Is Verizon throttling downloads from newsgroups on Giganews, Easynews, etc.?

Recently I have experienced an unusual situation while trying to download material from newsgroups with Newsleecher, using Giganews and Easynews. My IP is Verizon (as you know they no longer allow access to alt.binarites newsgroups on their system)and I have a 768kbs DSL "Lite" connection. In the past my download rates have been very stable, with little variation in speed no matter what I was downloading. Recently when I download folders from Giganews and Easynews, the rates fluctuate wildly- from 0 to over 290 kbs, cycling back and forth. What is more puzzling is that when I am simply downloading headers, the download rate becomes stable again at the 90kbs threshhold. Can anyone tell me what is going on here?

 

What forum was this question moved to?

 

Ask a stupid question....

 

Verizon is absolutely throttling. My problem is slow speeds and/or unstable dsl connection. Most of the time I max out at 270 sometimes 300kpbs on a Utorrent download, Which is great. But lately I've been getting unusably slow speeds for no reason and at random. Torrenting is out of the question when this happens, I can bearly surf the web. Any weblink or page I open is on a rediculous time delay, then opens at what seems to be dial-up speed. If I open too many pages within a small amount of time the dsl light on my modem starts blinking meaning my connection is now broken altogether. This problem is random, it has nothing to do with whether or not Utorrent is running. but I do notice it happens on weekends, especially Sunday mornings. Nine times out of ten this problem corrects itself after a few hours.

Now, here's the thing. Sometimes when I really need my connection I'll call verizon Repair to complain. There's always a funny coincidence. While I'm on the phone with them, all of a sudden my speeds shoot back up, but they always deny doing anything to correct it......Until tonight. While talking to the operator, sure enough, my browser started working freely again. I asked her what she did. She said she refreshed my signal. I asked her why my signal needs to be refreshed at least once a week. She asked me if I download alot of large files, I said yeah, why? Am I being throttled? She started stuttering, sounded nervous and changed the direction of the conversation to dumping Temporary Internet files. BULLSH*T! She tipped her hand I'm getting throttled!!! My guess is I'm on some abuser list and get throttled automaticly at their busiest times. That's why it seems to have nothing to do with whether or not Utorrent is running.

Almost every isp is throttling now. Every filesharer knows it. If the verizon CEO was so dead set against it they would advertise it right next to the price.