Overseas traffic failing, local is fine

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Overseas traffic failing, local is fine

Duane

58 posts

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#183663 25-Oct-2015 20:30

Hi guys, last few days been having a weird issue with over seas sites and traffic.

Local connection speed is good, vdsl2 at 62MBit and speed and ping tests within the Spark network to their servers agree (both from the Spark webpage and Speedtest.Net). Locally cached traffic like Youtube is also pretty good...

But, overseas, even to Aussie, time outs, pages not loading etc. I had trouble even getting Speedtest.net to load, once loaded (took a minute or two), local servers were fast as mention above, but tests to say any servers in SanFran fail outright unless I hit retry several times then I get a burst of good speed. I just tried some to random Melbourne servers and when they worked they were ok-ish, 10Mbit or so, a lot slower than usual, but also a few failures from time outs etc.

Ping tests are inconclusive, eg ping to smtp.gmail.com is about 164ms, while chrome/firefox will just sit there saying page unavailable till a few refreshes later.

Before I log a ticket anyone know of planned network maintenance or have an idea why only overseas traffic is stuffed? I couldn't even get the microsoft.com website to load without a couple of refreshes...

Oh, possibly red herring and should be unrelated but fibre was just installed last week for some neighbours, just mentioning it even thou I see no relation to my issue...

-Duane

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Geekzone

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#1413645 25-Oct-2015 20:30

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

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Jase2985

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#1413742 25-Oct-2015 22:40

i have no issues on spark VDSL in auckland

getting line speed to speed test servers in Australia and solid 172ms pings to smtp.gmail.com

Duane

58 posts

Master Geek

#1413776 26-Oct-2015 00:28

I should of mentioned my location, Aucklands Northshore.

Btw, this page was not loading when trying to reply, so ran tracert while waiting;

Tracing route to geekzone.co.nz [104.25.178.9]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.254

2 6 ms 5 ms 5 ms 122-62-240-1.jetstream.xtra.co.nz [122.62.240.1]

3 * * * Request timed out.

4 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms ae8-10.akbr6.global-gateway.net.nz [122.56.116.5]

5 * * * Request timed out.

6 29 ms 29 ms 30 ms xe0-0-4.sebr3.global-gateway.net.nz [122.56.127.90]

7 * * * Request timed out.

8 31 ms 30 ms 29 ms 13335.syd.equinix.com [202.167.228.154]

9 * * * Request timed out.

10 * * * Request timed out.

11 * * * Request timed out.

At 30ms to last hop that replied is not bad at all... not sure about all those other time outs though...

BarTender

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#1413785 26-Oct-2015 07:22

It's very typical to drop icmp ping traffic so the fact there is timeouts in a traceroute is not usual.

What do you get from a ping not traceroute to common websites such as cnn, bbc, vimeo as I doubt it's a specific issue with international traffic as everyone would be screaming.

Jase2985

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#1413804 26-Oct-2015 09:04

have you restarted the modem?

scuwp

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#1413819 26-Oct-2015 09:53

May be totally unrelated, but had a similar issue in the last couple of days but on VF UFB. It was intermittent but seemed to get progressively worse. I did notice recent Win10 updates and an accompanying range of quirky PC issues after that. I am not sure what actually fixed it but I:

Flushed DNS and did a general cleanup (CC Cleaner)
Restarted computer
Did a modem reset

After that all good again.

Pretty basic but you never know. If it was a network wide issue there would have been a big uproar by now.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

Jase2985

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#1413887 26-Oct-2015 11:03

also what DNS servers are you using?

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Duane

58 posts

Master Geek

#1413939 26-Oct-2015 14:08

Thanks for the replies all,

DNS servers are Sparks defaults. Modem has been reset. Issue affects all machines on network, eg, an Macbook I had yesterday could not reach Apple for updates initially.

Ping results are Vimeo (5ms, Spark locally cached?), CNN (193ms), BBC (278ms); Vimeo loaded nice and fast, BBC loaded ok and CNN sat there connecting for about 15 seconds. Arcgames.com was about 242ms and website actually loaded ok this time, but the actual game (STO) has trouble connecting and drops out from times out frequently.

Ping to speedtest.net is steady 167ms, however, its been 20 seconds and counting while the actual webpage is sitting there connecting (after clearing cache) in another tab.

sbiddle

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#1413944 26-Oct-2015 14:23

Are your devices definitely getting DNS from the router? And don't have manual DNS settings?

Duane

58 posts

Master Geek

#1413947 26-Oct-2015 14:27

All devices are set to DHCP and getting both IP and DNS from the router.

Duane

58 posts

Master Geek

#1413949 26-Oct-2015 14:31

NSLookup is returning responses to everything I try nice and fast, so I think I'm good on the actual DNS front?

Jase2985

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#1413979 26-Oct-2015 15:47

well what ever the issue its not effecting all spark customers

CNN took me 7seconds to load the entire page and all its elements.

you are not using wifi by any chance are you?

Duane

58 posts

Master Geek

#1413990 26-Oct-2015 16:03

Wired connection on this PC doing the tests, same results on laptops with wifi.

dmcr

10 posts

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#1414043 26-Oct-2015 17:20

Hi, I can report exactly the same issues as you, with my VDSL connection, over the last day or so. Issue logged with my provider (spark) this morning. They said everything seemed normal, and are (supposedly) monitoring my connection over the next few days.

Interestingly I am also north shore, and fibre is also being rolled out on my street now.

sbiddle

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#1414045 26-Oct-2015 17:26

Fibre construction in your street is complete red herring. There is quite simply no way it can be related, not to mention the two networks share absolutely nothing in common with each other.

The only impact fibre construction could have would be a total loss of service if the contractors managed to cut the copper MPF while trenching, which happened on plenty of occasions.

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