Cool Ideas Fibre ISP – Feedback Thread 4

[PBCool]

@PBCool @TheRoDent
Torrents are still slow not going above 200Mbps
Cloudflare DNS in JHB is still giving me 20ms


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Torrents are obviously a complicated thing that no ISP will guarantee. If you are getting line speed to an international speedtest then you have the bandwidth available to you.

Re cloudflare will you PM me a trace in a few minutes? But also not something that will have a major impact on your service or experience.

 

[CrypticZA]

Can anything be done about this packet loss? Seems to be coming from EU side but its consistent

 

[PBCool]

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Can anything be done about this packet loss? Seems to be coming from EU side but its consistent

What is the server? Looks like the loss is to the host itself IE leasewebs network, or the host may just be dropping a % of icmp.

I would suggest logging a ticket with them if possible. But again just depends what the host is/does.

 

[CrypticZA]

What is the server? Looks like the loss is to the host itself IE leasewebs network, or the host may just be dropping a % of icmp.

I would suggest logging a ticket with them if possible. But again just depends what the host is/does.

It's a game server, US based server for War Thunder, seeing loss spikes of up to 16%

 

[ph4t3]

I’m having a very weird issue. Siri seems to not work on my (and my brothers) fibre line/s. We both use Cool Ideas on Vumatel. Can anyone with an apple device verify this? It must be a routing issue of some sort.

When switching to a VPN, it works. I’ve also swapped out DNS servers, still an issue.

So weird.

 

[PBCool]

I’m having a very weird issue. Siri seems to not work on my (and my brothers) fibre line/s. We both use Cool Ideas on Vumatel. Can anyone with an apple device verify this? It must be a routing issue of some sort.

When switching to a VPN, it works. I’ve also swapped out DNS servers, still an issue.

So weird.

Never heard of that before , which router/s are you using?

 

[ph4t3]

Ubiquiti AmplifiHD. Brother has the stock standard cool ideas supplied router.

 

[PBCool]

Ubiquiti AmplifiHD. Brother has the stock standard cool ideas supplied router.

Often it's MTU related when using a Ubiquiti router. Do you have another router to test with? Also is it Vumatel Aerial (PON) or trenched, active Ethernet?

 

[jannier]

I’m having a very weird issue. Siri seems to not work on my (and my brothers) fibre line/s. We both use Cool Ideas on Vumatel. Can anyone with an apple device verify this? It must be a routing issue of some sort.

When switching to a VPN, it works. I’ve also swapped out DNS servers, still an issue.

So weird.

I am on Vuma Trenched & CISP, Brackenfell, CPT and just tested Siri on my very old iPad "Air 2" I belief. And she is responding. But Siri voice activation only works when my iPad is plugged into power. On Battery power she does not respond. (it gave me a message when I retrained my voice that Siri will only work when on active AC power)
I assume that is due the age of the battery as it does not hold charge very well and need to be replaced.

iPad is linked to home WiFi which is running on Cloudflare 1.1.1.3 & 1.0.0.3 DNS.
Ubiquiti UAP-AC- Pro & Mikrotik router.

 

[ph4t3]

Often it's MTU related when using a Ubiquiti router. Do you have another router to test with? Also is it Vumatel Aerial (PON) or trenched, active Ethernet?

It’s trenched, active Ethernet. I can try out the MTU. I still have the supplied Cool Ideas router. What should the MTU settings be?

I am on Vuma Trenched & CISP, Brackenfell, CPT and just tested Siri on my very old iPad "Air 2" I belief. And she is responding. But Siri voice activation only works when my iPad is plugged into power. On Battery power she does not respond. (it gave me a message when I retrained my voice that Siri will only work when on active AC power)
I assume that is due the age of the battery as it does not hold charge very well and need to be replaced.

iPad is linked to home WiFi which is running on Cloudflare 1.1.1.3 & 1.0.0.3 DNS.
Ubiquiti UAP-AC- Pro & Mikrotik router.

Thanks for the detail. Also using 1.1.1.1 over here but no luck with Siri. And today I learned Cloudflare has filtering with 1.1.1.3. Good to know!

 

[PBCool]

It’s trenched, active Ethernet. I can try out the MTU. I still have the supplied Cool Ideas router. What should the MTU settings be?


Thanks for the detail. Also using 1.1.1.1 over here but no luck with Siri. And today I learned Cloudflare has filtering with 1.1.1.3. Good to know!

If trenched you shouldn't change MTU typically, I would try our router and DNS settings.

 

[phoenix99]

After waking up yesterday morning with no connection, I rebooted the ONT at around 8:30am and had what is probably the longest period of uninterrupted connection in over 3 months, until 22:13. Around 13 hours.

Then we were back to the same old issues. @PBCool Can anyone explain what happened yesterday from 8am-10pm? And what changed after that?

Outages for yesterday and this morning:
22:13
22:35
23:34
01:08
01:12-04:38 no access this entire time
06:38-06:40
06:51-07:17 no access this entire time
08:10
08:31
09:27

Feels like banging my head against a brick wall at this point.

