A question re. slow UL speeds

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Steinie

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I am on 3G HSDPA, very close to a VC tower and, subsequently, get maximum UL and DL speeds most of the time.

When I receive e-mails, the DL speeds are more than acceptable.

But, when I send e-mails, the UL speed is always approximately 8KB/s. :(

All my mailboxes are on external domain servers, i.e. not Vodamail. I also have the same problem when sending mail via Gmail (POP3).



Anyone? :confused:
 
Steinie said:
I am on 3G HSDPA, very close to a VC tower and, subsequently, get maximum UL and DL speeds most of the time.

When I receive e-mails, the DL speeds are more than acceptable.

But, when I send e-mails, the UL speed is always approximately 8KB/s. :(

All my mailboxes are on external domain servers, i.e. not Vodamail. I also have the same problem when sending mail via Gmail (POP3).



Anyone? :confused:
Click to expand...

Let's get some data around this.

1) Pick a know file and mail it out. Measure the time, so we can calculate the upload rate. Do a few to get an average.

2) Then run a speed.vodacom.co.za test and note the upload speed. Do a few to get an average.

3) Now do both, i.e. while the mail is sending run the speed test.

What do you see?
 
Hi V3G. Thanks for the response.

Sending an e-mail with a 2MB attachment, takes an average of 390 seconds to send. (NetMeter indicated a constant 8.5 KB/s U/L).

Download Speed: 1891 kbps (236.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 333 kbps (41.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 1846 kbps (230.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 309 kbps (38.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sending and doing a speed test simultaneously: 398 seconds.

Download Speed: 90 kbps (11.3 KB/sec transfer rate) ???
Upload Speed: 298 kbps (37.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
(The D/L speed test took forever to get going whilst the e-mail is sending ... and the D/L speed is way lower than normal. Why?)

Does this help you in any way, V3G?

TIA :cool:
 
If you've still got 298 kbps available for the test while sending mail, I'd say that the mailserver is the bottleneck...

Can't think why the download would be so poor unless the uplink was too busy to send the acks, but that would mean that the upload should be terrible too, so that theory flops.
 
I have seen the Vodacom speed test get "stuck" from time to time which then results in very poor results when compared to the average. Might have been that.
 
Colin62 said:
If you've still got 298 kbps available for the test while sending mail, I'd say that the mailserver is the bottleneck...

Can't think why the download would be so poor unless the uplink was too busy to send the acks, but that would mean that the upload should be terrible too, so that theory flops.
Click to expand...

Does the VC mailserver affect my mail even though my outgoing (SMTP) server is set to the IP address of my domain's mailserver and not to smtp.vodamail.co.za ?


BTW, for what it's worth, if I upload files (FTP) to my servers, the speeds are great!
 
Last edited:
No, your mail will go directly to the domain's mailserver.

My gut feel is that there is a bottleneck between you and your mailserver. I know I battle with mail from my company mailserver at peak times, because it's link to the 'net is overloaded with sales reps trying to catch up on their paperwork.
 
Colin62 said:
No, your mail will go directly to the domain's mailserver.

My gut feel is that there is a bottleneck between you and your mailserver. I know I battle with mail from my company mailserver at peak times, because it's link to the 'net is overloaded with sales reps trying to catch up on their paperwork.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I just sent the same message, using my Gmail account (which is set up as a POP account in Outlook Express) and VC's outgoing mailserver, and the results are the same ... slow U/L!
 
Right, that blows my theory out the water. Hopefully someone else will chip in with some ideas.
 
Colin62 said:
Right, that blows my theory out the water. Hopefully someone else will chip in with some ideas.
Click to expand...

:D Thanks for trying, anyway!

Just received a phone call from V3G - helpful as always!

He has suggested that I have my phone (modem) provisioned for internet vpn apn. Waiting for the activation and then I'll do some more tests and report back.

:cool:
 
Steinie said:
:D Thanks for trying, anyway!

Just received a phone call from V3G - helpful as always!

He has suggested that I have my phone (modem) provisioned for internet vpn apn. Waiting for the activation and then I'll do some more tests and report back.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Steinie can you do the same tests but set your outgoing SMTP server to smtp.vodamail.co.za please?

Do we know if Telkom throttles SMTP?
 
vodacom3g said:
Steinie can you do the same tests but set your outgoing SMTP server to smtp.vodamail.co.za please?

Do we know if Telkom throttles SMTP?
Click to expand...

As per the above, I did the test using the vodamail outgoing server (SMTP) with my Gmail account, and with the same results.


I changed the SMTP settings on another account to vodamail, as you requested, but now I am getting this error:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'Steinie - Steinie', Server: 'smtp.vodamail.co.za', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 587, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

:confused:
 
Steinie said:
As per the above, I did the test using the vodamail outgoing server (SMTP) with my Gmail account, and with the same results.


I changed the SMTP settings on another account to vodamail, as you requested, but now I am getting this error:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'Steinie - Steinie', Server: 'smtp.vodamail.co.za', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 587, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

:confused:
Click to expand...

I'm testing in Cpt and just send a 2MB SMTP mail via a server in Germany at about 500Kb/s. (on UPA)
 
Steinie said:
I changed the SMTP settings on another account to vodamail, as you requested, but now I am getting this error:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'Steinie - Steinie', Server: 'smtp.vodamail.co.za', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 587, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

:confused:
Click to expand...

I think I know the cause of this "new and unrelated" problem. When you dial 155, the voice prompt announces that VC is experiencing e-mail problems.:rolleyes:
 
vodacom3g said:
Nothing further than they're still looking at it.

I'm hoping (in a sense) that more people would report the problem.

BTW, the engineers asked if you can give them a test account on your FTP server?
Click to expand...

They are welcome to use the same one that I created for you.

Thanks so much for your assistance!
 
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