Edge Roaming problem, need help troubleshooting.

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HideInLight

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About a week a go I started having problems with the Vodacom roaming network (using CellC sim).
Pages don't want to load or stop loading, extremely slow and unresponsive. Basically unusable, had to buy Vodacom cap just to be able to post here.

I first thought it could be a CellC problem, but I've seen no additional complaints in the CellC forums and I haven't experienced a similar problem like this before in the past 5-6 months.

Also isn't a PC problem, since I've already tested it on three different PCs already, all with a different OS, but same problem. Even tried different locations in town.

So my main suspect is the tower, normal edge and 3G works fine, but Vodacom Roaming doesn't. Something I noticed that's out of placein the screenshot I posted below is the RSSI signal. When Vodacom Roaming worked fine it was normal between 65-80. Never have I got a signal in the 50's or at full bar.

Any ideas of what could of suddenly changed? And is a lower or higher -dBM better?
rlu61q7xek7rxhxuo96t.jpg
 
Well the RSSI signal is back to normal, but the same problem persists. Just did two tracerts, hopefully someone can make sense of it:

Tracing route to www.myadsl.co.za [41.203.21.137]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 1281 ms 1299 ms 1098 ms 41.157.83.14
3 1547 ms 960 ms 1061 ms 10.0.238.39
4 1194 ms 1278 ms * 41.157.83.14
5 1334 ms 1057 ms 1540 ms 41.157.72.3
6 1375 ms 1518 ms 1222 ms 41.157.64.3
7 * 2132 ms * 41.181.47.223
8 1156 ms 1662 ms 1474 ms rb-cr-2.za--rb-dca-2.za-b.mtnns.net [196.44.0.15
5]
9 1259 ms 756 ms 660 ms rb-cr-1.za--rb-cr-2.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.26
]
10 774 ms 996 ms 1163 ms 196.44.31.97
11 1247 ms 1278 ms * 196.30.1.21
12 907 ms 1060 ms 1878 ms vlan9.hr3.jnb6.za.mtnbusiness.net [196.30.156.13
6]
13 1638 ms 1181 ms * 196.30.213.108
14 1256 ms 918 ms 1240 ms 41.72.136.53
15 1036 ms 1019 ms 941 ms mybroadband.co.za [41.203.21.137]

Trace complete.



Tracing route to www.vodacom.co.za [41.1.224.101]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 1129 ms 978 ms 918 ms 41.157.83.14
3 1469 ms 1079 ms 882 ms 10.0.238.39
4 1514 ms 1237 ms 1223 ms 41.157.83.14
5 1129 ms 1003 ms 1217 ms 41.157.72.3
6 1371 ms 1319 ms 1680 ms 41.157.64.3
7 1276 ms 1458 ms 1360 ms 41.181.47.223
8 629 ms 757 ms * rb-cr-2.za--rb-dca-2.za-b.mtnns.net [196.44.0.15
5]
9 1378 ms 1296 ms 1480 ms jp-cr-1.za--rb-cr-2.za-b.mtnns.net [196.44.31.90
]
10 1936 ms 1462 ms 1278 ms jinx-pr-1.za--jp-cr-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.0.9
5]
11 1019 ms 858 ms * rrba-ip-esr-1-wan.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.25.127
.93]
12 1239 ms 1061 ms 1097 ms 196.43.25.137
13 811 ms 858 ms 959 ms 196.43.39.22
14 793 ms 900 ms 1037 ms vodacom-gw.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.25.253.110]
15 880 ms 978 ms 959 ms 41.0.0.23
16 * 1137 ms 1038 ms 41.0.4.2
17 1302 ms 918 ms 899 ms vc-196-207-44-133.3g.vodacom.co.za [196.207.44.1
33]
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 2449 ms 1102 ms 1139 ms 41.1.224.101

Trace complete.
Click to expand...
 
I've been struggling with the same problem under the same conditions, with GPRS/EDGE almost unusable this week from my local (rural) VC towers, even though MDMA shows the signal strength to be normal. But in another thread VodacomData reports several towers down near to my area (in NWP) so perhaps there is a general knock-on problem.
 
Just hope the problem gets resolved soon. In the early morning hours 2am-3am I had speed of 8-10kb/s which is the fastest I've gotten this week.
When I looked at mdma I had:
Y4L 65% Voda. 50% Other

Today however it's slow again, now I have:
Y4L 10% Voda. 10% Other

But at least I can check and post on myadsl.
 
