looks like they’re dragging this on until Spring 2011, if not beyond.

Update July 2011: I had extensive technical discussions with the BBC regarding this issue and was told they would investigate further and get back to me – they were under the impression that no local storage was taking place if you specifically blocked it. They never did get back to me and the posts on the BBC site have now been closed to comments! What I have found is that the new version of Flash has completely changed its privacy system – it now obeys the browsers settings. So if you have IE set to delete all content on exit the flash cookies will also be deleted. Good stuff, but this does not prevent flash cookies in the first place – however, you can set flash to block all LSO’s by right clicking, choosing Global Settings and setting block options. This seems to work for all sites i.e. flash still works. In the case of the BBC site a folder is created under %APPDATA%RoamingMacromediaFlash Player#SharedObjects but nothing is put into it. This folder disappears on exiting browser if you have the browser delete option on. So it has been indirectly resolved by Adobe rather than the BBC.

 

Update October 2011: The flash problem on the BBC news site is back! If you set all flash cookies to be blocked and your flash cache has been cleared the video’s on BBC news site will not work (other videos on BBC site as a whole do work). If you set flash to not block the videos they work and you can then set flash to block again and they still work, but if you have your browser set to delete cookies then the cache will clear on exit and you will have the same problem next time (in other words the BBC news videos require something to be downloaded). Have contacted BBC again and will post any response.

Locking after Autologon using Wizmo

We occasionally have to setup a server to autologon after a re-boot.

This is usually required to support an application that needs to be logged on e.g. to perform data updates every 12 hours.

Autologon can be achieved by following the instructions in the following Microsoft article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324737

However, once logged on the desktop is accessible by anyone. For instance you may have a remote terminal application like VNC running for remote access to the server – if someone tried to connect the server IP using VNC they will get immediate access to the desktop without having to enter a password.

We needed some way of locking the desktop immediately after logging on – enter ‘Wizmo’, a utility created by the great Steve Gibson at Gibson Research. Amongst the many functions of this neat utility is a locking function. You can run it from the command line as follows:

wizmo.exe lock

Just create a batch file or script file with this command and put it in the startup folder of the profile you are autologging on as.

Wizmo can be downloaded from: http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm

Emailing from Classic ASP

The following function covers emailing from ASP:

<%
Function sendMail (strTo, strFrom, strSubject, strMessage)

 strFormat = “<style>” & vbcrlf & “body{font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt;}” & vbcrlf & “</style>”

 sch = “http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/“

    Set cdoConfig = CreateObject(“CDO.Configuration”)

    With cdoConfig.Fields
        .Item(sch & “sendusing”) = 2 ‘ cdoSendUsingPort
        .Item(sch & “smtpserver”) = “Enter your email server IP here“
  .Item(sch & “smtpauthenticate”) = 1 ‘cdoBasic
        .Item(sch & “sendusername”) = “Enter your mailbox user here e.g. mail (which maps to mail@islandearth.com – you don’t need the domain)”
        .Item(sch & “sendpassword”) = “Enter your mailbox password here“
        .update
    End With

    Set cdoMessage = CreateObject(“CDO.Message”)

 On Error Resume Next

 With cdoMessage
        Set .Configuration = cdoConfig
  .To = strTo
        .From = strFrom
        .Subject = strSubject
  ‘.TextBody = strMessage
  .HTMLBody  = strFormat & strMessage
        .Send
    End With

  ‘Response.Write strMessage

 If err.Number <> 0 Then
  SendMail = False
  Response.Write err.Number
 Else
  SendMail = True
 End If

    Set cdoMessage = Nothing
    Set cdoConfig = Nothing

End Function
%>

And here is an example calling this function:

 x=sendMail (“reports@islandearth.com”, “Reports”, “A test report”, “Test email”)

This will send an email with ‘Test email’ as the body, ‘A test report’ as the subject line, ‘Reports’ as the from address, ‘reports@islandearth.com’ as the To address.

x is true if all ok, false if an error occurred.

Happy emailing!

Opening different itunes library from the default

I often find my iTunes has reverted to the default location for the iTunes library file (my documentsmymusiciTunes) even though the option under preferences, Advanced for media file location is the one you want.

To redirect again there appears to be no option, but the easy way is to:

 

Select iTunes icon on desktop, press shift and keep it pressed, press enter to open iTunes (don’t double click mouse as this will open multiple items i.e. sees shift as a multiple select option).

 

You will then be prompted to choose a library or create a new one.

 

Simples!