ADSL Issues: Centurion

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BrandOfRiva

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I've been having packetloss and high latency sporadically on my line for months now. This occurs sporadically regardless of ISP but seems to predominantly occur in residential peak adsl times (6pm-10pm). Its not restricted to those times however, those times are just the times I get it fairly consistantly. I'm running via the Heuweloord exchange in Centurion (Living in Amberfield Glen).

The method I've used to clearly identify my issue has been a simple "ping www.telkom.co.za -t" using a telkom shaped account with no transfer load at the time of testing.
The results on my line during the bad times are fluctuating from 100ms to 400ms with plenty of request timeouts which seem to indicate high packetloss. Good times its 20ms with very minor deviation.
Tests from a friends line on the same account living about 7 kilometers away (on a different exchange) seem to result in approximately 20ms response with a very minor deviation of 2ms either way - its like this all the time. This was tested at the same times as I was experiencing issues, multiple tests at different occasions. Friends in other parts of the country have yielded similar results to this.

Steps thus far to try correct/identify the issue:
- Bought a new modem.
- Tried various ISP accounts (Saix shaped, webafrica unshaped (saix & verizon), Axxess 626 & semi-shaped. All yield the same results if I'm experiencing the issues.
- Many months of work with my local telkom technician. After alot of time we've come to the point where they have printed line tests from their side after correcting multiple issues on the line that indicate the line between me and the exchange is perfect.
- I've apparently been moved to a different DSLAM in the exchange too.
- Tested for internal network issues, ping on my internal lan is perfect (<=1ms).

I'm basically at the point now where the local Telkom technician is telling me from his side it should be perfect and it must be an ISP fault.
My gut-feel is its an issue at my exchange but I obviously can't prove or disprove this. I'd like to find out if anyone else is experiencing similar issues with this exchange.

If anyone else has ADSL in the Amberfield/Heuweloord/Wierd Park area or are in one of the nearby area's and know you use the Heuweloord exchange please post your experiences / area. I'm desperate to figure this out at this point - Suggestions welcome too.
 
I'm having really fluctuating speeds on my line in Heuweloord. It's damn crazy.
I have called Telkom many times and get the same thing.
Everything is fine on their side, or they just refresh the port.
It's annoying and frustrating. Tried different accounts as well with the same issue.
 
thedon124 said:
I'm having really fluctuating speeds on my line in Heuweloord. It's damn crazy.
I have called Telkom many times and get the same thing.
Everything is fine on their side, or they just refresh the port.
It's annoying and frustrating. Tried different accounts as well with the same issue.
Click to expand...

Hey man - tx for the feedback. Hoping we can get a few people together and take our case to Telkom as a group.
 
After many months of battling I got through to someone who took some time to investigate from Telkom. Picked up errors with their router in the exchange.
 
Finally it's not only me. Me and my friend living in Pierre van Ryneveld has had this problem for more than a month! . I have phoned telkom 5 times and everytime they said : Line is fine. Bleh idiots :/
 
But atm the internet seems fine ? Can any1 confirm by pinging gam.co.za
 
Metalspawn said:
Finally it's not only me. Me and my friend living in Pierre van Ryneveld has had this problem for more than a month! . I have phoned telkom 5 times and everytime they said : Line is fine. Bleh idiots :/
Click to expand...

If I can make some suggestions.
- Record the times when you're having issues.
- Test with a saix account.
- Test with "ping www.telkom.co.za -t". Ping should be 20ms+- from my experience when your connection is idle if all is well. Keep record of the results.
- Test your ping to your local gateway to make sure on the off chance its not an issue on your local lan when you're having the issue. Had this before with one of the early beta windows 7 drivers and a realtek network adaptor. Caused packetloss to all other PC's on my lan at home (nfi how...).
- Get your line technician first to test and verify your line. They have testing equipment which they're busy training for apparently that can identify almost all line related issues and gives a printout with what was wrong. (the technician in my area got that).
- Once the line is verified completely keep track of your call numbers and log a call with SAIX preferably when you're experiencing the issues (I think its SAIX, the number is 10215). Email the call centre agent any and all info you can. With some blind luck then it will get to the appropriate DSL network department.

I've been stuck with this since Feb and its been one long run around after the next. I've replaced modems twice etc.
All you can do is be thorough and ensure the issue isnt on your side.
Still no guarentees they're gonna fix my issue or the timelines around it unfortunately :/
 
BrandOfRiva said:
After many months of battling I got through to someone who took some time to investigate from Telkom. Picked up errors with their router in the exchange.
Click to expand...

So....is your line fine now...???

Or is the router at the exchange still messed up?
 
Still boned I think - I've had no feedback yet.
Atm the line is fine but its been intermittent for months. I'll only know for sure after a day or 3 of use.
 
BrandOfRiva said:
Still boned I think - I've had no feedback yet.
Atm the line is fine but its been intermittent for months. I'll only know for sure after a day or 3 of use.
Click to expand...

My line is extremely slow during the day and night, and only picks up speed around 2am. It's ridiculous.
 
BrandOfRiva said:
I've been having packetloss and high latency sporadically on my line for months now. This occurs sporadically regardless of ISP but seems to predominantly occur in residential peak adsl times (6pm-10pm). Its not restricted to those times however, those times are just the times I get it fairly consistantly. I'm running via the Heuweloord exchange in Centurion (Living in Amberfield Glen).

