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

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OK, so heres the deal, I spoke to Andre at Vodacom who got Shaun to test the tower. He tested on the Vodacom network and got pings under 100ms which is normal for Vodacom HSDPA local sites etc. But as soon as he pinged international sites the latency got high (500+ ms) as I described. The thing now being that because this is not on Vodacom's network that the "problem" lies, they cant do much about it.

As I see it, I am Vodacom's client, just as Vodacom is SAIX's client (or am I wrong? They are using their fixed lines) so why cant Vodacom put pressure on SAIX to test and look where the bottleneck (if thats what it is) occurs?

I wish Vodacom never blocked tracert on their network coz then I could see exactly where the problem lies. I have asked for this to be removed in the past...

As per Shaun and Andre, there will be a bit of play on the latency as this is a wireless network, but:
1) the prob as they mentioned is not on the wireless and on the fixed line
2) Why would my pings be 280ms and then 500+ <- thats not normal, its double!?

So V3G, is there anything that could be done here, or must I just wait until my contract ends and then cancel it all and go to another SP like MTN that is able to give me 240ms latency on international servers?

I have 3 contracts with Vodacom. If I have to cancel one I will cancel them all eventually. I hate having diff ISP's all over the show.
 
3g usr said:
OK, so heres the deal, I spoke to Andre at Vodacom who got Shaun to test the tower. He tested on the Vodacom network and got pings under 100ms which is normal for Vodacom HSDPA local sites etc. But as soon as he pinged international sites the latency got high (500+ ms) as I described. The thing now being that because this is not on Vodacom's network that the "problem" lies, they cant do much about it.

As I see it, I am Vodacom's client, just as Vodacom is SAIX's client (or am I wrong? They are using their fixed lines) so why cant Vodacom put pressure on SAIX to test and look where the bottleneck (if thats what it is) occurs?

I wish Vodacom never blocked tracert on their network coz then I could see exactly where the problem lies. I have asked for this to be removed in the past...

As per Shaun and Andre, there will be a bit of play on the latency as this is a wireless network, but:
1) the prob as they mentioned is not on the wireless and on the fixed line
2) Why would my pings be 280ms and then 500+ <- thats not normal, its double!?

So V3G, is there anything that could be done here, or must I just wait until my contract ends and then cancel it all and go to another SP like MTN that is able to give me 240ms latency on international servers?

I have 3 contracts with Vodacom. If I have to cancel one I will cancel them all eventually. I hate having diff ISP's all over the show.
Click to expand...

The international bandwidth will have a large number of utilisation peaks and troughs. It's just the bursty nature of many users using IP.

These will affect individual packets more, or at least it will be more noticeable with single packets than with a steam such as in a download.

So, you will always see pings fluctuating on long-haul links but it obviously must be contained as much as possible.

As bandwidth increase, pings will decrease, but I suspect you'll see the next big drop in latency with 3.6.
 
vodacom3g said:
The international bandwidth will have a large number of utilisation peaks and troughs. It's just the bursty nature of many users using IP.

These will affect individual packets more, or at least it will be more noticeable with single packets than with a steam such as in a download.

So, you will always see pings fluctuating on long-haul links but it obviously must be contained as much as possible.

As bandwidth increase, pings will decrease, but I suspect you'll see the next big drop in latency with 3.6.
Click to expand...

When will 3.6 happen and will I need to upgrade my hardware to benifit from the lower latency?
 
Bleh,

3G stuggling somewhat (understatement)

Vodacom Speed Test (Best of 3 tests)

d/load: 319kbps
u/load: 206kbps
 
I am also seeing some really sluggish performance tonight. Download speed ranges from 500 to 1000kbps on the Vodacom Speed test. I normally get 1800kbps.

International is an absolute dog. Seeing lots of packet loss pinging google.com
 
3g usr said:
When will 3.6 happen and will I need to upgrade my hardware to benifit from the lower latency?
Click to expand...

What hardware do you have now? The E220 supports 3.6, not sure if your latency on 1.8 hardware like the E620 will be lower even though it doesn't support 3.6 but I presume so.
 
Me and me moms 3G is pretty inconsistent these days. We get frequent disconnects and unreliable speeds, but she's in Pretoria and I'm in Randburg, I use a laptop with Option HSDPA card and she uses the usb thing. She uses VMC Lite and I use VMC7.something so I don't think its a software thing either.

Another buddy of mine also recently got 3g and he lives in Bryanston, same problems. Whats up with 3G these days?
 
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// sluggish is a good way to describe it, on the upside ftp performance seems to have improved.
 
Connected on 'internet' APN three times in a row around 21:00, authenticated and got an IP address (two of them were 10.62.139.235 and 10.61.129.185), but no traffic. N1 City Tower. On PPDB, balance according to *111# is about 90MB remaining. Typing this via MTN.

Update (21:33): Working again now, IP address is 10.63.131.71.
 
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Geriatrix said:
Me and me moms 3G is pretty inconsistent these days. We get frequent disconnects and unreliable speeds, but she's in Pretoria and I'm in Randburg, I use a laptop with Option HSDPA card and she uses the usb thing. She uses VMC Lite and I use VMC7.something so I don't think its a software thing either.

Another buddy of mine also recently got 3g and he lives in Bryanston, same problems. Whats up with 3G these days?
Click to expand...

Best to report both cases to 155 or just mail them. Will help to identify possible common factors.

Completely OT :); With an ID of 'Geriatrix', I assume you're not a youngster? Can we log your mom as the oldest 3G user? :)

Maybe we can run a competition to find the oldest and youngest (proper) 3G users? Maybe a price at the upcoming Broadband Conference? ;)
 
Ok, now it's gotten worse. I assume my HSDPA modem is only working at GPRS speeds because its really slow, and I can see interference on the monitor and the TV. Top of Edgemead. Cell breathing? I can't seem to get it to go any faster... Help please.

(Option Datacard)
 
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I was on last night at about 10PM. First few min I can access sites and then data throughput dies. Disconnect reconnect, data for a bit then nothing. I emailed customer care and got a ref.

PPDB. internet apn and unrestricted apn. I had about 79MB left on my bundle at the time and it expired last night (at 00:00) so Vodacom owes me.
 
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Last night very slow Data Throughput. Disconnections every 5 to 15 minutes. It was one of those nights again...
 
Good day there, my little issue is; HSDPA only, works fine, a friend was trying to use his 3g , but we are only getting the following :
Up: 26 kbps
Down : 34 kbps
Area 2nd ave Newton Park, Port Elizabeth

Hope this helps.
 
vodacom3g said:
Maybe we can run a competition to find the oldest and youngest (proper) 3G users? Maybe a price at the upcoming Broadband Conference? ;)
Click to expand...
My father is 78, he's been using 3G for 18 months now. :D

When is the 2007 Broadband Conference?
 
Iam3G said:
Last night very slow Data Throughput. