Sudden upload bandwidth drop

[JamesAllen]

Aha - great idea. I forgot I had that setup. Here are the results from yesterday:



Packet loss is clear during the times where my upstream dropped massively..

and check out Friday which is where my show was ruined:

[Bill]

I've seen worse (tho' that's no consolation), but those traces are pretty horrible

I'd say that exchange congestion is a very good candidate, but what to do about it...

Have you got BE at your exchange to try LLU?

[JamesAllen]

Hi Bill,

Up to Thursday though, there was no packet loss shown. The latency is right as there is constant traffic most of the time. It's been very stable for years now (apart from that one day in April) and I do a weekly radio show with high quality web cam feed without issue.

So something has suddenly changed.

I checked last night and no BE / O2 at the exchange, only other LLU providors.

The problem with the packet loss is that is knocks upstream to <0.3 and it's inconsistent, dropping to below 0.15 at times. So totally and utterly useless for streaming.

[Bill]

So something has suddenly changed.

That's why I wondered about a business moving into the area (or an existing one changing their procedures) and backing up over the 'net. Or even someone else doing the same as you are

It would hammer the normally lighter-loaded upstream without much effect on the downstream... I think. Comments from someone who knows more about the way BT handle these things would be very welcome at this point, I'm struggling!

[JamesAllen]

Yeah it could be a sudden change of activity at the exchange, though could a single additional user really affect things this badly?
I agree that it would be good to hear from someone who knows exactly how things are handled on the BT side.

I'm hoping this fixes itself - especially before a week on Friday.

[Bill]

could a single additional user really affect things this badly?

I don't think it's inconceivable... if they've got perhaps a high-speed SDSL connection and are paying for high-priority QoS, who knows?

[pctech]

I didn't think BT separated up and downstream although if the links from the exchange were fibre which is likely to be single mode then you would have a fibre carrying data from the exchange and one carrying data to the exchange.

[JamesAllen]

Well looking at the broadband quality monitor today the packet loss that started on Thursday until yesterday has not occurred. Very strange. Was at a very specific time frame on those days. Wonder what could cause that. Hopefully just a temporary glitch then like it was last April.. Will keep monitoring over the next week.. Fingers crossed.

[JamesAllen]

Well no problems at all yesterday so things seem to be back to normal. I contacted IDNet support and have been asked to send diagnostics from the BT Speedtester but I have advised them that things seem ok now but if it occurs over the next week I will run the test at that point to grab the data.

Hoping it was just some kind of exchange maintenance over a long weekend or a temporary issue..

Thanks for all the help guys and I'll update the thread if it occurs again.

[Rik]

Good luck.