Slow download speed from some services despite fast connection

[nophead]

Hello,

   I have a solid ADSL connection speed of 55.37 Mbps and I can play youtube videos,  watch HD TV catchup services and Netflix without any problems. However at some times of day near race weekends I can't watch MotoGP and WorldSBK at HD resolution.  Sometimes it is low res which looks like an impressionist oil painting! 

When I investigate actual download speeds I get widely varying results depending on the test provider.  Google home says I have a lightning fast connection and reports 50.2 Mbps. Fast.com powered by Netflix always reports a reasonable speed as well, currently 53 Mbps. It varies between about 40 and 55.

However when I have a problems with MotoGP Which's speed test can be as  lows as 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps and www.speedtest.net can show similar slow speeds as well, although on good days they show much higher speeds, closer to the actual line rate.

I have been in contact with Dorna and after a long email conversation they offered a refund but no fix. They say only a small number of their customers have this problem. I have looked at the bandwidth used by Dorna videos and it is about 6 Mbps, so about 4 times other HD video services but that should not be a problem for a 55M bps connection.  I can watch other HD services at the same time and it doesn't make the Dorna feed any worse. So I do have plenty of bandwidth, just not to Dorna.

So what is Which's speed test doing that sees such slow download speeds, that only affect Dorna's videos? It seems like some part of the internet has a slow connection to Talktalk but other parts are always fast.

A traceroute shows the Dorna videos come from an Amazon server in Seattle via 19 hops, lots taking around 100ms. 

[nophead]

Down to 3 Mbps at 17:30 on a Sunday evening. Fast.com shows 42 Mbps, Which only 2.3 Mbps and Ookla 7.35 Mbps.

I suspect the reason Fast.com is always fast is it is powered by Netflix, so perhaps it it is cached on your local servers.

[nophead]

It is even slow this Saturday afternoon. I noticed my Github page was slow to load.

Fast.com still says I have a 50 Mbps connection but Which says 11.6 Mbps and your own test shows 14 Mbps. Ookla shows 8.58  Mbps and Google, which is normally fast shows only 4.91 Mbps.

4.91 Mbps should be fast enough to draw a webpage but I notice all these speed tests start off very slow and speed up towards the end.

I don't see how it is acceptable for your network to consistently not meet its guaranteed minimum speed at busy times. "It is what it is" is not an acceptable answer. How can I escalate this complaint so that somebody improves your network infrastructure so it has enough capacity at peak times instead of papering over it by caching popular video sites.

[nophead]

I don't think it can be at my exchange because I always have fast access to cached video. So unless the caches are at the exchange it is further up the TalkTalk network. Most people won't notice because fast streaming is only needed for video and most video is cached. It would be interesting to see other people's speed tests at 8pm though.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear this. If there was specific network peak time congestion at your exchange then we would usually see more reports of the same issue. 

Thanks

[nophead]

They just phoned and said "It is what it is" and there is nothing they can do. Unbelievable!

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Ok thanks for confirming. Please let us know how you get on.

Thanks

[nophead]

Yes they said they would probably phone back. There isn't congestion late in the evenings but most evenings there is around 8pm. You can see that in my speed tests because I only do them now when other speeds tests show the slowdown. So my averages will be low.

The first support person said there wasn't a problem because the average of my speed tests was high. Since it just depends when I do them that makes no sense. There is a regular problem in the early evening, most evenings. It seemed OK last night (sunday) though.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

One of our Network Engineers checked this and confirmed late Friday evening that there is no peak time congestion affecting your service. Did the support person who contacted you advise when they would contact you back?

Thanks

[nophead]

I did some more speed tests last night at 8pm using my laptop and without anything else running. Your own test showed a slowdown to 20Mbps and Which showed 6Mbps. Not quite as bad as usual but I expect the internet is less busy on a Friday night because some people have better things to do.

I got a phone call yesterday from a more technical person and he explained that Netflix and youtube, etc are cached by your servers. So that is the reason they don't slow down. Dorna video isn't but he admitted it shouldn't need to be to get a 6 Mbps stream across the internet. 

If most video services are cached I don't know how anybody would notice that Talk-Talk's internet connection slows right down in the evenings. If you are not watching video most web pages don't need high bandwidth. I wonder if there any gamers that see similar problems.

The support guy said he would investigate and get back to me but didn't seem confident it could be fixed. This is crazy when Talk-talk's own speed test shows a speed drop below the minimum guaranteed speed almost every evening. There is definitely congestion somewhere in Talk-Talk's network, not local to my connection. Basically cached video services don't slow down but non-cached ones do. That shows it isn't local to my connection, so I am surprised more people don't notice it.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Ok I'll contact one of our Network Engineers now and will let you know as soon as I know more.

Thanks

[nophead]

I have done this before. The thing that changes with ping and traceroute is there is packet loss when it is slow. The times don't change significantly.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Would it be possible to do this and also run a wired ping and trace route prior to the speed drop and another one when the speed has dropped and I will pass this all over to the Network Engineer please?

Thanks

[nophead]

They are wired but I do do have plenty of applications running on my PC. I can repeat it this evening with a laptop doing nothing else but it won't make a lot of difference. I run it this morning in exactly the same conditions and I get 44 Mbps with the same stuff running on my PC.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for running the speed tests. Can I just confirm before I pass this over to one of our Network Engineers, were all the recent speed tests completed wired with no other applications running at the same time?

Thanks

[nophead]

Slow again this evening, so I ran lots of tests that will bring the average down.  All I have to do is check it is slow with my other speed tests and only run the talk-talk one when it is. Then the average will always be low and way below the guaranteed 40 Mbps. Perhaps you can admit there is congestion on your network in the evenings.

[nophead]

It isn't only Dorna. Which's speed test, speedtest.net's speed test and your own speed test show your internet connection slows down in the evening to crazy slow speeds.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks for the information. As only Dorna appears to be affected it may be worth checking with them again. 

Chris

[nophead]

As I predicted the telephone support was useless. She said it isn't an issue that it dropped to 7 Mbps because the average of my speed tests was still higher. The average just depends when I ran them. If I had run them only when it was slow it would average low. As I ran them throughout the evening there were some good ones to bring the average up.

In reply to the Which speed test and speedtest.net she said they aren't supported speed tests. She offered to send out an OpenReach engineer. Not sure if they work at 8pm but the problem is not at this end, so it would be a complete waste of their time. Plus I have Covid at the moment so I don't think they would want to come!

She also said it must be a Dorna problem but I don't think so, because I have no problem in Tenerife and Which has no connection with Dorna but measures the same speeds, and so does speedtest.net.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks, please let us know how you get on

Chris

[nophead]

Yes but I don't hold out much hope of a resolution. I told her it was a problem with Talk-Talks servers but she said we have no control over that! So talk-talk have no control over servers registered to them?