Problem with Vodafone NZ to US speeds (both FibreMax and HFC)

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › Problem with Vodafone NZ to US speeds (both FibreMax and HFC)

thinkingtrex8848

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#274607 31-Aug-2020 12:04

I'll save the long-winded explanations and just jump straight to a traceroute. Can anybody confirm that there are problems to US based usenet servers when connecting via Vodafone?
I have tested with Vodafone fibre, cable and 2Degrees from. Only Vodafone has the issue.

Previously the speeds were around 500-550mbps but since July 27(approx), speeds appear to be capping at 20mbps. I have tested with multiple usenet providers and all of their servers based in US are experiencing this issue. EU based servers are still working okay (220mbps which hasn't changed).

Here is the current tracert:

traceroute to news.newsgroup.****

1 (192.168.1.1) 1.976 ms 1.174 ms 1.147 ms

2 * 3.083 ms 4.073 ms 90.553 ms

3 * 4.187 ms 4.085 ms 4.077 ms

4 towerstream.as29930.any2ix.coresite.com (206.72.210.26) 272.274 ms 204.221 ms 160.394 ms

5 151.139.68.3 (151.139.68.3) 170.792 ms 171.086 ms 170.735 ms

6 151.139.68.67 (151.139.68.67) 170.464 ms 170.949 ms 340.031 ms

7 100.65.0.40 (100.65.0.40) 206.538 ms 401.616 ms 190.747 ms

8 100.65.0.31 (100.65.0.31) 322.878 ms 201.107 ms 200.915 ms

9 100.65.0.48 (100.65.0.48) 411.958 ms 215.819 ms 266.883 ms

10 151.139.48.3 (151.139.48.3) 214.699 ms 213.919 ms 401.068 ms

11 * 214.410 ms 397.482 ms 214.569 ms

12 * 400.324 ms 324.056 ms 214.674 ms

Attached is tracert done before the issue started. Sorry only have a screenshot.

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#2553175 31-Aug-2020 14:43

Related to Level3 outage today? https://blog.cloudflare.com/analysis-of-todays-centurylink-level-3-outage/

thinkingtrex8848

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#2554155 31-Aug-2020 14:50

chicoo:

Related to Level3 outage today ?
https://blog.cloudflare.com/analysis-of-todays-centurylink-level-3-outage/

My issue started approximately July 27th and been troubleshooting various options since until yesterday when we confirmed the issue is not with other ISPs in NZ - just Vodafone.

chicoo

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#2554300 31-Aug-2020 17:48

Vodafone should be able to fix your problem.

They should be able to switch the outgoing traffic via a different provider if you talk to the right person, from your traceroute; they are sending the traffic via Any2 IX in LA.
hopefully someone from Vodafone pick up your request and handle it.

yitz

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#2554351 31-Aug-2020 18:35

More likely it would be the route taken on the return path.

Not sure whether this is the exact destination network as OP has obfuscated but might be relevant:
https://lookingglass.hwng.net/

thinkingtrex8848

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#2554674 1-Sep-2020 09:29

So Vodafone's reply:

"Hi ******,

Unfortunately we have no control over the routing of internet traffic once it leaves our own network.

Nonetheless, please also bear in mind that actual max user speeds will vary and are affected by various factors including how you're connected to the internet (using a Gigabit Ethernet cable is better than Wi-Fi, which could have a large impact on speed), the hardware and software used, number of devices connected, time of day, and where the data is downloaded from. This is also outlined on our website at the following link - https://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/ultra-fast-fibre/fibre-max/

Kind regards,
^HA"

I'm still puzzled why they think it has anything to do with Ethernet cable/WiFi speeds or treating this as a generic "reset your modem and everything will be fine" issue.

thinkingtrex8848

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#2554702 1-Sep-2020 10:40

"Hi *****,

What are you ping tests like to any US based servers (like www.latimes.com for example) , and where are they based? What my colleague was trying to say is that traffic data past New Zealand hits international servers firstly based in Sydney then likely onto Hawaii or LA - those network links themselves - as is the premise of the "interweb" is out of our control. Regards,

^D"

I advised issue is affecting ALL usenet servers in US and I don't see major issues with US based websites. So www.latimes.com ping times are all good. Servers are mainly based in Ashburn, VA in the US.

Here is a tracert to the same servers from 2Deg Fibre where the issue doesn't exist:

traceroute to ****-us.sslusenet.com , 64 hops max, 72 byte packets

1 fritz.box (192.168.178.1) 2.025 ms 1.423 ms 1.265 ms

2 ****.static.snap.net.nz 3.091 ms 2.727 ms 2.724 ms

3 198.18.10.218 (198.18.10.218) 3.436 ms 5.338 ms 4.632 ms

4 198.18.10.217 (198.18.10.217) 3.191 ms 2.356 ms 2.869 ms

5 173.10.69.111.static.snap.net.nz (111.69.10.173) 3.626 ms 3.718 ms 3.405 ms

6 * * *

7 two-degrees-new-zealand.as23655.any2ix.coresite.com (206.72.211.83) 144.763 ms 144.477 ms 144.169 ms

8 151.139.68.3 (151.139.68.3) 145.334 ms 144.477 ms 144.393 ms

9 151.139.68.67 (151.139.68.67) 148.342 ms 145.295 ms 145.361 ms

10 * * *

11 * * *

12 * * *

13 151.139.48.3 (151.139.48.3) 301.369 ms 202.818 ms 204.111 ms

14 151.139.48.95 (151.139.48.95) 205.468 ms 205.046 ms 205.191 ms

15 ****** 203.097 ms 203.043 ms 203.188 ms

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thinkingtrex8848

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#2554730 1-Sep-2020 11:32

Here is a tracert to US based regular news website.

