Official Ares Free Download

Traffic shaping, bandwidth throttling, and now “traffic prioritization.” To different ISPs, these terminologies mean different things. To the P2P end user it means the same – “my download speeds aren’t as fast as they used to be!” It’s a contentious issue that gripped the ISP and file-sharing community, leading to a technological arms race to control the destiny of bandwidth.<br /><br />To counter traffic shaping, many BitTorrent and eDonkey2000 clients have incorporated protocol encryption, which masks the type of traffic traversing a network. This has met with a level of success, as some customers have claimed the technique works, while others continue to have problems. Of course, this depends on the end user’s ISP and how aggressively traffic is shaped. Some ISP customers complain their BitTorrent traffic is reduced to a trickle, while other customers hardly notice a difference. <br />
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The latter is what Westnet, an Australian ISP, is hoping its P2P customers will experience. In an announcement made on <a href=http://westnetblog.com.au/ target=_blank>Westnet’s blog</a>, the ISP announced publicly that it has been “prioritizing” P2P traffic for over a year. <br />
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“Westnet has been trialing some traffic prioritisation tools on our network over the past year with very positive results. As a result, we will continue to use the tools on an ongoing basis.”<br />

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Westnet’s motivation for “prioritizing” bandwidth stems from the launch of other high consumption protocols such as “online gaming, web browsing, e-mail and VOIP”, as they claim P2P may negatively impact the latency of such applications.<br />
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So has Westnet begun clamping down on the bandwidth allotted to P2P? Not exactly. Westnet points out that the amount of bandwidth allotted to P2P in most circumstance has not changed. The allotted bandwidth slated to P2P is dynamically altered only when other high capacity protocols such as VoIP challenges the total bandwidth of the ISP’s network.<br />
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In other words, for arguments sake let’s assume that Westnet’s total bandwidth capacity is 100 megabits. On a normal day, 60 megabits is used for P2P (BitTorrent, Ares, eMule, etc.) 20 megabits is used for web browsing, 10 megabits for online gaming, 5 megabits for email, and remaining 5 megabits for VoIP. Then one day, an unusually large number of Westnet customers decide to play World of Warcraft. What usually only consumed 10 megabits now consumes 30 megabits. P2P users would then see their allotment decrease to accommodate the online gamers. Once they’re finished however, bandwidth levels for P2P are restored to normal.<br />
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The reaction on the <a href=http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=769331&p=1 target=_blank>Whirlpool forums</a> has been largely supportive, as consumers have stated they haven’t noticed any difference in their download speeds for the year prioritization has been tested – although some were suspect that Westnet took a year to divulge this information. Interestingly enough, according to representatives of Westnet, only P2P traffic is being prioritized. However oddly, Westnet’s traffic prioritization doesn’t include Skype or Joost as P2P traffic.<br />
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As BitTorrent is the king of bandwidth consumption, it’s likely this protocol is the real target of this ongoing initiative. Westnet concludes that the “benefits of traffic prioritization” will be brought to other Australian states in the near future. At the end of the day, P2P users can at least be thankful Westnet isn’t shaping file-sharing traffic.<br><br>
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