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

[pietpetoors]

3g

Seems like my 3G is working again.
What really made me cross today is that the first helpful guy told me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Vodacom network and told me that it is most probably my firmware or software. First he wanted me to take my modem to a vodacom shop (nearest one 160km from here). Then he explained to me where to download the firmware and software from the highly confusing vodacom web site.

When I restarted and wanted to see if I can download the firmware, there was no network. So I phoned 155 again. This time a totally different story. The friendly lady on the other side told me that Vodacom has been experiencing network problems since yesterday. They are busy updating the system and all the points will one by one be without a connection some time now. She said that even they were without a connection for about 30 minutes.

Why is it that the support people's first mission is to find the problem with the client.

 

[sand_man]

Why is it that the support people's first mission is to find the problem with the client.

Cause the client is always wrong....

oops posted twice... had no throughput... sorry bout that... it's me and my E220 and the incorrect firmware/hardware/software etc etc etc

 

[vodacom3g]

BTW, did you get my email about the nslookup tests I did last night, and the default g/w that is set to 0.0.0.0?

Did, thanks. I assume Ramon will reply, but I'll check.

 

[Wolfling]

Woot I got 4 reference numbers:

4 x Compensations = Vodacom is paying for my adsl installation

Hmm, are those the SMS's that say 'Unknown SMS Message Type' that come from 12000, then I have 8 with accompanying reference numbers

btw Speedtest:
Download Speed: 365 kbps (45.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 56 kbps (7 KB/sec transfer rate)
3G Prepaid
Rivonia.

Since Wed things have been improving on my side. I stil have some disconnects but its a lot better than Mon and Tue.

 

[AirWolf]

I seem to be connecting ok today, and speeds are reasonably ok. But I didn't do any speed tests --> I don't want to waste any more of my bundle after mysteriously losing 55MB.

 

[BeVonk!]

Speed Test result at 01:55 ...

Download: 1477 kbps
Upload: 355 kbps

... not bad.

 

[sand_man]

speed test results

vodacom speed test 1789kbps down 355kbps up

sentech 671kbps down load

speedtest.net to CT s down 909kbps up 210kbps
to Los Angeles down 402kbps up 264kbps
to Sydney down 335kbps up 228kbps

 

[AirWolf]

@sandmanm34, those are certainly impressive figures on all speed tests

 

[sand_man]

They certainly are aren't they sky.akash?!!! This tends to be a brute on weekends but by monday she will be crawling again...

 

[morkhans]

So what are things like after the changes from last night? I have not been online much this weekend but have not had any problems with connect/disconnect today so far.

 

[vodacom3g]

So what are things like after the changes from last night? I have not been online much this weekend but have not had any problems with connect/disconnect today so far.

No feedback on the forum yet. We'll probably hear by Monday evening. I'll get some feedback.

Last night's upgrade was the first of quite a few, so I expect the disconnect problems to regress over a few days.

 

[UtianG]

No feedback on the forum yet. We'll probably hear by Monday evening. I'll get some feedback.

Last night's upgrade was the first of quite a few, so I expect the disconnect problems to regress over a few days.

Brackenfell/Vredekloof (Cape Town)

Network (3G/HSDPA Prepaid Databundle) seems to be alot more stable today. Been connected for 30min now and NO disconnects... THATS RIGHT - NO disconnects.

Speedtest.net results: Consistently around 858kbps down and 346 up ..... network coverage on 3 bars...Samsung U700.

http://speed.vodacom.co.za/speedtest/ results: 535kbps Down and 354 Up ...

 

[gboy]

seems ok, here in knysna, yes i know we have no electricity so i am most probberly the only person online now (called generator best investment ever)

 

[threegee]

Why wait till Monday evening?

Things were actually going quite well and fast yesterday (Saturday). This morning (Sunday) things also seemed to be quite reasonable BUT since about 1pm today the NetCache is timing out serving web sites, it only occurs every now and again but still it should not give that message on a web page that was browsed 10 minutes before that message ... should be cached. Gives a "Server Not Responding" error message and it is definitely not a local browser message.

