Awful performance on major CDNs

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Awful performance on major CDNs

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804 posts

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#2528738 25-Jul-2020 18:48

@aphocus

Me and others have been having issues with Vocusgroup NZ not getting gigabit speeds at any of their own servers but working fine with third party speed test servers.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=81&topicid=272012&page_no=3

@SoundDude any updates on the speed test servers investigation?

sbiddle

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#2528802 25-Jul-2020 20:48

I feel sorry for RSP's running speedtest.net servers that are being smashed resource wise due to people running speedtests 24/7 - running these tests proves nothing when the connection is working perfectly as intended, and is only sucking network resources and ultimately causing the very issues that people running the tests are then seeing.

Dochart

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#2528803 25-Jul-2020 21:14

sbiddle:
I feel sorry for RSP's running speedtest.net servers that are being smashed resource wise due to people running speedtests 24/7 - running these tests proves nothing when the connection is working perfectly as intended, and is only sucking network resources and ultimately causing the very issues that people running the tests are then seeing.

I don’t agree with you. If that’s the case how come I can get gigabit speeds fine when I test using 2degrees and Stuff Fibre speed tests servers. Those would also be running speed tests 24/7 too so I’m afraid their is something wrong with the Vocusgroup NZ servers if it can’t even handle gigabit speeds.

Gordy7

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#2528871 26-Jul-2020 09:32

Dochart:
sbiddle:

I feel sorry for RSP's running speedtest.net servers that are being smashed resource wise due to people running speedtests 24/7 - running these tests proves nothing when the connection is working perfectly as intended, and is only sucking network resources and ultimately causing the very issues that people running the tests are then seeing.

I don’t agree with you. If that’s the case how come I can get gigabit speeds fine when I test using 2degrees and Stuff Fibre speed tests servers. Those would also be running speed tests 24/7 too so I’m afraid their is something wrong with the Vocusgroup NZ servers if it can’t even handle gigabit speeds.

I have been with Orcon for nearly a year and I have very good speeds... typically 940/522.

I am pleased that Orcon have put most of their resources into offering low priced Gbit fibre with plenty of very good online self help.

There have been plenty of stories on GZ of Vocusgroup poor speed test server performance... no doubt the servers get a hammering from the many new Gbit Orcon and Slingshot custommers.... but if you have proved that you are getting good fibre speed test results from other servers then you should be very happy.

Gordy

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aphocus

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#2528964 26-Jul-2020 14:03

Dochart: @aphocus

Me and others have been having issues with Vocusgroup NZ not getting gigabit speeds at any of their own servers but working fine with third party speed test servers.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=81&topicid=272012&page_no=3

@SoundDude any updates on the speed test servers investigation?

Goodhart's law, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

I don't care about artificial benchmarks where ISPs can put all their engineering efforts in to, when The front page of YouTube is taking 12s to load, while my friend with 100mbps 2degrees does it in 4 seconds, there's something seriously wrong.

Dochart

804 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2528966 26-Jul-2020 14:06

aphocus:
Dochart: @aphocus

Me and others have been having issues with Vocusgroup NZ not getting gigabit speeds at any of their own servers but working fine with third party speed test servers.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=81&topicid=272012&page_no=3

@SoundDude any updates on the speed test servers investigation?

Goodhart's law, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

I don't care about artificial benchmarks where ISPs can put all their engineering efforts in to, when The front page of YouTube is taking 12s to load, while my friend with 100mbps 2degrees does it in 4 seconds, there's something seriously wrong.

When I first moved to Orcon from Spark I could notice straight away that websites took longer to load as well so yeah I believe you that there is something seriously wrong as well.

sbiddle

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#2529018 26-Jul-2020 17:10

aphocus:

Dochart: @aphocus

Me and others have been having issues with Vocusgroup NZ not getting gigabit speeds at any of their own servers but working fine with third party speed test servers.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=81&topicid=272012&page_no=3

@SoundDude any updates on the speed test servers investigation?

Goodhart's law, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

I don't care about artificial benchmarks where ISPs can put all their engineering efforts in to, when The front page of YouTube is taking 12s to load, while my friend with 100mbps 2degrees does it in 4 seconds, there's something seriously wrong.

There are so many variables that can affect page load times that comparing RSP's like you have done is totally pointless. The browser you're using, PC specs, DNS servers, whether you're using a local caching DNS server (ie dnsmasq or similar on your router) can all majorly affect these times.

