Mystery problem with speeds!

sudzs

Hope I'm posting this in the right place, apologies if not.

Anyway, I have a broadband service which has been driving me insane over the last couple of months. Recently every day there are periods when the download speed is so slow it doesn't even register on speedtest.net, the test will just stall completely or I will get either timed out or latency test error messages. I also get connection reset messages. These periods can last from a couple of minutes to an hour. There is a bit of a time pattern with the worst times being from midday to 2pm and then around 5pm to 6.30 to 7.00. In the evenings the periods of slow speeds tends to be for a couple of minutes at a time. Occasionally I get "DNS server is not responding" but if I try the whole turning everythng off and back on again it does the trick... although not always! :rolleyes:

Where I live (I'm not in Ireland btw) there is no actual service from the main providers so I get it through a company that uses Vodafone and then relays it to me and others in the area via a mast or a base station or something. The guy I'm dealing with keeps fobbing me off saying he will look into the problem but no one else in the area is having the same problem and he.s checking this. that and the other but can't find any problem with anything. But previously when it would get bad I would ring him and he would say he's reset something and then I'd be up and running again, for a while at least. At one stage I think I got through a couple of weeks with hardly any drops in service. But recently it has gone back to being a daily problem and he says there's nothing he can do.


So would anyone have an idea what could be causing this intermittent problem with my broadband? Could it be a problem with the actual phone line? The phone works ok with no interference or crackles on the line.

Sorry for the rambling post or if I haven't given enough info, I'm not very technical! Any advice appreciated.

Kencollins

You say in your post that the service is relayed to you via a mast, so a phone line issue is definatly not the problem.

The service you are getting is probably a "Fixed Wireless" service, which uses a small antenna on your roof to communicate with a base station a few km's away.

These usually operate at 5ghz, so interference isn't usually a problem.

What I can see is a badly managed network by your provider. They must not have adequate QOS (sharing of internet between all users equally) in place, or some of their DNS equipment is faulty.

There is most likely nothing you can do from your end, you will need to speak to the provider again.

lmimmfn

it may just be a DNS issue( its a server that maps web address names to ip-addresses, e.g. www.google.ie to 74.125.232.159 and the ip addresses are used for all internet communication, so if the DNS server is overloaded it will slow your internet by slowing down all your requests for web pages etc. ) try using google DNS and see if that resolves your problem, info on how to configure it is here - https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using

sudzs

Kencollins wrote: »

You say in your post that the service is relayed to you via a mast, so a phone line issue is definatly not the problem.

The service you are getting is probably a "Fixed Wireless" service, which uses a small antenna on your roof to communicate with a base station a few km's away.

These usually operate at 5ghz, so interference isn't usually a problem.

What I can see is a badly managed network by your provider. They must not have adequate QOS (sharing of internet between all users equally) in place, or some of their DNS equipment is faulty.

There is most likely nothing you can do from your end, you will need to speak to the provider again.

Thanks for that, yes, it is a wireless system, I should have known that! :rolleyes: I will have to speak to him again but he isn't the most helpful unfortunately. I think he reckons I'll get fed up ringing him and just put up with the shoddy service!

It worked ok this morning (ping around 35, download speed around 1mb/s, upload around 0.17 mb/s which is good for here!) but now at lunchtime it's gone terribly slow again. So what you say makes sense, as it's mostly at peak usage times that it goes

lmimmfn wrote: »

it may just be a DNS issue( its a server that maps web address names to ip-addresses, e.g. www.google.ie to 74.125.232.159 and the ip addresses are used for all internet communication, so if the DNS server is overloaded it will slow your internet by slowing down all your requests for web pages etc. ) try using google DNS and see if that resolves your problem, info on how to configure it is here - https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using

Thanks for the advice. Though I'm loath to go changing anything at the moment, especially something I don't really understand! It works fine sometimes, it was pretty good for a few weeks, at the moment it's back to slowing down to the point of being useless for periods of time.


Thanks again!


Just managed a speedtest.... That ping isn't bad for when it's on a go-slow. Once it was over 1000 ms!!! Actually this result is not at all bad. I wish I could show ye a worse result!!

lmimmfn

sudzs wrote: »

Thanks for that, yes, it is a wireless system, I should have known that! :rolleyes: I will have to speak to him again but he isn't the most helpful unfortunately. I think he reckons I'll get fed up ringing him and just put up with the shoddy service!

It worked ok this morning (ping around 35, download speed around 1mb/s, upload around 0.17 mb/s which is good for here!) but now at lunchtime it's gone terribly slow again. So what you say makes sense, as it's mostly at peak usage times that it goes



Thanks for the advice. Though I'm loath to go changing anything at the moment, especially something I don't really understand! It works fine sometimes, it was pretty good for a few weeks, at the moment it's back to slowing down to the point of being useless for periods of time.


Thanks again!


Just managed a speedtest.... That ping isn't bad for when it's on a go-slow. Once it was over 1000 ms!!! Actually this result is not at all bad. I wish I could show ye a worse result!!

Sorry, i actually started a reply to you from work over a week or so ago but got distracted.
Nah man, sorry you dont stand a chance, those figures are basicallly putting you between old dial up and just having basic broadband, i dont know about Ghana, but mobile here would generally give you better results when in a small town or larger.