Liquid Home Package Health Tips

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1.  What is Liquid Home package health

Package health is an Internet service performance measure which Liquid Home initiated to give users visibility into their usage trends. More information on Package Health can be viewed on under My Account > Services on MyLiquid Home or by clicking the Scroll for connection details button on the myLiquid Home Homepage. The health icon is represented by a coloured bar graph.

2.  What affects package health

a) Package Selection/ Usage requirements mismatch

In order to enjoy the best service, it is essential to choose a package that is most closely aligned to your usage habits. It is for this reason that Liquid Home requests you to accurately disclose your intended use prior to signing up for the package for the best package recommendation. Please note that although due diligence is taken to suggest the best-fit package at sign up, the best-fit becomes more apparent after usage trends have been observed over a few weeks (4 weeks minimum).

If your subscribed package health is consistently in the orange or red zone, it is an indication of a subscribed package/usage requirements mismatch. This state ought to be met with either a shift downwards on usage trend or a package upgrade for better experience.

Liquid Home’s Class of Service

  Home Business Corporate

Typical User

Single user, family or students. Usage mostly off-peak. Approximately 5 devices simultaneously

Small to medium sized businesses

 

Ranging from 3 users for entry level packages to 35 devices for the highest business package

Large businesses or those requiring the highest quality Internet

High number of devices connected simultaneously e.g.

Internet Café’s

Optimized Speed

Speed optimized for evenings, weekends and holidays

Optimized for business hours

High speed priority at all times

Account Management

Liquid Home Support

Liquid Home Support

Dedicated Account Manager and support team

Relative Peak Priority

1 – lowest priority

3 times higher than residential

10 times higher than residential


Home packages:

Designed for users who are mainly away from home during peak periods hence minimal usage expected during these times. Generally characterised by light browsing and moderate streaming during peak times.
 

Business packages:

Designed for users whose main Internet usage is during peak periods (between 7am and 6pm). Prioritised for bandwidth access during this time. Generally defined as practical-work oriented, mainly active in information and communication related uses and mostly passive in leisure-related activities such as entertainment video streaming, torrent downloads etc.

  • For both home and business packages, the light user differs from the heavy user in terms of the type and frequency of their activities.

 

b)     High Usage during peak periods

During peak periods, prolonged high bandwidth demand in relation to one’s subscribed package can affect package health. The table below shows examples of peak period usage (between 7am and 6pm) that is most likely to result in high usage, leading to package health deterioration. They include but are not limited to:

Activity Usage Behaviour How to minimise this type of usage

Downloading or uploading large files or a high number of files during peak periods

Downloading or uploading files like MP3 music files, movies, games and software updates, especially with the aid of peer to peer applications like Bit Torrent.

Wherever possible, users are encouraged to schedule downloads, uploads, backups and software updates to take place during off peak periods

Online Gaming

Online gaming averages data transfer at a rate of +/- 100MB per hour.

Limit data transfer when playing games, resort to offline games during peak periods or subscribe to a dedicated package if gaming is the user’s core activity or business

Social media sharing of content and streaming of news.

Social media applications used for sharing files like music, photos, video result in cumulative amounts of data transfer: e.g. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook etc.

Switch off auto-download or auto play on received files. Always be aware of what your device is running. You can check your device or application manual on how to turn off auto commands

Compromised device security

Unprotected devices can be compromised or hijacked and used to transmit data without the owner’s knowledge.

Secure your devices and be sure your network is also secured. Engage our support team regarding Eset security or Liquid Home geeks for expert advice.

Using devices that are configured for heavy data usage, in their default settings.

Streaming videos in Ultra HD and viewing pictures in high resolution. Running or accessing multiple applications simultaneously.

 

Users are encouraged to regulate features on their devices such as reducing resolution to still get decent quality with lesser data demand.

Keep a tight rein on video quality during peak periods. It makes a difference. The reality of super-fast speeds and high definition/resolution content is high bandwidth demand. For example, low video quality on Netflix consumes about 0.3GB per hour whilst Ultra HD consumes about 7GB for the same period.  Ref https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87

In-browser streaming or frequent heavy-site visits

Visiting sites that are loaded with images and videos. Allowing videos on websites to auto play. Statistically the average webpage size is at 2.39MB where it was once in the KBs

Switch off auto-download or auto play on videos when opening websites.

 

Video on demand

Utilising video on demand as the main activity when accessing the Internet…YouTube, Netflix, etc

 

Limit the time spent on video during peak periods. Subscribe to a higher package if video streaming is your core activity during peak periods