Downloading Torrents on Lounge WiFi

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I was sitting in the QP and noticed another PAX was downloading torrent files over the lounge WiFi.

Is it appropriate to torrent on the lounge WiFi and is this why the general speed for the rest of us is generally so poor? I personally believe it is not appropriate as it is technically illegal.

Should the lounge operators thottle individual data rates to maintain a decent speed for all? Banning sites is not going to work as a VPN will get around any blocks.
 
I was sitting in the QP and noticed another PAX was downloading torrent files over the lounge WiFi.

Is it appropriate to torrent on the lounge WiFi and is this why the general speed for the rest of us is generally so poor? I personally believe it is not appropriate as it is technically illegal.

Should the lounge operators thottle individual data rates to maintain a decent speed for all? Banning sites is not going to work as a VPN will get around any blocks.

Well, downloading a torrent doesn't mean its illegal. There are plenty of legal torrents. Yep, they have a bad name, for some perfectly good reasons. But where do you stop? What if someone is downloading a perfectly legal movie or game from a paid subscription site?

Its hard to manage. Maybe a download limit is the answer? 100mb or 1gb?
 
I can't honestly say that I've ever read through them, but I assume the Terms & Conditions that you tick agreement to when joining the lounge wi-fi say something about it.

I've generally found the speeds in QF Lounges in Australia quite acceptable and often hammer the connection prior to a flight to get some content on my iPad to watch or read (all legal content of course).
 
As others have mentioned, there is nothing illegal about downloading using torrents. What the content is will determine the legality.

As for throttling users, that's probably not a bad idea. Doing so is pretty trivial and I'd actually be surprised if that wasn't the case. Perhaps allow short term bursts but restrict lengthy bandwidth hogging.
 
Is it any different to watching Netflix? Is the problem with the bandwidth consumption or the questionable legality of the content they're torrenting.
 
Is it any different to watching Netflix? Is the problem with the bandwidth consumption or the questionable legality of the content they're torrenting.

Yes in terms of bandwidth consumption. I've not looked into Netflix, but I don't imagine the stream is more than a few Mbps. Downloading of torrents could consume significantly more, depending on the availability of sources.
 
Well, downloading a torrent doesn't mean its illegal. There are plenty of legal torrents. Yep, they have a bad name, for some perfectly good reasons. But where do you stop? What if someone is downloading a perfectly legal movie or game from a paid subscription site?

Its hard to manage. Maybe a download limit is the answer? 100mb or 1gb?

The files where copyrighted material (movie files).
 
I've done this, but usually plug into their wall socket for faster speeds.
 
Smart network design would and QoS would take care of that (and as a result also need to restrict VPN to some extent)
 
Yes in terms of bandwidth consumption. I've not looked into Netflix, but I don't imagine the stream is more than a few Mbps. Downloading of torrents could consume significantly more, depending on the availability of sources.
Netflix now allow downloading of video content for offline viewing, so that will mean similar downloads to torrents.
 
Or maybe just bring Australia into the current millennium, with high speed internet for all with plenty of capacity.

On on a side issue, I find charging for internet usage in our hotels quite archaic, especially considering the (lack) of speed. My US and European colleagues are always aghast.
 
Should the lounge operators thottle individual data rates to maintain a decent speed for all? Banning sites is not going to work as a VPN will get around any blocks.

They probably already do through QoS i.e. set bandwidth per client. They can also block ports to prevent torrent clients working (from the sounds of it though, not implemented). Blocking VPN traffic overall wouldn't be reasonable I guess being as VPN's are commonly used in a business environment.
 
Smart network design would and QoS would take care of that (and as a result also need to restrict VPN to some extent)

Pretty much this.

Additionally with content aware firewalls these days we are well beyond port blocking for service restriction, so the only way a company like QF/VA would be allowing services to run on their guest networks is if they don't care about it. Realistically that's probably the answer, they cover themselves legally, restrict individual sessions bandwidth and you're on your own from there ;)
 
I was sitting in the QP and noticed another PAX was downloading torrent files over the lounge WiFi.

Is it appropriate to torrent on the lounge WiFi and is this why the general speed for the rest of us is generally so poor? I personally believe it is not appropriate as it is technically illegal.

Should the lounge operators thottle individual data rates to maintain a decent speed for all? Banning sites is not going to work as a VPN will get around any blocks.

How do you know he/she was using lounge wifi and not their own mobile wifi? I'd be pretty offended if you were checking up on my screen that closely.
 
Speed on the various speed tests is about 10% of what it was, so it's being throttled.
 
They probably already do through QoS i.e. set bandwidth per client. They can also block ports to prevent torrent clients working (from the sounds of it though, not implemented). Blocking VPN traffic overall wouldn't be reasonable I guess being as VPN's are commonly used in a business environment.

Blocking specific ports isn't going to prevent torrenting due to the very nature of how it works. Either limit the number of TCP connections per client or deep packet inspection are the ways to go if you wish to prevent torrenting.
 
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Speed on the various speed tests is about 10% of what it was, so it's being throttled.

which various speed tests are you referring to?

For me personally, when I'm in the lounge, I don't need to stream the latest episode of American Idol. I just need to read emails, send a picture or 2? Maybe the odd youtube clip.

Others, I know are different. But as long as the speed is slightly better than crica 1995 dial up, I'm doing ok.
 
which various speed tests are you referring to?

It's a bit of a habit. My personal internet connection is slow, so any time I connect I have a look at 'speedof.me' Most hotels are appalling, irrespective of how much they charge. Our London hotel once had a connection of about 80 meg/sec, but it is now only about 3. Last time I looked at the lounge, it was about 5 meg/sec. At one point it was much faster.
 
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