[TelstraClear] Slow broadbands speeds and Telstra Clear seem unable or unwilling to help

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Slow broadbands speeds and Telstra Clear seem unable or unwilling to help

tritex

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#90929 3-Oct-2011 18:09

Hoping people can provide me with opinions on what the problem is, any tips on resolving it and if it's a regular occurrence on Telstra Clears ADSL network!

So lets start:

I've had an ongoing issue with Telstra Clear since switching to them in October last year with slow broadband speeds.

I was formally with Snap Internet and always had speeds over 10mbps download (often as high as 17mbps) i don't recall ever having a speed test under 10mbps while with Snap even during peak times etc.

However that all changed when i switched to Telstra Clear, as soon as the switch occurred the download speed immediately dropped to between 0.5mbps and 4mbps depending on the time of day, on a really good day for a short time i might get 8mbps out of it for a short peroid of time however that is incredibly rare. Upload speeds are fine and average around 0.80mbps and are similar around the clock.

So i'm just talking about a pretty large change in download speeds. More often than not it's not fast enough to stream Youtube or video content "live".

I have reported this multiple times to Telstra Clear, they blame the wholesaler and make up many excuses always ending in "it will be fixed as soon as possible by the wholesaler" Most recently they advised it was an issue effecting ADSL customers in the entire Wellington region and Wairarapa, i find that hard to believe. Theres never been any improvement yet.

I believe it's Telstra Clear restricting my speed as it never happened previously. The only difference is Telstra Clear supplied me with a new modem, but i've tried the old modem and still get the same result. I'm in an ADSL2 area, within a very short distance to an upgraded cabniet, i have my modem selected to ADSL2+ mode.

Primary DNS: 203.97.78.43 & Secondary DNS: 203.97.78.44

I'm in the Solway, Masterton urban area. ADSL not cable obviously.

Modem stats are below:

Line ModeADSL2+ Line StateShow Time Line Power StateL0 Line Up Time00:00:26:31 Line CodingTrellis On Line Up Count1 StatisticsDownstreamUpstreamLine Rate17272 Kbps931 KbpsAttainable Line Rate20860 Kbps931 KbpsNoise Margin15.1 dB15.8 dBLine Attenuation2.5 dB2.2 dBOutput Power17.3 dBm12.6 dBm

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#528650 3-Oct-2011 18:12

I'l try and make those line stats easier to read, sorry about that.

Line Rate17272 Kbps931 Kbps

Attainable Line Rate20832 Kbps931 Kbps

Noise Margin15.1 dB15.9 dB

Line Attenuation2.5 dB2.2 dB

Output Power17.3 dBm12.6 dBm

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DonGould

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#528655 3-Oct-2011 18:27

Contact John at TrueNet and offer to join his list of probes would be my first stop.

Can you post your speed test results on the various servers?

What sites are you having trouble pulling data from?

Have you read the current crop of threads here on the same issues?

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#528658 3-Oct-2011 18:32

What modem model? Is it running the latest firmware available? Are you connected to the cabinet or to the exchange?

Are there any filters on your line? Is the phone plugged to the filter? Is the modem plugged to the filter? Have you tested speeds with nothing else plugged?

Do you have a monitored alarm? SkyTV with broadband connection?

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DonGould

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#528666 3-Oct-2011 18:45

freitasm: What modem model? Is it running the latest firmware available? Are you connected to the cabinet or to the exchange?

Are there any filters on your line? Is the phone plugged to the filter? Is the modem plugged to the filter? Have you tested speeds with nothing else plugged?

Do you have a monitored alarm? SkyTV with broadband connection?

tritex:

Line Rate17272 Kbps931 Kbps
Attainable Line Rate20832 Kbps931 Kbps

Indicates that it's not any of the issues you presented above other than firmware, but he did also say that he's tried two modems.

What he hasn't shown us is the error information. So if he's got a high sync, but also errors off the chart, then the useful ATM cells will be very low?

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tritex

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#528692 3-Oct-2011 19:46

Modem Model: Dynalink RTA1320V6
Firmware is currently: 3.65p

Only have two jackpoints in the house, Sky does plug into one of them but via a filter. I have tried testing it once before with the Sky unplugged and no improvement was noticed. And the only other jackpoint has broadband and a phone line going into a filter.

I would hope i'm running off of the cabniet as the exchange is 4km away but i don't know how to find that out.

Thanks Don for recommending John at Truenet i've read the website and will register for the probing.

The main sites i'm having problems with are anything that involves streaming, Video, Voice etc. Examples include Youtube, TVNZ OnDemand, TV3 ondemand, Isky etc. Pretty much any video sites. Also i notice a larger delay in web pages loading and changing in general than previously.

