[WXC/VFX] xnet connection issues

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] xnet connection issues

techleigh

60 posts

Master Geek

#71010 3-Nov-2010 14:34

I live in the Botany area and have had a Xnet internet connection for a few years but am getting very slow connection speeds.

On my Linksys wireless modem/router I get the standard 6000 to 7000 kbps down and 762kbps up
On xnet speedtest I get approx 300 to 500 kbps down and 128 kbps up

thought maybe that is just Dannemora with high saturation of broadband but went around the corner (3 house away) and used same speedtest from xnet on a friends Xtra powered Thomson modem and got
6000 + kbps down and 600+ kbps up

Tried at work via Xnet connection and get
router: 6752 kbps down and 768 kbps up
speedtest: 5710 kbps down and 114 kbps up (limited River plan)

Can't fathom why I get such slow broadband - for a short time the other day I got comparable speeds to the xtra around the corner for a few hours on the download side

Anyone have any idea why I'm getting slow download and xtra customer at same time of day getting great speeds??

Ragnor

8219 posts

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#399642 3-Nov-2010 14:42

Your house > Cabinet/Exchange > Backhaul to aggregation point > More backhaul to Xnet handover point > Xnet's handover links > Xnet's network > national/international transit

I would guess the backhaul to Xnet's handover point or the handover links are congested at peak times ie: after school/work until 10/11pm.

Try the speed test at different times of day if you can.

What exchange/cabinet are you on? Check here:
http://www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/maps

Also I would ring the helpdesk, Xnet have a pretty good helpdesk and can help you troubleshoot, try and check congestion and possibly advise you on whether you'd be able to switch to a newer plan based off Telecom wholesale's EUBA product instead of UBS or BUBA which it sounds like they are providing your service over now.

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#399672 3-Nov-2010 15:32

What time are you running the tests? I did the same thing, testing my xnet dsl connection vs a friends (on the same exchange as me) xtra connection to xnet's speedtest and got ~2mbit down on xnet vs 6mbit down on xtra.

Either xnet aren't buying enough backhaul or telecom is giving xtra customers priority. ;)

Ragnor

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#399682 3-Nov-2010 15:42

Either xnet aren't buying enough backhaul or telecom is giving xtra customers priority. ;)

Basically Telecom Retail and Xnet use the same Telecom Wholesale services UBS, UBA, BUBA, EUBA etc to provide ADSL. You can read about them on the Telecom wholesale site http://www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/

Note: Those services/products are regulated by the Commerce Commission.

One real difference is that Telecom handover traffic closer to the user's region ie: at more points around the country than any other ISP. I believe Xnet only handover at 1 or 2 locations.

Telecom have a more favourable balance of low usage not very active mom and pop users sharing the capacity with geeky heavy users than Xnet imo.

So yes there are differences but not really Xnet buying enough backhaul or Telecom wholesale giving Telecom Retail priority.

techleigh

60 posts

Master Geek

#399749 3-Nov-2010 17:53

I am on East Tamaki exchange ETM / BD cabinet
I sometimes get over 2000 kbps on sunday AM before everyone awakes but usually not that quick.
The time of day was the same for the friends house as mine and they share the same cabinet.
Is the XNET River plan using a slower tech than the current connections to XNET?

I was planning to move to VFX and the unlimited up/down speeds but I don't want to change and pay more to get the same slow speeds

Ragnor

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#399868 3-Nov-2010 22:28

I would expect slower speeds at peak time but it sounds odd that you would be only getting 2Mbit on a 6-7Mbit line rate at off peak times.

You should probably give the helpdesk a ring and go through troubleshooting with them, they have a decent helpdesk imo.

johnhb67

54 posts

Master Geek

#403101 10-Nov-2010 21:22

Hi guys
I just joined xnet this evening and my speedtest has dropped from 5.1 mb/sec with xtra on adsl2 to 1.1 mb sec xnet.
The stats from my modem -xnet are

Line Rate
6909 Kbps
945 Kbps

Attainable Line Rate
5788 Kbps
945 Kbps

from speednet I get:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/1024419870.png
I meg a second.
I did note my server is in Tauranga

Do these test sites tell the true story as my browsing doesnt seem any slower.
chow

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#403103 10-Nov-2010 21:32

Yeah, that seems about right for on peak xnet.

Equinox IT

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Niel

3267 posts

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#403152 10-Nov-2010 22:48

Your sync rate correlates with the speed you got from Telecom. Right now speed test for me is 1.5Mbps despite around 7Mbps during the day. Every now and again the peak time speed suffers. Must be one of those times again.

Apparently they are looking again at speed improvements, saw a comment somewhere (on my invoice?). Tonight/lately does seem worse than "normal". Apparently Telecom Wholesale has to guarantee only a miserable speed per customer and Xtra is the only ISP with consistently good speed, I'm tired and hopefully someone else can expand/confirm.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Niel

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#403198 11-Nov-2010 06:14

6:00 AM and I get 8.5Mbps compared to last night's 1.5Mbps. As said, since you modem sync at a good rate I do not think there is anything wrong with the connection itself and is just congestion. Also not an international bandwidth issue, because it is a local speed test.

You can never have enough Volvos!

johnhb67

54 posts

Master Geek

#403200 11-Nov-2010 06:35

Its congestion...
next morning, 6megs / sec plus...
https://www.speedtest.net/result/1024988529.png

Niel

3267 posts

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#403636 11-Nov-2010 22:29

Students on holiday.

You can never have enough Volvos!

insane

3239 posts

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#403659 11-Nov-2010 23:31

Niel: Apparently Telecom Wholesale has to guarantee only a miserable speed per customer and Xtra is the only ISP with consistently good speed, I'm tired and hopefully someone else can expand/confirm.

I've got the same problem with my parents Xnet DSl connection, can only get a max of 1.38mbps on a sync rate of 10mbps for local speedtests.

The problem will come down to Telecom wholesale only allowing Xnet to user 32kbps-ish per user of backhaul at their handover point. ISPs can every 3 months submit their forecasted DSL growth to Telecom Wholesale and state that they will expect to grow by XX% of users and therefore are entitled to slightly more than 32kbps per user based on their growth rate.

Backhaul limit at handover link = [ 32kbps * (current users + forcasted new users in next 6 months)].

So if your ISP has attracted many heavy downloaders without picking up swaths of light users to counter balance them, there is not much you can do.

Ragnor

8219 posts

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#403660 11-Nov-2010 23:34

Weren't they going to raise it to 48kbps per subscriber by now? Guess not.

Assuming average 10Mbit sync (which is what Telecom is aiming for with the cabinet program) 32kbps CIR per subscriber... that's like 320:1 contention, horrible!

For comparison residential ADSL in the UK from BT was 50:1 or 20:1 (if you paid a bit more) several years ago. I think it's 5:1 in practice these days according to "google".

Are there technical reasons for handover links limitations (ie: they need to spend lots more money to build more fibre or something) or is this pure artificial scarcity?

grudge

266 posts

Ultimate Geek

#403900 12-Nov-2010 14:29

It's 45kBps per customer on UBA afaik. 32kBps was for UBS and the new EUBA wholesale plans will have different guarantees depending on the plan you get (EUBA 180, 0, 90) etc.

Ragnor

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#403959 12-Nov-2010 17:21

EUBA other than EUBA0... don't they use vlan tagging to gaurantee QoS for the voip channel though right separate to general data.