A refresh loads the page but like the disconnect/connect woes from Thursday/Friday I can not spend all day refreshing each web page. Will of course monitor this during the day and see if it goes away, I suspect there are Vodacom engineers working on things this morning. 3G also slowed down somewhat since 1pm.

Overall, seems a LOT better since Friday anyhow, just hope this "server not responding" message gets sorted out as it will become the next big annoyance to users.

 

[morkhans]

I am still seeing DNS time-outs.

nslookup www.myadsl.co.za
Server: dns1-cba.3g.vodacom.co.za
Address: 196.207.40.165:53

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to dns1-cba.3g.vodacom.co.za timed-out

And rerun it again immediately after.

nslookup www.myadsl.co.za
Server: dns1-cba.3g.vodacom.co.za
Address: 196.207.40.165:53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.myadsl.co.za
Addresses: 196.40.97.13, 196.40.97.12

 

[Menace]

Vodacom Speed test
Download Speed: 50 kbps (6.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 26 kbps (3.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

but no disconnects so far today

 

[sand_man]

No feedback on the forum yet. We'll probably hear by Monday evening. I'll get some feedback.

Since late friday afternoon, inlcuding the entire day yesterday and this morning the network has been tops. No disconnects and reasonable browsing speed locally and moderate internationally.

I've been out most of the afternoon but these are the latest performance figures then:

vodacom speed test 1471kbps down and 279 up
to CT 213kbps down 207 up
to LA 145kbps down 59kbps up
to OZ 133kbps down 53kbps up

All in all a very average set of results. I commented earlier that by monday the network would be back to crawling and it seems it may be earlier than that.

Hell how I and many wish for a bit of consistency...

 

[Abe]

There are quite a few and they're geographic. I'm not sure on the roll-out plan, but would expect they'll start where the most pain is. Where are you / your friend?

Ok, thought I would give VC one more chance.

First, this afternoon, at my house, loaded a new prepaid 4U card in the 620. Picked up HSDPA and connected first time. Connection was a little slow (for HSDPA as it took roughly 5 seconds to load the EBucks page). Disconnected and connected about 4 times to see if there are any problems. Tried quickly with my MTN cell card to check the speed. MTN basically flew. Before I could disconnect, it had chewed up 1 Meg in MS updates (in the background) and I only went to the same EBucks page which loaded immediately.

Though well, at least the connection is working, even though it's slow, and I have more control over the account with the V4Me site. So I packed up the notebook and dropped it off. While I am showing him how this wonderful stuff works, I had to try 5 times before I got a connection, after that, I was disconnected twice (in the space of 4) minutes. To add insult to injury, there only seemed to be GPRS as that was all I could get for those first 4 minutes. After the second disconnect, I tried in vain to connect for 3/4 minutes (Basically had the connection retrying every 5 seconds). After those 3/4 minites, I suddenly get an HSDPA link, am able to download all of his mails in about a minute after battling the first couple of times just to get the first email. A couple of minutes pass and I lose the connection again (and it goes back to GPRS). Oh, and as I said before, he stays in Bryanston.

Needless to say, after much embarassment, I am going out to get an MTN card tomorrow and hoping that I don't look like too much of an idiot in front of my mate who is also a very important client of mine.

 

[AirWolf]

VC down here at the moment --> can connect but only one way traffic --> up Same with Virgin. On MTN now.

The other networks sims do come in handy at times like this

 

[ginggs]

VC down here at the moment --> can connect but only one way traffic --> up Same with Virgin. On MTN now.

Same for me, I can connect but can't surf, all DNS requests time out. Tried 'internet' and 'internetvpn' APNs, also tried 3G and GPRS (can't get EDGE on Vodacom here) made no difference.
I could connect on Virgin but it is extremely slow tonight.