Packet Loss/Low Throughput

[zappaDPJ]

I've recently moved house and moved from one rotten copper pair to another. Engineers have looked at the line and declared it fit for purpose even though it drops out on a very regular basis.



Aside from the drop outs, high latency and packet loss, I don't have enough throughput to stream content which is now the only real reason we have broadband apart from for general browsing. I'm trying to determine if that's due to the problems with my line or if it's more general. Speed tests vary from 0.5 mb/s to around 15 mb/s but even when I get 15 mb/s we still get buffering or more usually, low bandwidth messages.



I'm considering getting a second line put in and taking an all you can eat service with Sky in the hope that the new line will fix the existing issues but in the short term I'd like to try and work out exactly where my problems is. So is it just me or is anyone else having issues? I should mention that I have seen a lot of packet loss in various IDNet BQMs but as nobody has complained I'm assuming it's been of little or no consequence?

[Adrian]

I'm getting lots of line drops today, but it is a tad wet n windy which may account for it.

[zappaDPJ]

Rain is certainly a factor in my case, a line drop is guaranteed within seconds of it starting to rain. Although it's hard to tell but there does seem to be a similar pattern of packet loss on your graph.

[jane]

A similar pattern here as well. I just checked in to see if anyone else was seeing the same.

[jane]

Same again today

[zappaDPJ]

Judging by the complaints I'm getting from the rest of the household here, it's pretty dire.



[EDIT] It's taken me the best part of 15 minutes just to retrieve that graph and post here so yeah, dreadful.

[jane]

It's not one of the business customers up to their shenanigans again is it? Didn't we have something similar a while back?
Upload speed is okay but download is down to just over 5 Mbps.

[zappaDPJ]

It's not one of the business customers up to their shenanigans again is it? Didn't we have something similar a while back?
Upload speed is okay but download is down to just over 5 Mbps.

I honestly don't know. IDNet have suggested various possibilities, including Apple updates and problems within the BT Network. At the moment I can't see any issues at all with BQMs set up by users with providers like Plusnet. On the other hand the packet loss is appearing on all the IDNet BQMs I can see.

[nowster]

It does seem only to be happening during office hours.

(Of course, not noticing it here on the end of the wet string in NW Wales as the sync speed is 3.1Mbps but the current IP profile speed is 1.75Mbps.)

[jane]

Maybe it will stop over Christmas then though that doesn't help people with kids on holiday now does it.
Maybe it's an office hours call-in centre for Santa Live updates. Or the staff are streaming him live.

[mervl]

Since the second week of December I've had the same sort of packet loss as Zap (but on a better line) on weekdays noon-6pm (sometimes starts from 10am). Browsing can be a bit sluggish and streaming buffers a bit. In Essex, though and Stepney Green PoP. No BTw local fault reported, so I'm putting it down to congestion, though it looks as though the local loop is OK from what the modem reports, but anywhere else at the cab/exchange, across the BTw network or IDNet's own network. Just have to wait, someone will get "a round tuit" eventually. It's regular so I work around it and just schedule a dog walk instead. At least he's happy.

[jane]

It certainly looks like an IDNet  phenomenon. I am in Cornwall on a usually good line 40/10 -speed is right back up in the evenings. During the day though I even have problems with Ancestry UK loading pages. Happy dog here too despite the weather.

[Gary]

I've had random speed drops and buffering during late afternoon 2-5 ish period same as before a few years back. This is on a usually great performing 80/20 line.

[jane]

Here?

We have traced the cause of this problem to a corporate customer who supplies video content to marketing kiosks installed at several large supermarket chains. The kiosks are connected by broadband lines, supplied by us, back to their content server. Whenever new content is 'published' on the server several hundred kioks all start to immediately download the new content, at the same time!

With thier consent we are going to rate-limit the content server so that the content is installed at a more measured pace.

Thanks Simon. Amscreen by any chance?

[Gary]

Here?

That was it. I cant see it being Apple updates etc, but this happens to all providers it seems, Plusnet went though a stage of slow traffic, Zen had a hiccup as well I saw on Think Broadband a while back, I think its the nature of the beast unless you are with say BT, or Sky etc who have huge network capacity to begin with. Also when 4K streaming takes off I'll have to move on as IDNet would become to expensive for the data that's needed for IPTV. Right now IDNet are pretty good really and I'm not using that much data at all, but internet data usage is changing and people will will need unlimited at lower cost than niche ISP's can provide, as they are not set up for massive consumer demand but cater more for business clients

[jane]

Sad but true Gary. I don't want to think of having to move yet but it may be inevitable.
Today has been abysmal. No web, no emails, not funny!

[jane]

Have only just been able to get back here. Am I the only one?

[Simon]

It's been fine for me here and everywhere else tonight, but I'm only on ADSL2+, not fibre.

[Wobbly]

Have only just been able to get back here. Am I the only one?

No you're not the only one, I had nothing or very low downspeed last night from getting in from work to about 11.30. When I did get chance to test, upload was normal. I'm in East Dorset.

[Ray]

No problem here in Leicestshire on Fibre.

[mervl]

Almost insignificant packet loss yesterday afternoon (23rd) 2-3pm, none so far today, Xmas Eve. Can only think whoever/whatever was causing the December afternoon packet loss issue for me has packed up early and gone off for the holidays. Hopefully they'll make the desired New Years resolution to make themselves less of a menace please.

[zappaDPJ]

No change here, continual disconnects, packet loss and low downstream.

[mervl]

Our old friend the slight packet loss (2-3%) and random speed loss/buffering has reappeared for its daily exercise from 2pm-5pm-ish from Monday 4th, after his Christmas break. Almost certainly a business user hammering the network I should think. Doesn't affect the use of my connection though except the occasional buffer/loss during streaming after lunch. I've got better things to do, though! 

[zappaDPJ]

I'm seeing the same.

I also have an update on my connection status. We now live by the sea in the middle of nowhere. On Christmas Eve the railway line started to collapse into the sea so we now live in the middle of nowhere not connected to anywhere. The other half has no choice but to work from home which will require an Internet connection that doesn't continually drop.

So, this morning just after 7.00am I got an unexpected call from an OpenReach engineer just as I was about to start a rather long drive up to London. I literally tossed a coin and told him I'd wait in. He arrived in the middle of a monsoon but did his job nevertheless and found a fault between the pole and my master socket. He spent nearly two hours conducting tests and I've finally got the fault recorded in OpenReach's system.

The next hurdle to overcome is the pole is on private property to which OpenReach have no access so now we know why my faulty line was never faulty enough to fix. I've got another engineer booked for Monday, I have no idea what he'll be able to do.

[jane]

Sounds like a cop out. They must have had access to the pole at some time surely.

Yes, our old friend is back but on a much smaller scale and at different times so possibly not the same thing as before. The last lot stopped suddenly just before Christmas so probably was business related.

Brian said this when I pointed IDNet to this thread:

"We had seen some packet loss on the links out to some BT Wholesale. We have installed new links on the network to add more capacity so we can send them more data as required, these links should be operational in January and prevent issues like this in future."

Still too early in January to tell.