Congestion: Eldoraigne, Centurion (012 653 xxxx)

Hi There, sorry for resurrecting an old resolved thread ? How is everyone's experience lately ?
Things are sucking again this side, I have tested with different ISP accounts as well.
 
Hi,

Yup - seeing the same thing, congestion is back. Started about a week ago.

Although symptoms are different this time. Latency remains good, but throughput is down the tubes. I set up a new test, grabbing a 10MB file from a server every 10 minutes. There is (as before) a clear trend that shows throughput is acceptable (i.e. >2Mbit, but <6Mbit) during the early hours of the day, but plummets to less than 1Mbit starting during peak for the residential area. It then recovers again from about 1am.

Notice how throughput plummets as people start to wake today:

(speeds are in bytes/sec)

10/05/2014 07:00:33 711174.000
10/05/2014 07:10:33 585595.000
10/05/2014 07:20:32 720747.000
10/05/2014 07:30:33 587335.000
10/05/2014 07:40:32 785934.000
10/05/2014 07:50:34 427688.000
10/05/2014 08:00:32 811493.000
10/05/2014 08:10:37 169335.000
10/05/2014 08:20:33 420127.000
10/05/2014 08:30:35 269304.000
10/05/2014 08:40:34 382176.000
10/05/2014 08:50:35 278712.000
10/05/2014 09:00:38 142695.000
10/05/2014 09:10:36 236164.000
10/05/2014 09:20:40 115558.000
10/05/2014 09:30:41 104672.000
10/05/2014 09:40:39 125739.000
10/05/2014 09:50:38 139723.000
10/05/2014 10:00:39 136966.000
10/05/2014 10:10:43 94505.000

I've been gathering data over the past few days and will plot some graphs tonight for presentation to TelkomZA. Last night, throughput ground to a halt (could not even make a TCP connection out), but ICMP ping and UDP packets were flowing freely. It's very strange. But it definitely seems congestion-related.

As a control, I set up the same test to the same server from our offices (also a 10Mbit DSL line, but in Lyttelton area) and throughput is flying at close to the max of the 10Mbit line all the time.

@TelkomZA: can you perhaps start to check for congestion again at this exchange?

--deckert
 
Nice thorough testing Deckert :)

Yep, I could not even establish PPPOE connections for most of the day here, I have tried with my line synced at 1Mbps, 6Mpbs and 10Mbps, no difference.
 
Hi again,

So performance remained dismal for most of Saturday (e.g. while everybody was home).
But notice how drastically performance returns as we approach midnight:

10/05/2014 22:10:43 87494.000
10/05/2014 22:20:39 131869.000
10/05/2014 22:30:41 110675.000
10/05/2014 22:40:38 143500.000
10/05/2014 22:50:37 152575.000
10/05/2014 23:00:38 147876.000
10/05/2014 23:10:38 155541.000
10/05/2014 23:20:38 162875.000
10/05/2014 23:30:37 174310.000
10/05/2014 23:40:34 370849.000
10/05/2014 23:50:32 813923.000
11/05/2014 00:00:32 980214.000

We're now basically back to full speed, but you can bet your bottom Rand that it will start to drop off again during day time. I can also confirm your findings: it is not sync speed related, nor is it ISP related. I tested with both Telkom Internet as well as Afrihost. Both perform exactly the same to the local server.

Here are my SNR values for the same time period as above - everything is stable:

May 10 22:10:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.9 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16552 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 22:20:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.7 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16472 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 22:30:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.8 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16496 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 22:40:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.6 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16520 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 22:50:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.6 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16476 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 23:00:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.9 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16460 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 23:10:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.7 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16512 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 23:20:02 SNR Margin (dB): 11.8 7.8 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16476 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 23:30:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.9 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16528 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 23:40:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.8 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16528 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 10 23:50:01 SNR Margin (dB): 11.9 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16540 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023
May 11 00:00:01 SNR Margin (dB): 12.1 8.0 Attainable Rates (Kbps): 16640 1084, Rate (Kbps): 10239 1023

Also, during the peak periods, I cannot get a new PPPoE session established at all. Existing sessions seem to stay up, but if you disconnect, you cannot re-connect until after the peak period has passed.

--deckert
 
Last edited:
I downgraded from 4MB to a 1MB line because the latency and speeds made it effectively a 1MB line. Might upgrade again one day when Telkom gets their piggies together. Maybe in 10 years or so...
 
Hi guys,

Right, so here is a graph of the throughput for today (Sunday, 11 May 2014) for the Centurion, Eldoraigne exchange. The test was done every 10 minutes to a dedicated server. There was a control set up from a secondary DSL line at our offices in Doornkloof to cross-check that the throughput issues are not on the servers side (they were not).

eldo-dsl-2014-05-11.jpg

The short section around 18:00 is where I could not make any TCP connections of any sort to the outside world. During this interval I also could not establish any new PPPoE sessions. My traces show PADO packets going out, but no PADI packets were being received. Also note that I tested with two different ISPs (Telkom Internet and Afrihost) and they both show exactly the same result.

--deckert
 
Deckert said:
Hi guys,

Right, so here is a graph of the throughput for today (Sunday, 11 May 2014) for the Centurion, Eldoraigne exchange. The test was done every 10 minutes to a dedicated server. There was a control set up from a secondary DSL line at our offices in Doornkloof to cross-check that the throughput issues are not on the servers side (they were not).

