Orcon international performance

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon international performance

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217 posts

Master Geek

#140208 24-Jun-2008 16:32

BigGuy: See the System Status page has been updated with: http://www.orcon.net.nz/system_status/
Intermittent international content speed issues
It seems that the bad weather and cold temperatures mean that our users are downloading more data from international sites than ever. This means that despite the recently carried out bandwidth upgrade we are still experiencing intermittent international content speed issues during peak demand. Our network engineers are working on a solution, and we will post an update as soon as it is available.

Incidentally, I rang Orcon today to find out why they hadn't replied to my email. I was told by someone there (I wont repeat names), that users on the ZeroShock service, or rather grandfathered plans, got degraded service compared to users on the new plans.
This annoys me somewhat as I didnt realise that I was at the bottom of the heap when it came to traffic priorities!

Roll on the summer months then, if that's the case!

I, like many others here, have given Orcon more than enough time and effort to resolve the problem, and now they're blaming the weather. What next, global warming also affecting their speed issues. I've been putting off changing ISP for weeks now, but took the plunge last night when I couldn't even get speedtest to work for me. As others have said, there must be something in law that should entitle us to some form of compensation. I can't see how Orcon can just say broadband isn't guaranteed to work all the time. It's been two months and we've been getting sub dialup speeds.

pyronical

150 posts

Master Geek

#140216 24-Jun-2008 17:04

To all unhappy Orcon customers!
Please join me by signing this online petition!

http://www.petitiononline.com/orcon/petition.html

We have all been very patient and we understand that it takes time to correct such problems, but it is unfair to us to continue charging full price for a sub-par service.

Orcon need to discount their rates while we suffer their poor connection speeds!

Thanks.

TechnoGuy001

853 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#140217 24-Jun-2008 17:13

Great idea!

I'v signed it.

Thou I dont think it will do anything but it's worth a try.

We should just all stop paying Orcon until they have fixed this issue, I bet they will start fixing it ASAP is they stop getting income!

duncanblair

248 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#140228 24-Jun-2008 17:32

Hi guys,

Firstly, sorry it has been a while since the last update. I am reading this thread closely, as are others here, it has just been a bit tricky finding a spare moment to reply. We have been pretty vigalant in keeping up with the support ticket queues, system staus page, and the other official channels for support (based in part on the feedback that you guys gave).

A couple of points that I would like to re-iterate:

1. There is a difference in the degree to which we are able to directly control the connection experience for those on the new unbundled Orcon+ network compared with the experience for those customers on products based on Telecom's wholesale network. In short I suspect that the majority of complaints that are being bundled in under this general 'international speed issues' topic are actually being caused by congestion at the exchange for those cusotmers on Telecom wholesale products. This is why I would ask you to make it clear to the guys which products you are on when asking for support - they should be able to see, but it doesn't hurt to remind them.

2. I realise that the weather seems like an excuse, but this is quite genuine. When the weather is bad, people stay in and download things - I am trying to find some stats that I am able to release to prove this. This leads to two things - exchange congestion and bandwidth problems. We can fix exchange congestion on our own network, unfortunately we can not directly relieve congestion problems for those customers on Telecom Wholesale products. Bandwidth shortages we can also fix, but we need to balance the economics of doing so. We need to provide the amount of bandwidth that delivers the experience our customers deserves, within the financial constraints that we have. If would like to understand some of the satistics and background around this I would point you back at one of my previous posts which explained the explosion of data consumption that we have had on our network in the past few months.

3. While it is tempting to join the bandwagon, I would say take a look at the results of the Epitiro/IDC report that was out last week - and I would encourage you to read the entire report. Orcon is one of the best (if not the best) DSL provider in the country in terms of speed of download. If you read it carefully you will see that our position in the overall rankings was hurt by our email performance - which was caused by us migrating our mail servers at that time.

I do understand your problems, and the frustration that you are experiencing. You can be assured that we are taking your feedback extremely seriously, and that I will be posting back here with any developments in terms of a solution as they come to light.

Thanks all for your patience.

BigGuy

227 posts

Master Geek

#140240 24-Jun-2008 18:18

Thank you for the update Duncan.

