List of congested exchanges?

[Tinuva]

Just when i thought things were sorted out... Bellville North / La Rochelle is starting to show problems again last night...
580 ms just to get through to my ISP... Its not as bad as it was 3 weeks ago, but its normally around 10ms... so it looks like users in that area will start to notice problems again...

Oh I didn't even notice. My 2nd line was upgraded to 4mbit and I switched to it 1st thing last night so didn't check whether the old one was still lagging or not.

I received a graph of the traffic on Bellville North 5 Imax, and it peaks at 14.59mbit/sec so far from oversubscribed, really glad I made the move. Now just to finish of cancelling the old line and move the new line to the location where the old one came into the house.

Was well worth my effort. The new line even syncs at a superb rate, 24 SNR Downstream is sick.

 

[Pornolio]

Getting a second line is not viable for me at this point in time... My line noise levels, and signal attenuation levels are incredibly low, but its mainly because I live like right around the corner from my exchange. Also my ADSL line is in my companies name, they pay for the ADSL, and to get everything cancelled, re-setup is gonna be one painfull exercise... not too mention I will probably lose my telephone number as well.

At one point it really looked like they adressed the issues, but seeing the problems crop up again, is a clear indication that telkom is clearly not monitoring the quality / throughput of that exchange in question.

 

[Tinuva]

My ADSL is also paid for by the company I work at, BUT in my defence I really didn't care about my land line number changing, in fact I am glad, because I get non-stop calls from random people calling my old number, it used to belong to a agency selling houses about 5 years ago.

Anyways, best of luck to you then.

 

[h0ll0w]

Just when i thought things were sorted out... Bellville North / La Rochelle is starting to show problems again last night...
580 ms just to get through to my ISP... Its not as bad as it was 3 weeks ago, but its normally around 10ms... so it looks like users in that area will start to notice problems again...

Yeah something is up at this exchange, also get spikes of 400-500 while average latency jumps anything from 9 - 100ms.

I just hope this is not gonna turn into a never ending saga of line problems.

 

[Tinuva]

Ok just needed to confirm I did do the right thing to get a new line.

Old line: (somehow telkom still hasnt canceled it but the REF for it is still open)

C:\Users\Tinuva>tracert dante.shadowfire.org

Tracing route to dante.shadowfire.org [41.73.40.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   265 ms   263 ms   259 ms  wblv-ip-esr-3.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.83.1]
  2   257 ms   250 ms   254 ms  wnls-ipc1-vl-108.wa.co.za [196.220.59.238]
  3   276 ms   271 ms   283 ms  wnls-cr2-vl-801.wa.co.za [41.185.0.66]
  4   319 ms  ^C

On my new line:

C:\Users\Tinuva>tracert dante.shadowfire.org

Tracing route to dante.shadowfire.org [41.73.40.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  router.heaven.za.net [10.0.0.1]
  2    12 ms    11 ms    12 ms  wblv-ip-esr-4.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.84.1]
  3     8 ms     8 ms     8 ms  wnls-ipc1-vl-105.wa.co.za [196.220.59.250]
  4    11 ms     9 ms    10 ms  wnls-cr2-vl-801.wa.co.za [41.185.0.66]
  5    29 ms    28 ms    28 ms  rrba-csw1-vl-405.wa.co.za [41.185.1.11]
  6    28 ms    28 ms    30 ms  neology.jinx.net.za [196.223.14.46]
  7    28 ms    29 ms    28 ms  41.216.193.66
  8    30 ms    31 ms    30 ms  bnksr01-eth0.neoinx.net [41.216.193.11]
  9    30 ms    30 ms    30 ms  dante.shadowfire.org [41.73.40.36]

Trace complete.

