checking/testing ADSL exchange congestion

[justplain]

Is there a way to comprehensively test for exchange congestion?
I ask because about 2 months prior to Telkom announcing speed increases, my 2mb Telkom line with a 2mb Uncapped Premium MWEB account would fly - I pretty much always got 1.6-1.8mb all day and night, but then I started noticing at certain times I would only get about 1mb max, or +-100kb/s. I thought I was being throttled, but that is not the case. I have now been upgrade to a 4mb line, but still on a 2mb ADSL ISP MWEB account.
I still regularly get 1.8mb downlands, but I've noticed that almost every evening between 5-6pm and midnight my speed is pretty much halved, even down to 0.5mb max.
I've used testmy.net to set up automated speed checks every 30 min and the trend seems to be........slow internet between 5-6pm and 12am, then sudden increase in speed back to 1.7-1.8mb
I suspect this is due to exchange congestion, but is there anyway to formally prove/confirm this?

 

[MickeyD]

I suspect this is due to exchange congestion, but is there anyway to formally prove/confirm this?

I doubt if you'll get formal confirmation but you can log a fault regarding your intermittent data service and see what they say. Ask them to (a) perform line test and (b) check back a month to check your line performance statistics.

Here's my theory on your situation:

You are connected to an older DSLAM that is serviced via an ATM link. The maximum speed on this specific DSLAM is 4Mbps. With all the speed upgrades your DSLAM backhaul (via ATM) has become congested.

There may also be newer DSLAMs and IMAXs in your exchange that are 10Mbps capable and serviced via metro-ethernet backhaul links. To accommodate the speed upgrades, all the 1 and 2 Mbps customers would have been moved off these and back onto the older DSLAM (with you).

This makes your service even worse.



PS. this is the situation that I'm in right now!

 

[HowTo]

All things are not equal.

Hi All

I will present my test findings today. Everyone is talking,Telkom exchange may be congested.
OpenWeb account Test done. 4Mbps uncapped gold leon.

MyBroadband smooth and slow download, upload smooth
http://speedtest.ookla.com/result/2409557301.png
Last Result:
Download Speed: 2192 kbps (274 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 403 kbps (50.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 85 ms
‎2013‎-‎12‎-‎05‎ ‎15‎:‎32‎:‎18
SpeeTest.net smooth and slow,upload smooth
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3145977930.png
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3145977930
Saix.net slow with jitter uploads smooth.
Download Speed: 2243 kbps (280.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 432 kbps (54 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 56 ms
‎2013‎-‎12‎-‎05‎ ‎15‎:‎37‎:‎23
Tracert to Telkom
Tracing route to telkom.co.za [196.43.22.222] over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  10.0.0.2 
  2    34 ms    37 ms    41 ms  196.210.155.1 
  3    37 ms    36 ms    36 ms  196.38.72.229 
  4    44 ms    36 ms    36 ms  196.38.73.9 
  5    36 ms    36 ms    36 ms  196.26.0.61 
  6    37 ms    36 ms    36 ms  168.209.1.179 
  7    37 ms    36 ms    36 ms  196.25.46.89 
  8    38 ms    37 ms    36 ms  196.43.25.137 
  9    36 ms    37 ms    39 ms  196.43.39.166 
 10    37 ms    37 ms    36 ms  196.43.23.6 
 11    40 ms    40 ms    99 ms  196.43.23.30 
 12    40 ms    39 ms    39 ms  196.43.22.222 
Trace complete.
Telkom Ping
Pinging telkom.co.za [196.43.22.222] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=242
Request timed out.
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=77ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=85ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=134ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=140ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=129ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=152ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=242
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=242

Ping statistics for 196.43.22.222:  Packets: Sent = 32, Received = 31, Lost = 1 (3% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: 
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 152ms, Average =63ms

Second Test from AfriHost. See the big speed difference. 1Gig Capped account

Speed Test my Broadband smooth jitter down load, upload smooth.
http://speedtest.ookla.com/result/2409611972.png
Last Result:
Download Speed: 3135 kbps (391.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 421 kbps (52.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 100 ms
‎2013‎-‎12‎-‎05‎ ‎16‎:‎20‎:‎39
Speed Test my SpeedTest.Net smooth download and smooth upload.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3146069617.png
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3146069617
Speed test Saix.net smooth download, smooth upload.
Download Speed: 3420 kbps (427.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 427 kbps (53.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 56 ms
‎2013‎-‎12‎-‎05‎ ‎16‎:‎24‎:‎56
Tracert to Telkom
Tracing route to telkom.co.za [196.43.22.222] over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms  10.0.0.2 
  2    34 ms    34 ms    34 ms  105.236.7.1 
  3   126 ms    36 ms    36 ms  41.181.178.5 
  4    36 ms    36 ms    37 ms  41.181.165.115 
  5    36 ms    36 ms    35 ms  41.181.165.114 
  6    37 ms    36 ms    37 ms  41.181.139.109 
  7    37 ms    38 ms    38 ms  196.25.58.17 
  8    37 ms    37 ms    36 ms  196.43.25.137 
  9    37 ms    37 ms    38 ms  196.43.39.166 
 10    40 ms    37 ms    38 ms  196.43.23.6 
 11    47 ms    52 ms    41 ms  196.43.23.30 
 12    41 ms    40 ms    41 ms  196.43.22.222 
Trace complete.

Ping Telkom
Pinging telkom.co.za [196.43.22.222] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=53ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=241
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=241

Ping statistics for 196.43.22.222:
    Packets: Sent = 16, Received = 16, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 40ms, Maximum = 80ms, Average = 44ms
Control-C

As most on this forum would suggest Telkom exchange may be congested.
Anybody for suggestion. Not any more.
My Telkom exchange is congested without a proof. Did some more test.
7Pm and 11PM latency are high. I will post that info to Telkom.

 

[JonesY]

Is there a way to comprehensively test for exchange congestion?

Troubleshoot.

For starters, disable wireless on your modem when the issue arises again, and then test with a single computer connected via Ethernet connection. This should rule off anyone else hogging your bandwidth.

You can use your modem stats (sync speed, attenuation, SNR etc), traceroute examples and speed tests to diagnose where the latency is being introduced.