I've been calling Snap about this issue for the past three weeks. After being fobbed off for pretty much all of it, I finally got through to someone who was able to tell me whats actually going on. I understand that Snap or any other ISP have their hands tied with this and its simply down to Chorus to get it sorted but its having a very severe impact on the business that I run (which happens to be IT).. We run a 24/7 service here, and basically the evening shift has become an complete waste with our 30mb connection dropping to 0.5mb every night - a clients computer needs 160+ windows updates? Not going to happen - iPhone needs the latest iOS? 4+ hours to download. Personally Im at the point of invoicing either Snap or Chorus for time lost as it doesn't matter who's fault it is, if a customer is paying for a service it needs to be delivered, and in this day an age 'we'll fix it whenever' isn't good enough.
Just reiterating this is a known Chorus issue, causing impact to multiple service providers (There are other threads about the issue with other ISP's too, which are highly likely to be the same issue)
Chorus do not yet have a date to resolve the issue but we are working with them for ways around the problem, we are hoping that this will be resolved for us early next week. our CSR's will be updated as soon as we hear from Chorus, and we will update here at the same time. The CSR's are unable to escalate this any further, its already with our Management.
Apologies for the problems this is causing, but very much out of our control unfortunately :(
Edit - Impact is DSL, VDSL - no impact to UFB and Business Fibre services.
Thanks TheRalph
RalphFromSnap: Hi All,
We have had confirmation from Chorus that this is a known issue and is currently affecting multiple RSP's for some areas around the Central North Island. we are working to move traffic to some alternate handovers to bypass some of the congestion - and will keep you updated.
Appreciated that its out of Snaps control, and yes I am VDSL - I would be fibre in a heartbeat but thats another thing that Chorus are yet to make up their minds on. The issue I had with Snap was the 3 weeks it took for me to get through to management to get a straight answer about the problem. The thing I don't understand though is why the likes of Chorus are in no particular hurry to get started upgrading the dslams or exchanges that aren't up to scratch for the workload. I also don't understand why if Chorus aren't in a hurry to resolve these issues they don't have to take responsibility for the affected clients/isps. If they are responsible for providing a service, shouldn't they have to also be responsible for not providing it. Anyway, see what next week brings I guess.
I hate to think how many support calls this problem has generated, 6pm - 11pm is pretty much unusable every day. And I hate to think how many people are wasting their time checking their own line / computer / routers, most people don't know how to isolate a problem. NZ has some major problems with network infrastructure because I have seen this problem time and again with every ISP I have ever been with, eventually/periodically there are problems due to oversubscription, or telecom/chorus issues. Even when I joined up with Snap I was impressed by the performance but I knew it was only a matter of time before some issues would crop up, they always do. What's a bet this current issue is due to new UFB customers saturating what were previously balanced and working links. That's a completely uneducated guess, but as I say this congestion doesn't just appear over night. Somehow Chorus has managed to oversubscribe what were previously working links. If they were actually monitoring their network properly they would see their link capacity being eaten up. If I were in Snaps shoes I would be gathering up the evidence to prove that Chorus owns this problem and holding them to account for it. These problems damage Snaps reputation even if Chorus is to blame, and it's not just about this problem being resolved but also about preventing similar problems from happening in the future.
pooky: I hate to think how many support calls this problem has generated, 6pm - 11pm is pretty much unusable every day. And I hate to think how many people are wasting their time checking their own line / computer / routers, most people don't know how to isolate a problem. NZ has some major problems with network infrastructure because I have seen this problem time and again with every ISP I have ever been with, eventually/periodically there are problems due to oversubscription, or telecom/chorus issues. Even when I joined up with Snap I was impressed by the performance but I knew it was only a matter of time before some issues would crop up, they always do. What's a bet this current issue is due to new UFB customers saturating what were previously balanced and working links. That's a completely uneducated guess, but as I say this congestion doesn't just appear over night. If they were actually monitoring their network properly they would see their link capacity being eaten up. If I were in Snaps shoes I would be gathering up the evidence to prove that Chorus owns this problem and holding them to account for it. These problems damage Snaps reputation even if Chorus is to blame, and it's not just about this problem being resolved but also about preventing similar problems from happening in the future.
As it was mentioned above there is no impact on UFB so why would you think that?
UFB has separate backhaul and handovers for each RSP in each area so really is a completely separate network until it reaches the RSPs core network.
More likely xDSL customers upping their usage on unlimited plans causing congestion - obviously they know there is a problem but sometimes there is not a quick solution despite everyone's best efforts.
As I said, it was just an uneducated guess. I have no access to the information about their network topology so the only explanation I can see is that they have a large surge in data throughput and UFB is an obvious candidate for large volumes of data from a small number of users. It's not rocket science, but jo average doesn't have access to the information so we are left to guess. Would probably be gobsmacked if we knew the full details of the stupidity.
Just an update, I've been advised that we have put measures in place to resolve the congestion in this area, so should be all good tonight - any problems let us know. again apologies for the issues here. Just to confirm re some of the statements above, this is not linked to UFB in anyway, that's on a completely separate network and does not share any common infrastructure when it comes to DSL. however our DSL is now backhauled across Snap's network which has plenty of capacity so should be resolved now. Thanks,
Just an update, I've been advised that we have put measures in place to resolve the congestion in this area, so should be all good tonight - any problems let us know. again apologies for the issues here. Just to confirm re some of the statements above, this is not linked to UFB in anyway, that's on a completely separate network and does not share any common infrastructure when it comes to DSL. however our DSL is now backhauled across Snap's network which has plenty of capacity so should be resolved now. Thanks,
TheRalph
Ahh, thank you thank you. It's been fun playing Munchkin and Carcassonne in the evenings, but the missus is missin' her Last Tango in Halifax..
Thanks for your effort on getting this one solved quickly, I understand that this type of problem is difficult to progress when you have to deal with a third party. Thanks for going the extra mile, makes a big difference for me personally and I know all the other affected users will really appreciate the help. It's crazy how reliant on internet access we are these days, your effort makes a big difference.
Out of curiosity, are you able to clarify how this type of problem arises? I'm not looking for the nitty gritty details, just a brief high level explanation. From my point of view the most important thing is; what could've been done to prevent it happening, and does Chorus need to be slapped with a cold trout?
I will update later tonight to let you know how the connection is.
After trying to convince Vodafone that there was a congestion issue for the last two months, my connection appears to be back to normal tonight. I wonder if this is because because Snap users have been moved to another link, freeing up capacity on the problem circuit or if Chorus have actually fixed something.
Looking great for me tonight, although I wasn't getting it as bad as others in this thread. I figured something was in the works when I noticed my connection reset at about 1am this morning. Great work as always Snap!
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