Broadband speeds - getting slower

dak

I have a 1Mbp BT connection (North Co Dublin) which used to download at about 80% of this speed. In the last few days it dropped out all together for a day , came back at about 50% and last night was down to 172mbps.

I checked speeds at various times and it was still at 172 at 2am last night- could this be pure contention or has anyone had the same problems in the last few days ?

hellboy99

I'm with Esat 3MB, having major speed issues here in Dundalk. Boards.ie & all other web pages taking forever to load up, videos spend more time buffering than playing and only getting download speeds of between 50 - 70KB/s.

CrowdedHouse

Crawling in Oranmore today,on 2Mb eircom and only seem to be getting 300-400 kbs at best.

dak

Solved all my bt slow problems with www.opendns.com . Back up to full speed!

dak

dak wrote:

Solved all my bt slow problems with www.opendns.com . Back up to full speed!

*sigh*
OpenDNS does nothing for your connection speed.

I can't stress this enough.

dak

ronoc wrote:

*sigh*
OpenDNS does nothing for your connection speed.

I can't stress this enough.

Can you explain then how it works - if I revert back to the old setting I get dial up speed!! Whats it doing then ?

dak

ronoc wrote:

*sigh*
OpenDNS does nothing for your connection speed.

From the www.opendns.com site!

I can't stress this enough.

OpenDNS makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter for you and everyone using your network.

1. OpenDNS is safer
OpenDNS can identify and stop sites trying to phish (steal) your personal information or money. The OpenDNS phishing protection works with all operating systems and browsers, and complements any other security measures already in use, such as a firewall and anti-virus software.

Here's what a blocked phishing site looks like for OpenDNS customers:





2. OpenDNS is faster
Most DNS servers on the Internet are slow. Your computer uses DNS every time you visit a website or send an email, so you want DNS to be blazing fast. Two things make DNS really fast: a big cache and a good network. We have both.

Not to brag, but OpenDNS caches are really big.
The bigger and better the cache, the fewer steps in the process, and the faster the Internet experience. Making the OpenDNS caches really big is part of how OpenDNS makes the Internet faster.

Chad ghostal

dak, ronoc is right, the time it takes to resolve dns may affect your browsing web sites, but it would not effect the download speed from that site.. the speed increase would be imperceptible in most cases.

On Esatbt 3mb myself in cork and since just before christmas download speeds have been appalling, apart from the middle of the night... download at roughly 50-80kBs. I used to get 300kbs+ at all times of the day, i just assumed they put me onto a higher usage contention group or something...

dak

I can't debate from a technical angle on this issue but please tell me why BT got so slow that I had to use Dial up to read up on opendns , log off , reboot my router and change the DNS on my computer amd hey presto - 856kbps. And forgeting about numbers I could actually browse .

I'd appreciate it if anyone could explain this clearly . My understanding is that a high speed internet cache provider like opendns is effectively the same result as having extra ram in your PC
While BT is still the ISP I use , I am bypassing their current slow DNS servers and using opendns instead.

As a customer I only want the connection speed I pay for - I'm not overly worried about how the engine works!

hellboy99

I loved to know whats going on, can't get through to tech support. I've been running various speed tests the past few days and all seem to be coming back the same with my download speed round 0.80 - 1.02Mbps :mad: .
Before this slow down I was getting 2.56 - 2.85Mbps.

Trevord

hellboy99 wrote:

Boards.ie & all other web pages taking forever to load up, .

Just in case anyone jumps to the conclusion that they have a speed problem cos Boards.ie is slow to load, you should note that there is a general problem with the speed that pages are being created on Boards.ie at the moment. (although right now its now too bad)

Issue is discussed in detail elsewhere on board.

hellboy99

Trevord wrote:

Just in case anyone jumps to the conclusion that they have a speed problem cos Boards.ie is slow to load, you should note that there is a general problem with the speed that pages are being created on Boards.ie at the moment. (although right now its now too bad)

Issue is discussed in detail elsewhere on board.

I'm having speed problems with all web pages, from Microsoft - Yahoo - Boards.ie.

zt-OctaviaN

Out of curiosity are you all using the latest version of browsers such as IE7 (brutal) and Opera 9.5? (accessing takes a few clicks it just sits there) on the later CPU usage hits the roof also!