Below are some results of various speed tests / ping tests from tonight:

Speedtest.net Auckland Server World Xchange Communications:
Ping: 55ms Download: 1.88mbps Upload: 0.75mbps

Speedtest.net Auckland Server Vodafone:
Ping: 55ms Download: 1.58mbps Upload: 0.78

Consumer Speed Test (www.consumerspeedtest.org.nz)
No Ping stated. Download: 2.00mbps Upload: 0.75mbps

TelstraClear Speedtests below

Wellington: Ping: 55ms, Download: 2.76mbps, Upload: 0.78mbps
Auckland: Ping: 65ms, Download: 2.59mbps, Upload: 0.78mbps
Christchurch: Ping: 59ms, Download: 2.56mbps, Upload: 0.78mbps

Telecom Speedtest: Ping: 112ms, Download: 1.54mbps, Upload: 0.71mbps

Pingtest.net shows:

Napier server: Ping: 65ms, Jitter: 1ms, Packet Loss: 0% (Overall rating B)
Tauranga Server: Ping: 57ms, Jitter: 2ms, Packet Loss: 0% (Overall rating B)

freitasm

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#528695 3-Oct-2011 19:50

What are the DNS you have configured?

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DonGould

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#528696 3-Oct-2011 19:53

freitasm: What are the DNS you have configured?

You ask that often in cases like these.

How would DNS have any impact on those speed tests and the video?

(Not saying they don't :) :) :), just noticed you bring up DNS often and I'm wondering how it might impact as I don't understand. I only thought that DNS was to get an IP address and after that's done, which should only trade a fraction of a second, the rest is up to the connection?)

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#528699 3-Oct-2011 19:57

Because if you use the correct TelstraClear DNS you will get local cache (TelstraClear's own Google cache, including YouTube and other Google services) or local Akamai servers.

If you use a third party DNS then you might get a server that it's not inside the network, or worse, a server that is in the US (if you use Google DNS, OpenDNS or another). This sure will give very bad response times.

Even worse, if you get a DNS response pointing to a server in the US, but their CDN decides to redirect to a New Zealand server, then the TelstraClear firewall might drop the packets as "unsolicited", since they are coming from a server that was not contacted in first place.

You'll see for example Facebook pages not loading if you use an external DNS.

Now, I would rather having these discussions concentrating on finding the root cause of a fault in the future, shall we?

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tritex

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#528701 3-Oct-2011 19:59

Primary DNS: 203.97.78.43
Secondary DNS: 203.97.78.44

freitasm

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#528702 3-Oct-2011 19:59

Great, well done.

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DonGould

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#528704 3-Oct-2011 20:04

freitasm: Now, I would rather having these discussions concentrating on finding the root cause of a fault in the future, shall we?

Sorry to take the thread off topic. As I said, I noted you comment a number of times about this and I did not understand why.

Thanks for explaining it because I'm currently using one of TC's older DNS I think, and I've noticed some quite slow responses on stuff including 460ms to Google.

But thank you very much, because I'm going to have another quick look at this on my own site as well.

Per: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=44&topicid=82565

--- 203.97.78.43
--- 203.97.78.44

Thanks FM.

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floydbloke

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#528814 4-Oct-2011 08:48

You're not alone tritex

I'm also on TesltraClear ADSL, and ever since switching from Telecom Xtra I have noticed it is a lot slower. Especially in the last week or two it seems to be deteriorating often getting browser status messages "waiting for somesite.com" and seems particularly bad for google owned sites, e..g www.google.co.nz, accounts.google.com, etc. often waiting for up to a minute or more.

Happens on different browser types, OS's , wired/wireless PCs. Router (DLink 502) stats all look fine, good connection speeds, attenuation rates, no errors. No alarms or other phone line peripherals. Tried all sorts of DNS servers. It's noticeably worse at peak times. I'm trying to make contact with some knowledgeable people in TelstraClear to help me through this.

Anyway, this is your thread and I have no intention of hijacking it, but I'll be watching it with interest and I'll certainly post any developments from my end.

After I was born, I didn't talk to my parents for two years.

DonGould

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#528820 4-Oct-2011 09:00

Odd thing this morning.

I ran a quick ping on my router to www.google.co.nz which resolved to: 203.97.30.149

Then I did another ping from my linux box... but that got a different result. So then I went back to the router to have a quick look at the dns server cache... By that time there was no sight of 203.97.30.149... so I ran a host command...

~# host www.google.co.nz
www.google.co.nz is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com is an alias for www.l.google.com.
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.18
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.19
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.20
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.16
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.17

Ok, that's a bit odd... But I know FM will tell me off for using the wrong ns server (which I'm not, but my test above doesn't prove out :) )

So...

# host www.google.co.nz 203.97.78.43
Using domain server:
Name: 203.97.78.43
Address: 203.97.78.43#53
Aliases:

www.google.co.nz is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com is an alias for www.l.google.com.
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.17
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.18
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.19
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.20
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.16

# host www.google.co.nz 203.97.78.44
Using domain server:
Name: 203.97.78.44
Address: 203.97.78.44#53
Aliases:

www.google.co.nz is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com is an alias for www.l.google.com.
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.16
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.17
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.18
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.19
www.l.google.com has address 74.125.237.20

So what am I doing wrong and over looking?

D

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#528821 4-Oct-2011 09:02

Don, you should create a new discussion instead of hijacking this thread.

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#528829 4-Oct-2011 09:11

Odd DNS to Google.co.nz and slow... - Sorry FM, per your request.

I'm not sure what the topic here is? Telstra's apparent unwillingness to help their customer or the reason for the problems the customer is seeing.

I decided to pick on the 'fault' today and thought I'd start with just focusing more on this dns stuff you suggested because I clearly still don't understand it.

Again, apologies to everyone for derailing this thread.

D

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