Vodacom Problems: Slow Throughput, trying to Connect, DNS, High Latency

[AirWolf]

Thursday evening at about 11:06pm, 3G signal just vanishes. Tonight, at exactly 11:06pm, it happens again!

Dashboard showed MTN-SA 3G Roaming.

Upon searching for available networks, not even 2G was found!

*Gordon's Bay, Harbour Island
*internet APN
*PPDB

Perhaps maintenance is being done?

 

[Iam3G]

Perhaps maintenance is being done?

Every second night at 11pm Never happened before?

 

[ginggs]

Every second night at 11pm Never happened before?

That's quite a leap, going from it's only happened twice, to every second night!

It happened to the N1 City Tower on 2008/07/22 (according to Vodacom techies a card blew up) and again on 2008/08/04 (according to Vodacom techies there was an upgrade). On both occasions I could still use 2G, although I can't get EDGE from that tower, only GPRS.
Haven't noticed any difference since the upgrade either.

 

[Iam3G]

That's quite a leap, going from it's only happened twice, to every second night!

It happened to the N1 City Tower on 2008/07/22 (according to Vodacom techies a card blew up) and again on 2008/08/04 (according to Vodacom techies there was an upgrade). On both occasions I could still use 2G, although I can't get EDGE from that tower, only GPRS.
Haven't noticed any difference since the upgrade either.

Well it was just weird for me because it has never happened before, and because it was on both occasions on the exact same time. But ja, i will see how often it does happen. It bothered me because on both occasions i was in the middle of something.

Ja i tried searching for 2G, but only picked up MTN 3G Roaming.

 

[ginggs]

Ja i tried searching for 2G, but only picked up MTN 3G Roaming.

According to Vodacom techies this is impossible.

 

[Iam3G]

According to Vodacom techies this is impossible.

Now i regret not taking a screenshot

Well, according Vodacom techies, anything's impossible if they cant do it

 

[ginggs]

Now i regret not taking a screenshot

No worries, here's one I took and one Morkhans took recently.
Note the IMSI numbers start with 65501 (MCC/MNC for Vodacom SA) while the signal comes from 65510 (MCC/MNC from MTN SA).

Well, according Vodacom techies, anything's impossible if they cant do it

Aren't you a Vodacom techie?

 

[Iam3G]

No worries, here's one I took and one Morkhans took recently.
Note the IMSI numbers start with 65501 (MCC/MNC for Vodacom SA) while the signal comes from 65510 (MCC/MNC from MTN SA).


Aren't you a Vodacom techie?

Well, i dont know? Now you got me thinking

 

[internaut]

I knew it!

VC and MTN are really one company, taking us for a ride all this time!

Well if this is how it pans out that my inet connection flies 99% of the time, then ride us all night.

 

[ginggs]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my azureus.sourceforge.net query.
It was only after Morkhans brought his laptop round and we swapped cards that I discovered I had an entry in my hosts file for azureus.sourceforge.net and their IP has since changed.

 

[vodacom3g]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my azureus.sourceforge.net query.
It was only after Morkhans brought his laptop round and we swapped cards that I discovered I had an entry in my hosts file for azureus.sourceforge.net and their IP has since changed.

Hmmm....

Hope it's not the source for all you failed DNS queries!

Actually, on that point; We're pretty sure we know the cause of the DNS issues, but I'll get 100% confirmation before I post it. Unfortunately the 'fix' involves a forklift.

In general though, it seems DoS attacks have become a national pass-time, especially in the Cape.....

 

[vodacom3g]

Aren't you a Vodacom techie?

Don't think there is a 100% correlation between who pays Iam3G's salary and who he works for, at times.....

 

[ginggs]

Hope it's not the source for all you failed DNS queries!

No, nslookup queries the DNS server directly it doesn't look in hosts.

I noticed this for the first time this morning:

>nslookup www.playboy.com
*** Can't find server name for address 196.207.40.167: Server failed
*** Can't find server name for address 196.207.40.165: Server failed
*** Default servers are not available
Server: UnKnown
Address: 196.207.40.167

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.playboy.com
Address: 216.163.137.3

I think the problem is that reverse lookup entries for these DNS servers have disappeared, but at least names are still resolving.

In general though, it seems DoS attacks have become a national pass-time, especially in the Cape.....

Can you be more specific, do you suspect malicious users, or malicious software? I've had a couple of attempts of something trying to get in on port 445, and I'm not even on the unrestricted APN.

 

[morkhans]

No, nslookup queries the DNS server directly it doesn't look in hosts.

I noticed this for the first time this morning:

I think the problem is that reverse lookup entries for these DNS servers have disappeared, but at least names are still resolving.

I can confirm that. I can't lookup the reverse for either of the DNS servers from work.

 

[vodacom3g]

I've had a couple of attempts of something trying to get in on port 445, and I'm not even on the unrestricted APN.

Yup, that's one of the port being targeted. Did you get a source IP?

 

[eagle-slayor]

I've been getting disconnects here in Bedfordview every 5 minutes or so. Is anyone experiencing the same?

 

[ginggs]

Yup, that's one of the port being targeted. Did you get a source IP?

Unfortunately not. I also noticed something trying to get in to LSASS.EXE (Local Security Authority Service) recently while my wife was logged on, but can't see anything in the logs.

 

[pkid]

Was Vodacom data down last night in Durban?

I couldn't connect from about 18:00 and still couldn't connect when I went to bed at 22:00? Connecting fine this morning. Just wanted to see if anybody else had an issue?

 

[Smurfatefrog]

I also had problems, i managed to connect for about 15 mins within that time before getting disconnected

 

[pkid]

Well hopefully they were upgrading their network or something...