Network Management and Performance Information

Why does POPP manage its ISP network?
POPP manages its network with the intention of providing the best online experience to all of its business subscribers. POPP engineers employ sophisticated monitoring and management utilities to ensure we have bandwidth and resources in place to serve our subscribers. However, as with any ISP, bandwidth and network resources are not unlimited, and at times, depending on Internet usage trends, brief periods of congestion can and occasionally do occur. POPP uses reasonable network management practices which are in accordance with industry standards. POPP endeavors to deliver every packet on our network as quickly as possible and we proactively work to add capacity as network consumption dictates.

How does POPP manage its ISP network?

POPP uses a variety of tools and techniques to ensure network availability and quality, as well as, ensuring subscriber compliance with POPP’s Acceptable Use Policy. Generally speaking, POPP does not perform any per-subscriber rate-limiting, traffic shaping, or traffic blocking, apart from limiting the subscriber’s maximum “up to” upload and/or download speed to the appropriate speed for the product they have purchased. There are only two notable exceptions to this policy:

1. In the event a particular subscriber were to be the target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack of significant size and magnitude such that the attack traffic threatens the overall availability of network services to a large segment of our subscriber base and/or the POPP ISP as a whole. In such cases, traffic to the targeted subscriber(s) may be limited or blocked entirely until such time that the attack subsides and/or an analysis of the attack traffic can be performed and a countermeasure to block only the attack traffic can be implemented. If a subscriber is targeted for a DDoS attack and their service must be suspended to protect the overall network integrity, they will be notified by POPP’s customer service team.
2. If POPP has evidence to believe that a subscriber has willfully or unwittingly violated POPP’s Acceptable Use Policy.  POPP has formulated this policy to encourage the responsible use of POPP's networks, systems, services, Web sites and products by our subscribers and any other users of the POPP networks and services and to enable us to provide secure, reliable and productive services. If, for example, a subscriber’s computer were to become infected with malware and begin to relay spam e-mail to users on the Internet, that subscriber would be notified of this activity by POPP’s customer service team and be given information to troubleshoot and rectify the situation. If after three warnings, the subscriber has failed to take corrective action and remove the malware from the computer, or remove the computer from their network, that subscriber’s Internet activity may be suspended until they take corrective action and resume compliance with the Acceptable Use Policy.

Does POPP discriminate against any particular type of Internet traffic or applications?

In short, no. POPP does not block or throttle any specific traffic (ports or protocols) across its network. POPP has implemented industry-standard quality of service mechanisms to ensure optimal voice quality of our Voice over IP products.

Network Performance/Speed – General Information

POPP provides business subscribers with a variety of Internet connectivity products ranging from up to 56Kbps dial up access to our Metro Ethernet access which offers up to 100Mbps. As mentioned above, POPP engineers its network to ensure that subscribers are able to achieve speeds at or near those to which they subscribe. POPP cannot, however, guarantee that any given subscriber will be able to fully achieve those speeds at all times. The actual speed that a subscriber may achieve at any time depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to:

• Performance limitations on the subscriber’s computer
• The subscriber’s local area network (LAN) and cabling throughout their suite
• Performance limitations on the subscriber’s firewall
• Congestion on the public Internet
• Performance limitations or restrictions on the destination server or destination network

For these reasons, which are beyond the control of POPP or any other ISP, POPP is not able to guarantee any particular speed on any particular connectivity product.

Speed Tests

Speed tests are available on Web sites running software that will send and receive a small file, and measure the amount of time it  took that file to transmit across the network between the server hosting the speed test Web site and the computer running the test. With the size of the file transmitted, and the amount of time it took to be transmitted, speed test Web sites are able to display information in megabits per second (Mbps) or kilobits per second (Kbps) for the connectivity between the server and the computer running the test.

POPP hosts a speed test Web site on our network that can be accessed by current POPP subscribers to measure the speed between their computer and our network operations center in Golden Valley, MN. Additionally, anyone on the public Internet is able to use this Web site to measure the network speed between their computer on their existing Internet connection and our network operations center. POPP’s speed test Web site can be accessed at http://speedtest.popp.net.

In addition to POPP’s hosted speed test Web site, several other publically accessible speed test sites are available on the Internet and can provide performance information between your computer and various geographic locations around the world. Another example is http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about.

As indicated above, network performance is dependent on the performance of the subscriber’s computer, LAN network, etc., and therefore speed tests do not exclusively reflect the performance of POPP’s (or any other) ISP’s network.

Latency

Latency is another measurement of Internet performance. Latency measures the amount of time it takes for a packet to travel from source to destination and is usually measured in milliseconds. Latency is usually a function of the geographic distance between two points on the Internet, but sometimes if a router, switch, server or network (LAN or WAN) connection on the Internet does not have the resources or bandwidth to efficiently process traffic, it is possible for that device or connection to add latency to the communication. As indicated above, POPP endeavors to deliver every packet as quickly as it can to deliver the best possible Internet experience for all of its subscribers. However, because of the complicated nature of latency and the many network elements that can play a role in latency, it is not possible for POPP to provide subscribers with any single latency metric or guarantee.

Network Security Practices

POPP uses a variety of security measures to protect itself and its subscribers from online threats. 

·         POPP employs industry-leading firewalls to protect the servers that make up our ISP network from being attacked or compromised by cyber criminals. 

·         POPP offers a Spam and Virus E-mail Filtering service (powered by Red Condor) to protect subscribers’ e-mail inboxes from spam, viruses, and other malware contained in incoming e-mails. Outbound e-mails may also be scanned for spam and viruses to protect the online reputation of POPP and its subscribers. Availability, pricing and policies for this service vary by product and e-mail hosting method will be clarified on product literature.

·         POPP has contracted with the Verisign Internet Defense network to protect ourselves and our subscribers from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS attacks occur when one or more cyber criminals call upon malware-infected computers under their control (many times by the thousands) to transmit information to a given target computer’s public IP address, thereby saturating the Internet connectivity of the targeted computer and denying that targeted computer(s) access to the Internet. The Verisign Internet Defense Network allows POPP to detect and protect the ISP network and our subscribers from DDoS attacks.

·         POPP is an authorized SonicWALL partner and can supply subscribers with Internet Gateway Firewall Appliances to protect their LAN network and resources from cyber criminals and internal and external misuse of bandwidth network resources.

None of the security practices above are meant to act as a replacement for up-to-date endpoint anti-virus for your computers, servers, and smartphones nor are they offered as a guarantee that the subscriber shall be 100% protected from online threats. Online threats are a moving target and no single defense mechanism (or ISP) can offer 100% protection.

How to contact us if you have additional questions about network management and performance?

You can reach a support representative at 763-797-7900 or by e-mail.

Privacy

If you have questions about POPP’s privacy policies and disclosures, please view our Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) Policy.

Commercial Terms

POPP’s commercial terms can be found in our Minnesota Tariff No. 1.