HideInLight said:
Just hope the problem gets resolved soon. In the early morning hours 2am-3am I had speed of 8-10kb/s which is the fastest I've gotten this week.
When I looked at mdma I had:
Y4L 65% Voda. 50% Other

Today however it's slow again, now I have:
Y4L 10% Voda. 10% Other
Click to expand...
My guess is congestion.

Those Yebo4Less discounts are supposed to vary according to how busy the cell is, so in the first case the cell wasn't busy and Vodacom were encouraging you to call by increasing the discount. In the second case the cell was busy and the discount was reduced.
 
ginggs said:
My guess is congestion.

Those Yebo4Less discounts are supposed to vary according to how busy the cell is, so in the first case the cell wasn't busy and Vodacom were encouraging you to call by increasing the discount. In the second case the cell was busy and the discount was reduced.
Click to expand...

3am this morning I was getting 10-20kb/s. Y4L @ 75%, Voda @ 65%. Was running normally basically.
Atm though it's unusable again, Y4L @ 10%, Voda @ 10%.

So your congestion theory might not be far off, question is why and how? This is Steynsrus were talking about, a small town with the majority of users on MTN or Vodacom. Very few use the roaming network if at all, so how does the roaming network get congested to the point where it's unusable, with normal Edge and HSPA working fine during the day?
 
2am appears to be the magic hour where the connection becomes usable, although still at half the speed I use to get.
 
Connection worked in the early morning 2-6am. Was unusable until now @ 23:00 so I couldn't post at all (my Vodacom cap is done too).
Did a couple of tests while it was giving problems compared to now when it's sorta working.


When it's not working:
C:\Users\hideinlight>nslookup www.myadsl.co.za
Server: UnKnown
Address: 41.157.83.51

Non-authoritative answer:
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Name: www.myadsl.co.za
Address: 41.203.21.137
Click to expand...

C:\Users\hideinlight>ping 41.157.83.51

Pinging 41.157.83.51 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 41.157.83.51: bytes=32 time=836ms TTL=63
Reply from 41.157.83.51: bytes=32 time=1157ms TTL=63
Reply from 41.157.83.51: bytes=32 time=1637ms TTL=63
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 41.157.83.51:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss)
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 836ms, Maximum = 1637ms, Average = 1210ms
Click to expand...

When it's working:
C:\Users\hideinlight>nslookup www.myadsl.co.za
Server: UnKnown
Address: 41.157.83.51

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.myadsl.co.za
Address: 41.203.21.137
Click to expand...

C:\Users\hideinlight>ping 41.203.21.137

Pinging 41.203.21.137 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 41.203.21.137: bytes=32 time=603ms TTL=53
Reply from 41.203.21.137: bytes=32 time=540ms TTL=53
Reply from 41.203.21.137: bytes=32 time=541ms TTL=53
Reply from 41.203.21.137: bytes=32 time=540ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 41.203.21.137:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 540ms, Maximum = 603ms, Average = 556ms
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Still same problem, same pattern. No matter what day of the week it is, the connection only starts working just past 2am. Anything earlier than that and I'll be lucky enough to get webpage open.

So where would I have better luck getting the problem resolved, CellC or Vodacom?
 
Looks like the usability of the roaming network is directly proportional to the following:

2011/03/31 22:05:45, Serial #: 3456
Message ID: 50, DCS: 1, Page 1/1
Y4L 70% Voda. 55% Other

2011/03/31 23:00:59, Serial #: 3616
Message ID: 50, DCS: 1, Page 1/1
Y4L 90% Voda. 60% Other

If Y4L > 75% then connection becomes usable. The higher it is the better the download speed, actually the first time I've seen 90% since the problems started especially this "early".
But if Y4L < 75% then I get timeouts, 1-2kb/s if I'm lucky.
 
Tested it in Kroonstad, had exact same problem so it's not just an isolated case. Is there anyway to connect to the roaming network with a Vodacom data sim, instead of normal edge. I want to see if the problem is with Vodacom or CellC
 
HideInLight said:
Tested it in Kroonstad, had exact same problem so it's not just an isolated case. Is there anyway to connect to the roaming network with a Vodacom data sim, instead of normal edge. I want to see if the problem is with Vodacom or CellC
Click to expand...

Use a Vodacom simcard and set MDMA to GPRS/EDGE only. Check that the tower ID is the same and do a test. Then quickly swop to the Cell C sim and connect to the same tower. Test again.

I agree with Ginggs. GPRS/EDGE uses voice "bandwidth" to give you internet. But voice always get priority.
 
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