So what browsers...anyone?
Are you all running addaware and spybot (these are good)

hellboy99

zt-OctaviaN wrote:

Out of curiosity are you all using the latest version of browsers such as IE7 (brutal) and Opera 9.5? (accessing takes a few clicks it just sits there) on the later CPU usage hits the roof also!

So what browsers...anyone?
Are you all running addaware and spybot (these are good)

I was running IE7, so I uninstalled it and tried IE6 and still just the same, I've been trying to get Esat tech support on the phone all day, no luck with that.

dak

dak wrote:

OpenDNS makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter for you and everyone using your network.

1. OpenDNS is safer
OpenDNS can identify and stop sites trying to phish (steal) your personal information or money. The OpenDNS phishing protection works with all operating systems and browsers, and complements any other security measures already in use, such as a firewall and anti-virus software.

Here's what a blocked phishing site looks like for OpenDNS customers:

The latest version of internet explorer does this too, and is much better. This tool by open dns is pretty useless unless they put alot of effort into finding those phishing sites.

dak wrote:

2. OpenDNS is faster
Most DNS servers on the Internet are slow. Your computer uses DNS every time you visit a website or send an email, so you want DNS to be blazing fast. Two things make DNS really fast: a big cache and a good network. We have both.

Not to brag, but OpenDNS caches are really big.
The bigger and better the cache, the fewer steps in the process, and the faster the Internet experience. Making the OpenDNS caches really big is part of how OpenDNS makes the Internet faster.

OpenDNS makes the internet faster.... Not really. In most cases in Ireland its actually slower using OpenDNS.
The nearest OpenDNS server is in london so staright away add 10ms-15ms to the response time over your ISPs DNS server. Granted you probably won't notice that, but what is the advantage in using it for?

There is alot more to this, it can get as complicated as you want!

But suffice it to say:
OpenDNS despite their free/open source sounding name are a company.
They are trying to make money from something that has been free and has worked well since the beginning of the internet.

dak

ronoc wrote:

The latest version of internet explorer does this too, and is much better. This tool by open dns is pretty useless unless they put alot of effort into finding those phishing sites.





OpenDNS makes the internet faster.... Not really. In most cases in Ireland its actually slower using OpenDNS.
The nearest OpenDNS server is in london so staright away add 10ms-15ms to the response time over your ISPs DNS server. Granted you probably won't notice that, but what is the advantage in using it for?

There is alot more to this, it can get as complicated as you want!

But suffice it to say:
OpenDNS despite their free/open source sounding name are a company.
They are trying to make money from something that has been free and has worked well since the beginning of the internet.

I'm running the latest version of internet explorer - how can you say its useless when it at least speeded up what has been a poor service from BT since before X-mas

I am an accountant so I understand the making money bit. I undersatnd that ordinary DNS has more redundancy because it is decentralised. Are BT expanding too fast and don't have sufficent DNS servers, By the way where are BT servers hosted ?

dak

dak wrote:

I'm running the latest version of internet explorer - how can you say its useless when it at least speeded up what has been a poor service from BT since before X-mas

I am an accountant so I understand the making money bit. I undersatnd that ordinary DNS has more redundancy because it is decentralised. Are BT expanding too fast and don't have sufficent DNS servers, By the way where are BT servers hosted ?

I was talking about their phishing site blocker.

But unless BTs DNS servers are very slow, which they are at the moment, using OpenDNS has no effect on your connection.
Even then only the initial "whats the IP for company.com" will be faster. Once your computer has that it doesn't need to consult DNS again.

As for BT servers Im not sure..

dak

ronoc wrote:

I was talking about their phishing site blocker.

But unless BTs DNS servers are very slow, which they are at the moment, using OpenDNS has no effect on your connection.
Even then only the initial "whats the IP for company.com" will be faster. Once your computer has that it doesn't need to consult DNS again.

As for BT servers Im not sure..

Phishing point noted!

So you do agree that openDNS has effected my connection BECAUSE BTs DNS servers are slow. Thats what I have been trying to explain to you ? I don't underdatnd your point about "whats the IP for company.com" comment. Are you talking about authorative Root DNS Server lists or cached information held ? Please explain

h57xiucj2z946q

dak wrote:

I can't debate from a technical angle on this issue but please tell me why BT got so slow that I had to use Dial up to read up on opendns , log off , reboot my router and change the DNS on my computer amd hey presto - 856kbps. And forgeting about numbers I could actually browse .