 

[Rohan]

Logged a call with telkom on saturday, today they said it was "solved" via an sms. My internet was extremely slow on my 4m line. So got home tonight and tested it...still having the same problem. Went into my router and saw they dropped the line speed to 2m. So I phoned telkom and they said the call was resolved and they closed it. Guy was being extremely stroppy with me when I told him the call was not resolved and that my line speed was just dropped to 2m in the hopes that it would solve my problem. Not once was I called letting me know what is happening. Logged the call again and told the guy to put my speed back. Been on 4m for two years now and have not had any problems till now. Im in Orkney, North West. Anyone else here from this area having issues?

 

[Megaton]

Line looked like it was fine for a few days, but it's back again tonight. Maybe because MWeb restored their bandwidth issues with Seacom?

I logged a new fault with Telkom, since my previous 3 were mysteriously closed as 'problem resolved'.

 

[Pornolio]

Ok just needed to confirm I did do the right thing to get a new line.

Old line: (somehow telkom still hasnt canceled it but the REF for it is still open)

C:\Users\Tinuva>tracert dante.shadowfire.org

Tracing route to dante.shadowfire.org [41.73.40.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   265 ms   263 ms   259 ms  wblv-ip-esr-3.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.83.1]
  2   257 ms   250 ms   254 ms  wnls-ipc1-vl-108.wa.co.za [196.220.59.238]
  3   276 ms   271 ms   283 ms  wnls-cr2-vl-801.wa.co.za [41.185.0.66]
  4   319 ms  ^C

On my new line:

C:\Users\Tinuva>tracert dante.shadowfire.org

Tracing route to dante.shadowfire.org [41.73.40.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  router.heaven.za.net [10.0.0.1]
  2    12 ms    11 ms    12 ms  wblv-ip-esr-4.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.84.1]
  3     8 ms     8 ms     8 ms  wnls-ipc1-vl-105.wa.co.za [196.220.59.250]
  4    11 ms     9 ms    10 ms  wnls-cr2-vl-801.wa.co.za [41.185.0.66]
  5    29 ms    28 ms    28 ms  rrba-csw1-vl-405.wa.co.za [41.185.1.11]
  6    28 ms    28 ms    30 ms  neology.jinx.net.za [196.223.14.46]
  7    28 ms    29 ms    28 ms  41.216.193.66
  8    30 ms    31 ms    30 ms  bnksr01-eth0.neoinx.net [41.216.193.11]
  9    30 ms    30 ms    30 ms  dante.shadowfire.org [41.73.40.36]

Trace complete.

Yup looks about right... same story my side... However, how did you manage to ensure when you ordered a new line, that they did'nt patch you up into the old crappy exchange ? Seeing I am literally 400 / 500 meters away from my exchange, I wont know for certain if I order a new line, that I wont get stuck in the same exchange again...

 

[Tinuva]

Yup looks about right... same story my side... However, how did you manage to ensure when you ordered a new line, that they did'nt patch you up into the old crappy exchange ? Seeing I am literally 400 / 500 meters away from my exchange, I wont know for certain if I order a new line, that I wont get stuck in the same exchange again...

My original line was installed right before they installed Bellville North 5 DSLAM, and at the time they said no ports are available so I had to wait for either a port to open up or the new DSLAM to be installed. Unlucky as I was, a port opened up on the old DSLAM right before installation of the new one finished.

The other thing also is, when speaking to Telkom techies directly after logging a fault and the guy came to check out my line ect, he told me that Telkom doesn't like to move lines from older DSLAMs to the new DSLAMs, but if someone were to order a new line, they would probably plug that line into the new DSLAM.

So I took a chance, an educated guess almost you can say, that as long as I keep my current one I should technically get a port on the new one.

What I don't know is, on which DSLAM you are, I know my DSLAM run the 021 910 xxxx line of numbers, even though all my neighbors are on 021 914 xxxx numbers, for some reason I end up on the 021 910 xxxx numbers for my old and new line.

 

[Tommygun]

Im in Muizenberg with a 4Mb line going to IS. The next hop after my router is 196.214.124.53 and during the day if Im not running any (or minimal) traffic over my line I get a ping average of about 120ms :/
During the evening Im getting between 30 and 40ms. Does this point to an overloaded exchange? Or is it an IS issue? Who do I whine to?

