ISP's using hidden cacheing devices but DENY they exist.

[quovadis]

I am now on my second Wireless ISP in a year. The first started giving major problems with various things becoming very slow and I proved they were cacheing on their network but when questioned they denied it. Several months of this back and forth complaining I eventually got one of their sales guys to admit they were cacheing content.

Numerous other problems saw me cancel my service with them and move onto Wireless ISP number 2.

Prior to signing on with them I questioned them about ghost cacheing in their network and they explicitly said no they don't do that. Well lo and behold look what showed up yesterday while opening a page on Github. Clear and evident proof they are both lying and possibly many other ISP's too. Why not charge people full price for data services and save yourself millions of Rands serving micro-cached content.

Anyone working on Github should look at this in horror, nothing to do with Github should ever pass near or through any type of cacheing system.

It's probably not your ISP. Varnish is typically deployed as a REVERSE cache proxy.

 

[Rickster]

And if you change your DNS server?

 

[threegee]

And if you change your DNS server?

Let me try that .. currently using (always using) Google DNS but let me try running from some different ones. Any suggestions?

 

[RedViking]

Is it a security risk?

 

[boerinbeton]

Isn't cacheing actually going against saying a connection is unlimited, unshaped, unthrottled? Is it not a form of shaping traffic?

No

 

[boerinbeton]

Let me try that .. currently using (always using) Google DNS but let me try running from some different ones. Any suggestions?

Won't make a difference

 

[syntax]

Why? The proxy would have its own signed cert.

For most ISP caching devices, they will not intercept SSL.
A proxy using its own cert would need to intercept the SSL and resign with itself, the cert would not match the website and the user would get a warning on the browser at the least.
You can get past this in enterprise environments by forcing trust of the CA doing the intercept and therefore trusting the interception, but this is not feasible on an ISP network.

Not necessarily, nothing would stop you from using a proper CA

See above

:crylaugh: yip that internet. It appears their cacheing systems (or logic behind it) causes slowdowns of everything I do on a daily basis and what's worse is I never had any of these problems a year ago when I had a connection 1/4 of what I have now.

This nonsense all started in about Jan/Feb this year. Not saying cacheing only started this year January/Feb, bad poorly configured messed up cacheing and ****ty routing.

Caching wouldnt slow the user experience, it is also very unlikely routing is the cause unless the ISP's are all forcing traffic odd ways. The likely reason in performance degradation is the explosion of fiber in SA, resulting in high bandwidth demands.
Most ISP's also implement some DPI which controls traffic, additionally a large amount of smaller ISP's run on less than fantastic devices, these have limitations on port buffers, on wire throughputs, over subscription etc.

 

[ambo]

It's probably not your ISP. Varnish is typically deployed as a REVERSE cache proxy.

He shoots... He scores!!

This is a cache that belongs to GitHub - or more likely their CDN provider.

Very few ISPs run caches in their network anymore. As everyone had noted the majority of content is HTTPS and you can only serve that from the cache if you have the certificate. This is only going to happen if the site owner gives it to you.

What happens now is that all the CDNs run caches and ISPs can connect to them inside data centres for free. This improves performance dramatically.

It sounds like you're not finding good quality wisps - but the issue is something other than caches. Most likely their networks are just horribly congested.

 

[McGuywer]

He shoots... He scores!!

This is a cache that belongs to GitHub - or more likely their CDN provider.

Very few ISPs run caches in their network anymore. As everyone had noted the majority of content is HTTPS and you can only serve that from the cache if you have the certificate. This is only going to happen if the site owner gives it to you.

What happens now is that all the CDNs run caches and ISPs can connect to them inside data centres for free. This improves performance dramatically.

It sounds like you're not finding good quality wisps - but the issue is something other than caches. Most likely their networks are just horribly congested.

This.