Afrihost Capped DSL Feedback

[AfriGenie]

Erratic. The periods where things work are becoming shorter and shorter. An hour then things go pear shaped. Here are some mtr traces. Ignore the packet loss on the router... clearly ICMP timeouts. Included bras to eliminate doubt.
Latency starts spiking from Hop 7

Ping trace to catchup.dstv.com: 
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router                            94.3%   645    0.3   0.3   0.2   0.5   0.0
 2. ???
 3. cpt-up1.ip.adsl.co.za             4.2%   645   21.5  20.5  19.6  28.2   0.3
 4. cpt-in1.ip.adsl.co.za             0.2%   645   22.1  21.0  20.0  25.9   0.4
 5. cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za            0.0%   645   21.3  20.7  19.5  38.4   2.3
 6. optinet.ixp.capetown              0.0%   645   22.2  21.6  20.3  34.7   1.0
 7. te0-0-0-1.cpt-p-2.optinet.net     0.2%   645   45.1  43.4  40.4 121.9   3.4
 8. te0-7-0-0.cpt-p-1.optinet.net     0.2%   644   44.6  45.5  42.8 109.1   3.3
 9. te0-0-0-0.vic-p-2.optinet.net     1.4%   644   41.6  46.8  41.0 198.3  14.0
10. 197-84-4-100.cpt.mweb.co.za       0.6%   644   46.9  47.2  42.6 202.7  12.7
11. 101.bu-ether5.vic-pe-1.optinet.n  0.5%   644   44.2  43.2  42.4  48.0   0.2
12. bu-ether3.mca-pe-1.optinet.net    0.5%   644   41.5  41.3  40.4  48.3   0.5
13. 197-80-96-30.jhb.mweb.co.za       0.3%   644   41.2  40.9  39.6 102.8   3.2
14. 197-80-206-101.jhb.mweb.co.za     0.6%   644   40.8  40.9  39.9  42.2   0.1
15. ???
16. 197-80-203-245.jhb.mweb.co.za     5.7%   644   40.5  57.2  39.9 771.5  75.3

Ping trace to bras.afrihost.com: 
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router                            0.0%   644    0.3   0.2   0.2   1.4   0.0
 2. 155.239.255.250                   0.0%   644   19.3  18.5  17.7  20.9   0.2

I don't think this is necessarily related, but it looks like you had two sessions running at the same time on your modem. I've just force-closed those sessions.

But let's just check how things look over the next 15 minutes.

 

[Geoff.D]

Erratic. The periods where things work are becoming shorter and shorter. An hour then things go pear shaped. Here are some mtr traces. Ignore the packet loss on the router... clearly ICMP timeouts. Included bras to eliminate doubt.
Latency starts spiking from Hop 7

Ping trace to catchup.dstv.com: 
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router                            94.3%   645    0.3   0.3   0.2   0.5   0.0
 2. ???
 3. cpt-up1.ip.adsl.co.za             4.2%   645   21.5  20.5  19.6  28.2   0.3
 4. cpt-in1.ip.adsl.co.za             0.2%   645   22.1  21.0  20.0  25.9   0.4
 5. cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za            0.0%   645   21.3  20.7  19.5  38.4   2.3
 6. optinet.ixp.capetown              0.0%   645   22.2  21.6  20.3  34.7   1.0
 7. te0-0-0-1.cpt-p-2.optinet.net     0.2%   645   45.1  43.4  40.4 121.9   3.4
 8. te0-7-0-0.cpt-p-1.optinet.net     0.2%   644   44.6  45.5  42.8 109.1   3.3
 9. te0-0-0-0.vic-p-2.optinet.net     1.4%   644   41.6  46.8  41.0 198.3  14.0
10. 197-84-4-100.cpt.mweb.co.za       0.6%   644   46.9  47.2  42.6 202.7  12.7
11. 101.bu-ether5.vic-pe-1.optinet.n  0.5%   644   44.2  43.2  42.4  48.0   0.2
12. bu-ether3.mca-pe-1.optinet.net    0.5%   644   41.5  41.3  40.4  48.3   0.5
13. 197-80-96-30.jhb.mweb.co.za       0.3%   644   41.2  40.9  39.6 102.8   3.2
14. 197-80-206-101.jhb.mweb.co.za     0.6%   644   40.8  40.9  39.9  42.2   0.1
15. ???
16. 197-80-203-245.jhb.mweb.co.za     5.7%   644   40.5  57.2  39.9 771.5  75.3