 

[Megaton]

The other thing also is, when speaking to Telkom techies directly after logging a fault and the guy came to check out my line ect, he told me that Telkom doesn't like to move lines from older DSLAMs to the new DSLAMs, but if someone were to order a new line, they would probably plug that line into the new DSLAM.

I also have a 021 910 xxxx number. How long did it take to install the new line?

 

[Tinuva]

I also have a 021 910 xxxx number. How long did it take to install the new line?

Once the order was done at a Telkom shop, exactly 2 weeks for the tech to pitch up at my house. The ADSL was active on the line when he was done. Install time took about 4 hours, he had to go to each house in my block to put the new line through all the poles.

There was a hold up though, apparently they had a problem provisioning a new telephone number for the line, so that 2 weeks could be less for you.

 

[Megaton]

Thanks. Seems like it's a lot less work for them to simply plug me into the Bellville 5 DSLAM than running a new cable... but I guess they won't see it that way

 

[Tinuva]

Thanks. Seems like it's a lot less work for them to simply plug me into the Bellville 5 DSLAM than running a new cable... but I guess they won't see it that way

Thats what I said!! Oh well, after complaining for 2 months before ordering the new line, I decided maybe its easier to just get a new line than to fight with them the whole time.

So in the end, I go for what is easier for me than for them. I now had them run multiple Reference numbers, of which 80% of them I had escalated through contacts to make it happen faster. I believe I caused them now more work and time, to get the same result I could have had with a single Reference number.

Talk about inefficiencies in this company, but what can one do if you want proper adsl internet in SA.

 

[pietmuis]

Any news from the Bothasig guys? I am still struggling and they just keep on saying that they are working on the problem.

 

[Rohan]

I've send an email to Pinky and got a phone call from her office. The Exchange in Orkney is congested and there are no eta's on the upgrade of the exchange. I guess that means it's going to take a long time as in months.

 

[techead]

Any news from the Bothasig guys? I am still struggling and they just keep on saying that they are working on the problem.

I sent him another mail today after the reply I got early in the week.

he is on 1 days leave so I got his OoO reply. Im sure I will hear back from him on Monday though, then I will post here. Its not a short term thing guys... This is gonna take a while....

Meanwhile, fire up your cellphone with a data bundle if you wanna game... What alternative do you have?

no games? NEVER!!!

 

[undesign]

What I don't understand is why Telkom doesn't manage congested exchanges or dslams. Immediately downgrade 10 and 4Mb users to say 2Mb speed. Maybe shape or rate limit torrent/usenet downloads during daytime or some such that will at least allow proper surfing/email functionality.

 

[MickeyD]

What I don't understand is why Telkom doesn't manage congested exchanges or dslams. Immediately downgrade 10 and 4Mb users to say 2Mb speed. Maybe shape or rate limit torrent/usenet downloads during daytime or some such that will at least allow proper surfing/email functionality.

The issue should not be to throttle but to solve the problem. Upgrade the backhaul links, do proper network maintenance, increase DSLAM capacity, etc.

A further (recent) factor is the uptake of the FREE 3 month ADSL campaign. It is going to be even worse with the new campaign... Free 3 month 1Mb Uncapped. http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/373160-Free-3-month-ADSL-trial-on-1mbps-uncapped-line!

Any spare capacity on marginal exchanges will be utilised and backhaul links will be under even more strain!

 

[undesign]

The issue should not be to throttle but to solve the problem. Upgrade the backhaul links, do proper network maintenance, increase DSLAM capacity, etc.

Completely agree, but I'd rather have adsl at 30-50% capacity than having to wait for Telkom to get their head out of their arse and do the upgrade. Apparently marketing 10Mb, uncapped and free trials is more important than the actual service offered to clients. Incompetent ****ers.