I'd appreciate it if anyone could explain this clearly . My understanding is that a high speed internet cache provider like opendns is effectively the same result as having extra ram in your PC
While BT is still the ISP I use , I am bypassing their current slow DNS servers and using opendns instead.

As a customer I only want the connection speed I pay for - I'm not overly worried about how the engine works!

A DNS server (domain name service) is used to lookup the ip of a hostname only (or vice versa in some cases), so it will have no impact on your bandwidth speed. The only thing it should speed up (or slow down) is hostname resolves. After which you directly connect to the IP, your DNS server is not used thereafter until you pass another hostname to it.

So if you browse to www.yahoo.ie, you contact the dns server to give you the ip of www.yahoo.ie and it throws you back 217.12.3.11 or whatever and your are infact now connecing directly to that IP. Your DNS server does no more.

The reason why i'd say you are noticing a bandwidth speed increase when using opendns is because probably your pc is riddled with spyware/adware which hammers bandwidth pushing out ads/emails etc.. to others. So when you have set up opendns server, opendns prob have some spam/spyware protection, so any spyware crap on your pc that tries to connect to what ever it connects to, your dns server will resolve any spyware/spam hostname as 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 (local loop) so it wont connect, saving your bandwidth? Make sence? just my thoughts!

dak wrote:

I'm running the latest version of internet explorer - how can you say its useless when it at least speeded up what has been a poor service from BT since before X-mas

Again Internet Explorer version will hold no bearing on your bandwidth speed. Spyware may influencer this. If you read above?? was it not OpenDNS you say that speeded up things or now Internet Explorer?

nesf

Evan Alive Pacemaker wrote:

The reason why i'd say you are noticing a bandwidth speed increase when using opendns is because probably your pc is riddled with spyware/adware which hammers bandwidth pushing out ads/emails etc.. to others. So when you have set up opendns server, opendns prob have some spam/spyware protection, so any spyware crap on your pc that tries to connect to what ever it connects to, your dns server will resolve any spyware/spam hostname as 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 (local loop) so it wont connect, saving your bandwidth? Make sence? just my thoughts!

At the moment opendns could speed up someone's connection, but it'd be down to the BT's dns servers acting up rather than anything else. Don't auto blame spyware/adware.

That said my connection has been brutal even with IPs, so it mightn't be a DNS problem with BT atm.

dak

Evan Alive Pacemaker wrote:

A DNS server (domain name service) is used to lookup the ip of a hostname only (or vice versa in some cases), so it will have no impact on your bandwidth speed. The only thing it should speed up (or slow down) is hostname resolves. After which you directly connect to the IP, your DNS server is not used thereafter until you pass another hostname to it.

So if you browse to www.yahoo.ie, you contact the dns server to give you the ip of www.yahoo.ie and it throws you back 217.12.3.11 or whatever and your are infact now connecing directly to that IP. Your DNS server does no more.

The reason why i'd say you are noticing a bandwidth speed increase when using opendns is because probably your pc is riddled with spyware/adware which hammers bandwidth pushing out ads/emails etc.. to others. So when you have set up opendns server, opendns prob have some spam/spyware protection, so any spyware crap on your pc that tries to connect to what ever it connects to, your dns server will resolve any spyware/spam hostname as 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 (local loop) so it wont connect, saving your bandwidth? Make sence? just my thoughts!



Again Internet Explorer version will hold no bearing on your bandwidth speed. Spyware may influencer this. If you read above?? was it not OpenDNS you say that speeded up things or now Internet Explorer?

Sorry ! but your spyware logic is flawed as my PC is not riddled with Spyware as you suggest. All my anti virus and anti spyware is right up to date . I undersatnd the basics of DNS but what you appear to ignore is that obviously BT servers are running slow at the moment maybe due to being overloaded. I've only had a problem wiith them in the last few weeks. OpenDNS appears to be a high speed cached DNS server which solves hostname resolves far quicker than BT at the moment.

I am well aware IE 7 has no bearing on bandwith speed . If you read the replies it was a mis-read reply to an answer regardinrg technology on Opendns to block Phishing sites .

Conar

If you can download at your full speed (300kb/s approx for a 3mb line, 200kb/s for a 2mb line, and yes you guessed it 100kb/s for a imb line) but find that you are experiencing delays when browsing then you may well have an issue with slow DNS servers.
However if you are having browsing issues AND are only getting about a quarter/half of your normal download speed then the issue is not a DNS issue.

You need to contact a DNS server to resolve a web address once only so it may take a few seconds before your download starts when you have a DNS issue, but once that download has started it no longer needs to use DNS at all.

