New ISP and Akamai download rates

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gravitini

11 posts

Geek

#116119 18-Apr-2013 20:34

Hi everyone, feedback appreciated...

Recently switched from Orcon Genius ADSL (Chorus cabinet) to VDSL at a new ISP (also Chorus cabinet) - [fibre was not an option and Orcon don't offer VDSL plans].

So far the switch has been very smooth with great customer service and connection speeds except for one potential disappointment.... variable Akamai download speeds sometimes slower than 2 Mbps for local cache hits.

Maybe I was spoilt by Orcon to expect high download rates from local caches. (although Orcon did have its slowdowns).

Overall the connection speeds are great with VDSL line rates of 33,449 / 10,346 and typical speed tests to Orcon/WorldxChange/Vodafone of 21ms / 31 Mbps / 7.6 Mbps

Over the last couple of days I've seen local Akamai cache hits at 15Mbps (awesome) but often dropping down to 1-2Mbps (very sad).

My original query was: Hi, switched across to <snip> VDSL yesterday and just wondering if there is any reason why downloads via the Akamai network would be resolving to other ISPs and significantly slower than Orcon/Vodafone.

After some discussion it seems this ISP does not have any Akamai servers in its network and Akamai requests are resolving to either TelstraClear or CallPlus servers (via APE). eg

adcdownloads.apple.com > a312.gi3.akamai.net (203.167.141.161) TelstraClear
downloads.windowsupdate.com > a312.gi3.akamai.net (203.167.141.161) TelstraClear
a27.v.phobos.apple.com > a27.w11.akamai.net (119.224.129.254) CallPlus

The final response from the ISP to my query was that I should contact Akamai directly if I'm not happy with the download speeds from their servers.

PeterReader

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#801884 18-Apr-2013 20:34

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?

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kyhwana2

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#801899 18-Apr-2013 21:08

Which ISP did you switch to?

AidanS

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#801909 18-Apr-2013 21:27

kyhwana2: Which ISP did you switch to?

I would think someone like Snap or Voyager? Thought it would be nice to know which ISP exactly :)

What speeds were you getting to Akamai from Orcon before?

-A

gravitini

11 posts

Geek

#801982 18-Apr-2013 23:39

With Orcon the local cache hits would be up to 12Mbps (pretty much the max of my ADSL connection). Typical was always over 5Mbps. It wasn't always like that and there were some bad times but overall Orcon performed very well.

[In many ways cabinetisation was a huge improvement despite killing LLU and SLU competition]

I haven't named the ISP as I wanted to see what happens over the next 2-3 weeks. (their last response was disappointing).

Tonight my test results seem better... will post results soon.

Last time I checked, adding an Akamai server to an ISP network was free?

yitz

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#801988 19-Apr-2013 00:41

gravitini: Last time I checked, adding an Akamai server to an ISP network was free?

There may not be sufficient traffic volume to justify it. The content still has to come in from somewhere, a larger ISP may be able to justify putting aside a couple hundred Mbit/s while for a smaller ISP that may be all they have, especially so if you expect everything Akamai to come from it.

Zeon

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#801989 19-Apr-2013 00:48

Hard to say without knowing the ISP.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

insane

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#801993 19-Apr-2013 01:34

gravitini: ......The final response from the ISP to my query was that I should contact Akamai directly if I'm not happy with the download speeds from their servers.

To be fair if they don't have an akamai cluster, and their connectivity upstream of them is not congested then technically it is out of their control.

Sadly first line support staff are not always up to speed with the design of their networks, however a number of us here do work in this space and have hands on experience with Akamai caching. If you do name your ISP we might be able to give you some suggestions, assumptions or explanation.

gravitini

11 posts

Geek

#802016 19-Apr-2013 04:16

Recent results are pretty good and what I would expect for local cache hits:

MacOS Mountain Lion 4.4GB from a1181.phobos.apple.com via TelstraClear 12Mbps (10:30 PM)
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB976932) 1.9GB from download.microsoft.com via TelstraClear 9.2Mbps (3am)

The above DNS are resolving to different TelstraClear servers: 203.167.141.137 / 203.167.141.138 / 203.167.141.155 (forget to grab the actual IPs but not that important).

insane: To be fair if they don't have an akamai cluster, and their connectivity upstream of them is not congested then technically it is out of their control.

Sadly first line support staff are not always up to speed with the design of their networks, however a number of us here do work in this space and have hands on experience with Akamai caching. If you do name your ISP we might be able to give you some suggestions, assumptions or explanation.

My original query with the ISP was intended to be an observation, not a complaint.

In terms of my initial observations of slow downs to 1-2 Mbps, maybe there were a couple of bad internet days, maybe something got tweaked, maybe my testing was flawed, time will tell ;-)

yitz: There may not be sufficient traffic volume to justify it. The content still has to come in from somewhere, a larger ISP may be able to justify putting aside a couple hundred Mbit/s while for a smaller ISP that may be all they have, especially so if you expect everything Akamai to come from it.

They definitely have the bandwidth but maybe not the request traffic to justify at this time.

In terms of international connectivity to Australia it's pretty good. eg 15Mbps download (peak 18Mbps) from a server in a Melbourne data centre via SFTP.

JohnButt

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#802337 19-Apr-2013 15:47

Here is a quick wee peek into our data on the Akamai download topic - apologies if I have left an error in my haste to add value to the discussion;

Some ISPs have limited probes, just 1 for Flip, Unleash, Kiwilink & Compass, however I thought it potentially useful to include those for the debate. The data is the average peak speed of these tests from 1st April to 19th April - 280,000 tests, or for each hour I analysed 18 tests per probe for each file location.

The files are almost the same size.

gravitini

11 posts

Geek

#804549 23-Apr-2013 20:31

Over the last 5 days the trend I'm seeing is variable download rates on peak time cache hits and anytime cache misses on the CallPlus servers (need to do more testing on the TelstraClear servers).

It seems the majority of content resolving to the CallPlus servers is Apple media. eg Apple TV, iTunes movies, etc.

With download rates <2 Mbps there's no chance of watching 1080HD (or even 720HD) content in real time.

As a comparison, a 1080HD podcast downloaded directly from Level 3 servers in San Jose at 12 Mbps.