Frequently Asked Questions

3. Connections

3.1. How fast can my connection go?

• As fast as the Internet! The Internet is made up of many network links, of different speeds and levels of congestion. We try to keep traffic flowing as fast as we can, especially for users who are using the web interactively, playing online games or other uses where speed is important. We do this by not limiting your connection on the high-capacity links we have, and sharing the capacity fairly on those where throughtput is limited.

3.2. How are Fair Share connections managed?

• Fair Share connections work by prioritising traffic based on the long term average bandwidth of the connection. Average bandwidth is calculated as a weighted average, so short high-traffic bursts contribute only a small amount to the overall average, while long bursts will cause a more rapid lowering of priority.

3.3. What happens when my priority is lowered?

• Traffic is managed using a weighted fair queuing algorithm. For example, if two users are using all available bandwidth, if one has a priority of 10 and the other 5, the first user will get twice as much of the bandwidth as the latter, and both will see queuing delays. However, if the second user in this example demands less than one third of the available bandwidth, the first user will still see some queueing delays, but the second will see no delays. This means that lower-bandwidth applications can get very low latencies even during times of high bandwidth demand.

3.4. How will I know if my priority has been lowered?

• For the most part, you won't. Connections are not throttled if there is bandwidth to spare, unlike many other broadband plans. The connection keeps working; you just get a smaller slice of the pie during times of network congestion.

3.5. How much bandwidth do Fair Share connections get?

• The standard Business Fair Share plan is provisioned around a 64 kbps average;

• Residential/Small Office Fair Share connections are provisioned around a 32 kbps average.

• Note that these limits are used for setting the priority; they don't affect the actual download speed, which can be several megabits per second.

3.6. How much can I download on a Fair Share plan?

• To a first approximation, 64 kbps equates to 20 gigabytes a month. Thus, if you download 20 GB every month on a Business Fair Share plan, assuming it is done fairly evenly through the month, you should not expect to see any significant lowering of your traffic priority. Note that inbound and outbound traffic are shaped separately, so you can effecively download 20 GB and upload 20 GB per month on such a plan.

3.7. What about national and local traffic?

• Traffic that is local, i.e. traffic that is local to Knossos Networks, its immediate customers and local (e.g. CityLink) peers, does not count toward the bandwidth share model, i.e. it is effectively free.

• Traffic that traverses national services is provisioned at four times the international rate, i.e. where a service is provisioned at 64 kbps international will be provisioned at 256 kbps national.

3.8. How are Committed Rate connections managed?

• Committed Rate connections operate similarly to Fair Share, except that traffic prioritisation does not kick in until the long term average reaches the committed rate. In addition, the long term average bandwidth calculation is less sensitive to short, high-traffic bursts than for Fair Share connections.

3.9. How much bandwidth do you have?

• It is Knossos Networks Limited policy to purchase sufficient bandwidth to meet all its customers' commitments.

3.10. How can I set my computer's clock?

• You can use NTP (Network Time Protocol) or SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) to synchronise your computer clock. Set your NTP or SNTP server to "ntp.knossos.net.nz". For most applications, SNTP is preferred.

3.11. Can I use wireless?

• Be our guest. We'll even provide a wireless router if required. We do ask that you use WEP or WPA to secure your wireless network, otherwise you might find unexpected guests using your connection...