Orcon doesn't walk the talk!

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stagnant16

206 posts

Master Geek

#10417 21-Nov-2006 16:47

Not being a telecomunications expert am i making the right assumptions!

Changed from Xtra's go large plan to orcons full speed plan + 30gig ($20 dollars cheaper) was assured nothing will change speedwise!

Router reported line speed with telecom as 7600 with Orcon 7040, ok not that significant.

International HTTP downloading is a joke, with orcon I am getting a max download speed of 300KB/s regardless of wether I have 1 or 2 d/ls running simultaneously.

Xtra internationally I would get 700KB/s 80% of the time and the times it did fall back I could run another download simultaneously and acheieve my 700KB/s.

Currently happily downloading from a Phoenix based site at 148KB/s! NOT!

Is Orcon seriously shaping my Traffic or what??

Any input would be appreciated!

freitasm

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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#53138 21-Nov-2006 16:55

Their FAQ clearly says it restricts some traffic:

On all plans, except for the ZeroShock data plan, we do not throttle or restrict the bandwidth available to any specific application or type of traffic.

We have implemented a layer 7 quality of service (QOS) appliance which prioritizes latency sensitive traffic and traffic the most common types of traffic (HTTP - web surfing, VOIP, gaming, email) above other traffic, particularly peer to peer.

This means that if the network is experiencing very high load then quality of service is maintained for the types of traffic that need it the most. Peer to peer program users may notice a small reduction in the speeds obtainable for that period of peak traffic.

Note that this traffic management only applies to international traffic. We do not generally shape domestic traffic unless there is threat to network stability

What kind of traffic are you using? Are these downloads p2p programs using standard ports? If yes, then I guess this is your answer.

stagnant16

206 posts

Master Geek

#53139 21-Nov-2006 17:07

HTTP port 80! Yep I do realise that in there FAQ! But this happening 24/7, Being throttled that much (if this is the case and I'm not saying it is) They is a big difference between 700KB/s and 127 KB/s and that is not what they advertise!

Create New Zealand's best broadband plan with New Zealand's best ISP; Orcon

I also saw something about them adding 10% extra international capacity for residential consumers because thats the great company that they are!

I'm not trashing them, BUT I have been told to email support my problems, last time I did that it took 10 days for them to reply!

Frustrated!

LennonNZ

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#53142 21-Nov-2006 19:23

"Router reported line speed with telecom as 7600 with Orcon 7040, ok not that significant"

The Port speed should be the same. as your connected to 100% the same equipment and nothing any ISP can do can change this. . so this has nothing to do with it.

What might be affecteding you is the interleaving. Ask Orcon to get Telecom to turn it back on and see if this makes things better.

Thanks
Craig
Talking for Myself

stagnant16

206 posts

Master Geek

#53143 21-Nov-2006 19:32

According to Orcon help desk its shared equipment in the exchange! Telecom use there own. Thought of the interleaving but speeds within NZ are real good, anywhere else suckful!!

Currently been on hold with NZs best ISP now for 55 minutes & counting!

scracha

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#53170 22-Nov-2006 05:20

Strange, I've called them dozens of times over the past year and have never had to wait more than about 2 minutes to get a response.

riahon

946 posts

Ultimate Geek

#53171 22-Nov-2006 06:10

scracha: Strange, I've called them dozens of times over the past year and have never had to wait more than about 2 minutes to get a response.

Strange?? Dozens of times!! Why would you want to call any company that many of times in a year?

scracha

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#53173 22-Nov-2006 06:50

Because I'm one of these unfortunates who fix other peep's PC's and therefore have to regularly ring ISP's to reset passwords, change user account types or help people sign up. One thing I've learnt is not to do this for anybody on a Friday afternoon!

Quic Broadband

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raytaylor

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#53308 22-Nov-2006 23:20

The Phoenix based webserver that you are connecting to may be overloaded or have a per-user throttle on it.
Also I believe that Orcon use Asia NetCom as their bandwidth supplier, so your bandwidth may be traveling via asia on the way from Phoenix. I dont know if they have a direct link to the US like global gateway does.
Have a look at http://www.ispmap.co.nz/topmap.html for a map of the bandwidth suppliers.

Also I would imagine the asian bandwidth suppliers generally supply it cheaper than global gateway (telecom) and that would be why Orcon and my isp Slingshot prefer to go that way.

To top it off there has been an 'averaging' out trend since all these plans became full speed. The old way was the 2mb plan people would be kept in the box so that the 3.5mb plans could be more free in their speed. Now everyone is on the theoratical maximum, some of the ex 2mb planned people have had their speed increase where as me and many others on the 3.5mb plans have been slowed down as a result.

I am on slingshot, this is 11:18 pm on wednesday night and my speed test to phoenix http://phoenix-speedtest.sprintbbd.net/speedtest.cgi is showing a result of 195kbps or 25KBytes which is absoloutly terrible. This shows that it is not just orcon with problems.

Ray Taylor

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raytaylor

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#53309 22-Nov-2006 23:29

Oh the other thing is your dsl router / modem will show a 7.8Mb / 7800kb connection but it isnt real.
Your router will report the 'theoratical maximum line speed' that telecom talks about in its advertising, and it is only your connection between your modem and the exchange you are connected to. If it says connected to orcon then it probably saying it is connected using the connection settings / profile 'Orcon'

Once your connection gets to the exhange, it then has to go down the fibre links which are shared by you and everyone else on the exchange and so this part will slow it all down when it gets busy.
The next bottleneck is the connection between the DSL network and your ISP, and then the next bottle neck is between the isp and their supplier and so fourth.

I use the analogy - A pipe is like an internet connection. The pipe carries water at a certain amount of litres a minute - your internet connection carries data at a certain amount of megabits per minute.
The pipe will only carry the maximum amount of water that can fit through its smallest part - if the pipe gets smaller, the litres traveling through per minute lessens.

We can go further by saying if we also start putting oil or your neighbours data down the pipe at the same time, that also leaves less room for the water or your data to use through the pipe.

Ray Taylor

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