The method I've used to clearly identify my issue has been a simple "ping www.telkom.co.za -t" using a telkom shaped account with no transfer load at the time of testing.
The results on my line during the bad times are fluctuating from 100ms to 400ms with plenty of request timeouts which seem to indicate high packetloss. Good times its 20ms with very minor deviation.
Tests from a friends line on the same account living about 7 kilometers away (on a different exchange) seem to result in approximately 20ms response with a very minor deviation of 2ms either way - its like this all the time. This was tested at the same times as I was experiencing issues, multiple tests at different occasions. Friends in other parts of the country have yielded similar results to this.

Steps thus far to try correct/identify the issue:
- Bought a new modem.
- Tried various ISP accounts (Saix shaped, webafrica unshaped (saix & verizon), Axxess 626 & semi-shaped. All yield the same results if I'm experiencing the issues.
- Many months of work with my local telkom technician. After alot of time we've come to the point where they have printed line tests from their side after correcting multiple issues on the line that indicate the line between me and the exchange is perfect.
- I've apparently been moved to a different DSLAM in the exchange too.
- Tested for internal network issues, ping on my internal lan is perfect (<=1ms).

I'm basically at the point now where the local Telkom technician is telling me from his side it should be perfect and it must be an ISP fault.
My gut-feel is its an issue at my exchange but I obviously can't prove or disprove this. I'd like to find out if anyone else is experiencing similar issues with this exchange.

If anyone else has ADSL in the Amberfield/Heuweloord/Wierd Park area or are in one of the nearby area's and know you use the Heuweloord exchange please post your experiences / area. I'm desperate to figure this out at this point - Suggestions welcome too.
Click to expand...
I am having slow speeds as well, i stay in Wierda Park have phoned several time to 0800375375 and used their self diagnostics but when clicking on the line test part it says the particular server is unavailable.it seems that it gets affected daily around 17.00 and lasts to way into the night.
 
All seems like the same issue, lets hope they can resolve it soon. If you want to log a call with telkom for interests sake my fault number is: 750CTK111109.
The fault should have all the call centre agent's investigations etc attached so it might save some time. Chances are they're going to need to first go through the process of line testing etc if you havent reported it recently however.

I'll update the thread with any feedback I get from Telkom.
 
I have similar problem when checking using pings international or local
Every minute or so ping jumps high for 3 hops then back to normal but i'm in Pmb
 
BrandOfRiva said:
All seems like the same issue, lets hope they can resolve it soon. If you want to log a call with telkom for interests sake my fault number is: 750CTK111109.
The fault should have all the call centre agent's investigations etc attached so it might save some time. Chances are they're going to need to first go through the process of line testing etc if you havent reported it recently however.

I'll update the thread with any feedback I get from Telkom.
Click to expand...

I will login a fault to-day and will be following this thread with interest
 
My goodness... You guys are all lucky. I am in Centurion and my adsl line suddenly stopped working at about 8:30, Sunday evening, the 1st of November. Naturally, I phoned Telkom's helpline the Monday morning and they told me that everything was fine. I blamed my router and had it replaced (under warranty). I got the new one on Friday, and it would also not connect. I phoned Telkom again that Friday (6 November). I phoned again on Sunday, when they told me that it had been assigned to a technician. I phoned them every day for the last week, with absolutely no progress, eventually I was told that there is something wrong with the DSLAM at the exchange or something. Yesterday the consultant told me that he is now escalating my fault (bravo...). I am terribly frustrated after suffering from internetlessness for basically all of November so far. Does anybody know how many exchanges there are in Centurion and what I could do to make something happen to get this sorted out?
 
Got someone in the know who came out and did some tests. Apparently its a bandwidth issues between the exchange and telkom and this guy has recieved multiple complaints.
Lets hope they upgrade it soon :D
 
haha, i noticed this issue a while ago > http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=169409

I connect to the heuweloord exchange as well. This problem started when all those townhouses went up on the other side of Ruimte ave.

i have been calling the adsl helpdesk since April. it took me until early September to convince them that the problem is not my line. I had multiple line tests done, switched to a different DSLAM, downgraded to 3mb then 2mb etc etc.

So they put me in contact with the ADSL expert, it;s a third party company that telkom uses. Spent about 5mins explaining my problem to the guy, He went out to the exchange and confirmed that there is a big bandwidth issue. He said that he will contact telkom to rectify the issue, that was mid Sept. Still waiting....

I will contact this expert again next week to get progress report.

Back in the day the bad latency and packet loss started at about 4pm every day and lasted until about 1am. These days it starts ~7:30pm, don't know until what time because i have given up on using adsl after 7:30pm.

yay, i;m not alone ;)
 
Last edited:
Mine got resolved after addressing my issues with:

Nokuthula (Thuli) Dladla | Director: Admin. Sec. |Office of the Minister |
Department of Communications
:+27 83 262-3233 | : +27 12 427-8113 | :+27 86 657-6351 |e-mail: [email protected]
iParioli Office Park | 399 Duncan Street | Hatfield | Pretoria | Switchboard: +27 12 427 8000
 
I also live in Amberfield Glen and my line speeds really fluctuate.

When I had a 384kbs line, it was fine, I usually got 38kbs when downlaoding, but I have recently upgraded to a 4mb line and the speed constantly flucuates. At night its much better, but during the day its usually around 150kbs or less when I'm on SAIX.
 
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