Cell C blocking Speedtest.net, or the other way around? [solved]

Hamish McPanji · May 14, 2013

I dunno if i am missing something, but am unable to access the www.speedtest.net webpage from my Cell C internet connection.

I can access every other website without a problem, and my skype and other services work without a problem. I can go to support.speedtest.net , their pingtest website also. When i do type in http://www.speedtest.net i get the following error:

Access to the webpage was denied
You are not authorized to access the webpage at http://www.speedtest.net/. You may need to sign in.
HTTP Error 403 (Forbidden): The server refused to fulfill the request.

I have tried 3 different browsers, and the app on my android tablet even gives network errors.
I decided used tunnelbear VPN software to fake like i am in the US , and guess what.....was able to do a speedtest without a problem. When i disble the VPN, it stops working again

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

galaxy s2 · May 14, 2013

I'm also curious as to whats going on. Its been 5 days now & its not working. I had it on my phone for a year and a half and it used to work like a charm. Even tried uninstalling & installing again, but again nothing. A few of my friends on Cell C experiencing the same problem.

Randux · May 14, 2013

speedtest app doesn't work it says something about network communication error, it worked a few days ago

RichardG · May 14, 2013

Randux said:
speedtest app doesn't work it says something about network communication error, it worked a few days ago

Maybe there is an updated version out. I will try later on tonight and see if the page loads

Hamish McPanji · May 14, 2013

That doesn't explain why the speedtest website doesn't load, except when connectied via vpn which bypasses any filtering.
When i am on my ADSL connection at work, it loads up without a problem also, on the same browsers.

Can i suggest that maybe individual Cell C connections speeds are slowly decreasing as the load on their network increases. Lars, the previous CEO showed off their stats at the mybb conference a couple of years ago, showing the highest speeds from cellular networks. As customers have increased, the speedtest results have dropped. By stopping access to the speedtest website, they can prevent their rating or averages from droppping until such a time when they resolve their network issues.

Pure speculation on my part of course. Will PM the Cell C dude to ask diplomatically, and update this thread

whatwhat · May 14, 2013

They don't want people running speed tests to show how bad their network is doing.

Hamish McPanji · May 14, 2013

whatwhat said:
They don't want people running speed tests to show how bad their network is doing.

I just thought of something else.

Maybe the connections to speedtest.net ip's , or a group of recognised speedtest.net server ip addresses are not throttled like the rest of the internet, so it is essentially using a different metric, QOS rule or route as opposed to other websites on the internet, just for the purpose of boosting the results. That particular route or QOS rule is down or blocked at the moment, and so we can access the rest of the internet, but not speedtest. Seems more likely than my previous speculation.

I did a tracert to www.speedtest.net (8 hops)and support.speedtest.net (18 hops) . I will do the same from my office and compare the results.

Why i always suspected the speedtest results from Cell C anyway, is i would get 10mbps down, 3mbps up on a speedtest, with ping times of less than 50ms, but that same connection would not be able to support a single skype call to the UK (voice only)

oober · May 14, 2013

imranpanji said:
I just thought of something else.

Maybe the connections to speedtest.net ip's , or a group of recognised speedtest.net server ip addresses are not throttled like the rest of the internet, so it is essentially using a different metric, QOS rule or route as opposed to other websites on the internet, just for the purpose of boosting the results. That particular route or QOS rule is down or blocked at the moment, and so we can access the rest of the internet, but not speedtest. Seems more likely than my previous speculation.

I did a tracert to www.speedtest.net (8 hops)and support.speedtest.net (18 hops) . I will do the same from my office and compare the results.

Why i always suspected the speedtest results from Cell C anyway, is i would get 10mbps down, 3mbps up on a speedtest, with ping times of less than 50ms, but that same connection would not be able to support a single skype call to the UK (voice only)

This does seem more plausible and our cellphone providers are sneaky enough to do this. Been thinking the same thing for a while.

ginggs · May 14, 2013

imranpanji said:
I did a tracert to www.speedtest.net (8 hops)and support.speedtest.net (18 hops) . I will do the same from my office and compare the results.

Please post your traceroutes in this thread.

Also try doing a tcptraceroute on port 80 to www.speedtest.net. This uses TCP packets which will follow the exact path your HTTP traffic would. If you compare this to a normal traceroute, which uses ICMP packets, you can detect if your ISP has a transparent proxy.

whatwhat · May 14, 2013

Speedtest servers normally get high priority for ISPs, it's an old trick used by all of them (local and international) to make their network look good.

It's telling you what your connection is capable of, but you might not get that speed but anything else but that test.

Hamish McPanji · May 14, 2013

Tracert to www.speedtest.net :
Tracing route to gp1.adn.v2cdn.net [93.184.219.20]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.10.254
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 442 ms 40 ms 47 ms 41.50.20.1
4 53 ms 39 ms 39 ms 10.220.229.103
5 99 ms * * 10.220.231.70
6 78 ms 139 ms 59 ms 41.50.16.1
7 77 ms 58 ms 47 ms 41.50.0.3
8 56 ms 48 ms 51 ms 41.48.253.34
9 270 ms 219 ms 256 ms 83.231.233.141
10 236 ms 227 ms 219 ms ae-1.r02.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.25]
11 303 ms 239 ms 247 ms 83.231.235.210
12 278 ms 353 ms 282 ms 93.184.219.20

Trace complete.