Ping trace to bras.afrihost.com: 
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router                            0.0%   644    0.3   0.2   0.2   1.4   0.0
 2. 155.239.255.250                   0.0%   644   19.3  18.5  17.7  20.9   0.2

Pretty much normal for anything to do with MC. I get the same results from PTA East, even though in theory it should be "faster" to get to the mweb server from where I am. The traffic trombones via the same devices you list in Cape Town (optinet.ixp.capetown [196.10.140.145])

And this situation has existed for more than 3 years already with MC traffic.

And BTW, anyone who uses MCs services will have two sessions running but why I do not know.

Update: For once, Afrihost are not causing it. The issue affects MC customers on all ISP networks almost the same.

 

[AfriGenie]

Pretty much normal for anything to do with MC. I get the same results from PTA East, even though in theory it should be "faster" to get to the mweb server from where I am. The traffic trombones via the same devices you list in Cape Town (optinet.ixp.capetown [196.10.140.145])

And this situation has existed for more than 3 years already with MC traffic.

And BTW, anyone who uses MCs services will have two sessions running but why I do not know.

Update: For once, Afrihost are not causing it. The issue affects MC customers on all ISP networks almost the same.

Do you mean Multichoice?

The dual connectivity sessions has running to our radius server, so basically steel_dog's modem had opened two connectivity sessions at once.

It's not a major issue, and after I closed them shouldn't happen again.

 

[Geoff.D]

Do you mean Multichoice?

The dual connectivity sessions has running to our radius server, so basically steel_dog's modem had opened two connectivity sessions at once.

It's not a major issue, and after I closed them shouldn't happen again.

Yes MC = Multichoice

 

[steel_dog]

I don't think this is necessarily related, but it looks like you had two sessions running at the same time on your modem. I've just force-closed those sessions.

No not related. One's active and the other is not. It's by design .

 

[steel_dog]

Update: For once, Afrihost are not causing it. The issue affects MC customers on all ISP networks almost the same.

Yeah I thought so, however MC are in denial. They're pushing it to AH. Really frustrating.
Is it a peering issue? Or worse... CDN?
The reason that it's a big deal is they've decided to push some prime time shows to CU+ i.e.: user download, rather than pushed. Homeland is the latest example.
So I'm hoping AH can assist isolating the issue. That gives me something concrete to get back to them with.

Update: Should have asked. How have you found downloads from CU+ this past week? Mine's been awful. Apart from 23h45 last night, when it flew, it was downloading 9secs of content during the 30sec buffer setup. DSTV Now also went belly up. Kept getting Content not found errors. Swapped to mobile connection (MTN) and it streamed perfectly. So figure it's a peering issue. Thoughts?

 

[AfriGenie]

No not related. One's active and the other is not. It's by design .

It's definitely not... Your modem had two separate and unique IP addresses assigned to it at once from the same DSL line. Each session had a unique session ID and the radius was tracking the usage separately.

 

[Geoff.D]

Yeah I thought so, however MC are in denial. They're pushing it to AH. Really frustrating.
Is it a peering issue? Or worse... CDN?
The reason that it's a big deal is they've decided to push some prime time shows to CU+ i.e.: user download, rather than pushed. Homeland is the latest example.
So I'm hoping AH can assist isolating the issue. That gives me something concrete to get back to them with.

I spent plenty of time with them trying fault find the issues with dstvnow, catchup etc 3 years ago. and yes they are in denial about it and yes it is related to CDN. And no it affects all ISPs so it is not an ISP issue.

I even managed to show exactly where the problem was with which devices and showed MC how traffic could trombone back and forth between HB and CT 3 times under certain conditions. Nothing got them to do anything about it.

My solution? I gave up Premium subscription and therefore have no interest in these issues anymore.

 

[steel_dog]

My solution? I gave up Premium subscription and therefore have no interest in these issues anymore.

