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. 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi nophead,

Has the lady you spoke to arranged to call you back?

Chris

[nophead]

One thing the lady on the phone asked me to do was try the Talk-Talk speed test. Although it wasn't as bad last evening as recent evenings it did show the speed dropping to 7 Mbps around 9 PM. 

This morning it is back to 52.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Ok thanks for confirming.

Thanks

[nophead]

Had to log in again and then it worked.

[nophead]

Thanks, bit It just says "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again."

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi

This help page provides information on how to set up a telephone password 

Setting up your telephone password

[nophead]

Had phone conversation about this and the caller suggested I should set up an phone password in my account settings but I can't see where to do this.

She suggested I try a different ethernet cable. How could a  1 Gbit Ethernet cable slow down access to some sites to 0.2 Mbps and not others only at 8pm in the evening? Also in the very long thread I have already stated I tried a laptop plugged directly into the router, which was of course a different cable.

I can see that the route to Netflix and the route to Which goes through different servers owned by Talk-Talk, so I am sure the problem is in Talk-Talks network infrastructure, not in my home, or the telephone exchange.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Ok I've passed this over to our Faults escalation team and have asked if they can check to see if they can see any congestion or possible network issues and I will post as soon as I receive an update back.

Thanks

[nophead]

Yes if you look at my previous posts it generally goes slow around 8pm in the evening and Which's speed test shows very low speeds that seem to match the rate I get for Dorna's videos. Other speed tests like Google or fast.net show much faster speeds, although they do drop somewhat at that time I have no problem watching multiple Youtube videos and Netflix at the same time so I still have  a fast internet connection to most sites.

traceroute shows packet loss between your servers.  When I switched my router off for half an hour last week it changed the servers it routed through to Which but I see the route reverted back to the ones I think are problematic.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Ok. Have you noticed if their is certain patterns, days of the week, specific times, specific content? When you say certain speed tests, do you mean that different speed tester sites show different speeds?

Thanks

[nophead]

Yes Which's tests says 46.3 Mbps this morning and it improved late evening yesterday. It it congestion in your network when the internet is busy somewhere that only affects some speed tests and not others and Dorna's video and not other video. 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Can I just confirm, has it improved again this morning without rebooting/switching off the router?

Thanks

[nophead]

Well it didn't take long for it to go wrong again. Which's speed test reports only 2.8Mbps at 20:30 this evening and Dorna videos can't run at HD res again.

[nophead]

It wasn't my connection that was reset though. I am still connected to the same first level server. There must be some faulty or overloaded servers that are owned by Talk-Talk and should be fixed. You have the three server names. Perhaps they should have been turned off and on, LOL. 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi nophead,

Glad to hear that it seems OK now, thanks for letting me know. Unfortunately switching the router off for 30 minutes occasionally is required to reset the connection, like rebooting a PC or a mobile phone. It's just that to reset the internet connection (start a new session) a shutdown of 30 minutes is required rather than just a quick reboot. Having said that you may not need to do it again for months or longer

Chris

[nophead]

Disconnecting for 30 minutes seems to have fixed it, thanks. The Which test does still slow down around 8pm but only to about 29 Mbps so I can still watch Dorna videos. 

The route to Which's server is the same at each end. The only difference it made was the three aeNN servers in the middle, which are owned by Talk-Talk and seem to get overloaded and drop packets at 8pm.  I have had this problem for a long time. I only started looking at it when Dorna videos stopped working but I did notice in the winter that my VPN to Tenerife was only about 2 Mbps for no apparent reason. It should be equal to my upload speed of about 6 Mbps and it now is.  And it was when I was a Shell broadband customer. As far as I know they use your infrastructure but capped the speed to 40 Mbps, which is why I changed to Talk-Talk. 

It seems very poor that I have to switch off my router for 30 minutes to get around a problem that is nothing to do with my router or its connection to the first server.  I can't do that in the winter, so I hope it doesn't reoccur. 

Thanks for your help.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks, look forward to hearing how you get on

Chris

[nophead]

Interestingly the route to Which starts and ends the same but goes through a different set of three servers with names beginning with ae. Those are the ones that drop packets when busy so I expect they are the problem.

I won't be at home this evening but I might be able to test with a VPN to my phone.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks for that. I'm sorry but we can't guarantee that your router will never need to be rebooted. Unfortunately sometimes a problem occurs that requires the router too be rebooted, switched off for 30 minutes or sometime reset.

Chris

[nophead]

Ok I have switched it off for more than 30 minutes but I spend months out of the country, so I need the connection to be solid without physical intervention.

There aren't any recent authentications because it is a solid connection. It took more than 2 years and 5 site visits from OpenReach to get a solid connection when I was with Shell broadband. They replaced all the wire from my house to the cabinet.