Sorry if I'm rehashing what other people have said but there seems to be a little confusion here.

dak

Conar wrote:

If you can download at your full speed (300kb/s approx for a 3mb line, 200kb/s for a 2mb line, and yes you guessed it 100kb/s for a imb line) but find that you are experiencing delays when browsing then you may well have an issue with slow DNS servers.
However if you are having browsing issues AND are only getting about a quarter/half of your normal download speed then the issue is not a DNS issue.

You need to contact a DNS server to resolve a web address once only so it may take a few seconds before your download starts when you have a DNS issue, but once that download has started it no longer needs to use DNS at all.

Sorry if I'm rehashing what other people have said but there seems to be a little confusion here.

I didn't think it was possible to download at full speed - it is realistically more like 85 or 90% of quoted Mbps. The problem I had was with delays in browsing which to my mind means slow DNS servers. Getting slower download speeds is more often or not caused by contention issues or problems with the line.

parsi

Better off choosing an eircom dns server - these are very robust and you're saved the annoying search pages that opendns provides when you mis-spell an address (I had it as dns for about 10 minutes before irt annoyed me).

Conar

dak wrote:

I didn't think it was possible to download at full speed - it is realistically more like 85 or 90% of quoted Mbps. The problem I had was with delays in browsing which to my mind means slow DNS servers. Getting slower download speeds is more often or not caused by contention issues or problems with the line.

What I mean by full speed is the full speed you can get.
A 3megabit line is actually a 3072kilobit line. This then is a 384 Kilobyte line (8 bits in a byte).
You will never get near 384KB/s though with a 3mb line as you need to take TCP/IP overheads etc in to account so generally the following rough guidelines are what you can expect:
1mb line --> 100-110KB/s
2mb line --> 200-220KB/s
3mb line --> 300-330KB/s

I probably confused matters earlier as I was using kb instead of KB etc.
kb= kilobit
KB= Kilobyte (8kb per KB)
mb= megabit
MB= Megabyte (8mb per MB)

Can someone please post the eircom DNS servers they are using because I'd love to test them against the BT ones.

h57xiucj2z946q

dak wrote:

Sorry ! but your spyware logic is flawed as my PC is not riddled with Spyware as you suggest. All my anti virus and anti spyware is right up to date.

That don't always mean you dont got spyware, you ever hear of rootkits? alot of antivirus/antispyware cannot see the nasty files if a rootkit is in the way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

dak

Evan Alive Pacemaker wrote:

That don't always mean you dont got spyware, you ever hear of rootkits? alot of antivirus/antispyware cannot see the nasty files if a rootkit is in the way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

I use Super-anti spyware professional which detects rootkits- I also occasionally double check with F-secure Blacklight beta. My computer runs fine so I doubt this is a problem .

hellboy99

anyone know if the speed problem is going to be fixed cause i'm really getting pissed with having to €63 a month for a so called 3MB service that won't even connect at 1MB :mad:

billybob97

I Have been having problems with the speed of my BT Broadband and sometimes like last friday Jan 19th it was down for a number of hours.

I called BT today and was told that on thgeir system I have been online 24/7 for the past week. This is impossible.

Has anyone broken their contract with BT as a result of this kind of thing as it seems I am locked into a contract for 12 months and according to them it is impossible for me to move till my contract is up/

dak

billybob97 wrote:

I Have been having problems with the speed of my BT Broadband and sometimes like last friday Jan 19th it was down for a number of hours.

I called BT today and was told that on thgeir system I have been online 24/7 for the past week. This is impossible.

Has anyone broken their contract with BT as a result of this kind of thing as it seems I am locked into a contract for 12 months and according to them it is impossible for me to move till my contract is up/

Seems a common problem- I've had intermittent faults. Last Sunday DNS was down for half the day. Had to use dial up to connect. Even when connected got terrible speed until used opendns settings. Before X-mas there were no problems.

aaronm13

I have a 3mb BT connection and it's so slooooow the last few weeks and I'm really on the brink of getting rid of it.Sites like Google can take up to 60-70 seconds to load up.When I run a speed test I get about 2.5mb which is ok but websites take as long as dial up to open.I'm using the latest Firefox.Does anyone have any idea as to what might be causing this problem,I'd rather pull my toe nails out with a pliers than get onto BT support,wait for about 2 hours then finally get through to a total moron,no thanks!