WAIX is the WA Internet Exchange. It was established in 1997 to allow members of the WA Internet Association (WAIA) to inter-connect their networks using a carrier-independent facility. This facility allows members to multi-laterally peer their networks at a considerably reduced rate.

The current WAIX facility allows members access to all networks connected to WAIX. For example, if ISP A and B connect to WAIX in Perth and ISP C connects in Southwest WA and ISP D connects from the Pilbara region then information between each of the four ISPs is shared at no cost.

To learn more about WAIX please visit the following link:
http://www.waia.asn.au/waix/

A list of currently active participants of WAIX has been made available here:
http://www.waia.asn.au/waix/participants.shtml

For the majority of Westnet ADSL customers free WAIX traffic will mean that your download cap will last a little longer if you watch where you download items from carefully. Saving much of your cap for necessary downloads, files and utilities that you may need (or want) that are only available from a host located both outside of Westnet’s own network and also outside of the WAIX connected networks.

As with all capped accounts Westnet strongly recommend that you check your usage logs regularly so as to avoid any large unwanted excess usage bills.

Check your usage online now:
https://secure1.wn.com.au/myaccount/Technical/Usage/

Unfortunately, for end users the only real way of telling if data from a particular site is coming in via WAIX is to do a trace back from the download site to Westnet (or your machine). The easiest way to achieve this is to make use of an online trace route utility or similar that the download host may offer.

Similar to that made available here by Mega Mirror: http://www.megamirror.com/cgi-bin/trace

Using this utility to do a trace back to Westnet we are again looking for the WAIX peering points, and any other hops along the way that would indicate that each ISP is connected to WAIX (and that the traffic between each ISP is flowing via WAIX).

Traceroute Output

FROM megamirror.com TO www.Westnet.com.au.

traceroute to Westnet.com.au (203.10.1.20), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 fe0-0.core0.megamirror.com (203.220.0.1) 0.514 ms 0.326 ms 0.296 ms
2 ge2-0.wsr01-kent-syd.comindico.net.au (203.194.26.5) 0.728 ms 0.516 ms 0.468 ms
3 ge6-2.1000.cor02-kent-syd.comindico.com.au (203.194.29.253) 62.406 ms 62.421 ms 63.717 ms
4 s3-0.cor01-stge-pth.comindico.com.au (203.194.1.22) 64.171 ms 62.877 ms 62.292 ms
5 203.194.58.55 (203.194.58.55) 63.220 ms 62.287 ms 62.354 ms
6 Westnet.ix.waia.asn.au (198.32.212.6) 62.549 ms 62.754 ms 63.104 ms
7 * * *
8 wombat.wn.com.au (203.10.1.20) 63.683 ms 64.104 ms 63.372 ms

Hop number 6 in the trace route output above represents Westnet’s peering point into WAIX (Westnet.ix.waia.asn.au). This also indicates that data from Mega Mirror is coming into Westnet via WAIX.

Another way of determining if files that you would like to download from a particular host will come through via WAIX is to first download a small file from the site in question. When the file download is complete check your usage logs (made available at the web address below) and check to see which category of traffic the download counted against.

As with all capped accounts Westnet strongly recommends that you check your usage logs regularly so as to avoid any large unwanted excess usage bills.

Check your usage online now:
https://myaccount.westnet.com.au/Technical/Usage/

All Westnet ADSL accounts are capped in accordance with the terms and conditions of the particular account type selected by the client, clients will be charged accordingly (and without exception) for exceeding these limits. In instances where customers may wish to take advantage of the the free WAIX traffic made available to them with their ADSL connection through Westnet, it is the clients own responsibility to perform the necessary checks, as described here, for determining the route through which the data is travelling.