Hamish McPanji · May 14, 2013

ginggs said:
Please post your traceroutes in this thread.

Also try doing a tcptraceroute on port 80 to www.speedtest.net. This uses TCP packets which will follow the exact path your HTTP traffic would. If you compare this to a normal traceroute, which uses ICMP packets, you can detect if your ISP has a transparent proxy.

Is there a better version of tracert for Windows that i can trace using port 80? I remember used to do that in Linux, but just tried to find one for Windows. Need to find my copy of Solarwinds, that was the best network tools for windows

Boris Becker · May 15, 2013

imranpanji said:
I just thought of something else.

Maybe the connections to speedtest.net ip's , or a group of recognised speedtest.net server ip addresses are not throttled like the rest of the internet, so it is essentially using a different metric, QOS rule or route as opposed to other websites on the internet, just for the purpose of boosting the results. That particular route or QOS rule is down or blocked at the moment, and so we can access the rest of the internet, but not speedtest. Seems more likely than my previous speculation.

I did a tracert to www.speedtest.net (8 hops)and support.speedtest.net (18 hops) . I will do the same from my office and compare the results.

Why i always suspected the speedtest results from Cell C anyway, is i would get 10mbps down, 3mbps up on a speedtest, with ping times of less than 50ms, but that same connection would not be able to support a single skype call to the UK (voice only)

+1. I agree with this.

ld13 · May 15, 2013

imranpanji said:
Why i always suspected the speedtest results from Cell C anyway, is i would get 10mbps down, 3mbps up on a speedtest, with ping times of less than 50ms, but that same connection would not be able to support a single skype call to the UK (voice only)

Why are you trying to compare a speed test result from a seemingly local server with that of a skype call to the UK? At least compare apples with apples here before you start to suspect stuff.

Hamish McPanji · May 15, 2013

ld13 said:
Why are you trying to compare a speed test result from a seemingly local server with that of a skype call to the UK? At least compare apples with apples here before you start to suspect stuff.

The Skype was obviously just an example to illustrate my point.
Even when browsing the local internet, the connection is far slower than my 1mbps line at work.

Do you know how much bandwidth is required for a single VoIP call?
If I am getting 10mbps down locally, I would at least expect to get a few hundred kbps internationally, which is plenty to support a single VoIP call. If not, then am getting screwed both ways

When I could do the speed test, I was getting at least 1mbps down, and 700k up to London. That was usually in the evenings

Would you be kind enough to suggest a possible reason as to why the speed test website is the only site that seems to be down on the cell c network?

koeks525 · May 15, 2013

I also cannot access www.speedtest.net (on Cell C GigaNite 20), it gives me that error "You are not authorized to access the webpage at http://www.speedtest.net/. You may need to sign in.".

I did a tracert to www.speedtest.net

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Okuhle>tracert www.speedtest.net

Tracing route to gp1.adn.v2cdn.net [93.184.219.20]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  2   161 ms   137 ms   139 ms  41.50.20.33
  3   182 ms   421 ms   201 ms  10.220.229.40
  4   216 ms   199 ms   199 ms  10.220.231.70
  5   595 ms  1101 ms   149 ms  41.50.16.1
  6   128 ms   129 ms   131 ms  41.50.0.3
  7   103 ms    97 ms   101 ms  41.48.253.34
  8   286 ms   273 ms   275 ms  83.231.233.141
  9   690 ms   778 ms   779 ms  ae-1.r02.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.2
5]
 10   637 ms   844 ms   315 ms  83.231.235.210
 11   321 ms   319 ms   379 ms  93.184.219.20

Trace complete.

ginggs · May 15, 2013

imranpanji said:
Is there a better version of tracert for Windows that i can trace using port 80? I remember used to do that in Linux, but just tried to find one for Windows. Need to find my copy of Solarwinds, that was the best network tools for windows

This one looks promising, but I haven't tried it myself:
http://goheer.com/app/tcp-traceroute/

Hamish McPanji · May 15, 2013

okuhle94 said:
I also cannot access www.speedtest.net (on Cell C GigaNite 20), it gives me that error "You are not authorized to access the webpage at http://www.speedtest.net/. You may need to sign in.".

Yup, same error. When is the las time it worked? Am sure early last week it was fine

Hamish McPanji · May 15, 2013

ginggs said:
This one looks promising, but I haven't tried it myself:
http://goheer.com/app/tcp-traceroute/

Tried this last night.
It looks good, installed well, runs ok, but gives a socket error when doing a traceroute, probably because its not designed for windows 7.

ginggs · May 15, 2013

imranpanji said:
Tried this last night.
It looks good, installed well, runs ok, but gives a socket error when doing a traceroute, probably because its not designed for windows 7.

This one works in Win 7 (thanks morkhans):
http://tracetcp.sourceforge.net/

You'll need to install WinPcap first:
http://www.winpcap.org/

Cell C blocking Speedtest.net, or the other way around? [solved]

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