The simple fact is there are no speed issues with Orcon as determined by off-net speedtest results being fine. As I've already said it's not hard for a speedtest.net server to be smashed these days when you have people on Gigabit connections who for some pointless reason think running tests 24/7 is delivering some of measure of their performance. What business case is there for investment on something like this? Pretty much none.

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Jase2985

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#2529021 26-Jul-2020 17:16

orcon, due to them offering 2000/2000 and 4000/4000 plans are probably having their speedtest servers and other infrastructure smashed more than others.

bameron

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2degrees

#2529239 27-Jul-2020 08:19

@aphocus have sent you a PM!

aphocus

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#2529482 27-Jul-2020 14:10

sbiddle:

There are so many variables that can affect page load times that comparing RSP's like you have done is totally pointless.

This one of those cop-out arguments, I don't care about performance to a server hosted by 2degrees, Vodafone or Spark in ISPs that doesn't host any websites, I care about performance to Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Akamai, etc, that all mostly in Sydney and actually host content I use, and sometimes you have to deal with dirty data, you don't need perfect reproducibility of a setup to make claims about bad performance, no amount of slow computer is able to justify 200kB/s in 2020, the same could be said about speed tests, just because one server provided by a few ISPs in NZ work at full speed, doesn't mean that all CDNs in Australasia with various different configurations, especially where latency is more important than throughput, on different routes and different subnets with different provides are fully optimized and working to maximum potential.

When Trust Power with their Samsung TV giveaway, both my mum and dad (separated) choose that deal, and both parties noticed the absolutely abysmal performance of their connection, speed tests were fine, the problem was the time to first byte was in the 1-10s range, didn't show up in speed tests because none of them test real world performance.

tanivula

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#2529501 27-Jul-2020 14:37

aphocus:

Did you get any further with this? I've been kinda busy and Orcon were ignoring my emails and I hate making phone calls.

At this stage I might just switch ISPs, most 100mbps connections are cheaper and faster than this.

Not really, but as I'm working from home much less I guess I haven't had to deal with the less that expected performance. Help desk just pointed me at speedtests (tier 2 did also) and then blamed my computer for not being fast enough. The average results became the focus of the support ticket, rather than the CDN issue.

Like you, I'm contemplating jumping ship incl swallowing the early break fee.

For those who mention the Vocus servers being smashed, my issue is not attaining a decent result, but more to do with it being the 1st step that help desk/website say to diagnose an internet performance issue. Not just any speedtest server, but locked to either the AKL or CHCH vocus ones (via the linetest.nz website). There's got to be something going on when somone on an Orcon connection in CHCH can get a decent result to the AKL and CHCH server yet here in WLG, the results are average for both. Interestingly, from a Vodafone connection in WLG, there are absolutely no probs hitting gig speeds to either the AKL or CHCH Vocus servers. I'm no network specialist, and more than happy to be educated on this, I'm struggling to understand how off-net performance is better than on-net? This might also reduce the workload on the support team I'm guessing.

Dochart

804 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2529507 27-Jul-2020 14:46

tanivula:
aphocus:

Did you get any further with this? I've been kinda busy and Orcon were ignoring my emails and I hate making phone calls.

At this stage I might just switch ISPs, most 100mbps connections are cheaper and faster than this.

Not really, but as I'm working from home much less I guess I haven't had to deal with the less that expected performance. Help desk just pointed me at speedtests (tier 2 did also) and then blamed my computer for not being fast enough. The average results became the focus of the support ticket, rather than the CDN issue.

Like you, I'm contemplating jumping ship incl swallowing the early break fee.

For those who mention the Vocus servers being smashed, my issue is not attaining a decent result, but more to do with it being the 1st step that help desk/website say to diagnose an internet performance issue. Not just any speedtest server, but locked to either the AKL or CHCH vocus ones (via the linetest.nz website). There's got to be something going on when somone on an Orcon connection in CHCH can get a decent result to the AKL and CHCH server yet here in WLG, the results are average for both. Interestingly, from a Vodafone connection in WLG, there are absolutely no probs hitting gig speeds to either the AKL or CHCH Vocus servers. I'm no network specialist, and more than happy to be educated on this, I'm struggling to understand how off-net performance is better than on-net? This might also reduce the workload on the support team I'm guessing.

And Christchurch is even further than Wellington and it’s shocking they can get gigabit speeds at the Auckland Vocusgroup NZ servers but me, you and others can’t since we live at neither of those two locations.

So people saying it’s cause the speed test servers are getting smashed 24/7 that’s not true at all.

@Bameron @Sounddude

How’s the speed test investigation going?