 

[PBCool]

After waking up yesterday morning with no connection, I rebooted the ONT at around 8:30am and had what is probably the longest period of uninterrupted connection in over 3 months, until 22:13. Around 13 hours.

Then we were back to the same old issues. @PBCool Can anyone explain what happened yesterday from 8am-10pm? And what changed after that?

Outages for yesterday and this morning:
22:13
22:35
23:34
01:08
01:12-04:38 no access this entire time
06:38-06:40
06:51-07:17 no access this entire time
08:10
08:31
09:27

Feels like banging my head against a brick wall at this point.

No changes from our side, so wouldn't know at this point. Octotel doing something.

 

[phoenix99]

No changes from our side, so wouldn't know at this point. Octotel doing something.

I've had the same issue with Cool Idea's for several months, actually on and off since I started using them 2 years ago.

Often they have mentioned maintenance or an outage. Somedays no issues, other days disconnects every 20 minutes for 2-5 minutes at a time, it is SO incredibly frustrating.

Oddly enough, the solution was to log into the router and click disconnect/connect on the WAN connection, which would solve the issue.... So i'm accustomed to running a constant ping and logging into my router as soon as the packet drops start, to disconnect/connect.

The issue seems to be exacerbated by the routers they provide, the TPLink Archer 750's. For a while I plugged my PC directly into the ONT, configuring a PPPoE connection via Windows, and never had a single issue for weeks. Eventually I got a router replacement from CI and the SAME DAY the issues started again.

I also recently purchased a Mikrotik, which I used for the PPPoE termination and have configured the TPLink in bridge mode, which seems to be significant improvement. While I do still get occasionally drops, its not significant enough to kill what I'm doing at the time.

So if this is an Octotel issue it would be nice if they could figure out wtf is going on and fix it.

Just to mention I'm in Tableview / Cape Town.

@PBCool This from another forumite. Comments?

 

[PBCool]

I've had the same issue with Cool Idea's for several months, actually on and off since I started using them 2 years ago.

Often they have mentioned maintenance or an outage. Somedays no issues, other days disconnects every 20 minutes for 2-5 minutes at a time, it is SO incredibly frustrating.

Oddly enough, the solution was to log into the router and click disconnect/connect on the WAN connection, which would solve the issue.... So i'm accustomed to running a constant ping and logging into my router as soon as the packet drops start, to disconnect/connect.

The issue seems to be exacerbated by the routers they provide, the TPLink Archer 750's. For a while I plugged my PC directly into the ONT, configuring a PPPoE connection via Windows, and never had a single issue for weeks. Eventually I got a router replacement from CI and the SAME DAY the issues started again.

I also recently purchased a Mikrotik, which I used for the PPPoE termination and have configured the TPLink in bridge mode, which seems to be significant improvement. While I do still get occasionally drops, its not significant enough to kill what I'm doing at the time.

So if this is an Octotel issue it would be nice if they could figure out wtf is going on and fix it.

Just to mention I'm in Tableview / Cape Town.

@PBCool This from another forumite. Comments?

Yes as per my comments octotel being the common denominator here. Russell from our side has been managing all the cases and escalations with Octotel. If you have a look at the Websquad thread they are seeing the same thing. As mentioned before other providers not using PPP wouldn't see this sort of thing unless they were specifically looking for it, but the bursts of loss are still there. Which is the underlying problem that needs to be resolved.

 

[phoenix99]

Thank you. Is there no other way to get Octotel to do something?

 

[SFW007]

i cancelled with websquad and thinking of moving to you guys.
my service will be terminated as of 8th Oct.

can anyone confirm pings from CPT to EU and the rest, game servers like Fornite Warzone and Apex ?
My ping currently fluctuates on EU from 150 to 180 with random packet loss on FN.

Also to note i received a call, asked to be called back at 13pm Friday still waiting for return call

 

[CrypticZA]

i cancelled with websquad and thinking of moving to you guys.
my service will be terminated as of 8th Oct.

can anyone confirm pings from CPT to EU and the rest, game servers like Fornite Warzone and Apex ?
My ping currently fluctuates on EU from 150 to 180 with random packet loss on FN.

Also to note i received a call, asked to be called back at 13pm Friday still waiting for return call

Apex
London 140ms
Amsterdam 145 to 150
Frankfurt 155 to 160
Belgium 180
Bahrain 140 odd

Frankfurt, Bahrain and Belgium are out of their network it is handled by Amazon and Google so should be standard for all ISPs.

CISP also provide a UK VPN which drops the Belgium ping to 155ms

 

[CrypticZA]

Apex
London 140ms
Amsterdam 145 to 150
Frankfurt 155 to 160
Belgium 180
Bahrain 140 odd

Frankfurt, Bahrain and Belgium are out of their network it is handled by Amazon and Google so should be standard for all ISPs.

CISP also provide a UK VPN which drops the Belgium ping to 155ms

If you have any IPs you want tested ask away and when I'm at my pc later I'll do a trace/ping

 

[SFW007]

If you have any IPs you want tested ask away and when I'm at my pc later I'll do a trace/ping

Thanks bud will do ?