Seriously considering that. My issue is that the kiddies love to watch Discovery Family, Discovery HD, History, Nat Geo, Food Network, and Travel Channel. Dont know what to subscribe to to get the premium shows on those. Amazon, Hulu and Netflix cover the adults. Not sure what to pull together for the kiddies without blowing the wallet.

 

[roadcat]

Still very ugly...

40mb line

 

[joshsparkie]

Still very ugly...

40mb line

View attachment 422448

Same on 100mbps line

 

[Hummercellc]

For the past week, Showmax performance has been terrible. Videos don't start and buffer. But yet Netflix and YouTube are 100% anyone else having this issue?

 

[Igor III]

I got your PM regarding this. Let's hope Telkom can sort this one out, and otherwise we standing by to troubleshoot further.

Got a SMS from Telkom yesterday afternoon, stating that further testing was done on my line and found it to be working correctly :wtf:

Ran some speedtests and kept an eye on my torrents in the afternoon when I got home ............... and it appears they are right (torrents running at ~3.2 megs on my 4 meg line).

Only problem now is ...... I am seriously confused, as it would appear that "line Testing" can resolve some serious issues :crylaugh:

Thanks for the help and listening to my whining folks

 

[AfriMan]

Still very ugly...

40mb line

View attachment 422448

As far as I am aware our NOC team are monitoring on their side to see what could be affecting your performance. Will press them for an update

 

[AfriMan]

For the past week, Showmax performance has been terrible. Videos don't start and buffer. But yet Netflix and YouTube are 100% anyone else having this issue?

That's odd. Could it be an issue on Showmax's side? I see people mentioning issues with DSTv streaming, so I'm assuming they use similar delivery methods

 

[AfriMan]

Got a SMS from Telkom yesterday afternoon, stating that further testing was done on my line and found it to be working correctly :wtf:

Ran some speedtests and kept an eye on my torrents in the afternoon when I got home ............... and it appears they are right (torrents running at ~3.2 megs on my 4 meg line).

Only problem now is ...... I am seriously confused, as it would appear that "line Testing" can resolve some serious issues :crylaugh:

Thanks for the help and listening to my whining folks

Happy to help wherever we can

It's hard to say. The testing centre have access to a lot of remote tools, so it is possible that some changes were made. Really hard to say. Best to trust in the force

 

[Hummercellc]

That's odd. Could it be an issue on Showmax's side? I see people mentioning issues with DSTv streaming, so I'm assuming they use similar delivery methods

DSTV now works for me as well, Showmax support are hopeless. Tried all sorts of things and still very inconsistent. The only ISP account that seems to work with showmax is Mweb. I see showmax pulls traffic from Teraco. Latency is fine to the servers. So it is possibly them.

 

[AfriMan]

DSTV now works for me as well, Showmax support are hopeless. Tried all sorts of things and still very inconsistent. The only ISP account that seems to work with showmax is Mweb. I see showmax pulls traffic from Teraco. Latency is fine to the servers. So it is possibly them.

We peer with Mweb at Teraco (NAP Africa), as far as I know, so we're at the closest PoP to minimise latency and ensure best performance. If it's struggling with other ISPs (who probably also peer at Teraco) then it's most likely an issue on their side

 

[steel_dog]

DSTV Catchup downloads are at a crawl

We peer with Mweb at Teraco (NAP Africa), as far as I know, so we're at the closest PoP to minimise latency and ensure best performance. If it's struggling with other ISPs (who probably also peer at Teraco) then it's most likely an issue on their side

@Afriman: check out the latency from 19h56 last night. DSTV Catch Up downloads on the Explorer pulled 6sec of content during the 30s buffer fill window. Not sure what's up with the latency. Now showing much earlier in the path.

