Very poor performance

[silverblade]

Something up with idnet tonight?

Was quite happily listening to an online radio station, when playback stopped and everything started giving huge ping spikes.

For example:


PING idnet.net (212.69.36.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=249 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=248 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=247 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=4 ttl=58 time=1745 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=5 ttl=58 time=1144 ms
(snipped)
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=35 ttl=58 time=8837 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=36 ttl=58 time=8435 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=37 ttl=58 time=8334 ms
64 bytes from www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10): icmp_seq=38 ttl=58 time=7934 ms
(snipped)
--- idnet.net ping statistics ---
56 packets transmitted, 50 received, 10% packet loss, time 55021ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 247.503/5481.515/8837.311/2442.322 ms, pipe 9


I've also lost connection a couple of times tonight, but retained sync.


Modem DSL stats since I last rebooted a short while ago:

Transmit
  Tx PDUs  6127
  Tx Total Bytes  634436
  Tx Total Error Counts  0
Receive
  Rx PDUs  6574
  Rx Total Bytes  3381001
  Rx Total Error Counts  0


Traceroute seems to indicate lag is occurring at the first hop after the DSL side of the modem:
1  caramel.silverblade.co.uk (192.168.0.1)  1.353 ms  1.811 ms  2.272 ms
2  192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)  9.594 ms  9.787 ms  9.974 ms
3  telehouse-gw4-lo2.idnet.net (212.69.63.99)  4895.007 ms  5095.845 ms *

(1 is my router, 2 is the modem).

[dujas]

Latency is fine for me on ADSL max; hops won't prioritise ping traffic, so really you have to focus on the destination. The pings you've listed are measured in seconds though (with packet loss), that would suggest something much more serious than simple congestion somewhere along the route.

BT are carrying out periodic night time maintenance to all its 21CN nodes around the country, I noticed this on AAISP's status page.

We know BT are continuing with 21CN upgrades, but that the upgrade tonight should not have been as severe as we have seen with almost all 21CN lines going off for a moment. We are looking in to this.

Update: IPSC lines were not affected but all 21CN lines went off when BT started working on the Birmingham node. This appears to relate to BGP route announcements from BT to us breaking and appears to be an unexpected interdependency within BT. Manual intervention to add static routes was done by us as a work around and lines (other than Birmingam) came back. We will see if the routes are restored once the work in Birmingham is completed.

It might explain the sudden blip in connection if it affect all ISPs.

[dujas]

The upgrades continue, and we now have a complete list of those still planned.

It will not always be obvious which node you are on. The last two letters of the RAS name seems to be a clue on 21CN.

Preston pr       10/08/2009 PW106028 21C
Wolverhampton wv 11/08/2009 PW106030 21C
Birmingham bm-th 12/08/2009 PW106033 20&21C
Colombo l-wat    13/08/2009 PW106038 21C
Colindale l-nws  17/08/2009 PW106044 20&21C Ealing
Manchester mr-dh 18/08/2009 PW106060 20&21C
Sheffield sf     20/08/2009 PW106071 21C
Edinburgh eh-don 25/08/2009 PW106081 20&21C
Falkirk fk       26/08/2009 PW106100 21C
Bristol bs       27/08/2009 PW106101 21C
Peterborough pb  08/09/2009 PW106126 21C
derby dy         10/09/2009 PW106156 21C
Newcastle nt-b   16/09/2009 PW106172 21C

Source (if it is related).

[Rik]

No signs of any issues here.

[silverblade]

Much better now, must've been a temporary glitch. Connecting at 10mbps/810kbps again. Average ping time to a server in the US is 144 ms.

[Rik]

Phew.

[silverblade]

General web page browsing seems OK at the moment but I just went to do a Linux update and it took forever to download the latest kernel.

Once it had finished I tried wget'ing a file from my VPS which transferred at about 30KByte/sec.

After that I installed Java so i can use the TBB speed tester. The download took a while.

The results:
Speed Down     760.06 Kbps ( 0.7 Mbps )
Speed Up    329.53 Kbps ( 0.3 Mbps )

Link to ThinkBroadBand Speed Test Results

I realise that I was told that 25mbps is the maximum and that I might get less, but this is just ridiculous.

[Simon]

No, that's not good is it?  Can you manage to do a BT Speedtest, Silver?  Oh, and have you tried rebooting your router?

[silverblade]

Yep, modem has been rebooted. I do go through a router however both of these provide Linux shell access, so I can do a "wget" directly on the modem... Which is going pig slow still.

The BT speed tester says...

"Test error. The system is currently busy. Please try again shortly, however if this problem persists, raise the issue with your service provider."

[silverblade]

OK it seems it needed me to drop the zero off the end of my phone number...

Your DSL connection rate: 12060 kbps (DOWN-STREAM), 568 kbps (UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 10000 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 2324 kbps

So it seems to think I'm getting just over 2 mbps?

[Bill]

Looks like something cock-eyed there, even the upstream looks low... a test from a few days ago:


    Your DSL connection rate: 13144 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  1036 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 11000 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 10146 kbps

[Simon]

OK it seems it needed me to drop the zero off the end of my phone number...

Your DSL connection rate: 12060 kbps (DOWN-STREAM), 568 kbps (UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 10000 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 2324 kbps

So it seems to think I'm getting just over 2 mbps?

I know we sound like a sticking record at the moment, but all we can suggest is that you email the results to IDNet, and hopefully they can tweak something for you.  We do know that BT are fixing the slow throughput issues, but with a distinct lack of urgency. 

[silverblade]

What exactly could be tweaked though? The connection has been working for a good few days, I had a horrible lag spike one day, which didn't last long, then it returned to normal. Now I get far less than I was getting on ADSLmax / 8 meg...

Is there a "minimum" speed which is deemed to be acceptable? Or is it just a case of "you have a connection, that's all we are obliged to provide" at BT's end?

I really hope that whatever BT are fiddling with, that it helps resolve the issues myself and other users have been having.

[Rik]

Essentially, as with Max, BT sell an 'up to' service and there is no minimum, in fact or law - iow, if the connection works at all, BT have fulfilled their obligations.

That said, there have been a handful of people afflicted by low throughput relative to sync speed and profile. These are being worked on and gradually fixed. BT referred to an 'under-dimensioning' of the network being to blame. I read that as it being badly configured or under-provided. However, fixes are now being seen, so as has been said, let support have your speed test results (BT only) and they'll start shouting at BT for you.

[silverblade]

Retried the BT speed test, noticed it has a second and third test.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the second test to work... But since i had to reboot my modem a few times it looks like I'm now profiled to 2000 kbps 

Results of todays test including the speed_test login... I'll forward these on to IDNet in a bit.

[Simon]

I seem to recall someone saying that the second test doesn't work with ADSL2+, and I don't think it would have done you any good anyway.  Pass the results onto IDNet, and as Rik said, they can get onto BT. 

[Gary]

I have had on ADSL MAX the best speed test in ages today, things do seem to be improving my end, maybe something was done at my exchange, who knows but I'm happy 

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    Your DSL connection rate: 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6751 kbps

If you wish to discuss these results please contact your ISP.

[silverblade]

Seems to be fixed now.

BT speed tester showing throughput of 9,042 kbps.

Shame this is nowhere near 25meg still... Though I'm wondering if my modem isn't new enough to support anything beyond 12 meg...

[Simon]

I don't think there's many people who will get the full 24Mb, unless the exchange is at the bottom of your garden.  Don't know about the router, sorry. 

[Rik]

Shame this is nowhere near 25meg still... Though I'm wondering if my modem isn't new enough to support anything beyond 12 meg...

What are your attenuation and noise margin figures like?