View attachment 117935

The short section around 18:00 is where I could not make any TCP connections of any sort to the outside world. During this interval I also could not establish any new PPPoE sessions. My traces show PADO packets going out, but no PADI packets were being received. Also note that I tested with two different ISPs (Telkom Internet and Afrihost) and they both show exactly the same result.

--deckert
Click to expand...

HI

Been having the exact issues for the last Month, but the last 3 days after 13:00 i barely get 1 mbps on a 10 mbps line and while the speed is slow i dare not try and change to another ISP as will get the "Timeout waiting for PADO packets" errors and will only get a connection in 3+ hours.

Been having no luck with Afrihost and Telkom to fix.
 
Hi guys,

Looks like Telkom is very much aware of the issue and they are working to resolve it - which the best we can ask for. No ETA has been set just yet, but I will feedback here as and when I get any feedback.

--deckert
 
It's so bad now, I long back for the days of my super fast USRobotics 56K dial-up.
 
Hi,

Agreed. Last night between 18:00 and 19:00 my 10Mbit link was useless - could not make any connection to any site. Sync speeds were fine though. After 19:00 it slowly recovered (about 512kbit link equivalent) and only at about after midnight was I able to get speeds >2Mbit again.

This evening saw the same thing. Was at about ~1Mbit till midday, when it slowed down again and currently it is dead. I expect it to start to recover again just after 7pm, when most of the peak is watching TV or eating dinner. During the nights, it flies. But TelkomZA has already confirmed that it is a severely congested ESR port in the exchange. It has been handed to Telkom networking team to resolve.

Please open a ticket with Telkom (not TelkomZA) and indicate the congestion problem to them. My ticket is already open and I follow up daily. The more tickets there are for this exchange, the higher this issue (should, in theory) move up their priority list.

Here's today's throughput graph, so far:

eldo-dsl-2014-05-18.jpg

--deckert
 
Last edited:
OK, so i'm sitrting here right now, not connected

This happens every day from 17h30

Telkom has degraded my line now to 6.1mbps.

It syncs perfectly, but I cant get an ISP to connect at all, even the guest@telkomadsl account is useless.

It finnally works again at approx 23h30

Telkom repeatedly closes my tickets without even enquiring what going on.

I have now come to the conclusion that there simply isn't any adsl available in this area, and have started to close my account with telkom.

I have simply given up on this.
 
Deckert said:
Hi,

Agreed. Last night between 18:00 and 19:00 my 10Mbit link was useless - could not make any connection to any site. Sync speeds were fine though. After 19:00 it slowly recovered (about 512kbit link equivalent) and only at about after midnight was I able to get speeds >2Mbit again.

This evening saw the same thing. Was at about ~1Mbit till midday, when it slowed down again and currently it is dead. I expect it to start to recover again just after 7pm, when most of the peak is watching TV or eating dinner. During the nights, it flies. But TelkomZA has already confirmed that it is a severely congested ESR port in the exchange. It has been handed to Telkom networking team to resolve.

Please open a ticket with Telkom (not TelkomZA) and indicate the congestion problem to them. My ticket is already open and I follow up daily. The more tickets there are for this exchange, the higher this issue (should, in theory) move up their priority list.

Here's today's throughput graph, so far:

View attachment 119299

--deckert
Click to expand...

Sorry dude, tried this route, you will see them closing your support tickets without the option to provide feedback, they also "can't resume a closed ticket".

Its pretty fruitless trying anyting.

Currently I'm considering using BitCo
 
I logged a call with Telkom for this exact issue on Saturday. Today I was contacted by one of their technicians who told me there is a congestion problem at the exchange, and that they're currently working on it. Let's hope it's sorted soon.
 
seems this exchange gets congested every three months, the ADSL uptake must be huge in the area
 
Hi guys,

Got feedback from Telkom that they addressed the ESR port congestion issue for 012-653-xxxx. I can confirm that my speeds are back to normal and that new PPPoE sessions go through at any time. How're things looking for the rest of you?

I'm not sure how this affects 012-654-xxxx, as stated in a new thread.

--deckert
 
Hi

Yea saw that my speeds was also back to normal last night.

Will monitor it over the weekend.

Thanks for the update.

Pieter
 
Well not sure if everything is fine still...but maybe I am reviving this :)

For the past 3 weeks speeds in Centurion 012 654 xxxx has been unbearable from 6pm and only after midnight it gets back to normal.

My 4meg line is not reaching 40kbps on download!

I wonder when telkom is gonna realize that they should fix this and not just a quick fix.

Still waiting on feedback from my second ticket since first one they just said nothing wrong - but no use testing it at 1pm when everyone is at work ai ai
 
Yeah, im also on 012 654 xxxx and its unbareable.

I just moved here (2 weeks ago). I was on 012 643 xxxx and I had no change on my line during any part of the day/night.

Now, from about 7pm (sometimes earlier) the line just becomes VERY slow.

Speedtest.net normally give me:
15ms, 3.5 Down and 0.44 Up (Mbps)

But during the bad times, my ping goes to 70 - 80 on speedtest, and the download drops to 0.3 - 0.6

Its very frustating.
Has it been like this for long?

What can we do?
Quintin
 
Meanwhile on 012 658 we're rocking 100Mbit
 
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