Anyone else having issues with SamKnows?

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Anyone else having issues with SamKnows?

mezla1058

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#273230 11-Aug-2020 14:29

I decided to do my civic duty and get SamKnows on Orcon.

On average before that my internet would drop out once every 6 months or so (Router and/or ONT reboot required).

As soon as I connected SamKnows it started dropping out every week or sometimes several times a week. I had it on for about 3 weeks, but it's been off ever since. Will most likely return it.

Anyone else had issues with theirs?

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meow
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#2538627 11-Aug-2020 15:11

Yes - I have and a few others I know about have also.

I contacted SamKnows about it and they were not helpful at all. I asked them if they wanted the unit back and they told me to destroy it. I found it was struggling under any sort of load once you start chucking through Gigabit speeds.

You can flash OpenWRT to these if you wanted to use them for something else: https://openwrt.org/toh/samknows/sk-wb8

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OldGeek

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#2538630 11-Aug-2020 15:14

I have had mine for several years, at 3 different addresses, all with Orcon. From time to time I loose not only my internet service but also access to the config pages of the Orcon router. If I power off the SamKnows box and reboot the Orcon router all is OK. I have been working through this issue with SamKnows support for some months now. Currently the SamKnows box has been back up for 6 days with no problem. I am keen to support the initiative of monitoring NZ ISP performance.

My router is an NF18ACV, sitting in front of the Whitebox, an Orbi mesh router and a Synology NAS. I have one PC connected via ethernet to the NF18ACV, everything else via WIFI to the Orbi. I am on an Orcon Fibre 100/20 plan.

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surfisup1000

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#2538662 11-Aug-2020 16:23

Why bother getting a samknows box? They haven't published any useful consumer data after 2 or 3 years, and I doubt they ever will.

OldGeek

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#2538729 11-Aug-2020 17:47

surfisup1000:

Why bother getting a samknows box? They haven't published any useful consumer data after 2 or 3 years, and I doubt they ever will.

That's because the data is not theirs to publish. They are a service-provider to ComCom.

There is a SamKnows website where data is reported for each SamKnows user.

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surfisup1000

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#2538732 11-Aug-2020 18:05

OldGeek:

surfisup1000:

Why bother getting a samknows box? They haven't published any useful consumer data after 2 or 3 years, and I doubt they ever will.

That's because the data is not theirs to publish. They are a service-provider to ComCom.

There is a SamKnows website where data is reported for each SamKnows user.

So, what is the point of samknows?

xpd

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#2538776 11-Aug-2020 18:15

So Comcom knows we're getting what we pay for. In theory.

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surfisup1000

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#2538783 11-Aug-2020 18:43

xpd:

So Comcom knows we're getting what we pay for. In theory.

So, if we are not getting what we pay for, what does the comcom do?

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Sideface

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#2538806 11-Aug-2020 19:19

I have been a SamKnows tester for 2 years (before that I was a TrueNet tester). I am on a 2degrees gigabit fibre connection in Wellington.

I have had no outages for 2 years.

My only reservation about SamKnows is that its speed estimates seem to be pessimistic during peak hours.

Here are my time-of-day results for July: (click to view)

light blue: NZ (location not specified); dark blue: San Francisco; purple: London

Testing with the OOKLA app always gives better peak-hour results than this.

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Mush1364

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#2538823 11-Aug-2020 20:03

No lockup issues with my box, i reboot it every few months tho...

OldGeek

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#2538868 11-Aug-2020 21:14

Found this from Google: https://www.measuringbroadbandnewzealand.com/

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ANglEAUT

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#2538882 11-Aug-2020 21:36

mezla1058:

... Anyone else had issues with theirs?

No issues until about 6-8 weeks ago. Then, every +-2 weeks an unexplained internet stoppage. Initially rebooted everything & nearly called support. Now, first thing I do is reboot the SamKnows box to check if things are back to normal.

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sidefx

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#2539045 12-Aug-2020 07:54

No issues with disconnections or anything like that.

I have noticed some unexplained instances of skype\teams\zoom\etc showing "poor network quality" notifications and\or stuttering. I'm on 100/20 and sometimes kids etc will be watching netflix at the same time, but not much else happening, i.e. no major linux isoing or anything like that.... I can't recall how the samknows box works, does it avoid doing download tests etc when there is other traffic on your network? I wonder if I should disconnect it for a while to rule it out now.

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Lias

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#2539286 12-Aug-2020 12:05

Maybe...

I've had issues with my ISP supplied router locking up intermittently lately, but I hadn't thought it could be related to the SamKnows box.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

Andib

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#2539310 12-Aug-2020 12:21

Had the same issue, Support didn't seem to want to know about it so told them they can have it back. They said to either give it away (and give whoever gets it my password?) or destroy it. When I get time I'll attempt to flash WRT onto it.

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wired

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#2539335 12-Aug-2020 13:06

OldGeek:

I have had mine for several years, at 3 different addresses, all with Orcon. From time to time I loose not only my internet service but also access to the config pages of the Orcon router. If I power off the SamKnows box and reboot the Orcon router all is OK. I have been working through this issue with SamKnows support for some months now. Currently the SamKnows box has been back up for 6 days with no problem. I am keen to support the initiative of monitoring NZ ISP performance.

My router is an NF18ACV, sitting in front of the Whitebox, an Orbi mesh router and a Synology NAS. I have one PC connected via ethernet to the NF18ACV, everything else via WIFI to the Orbi. I am on an Orcon Fibre 100/20 plan.

i have the same router from Orcon with Samknows and had the same lockup problems. Orcon sent a replacement router But it acted the same.

in the end I replaced the Orcon router with an old Huawei router from another ISP that had worked with Samknows for years and haven’t had a problem.

The NF18ACV isn’t up to the task.

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