My Download Speeds Are Now Slower Than My Uploads

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › My Download Speeds Are Now Slower Than My Uploads

photoman

217 posts

Master Geek

#21844 8-May-2008 15:13

I went online last night to download something and it was taking forever. Well, it would have taken forever if I had let it run, but got fed up and aborted the download. I did the usual speed tests and was amazed at the result. Download speed was 55kbps and upload speed was 118kbps. Obviously something wrong, so I ran it again, and again, and again. I finally managed to achieve a download speed of 70kbps, down somewhat from my usual speed of around 1960kbps.

Anyone else experiencing this sort of extreme s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s? The router gets switched off every night so that's not the problem. I'll give it another go tonight and then call Orcon and see what they have to say for themselves.

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894 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#129425 8-May-2008 17:14

What router are you using? Where are you? What plan are you on?

photoman

217 posts

Master Geek

#129452 8-May-2008 19:26

I'm using a Netgear DG834G which I've been using for several years. I'm living in Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast and I'm on the Zeroshock plan. So far this month, I've downloaded just under 1GB.

I've just tried several speed tests again and am getting 1800-1850 download and 130-137 upload to Auckland, 1500 and 130 to LA. Will see how it fares during the evening.

BigGuy

227 posts

Master Geek

#129458 8-May-2008 19:38

I'm getting the same issue. In fact, it's been hapening for a good few weeks now (or it feels like it anyway). I did all the usual stuff like:

Reboot the DSL router, replace the router with a different make/model, plugged straight in to the DSL router instead of my firewall, and replaced cabling (not that that would have made a difference - but you never know).

I only get the issue during the "peak" hours though. I have all sorts of suspicions/suspects and none of them point to my network/equipment :)

In the end, I rang them up (after being hung up on twice) and logged a ticket with them. The helpdesk contact at Orcon told me that they were having huge issues and that she couldn’t even get to hotmail at the point in time I rang. So now I have to wait for their corporate support to give me a ring back Hope they dont take too long!

photoman

217 posts

Master Geek

#129462 8-May-2008 19:44

At least I'm not alone. Oh well, time to go and watch a DVD instead!

BigGuy

227 posts

Master Geek

#129464 8-May-2008 19:48

Oops - forgot the pertinent info:
I'm using a Nokia M1122 (stop laughing

- it works rock solid) and a DLink DSL504G. I live around the Papakowhai area in Wellington and I'm on the Zeroshock plan also. So far this month, I've downloaded just over 6GB.

I've just tried some speed tests also and am getting ~6300 kb/s download and ~750 kb/s up to Auckland.

OldGeek

894 posts

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#129473 8-May-2008 20:03

To both of you - check this out http://www.orcon.net.nz/system_status/ and bookmark it. If your slow speeds are specifically to offshore sites then this would explain the situation for now.

gabba

84 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#129477 8-May-2008 20:14

I was having some problems with international downloads about 2 months ago. Rang the HD and was told to upgrade from Zeroshock as apparently "overseas servers are no longer compatible with the way zeroshock is set up". Thought it was a dodgy excuse 'cos their new plans had just come out that week. I moved to a new plan anyway (after waiting a month to get my problem fixed 'cos I had just started a new billing cycle)

Well the new plan is not quite as fast as the zeroshock plan, but is more consistent in speed. I too am in Wellington (Lower Hutt) and use a US Robotics 9106 router. Maybe it's a local thing?

Currently getting 2403kbps download and 131kbps to Auckland on a Gold plan - but used to get much faster when on the zeroshock plan - bursts up to 4800kpbs.

Getting good bursts to LA, but any connection to UK is poor

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Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

TechnoGuy001

853 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#129491 8-May-2008 20:41

I also have a Netgear DG834G but as they said on the orcon website that they are having issues it might just be that.

But yesterday I downloaded a 2MB file in just over a hour!!

BigGuy

227 posts

Master Geek

#129541 8-May-2008 22:39

To OldGeek:
Yeah - seen that page. I dont really put much stock in it. It's also often updated far too late for my liking (as is the case here).

Although, credit where credit is due, at least Orcon do keep it's customers well informed - if not a little later than expected.

Also, web traffic is fine to international sites, it's just downloading binaries. IE: .tar, .iso, so on and so on..... Almost like ftp has been severly rate limited. Did I mention that off peek downloading is fine? :)

Encrypted torrents are fine too.

OldGeek

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#129588 9-May-2008 08:42

BigGuy:
To OldGeek:
[snip]
Also, web traffic is fine to international sites, it's just downloading binaries. IE: .tar, .iso, so on and so on..... Almost like ftp has been severly rate limited. Did I mention that off peek downloading is fine? :)

Encrypted torrents are fine too.

Fair comment - but 'rate limiting' should be incompatible with 'Orcon' because 'at Orcon we never slow you down' is their mantra (quote from http://www.orcon.net.nz/faqs/residential_broadband_faq/#content98 - answer to 'What happens if I go over my free data allowance) BUT in the same FAQ there is a question 'Do you restrict bandwidth or throttle peer-to-peer traffic' and the following is the answer:

"

On all plans 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.
"

This may be the key to your problem......and to anyone at Orcon watching you would never be able to pay me enough to join your support folks

BigGuy

227 posts

Master Geek

#129616 9-May-2008 11:08

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there OldGeek, as some of the other threads also indicate their layer 7 QOS appliance may be at fault. Although without knowing how their system really hangs together, I'm just grabbing at straws!

skewt

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#130713 13-May-2008 21:15

my downloads for anything with extensions exe,rar,zip or similar are either not working or less than dialup speeds

lucky for me however i have a rapidshare account and in rapidshare if you turn on direct downloads it downloads with the .html extension, instantly starting the download and bypassing this crap limit orcon have placed..which proves they are doing it
the other night after doing this for a while, i couldnt connect to rapidshare.com (port 80 was blocked?) while everyone else i asked could...this lasted about 2 hours

TechnoGuy001

853 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#130759 14-May-2008 06:49

Yes it does seem like they might be trying to block the rapidshare site, as sometimes I can't access it ether, but friends can and via proxy sites I can.

Just another reason for me to switch to Slingshot.

BigGuy

227 posts

Master Geek

#130765 14-May-2008 07:45

It would be a shame for Orcon if this is indeed the case. And your tests certainly seem to indicate that

It would be nice if we could get some clarity on the issue.

duncanblair

248 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#130868 14-May-2008 14:01

Hi guys,

We did have some issues with international traffic routing last week. These have since been resolved.

If you are still experiencing problems then we would really like your help to figure out what is going wrong, as our network diagnostics are not showing any problems.

Here are the things we need to know if you are having a problem:

Is it to an International site only or all sites? (if it’s all sites it’s likely to be a line fault issue)
Is it when you are surfing the web or when playing games?
If gaming, what game are you playing?
What is the ip address of the server you are experiencing slow speeds to?
What ports are you running it on?
It would also be great if you could run a traceroute to the affected site and send us the results.

If you can send the answers to these questions to support at orcon.net.nz we would be very grateful.

As for the conspiracy theories that we are blocking sites like rapidshare I can assure you that this is not the case. There is a L7 traffic management appliance that we have been upfront about in terms of what it does and why it does it.

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