I was also told that Orcon are looking at adding significantly more bandwidth very shortly to handle the situation. Can you comment?
If so, will this help those people on the Zeroshock/Telecom wholesale plans?

gabba

85 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#140245 24-Jun-2008 18:34

BigGuy:
Incidentally, I rang Orcon today to find out why they hadn't replied to my email. I was told by someone there (I wont repeat names), that users on the ZeroShock service, or rather grandfathered plans, got degraded service compared to users on the new plans.
This annoys me somewhat as I didnt realise that I was at the bottom of the heap when it came to traffic priorities!

Yes - I was told this once as well - just when their new plans came out, and I was having speed issues. Was told one way I could fix the problem was to upgrade to a new plan as apparently "the ZeroShock plan servers were not compatible with the way overseas servers are now configured" I thought it was a good response from the marketing dept at the time - to get people off the old plans, and I'd have to say that performance on the new Gold plan is no better, and probably worse than what I was getting on ZeroShock.

Given what I know now I suspect that all users are impacted by the Orcon capacity issues, independent of what plan you are on

Cheers

gabba

85 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#140249 24-Jun-2008 18:45

Yep - thanks Duncan for the update

I have seen others mention that other Telecom wholesalers are also having bandwidth issues . Haven't reviewed what these issues are, but can someone concisely summarise if these are similar to what Orcon users are experiencing. It's an interesting point that many of the larger ISP's seem to be experiencing similar issues on wholesaled plans. Perhaps our anger should be directed at the wholesaler.....???

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

booyah

82 posts

Master Geek

#140251 24-Jun-2008 18:54

Well, the night i transfered from orcon to xnet (checked with tracerts), There is no problems!, battle.net doesnt disconnected anymore, Online MMORPGs are playable with low latency, Speedtests actually loading overseas, youtubes actually streaming.
So please do not blame your bundled service on exchange congestion thank you Mr. Blair, or else the xnet experience would have been the same with me.

I'm also sure that the weather has been very bad for months on end with orcon.

SalmonSalami

31 posts

Geek

#140267 24-Jun-2008 19:26

duncanblair: Hi guys,
In short I suspect that the majority of complaints that are being bundled in under this general 'international speed issues' topic are actually being caused by congestion at the exchange for those cusotmers on Telecom wholesale products.

You suspect wrong. I am on the Zeroshock FS/128 plan. I wouldn't think exchange congestion discriminate between national and international traffic, and particularly not between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is the third night in a row speeds have been WORSE THAN DIALUP. I've called the helpdesk twice in the last couple of weeks. Last week they said they'd get Telecom to send a tech to my exchange and check things out and said I should see an improvement on Tuesday, or call me back and let me know whats going on. No improvement. No call.

Tonight:

Yesterday:

Sunday:

I'll be on Snap by this Thursday or Friday if all goes well.

[EDIT] LOL someone from Orcon just called. He said the routing was being upgraded and thats why I'm getting such good speeds to SF and such poor speeds elsewhere. He's also reiterated what was said above, that when their bandwidth ceiling is reached, zeroshock gets shafted first. They're also upgrading the bandwidth once a month apparently...

dan

1134 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#140279 24-Jun-2008 19:39

heres my LA Speedtest tonight, 7:32pm seems pretty good

TechnoGuy001

853 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#140283 24-Jun-2008 19:48

Yea my speeds seem ok at the moment too:

SalmonSalami

31 posts

Geek

#140284 24-Jun-2008 19:52

What plans are you on? I was told to avoid the speed issues, I'd need to change plan. I'm just going to change ISP lol.

TechnoGuy001

853 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#140285 24-Jun-2008 19:55

Im on the "Surfer 20GB Broadband" plan:

But switching ISPs sounds like a very good idea! as that is what I am doing in about 2-3 weeks, this time early enough so I wont have to pay Orcon one month of internet that I wont be using.

Jekkyl

84 posts

Master Geek

#140287 24-Jun-2008 20:01

I'm on the platinum+ network and my speeds are all over the place, speed test is not perfect but is a good gauge

Nat fine so one would think it's not my exchange or my home line thats the issue

Off to LA we go...maybe...

So lets try San F...holy s***

Well since I play AoC atm and the servers are located in New Jersey I figured I would do that...well this is the worst of all and nearlly didnt complete, hell the u/l is better than the d/l

dan

1134 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#140288 24-Jun-2008 20:01

Purple (with calling) FS/FS + 50GB Addon for me.

I noticed a large improvement when Orcon added the additional bandwidth 2-3 weeks ago.

The Auckland test is about the max speed of my connection..

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