Hummercellc's issues also seem to point us to a peering or, as GeoffD suggested, a CDN problem. How do we prove or disprove it's a peering issue.

catchup.dstv.com: 
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router.asus.com                   0.0%    50    0.3   0.3   0.2   0.4   0.0
 2. ???
 3. cpt-up1.ip.adsl.co.za             0.0%    50  109.1 120.8  63.5 157.2  19.2
 4. cpt-in1.ip.adsl.co.za             0.0%    50   21.1  20.7  19.9  22.4   0.2
 5. cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za            0.0%    49  145.5 141.4 103.9 217.4  18.3
 6. optinet.ixp.capetown              0.0%    49   20.2  21.1  20.2  23.9   0.5
 7. te0-0-0-1.cpt-p-1.optinet.net     4.1%    49   40.7  41.4  39.2  44.1   1.0
 8. te0-7-0-0.cpt-p-2.optinet.net     2.0%    49   55.6  50.3  39.6 122.6  14.7
 9. tengig-0-7-0-1-vic-p-1.mweb.co.z  4.1%    49   38.9  48.0  38.9  85.4  11.3
10. 197-84-4-101.cpt.mweb.co.za       2.0%    49   39.8  41.1  39.3  43.2   0.8
11. 101.bu-ether5.vic-pe-1.optinet.n  0.0%    49  117.1 131.5  79.0 165.4  20.7
12. bu-ether3.mca-pe-1.optinet.net    0.0%    49   41.4  41.6  40.9  43.5   0.3
13. 197-80-96-30.jhb.mweb.co.za      10.2%    49   39.8  40.5  39.7  41.4   0.0
14. 197-80-206-101.jhb.mweb.co.za     2.0%    49   39.0  53.2  38.3 198.5  28.0
15. ???
16. 197-80-203-245.jhb.mweb.co.za    16.3%    49  169.9 216.2 107.5 810.3 142.8

bras.afrihost.com:
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router.asus.com                  50.0%    49    0.3   0.3   0.3   0.4   0.0
 2. 155.239.255.250                   0.0%    48   18.0  18.7  17.9  19.3   0.0

 

[AfriGenie]

@Afriman: check out the latency from 19h56 last night. DSTV Catch Up downloads on the Explorer pulled 6sec of content during the 30s buffer fill window. Not sure what's up with the latency. Now showing much earlier in the path.

Hummercellc's issues also seem to point us to a peering or, as GeoffD suggested, a CDN problem. How do we prove or disprove it's a peering issue.

catchup.dstv.com: 
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router.asus.com                   0.0%    50    0.3   0.3   0.2   0.4   0.0
 2. ???
 3. cpt-up1.ip.adsl.co.za             0.0%    50  109.1 120.8  63.5 157.2  19.2
 4. cpt-in1.ip.adsl.co.za             0.0%    50   21.1  20.7  19.9  22.4   0.2
 5. cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za            0.0%    49  145.5 141.4 103.9 217.4  18.3
 6. optinet.ixp.capetown              0.0%    49   20.2  21.1  20.2  23.9   0.5
 7. te0-0-0-1.cpt-p-1.optinet.net     4.1%    49   40.7  41.4  39.2  44.1   1.0
 8. te0-7-0-0.cpt-p-2.optinet.net     2.0%    49   55.6  50.3  39.6 122.6  14.7
 9. tengig-0-7-0-1-vic-p-1.mweb.co.z  4.1%    49   38.9  48.0  38.9  85.4  11.3
10. 197-84-4-101.cpt.mweb.co.za       2.0%    49   39.8  41.1  39.3  43.2   0.8
11. 101.bu-ether5.vic-pe-1.optinet.n  0.0%    49  117.1 131.5  79.0 165.4  20.7
12. bu-ether3.mca-pe-1.optinet.net    0.0%    49   41.4  41.6  40.9  43.5   0.3
13. 197-80-96-30.jhb.mweb.co.za      10.2%    49   39.8  40.5  39.7  41.4   0.0
14. 197-80-206-101.jhb.mweb.co.za     2.0%    49   39.0  53.2  38.3 198.5  28.0
15. ???
16. 197-80-203-245.jhb.mweb.co.za    16.3%    49  169.9 216.2 107.5 810.3 142.8

bras.afrihost.com:
                                       Packets               Pings
 Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. router.asus.com                  50.0%    49    0.3   0.3   0.3   0.4   0.0
 2. 155.239.255.250                   0.0%    48   18.0  18.7  17.9  19.3   0.0

Now that's the tricky bit... I'll need to send you one of our test accounts. It runs on the SAIX network, and that should help us figure out if it's the CDN or peering.

Would you mind trying it out when the streaming performance starts dipping?