C:\Users\Admin>tracert www.latimes.com

Tracing route to dnere6g15e5vs.cloudfront.net [13.224.179.86]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Linksys02470 [192.168.1.1]
2 29 ms 2 ms 9 ms **.dsl.dyn.ihug.co.nz [**
3 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms 10.200.12.29
4 38 ms 38 ms 40 ms 99.83.65.9
5 40 ms 40 ms 38 ms 99.83.65.8
6 39 ms 39 ms 43 ms 52.95.38.67
7 39 ms 38 ms 39 ms 52.95.36.237
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 38 ms 38 ms 38 ms server-13-224-179-86.syd1.r.cloudfront.net [13.224.179.86]

chicoo

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#2554808 1-Sep-2020 14:30

Your last traceroute is hosted in cloudfront so you are going to Sydney

Back to Vodafone reply, it's very sad to see a reply like this from Vodafone.

They should be able to compare their speeds with other providers in NZ toward the destination you have bad experience, and adjust their routing to have better connectivity or at least open a ticket with their upstream providers to investigate.

I work for one of the Big 4 companies and we daily receive similar cases like yours, and a complaint like this would never left without solving.

quickymart

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#2555003 1-Sep-2020 17:36

Probably easier for them to give a reply like that and hope the customer goes away, saves them looking into it.

thinkingtrex8848

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#2555229 1-Sep-2020 21:41

So what can I do?
Occasionally Netflix buffers a lot which is unacceptable on a 950/500 plan.

When we bought the house it only had the HFC which is why we just stuck with Vodafone and ended up renewing contract when they offered UFB package deal.

Regretting going with them as they don't seem to value the customer enquiries and doesn't feel very valued.

chicoo

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#2555279 1-Sep-2020 22:20

brownie112: So what can I do?
Occasionally Netflix buffers a lot which is unacceptable on a 950/500 plan.

When we bought the house it only had the HFC which is why we just stuck with Vodafone and ended up renewing contract when they offered UFB package deal.

Regretting going with them as they don't seem to value the customer enquiries and doesn't feel very valued.

Netflix issue is a different one, Vodafone has CDNs in Wellington & Christchurch as well as Auckland so you aren’t going via the Internet for Netflix streaming , most likely you are served from a cache near you

Are you using VPN ? or different DNS than VF DNS server ?
Check also your wifi coverage , problem my be internal to your network

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thinkingtrex8848

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#2555283 1-Sep-2020 22:32

chicoo:
brownie112: So what can I do?
Occasionally Netflix buffers a lot which is unacceptable on a 950/500 plan.

When we bought the house it only had the HFC which is why we just stuck with Vodafone and ended up renewing contract when they offered UFB package deal.

Regretting going with them as they don't seem to value the customer enquiries and doesn't feel very valued.

Netflix issue is a different one, Vodafone has CDNs in Wellington & Christchurch as well as Auckland so you aren’t going via the Internet for Netflix streaming , most likely you are served from a cache near you

Are you using VPN ? or different DNS than VF DNS server ?
Check also your wifi coverage , problem my be internal to your network

Netflix is random, not super worried about it at the moment.
Local speedtest.net gives 800-900 ish on Ethernet and WiFi is only being used on the mobile phones that doesn't use Netflix.

No VPN whatsoever for Netflix. Ignore the Netflix issue as that is very random and compared to the issue at hand, not that worried.

What is of high priority is to get the Usenet speeds back up as that's where most of the internet use is going.

I know a few people who just connect to EU servers and never knew US servers were much better for speeds. Unless you had it set up properly, you wouldn't have known you could get 80MB/s downloads from US. This might be the reason others may not have complained as they may have just settled for the EU speeds which is less than half of what I was getting.

Is there any Vodafone person here able to assist with this?

thinkingtrex8848

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#2555564 2-Sep-2020 12:26

So I've decided to switch from Vodafone and end up paying early fees because this is too much hassle to sort it out.

I've confirmed 2deg doesn't have this issue but anybody know if Voyager would be similar to Vodafone or 2deg?

Only thing holding me back from 2deg is they do not do dynamic dns and with static ip they are more expensive.

quickymart

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#2555600 2-Sep-2020 13:18

I was with Voyager and found them fine, but I didn't need a static or anything.

thinkingtrex8848

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#2557149 4-Sep-2020 16:24

So much faffing around with level 2 and 3 support, got so many different answers along the lines of either they don't know what is going on or they will keep escalating to different department. Every time it gets escalated(or transferred) to another queue, I had to send the traceroutes again via email, then by text message and explain the whole issue to the new guy.

Decided to just use the glimp sign up link from geekzone and join 2degrees. Cost me about $20/month more but happy to pay extra for better service.

Connections to US is back to normal as well.

Hopefully 2deg won't have the routing changes or even if something changes, hopefully they will be little better at troubleshooting the issue.

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