Internet Service Providers (ISPs) usually allocate you a specific amount of bandwidth depending on the amount of money you paid (package subscribed). Bandwidth is the amount of data that your ISP transfers to you and are measured in bits per second(bps). However, it is usually expressed as Mbps on ISP packages. This is also what most people refer to as speed as it determines how fast you will download your files, or which quality will you be able to stream your videos. The higher the bandwidth, the more speed or higher quality you will get.
帶寬限制
Almost everybody has experienced this injustice when doing any data intensive task. For instance, you may have been streaming online videos legally the whole day, and at a certain point, you realize that the quality dropped. Or you could have been torrenting, and at specific times you realize your speed drastically declined. Most people will assume it’s the links that have been congested or give another reason and wait for the speed to be normal. But that’s not the case; the link will be free most times, the fault goes to your ISP. If you doubt this, next time you experience a reduction in video quality, just do a speed test. The figures (Mbps) you will get are not the ones you paid for.
為什麼 ISP 會限制您的頻寬？
有很多原因或藉口可以解釋為什麼ISP決定限制您的速度。以下是其中的一些;
- 他們對自己的頻寬撒謊 ——這就是虛假行銷扮演可疑角色的情況。ISP 可能宣傳 20mbps，但當您進行速度測試時，即使沒有下載任何內容，您最終也會獲得 13mbps 到 15 Mbps。在這種情況下，ISP無法兌現他們的承諾，因此缺乏頻寬來提供。這裡最好的辦法是退出宣告該ISP並尋找更好的ISP。
- 高峰時段 – 這是每個人都使用互聯網的時間。在高峰時段，需求如此之高，以至於ISP的基礎設施無法有效地處理服務。為了避免故障，ISP會將頻寬限制一定百分比，以便每個人都能上網。儘管這是一件好事（互聯網平等），但它也是錯誤的，因為人們正在使用他們辛苦賺來的錢，反過來，他們得到的服務很差。
- Data-intensive services – some ISPs may decide to limit bandwidth on some services to strong-arm users to pay more. For instance, ISPs may throttle data coming from streaming and P2P services. They will then come up with another pricier package that allows you to use the said services smoothly.
阻止 ISP 限制您的頻寬
如果在運行幾次測試后發現您獲得的速度不是您支付的速度，那麼您就是 ISP 頻寬限制的受害者。接下來你應該做的是阻止這種不公正，但要付出一點額外的代價。
To throttle your bandwidth, ISPs usually have an insight into what you are doing on their network, that’s, they are continually monitoring which services you access and so on. To avoid throttling, you must first hide your internet traffic from your ISP. The surest way to do this is by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN encrypts all your internet traffic and channels it through a secure tunnel that even your ISP won’t be able to see. Hence your ISP won’t be able to throttle your bandwidth if the ISP doesn’t know what you are doing. But you should expect a small drop in the bandwidth like <1mbps due to encryptions involved.
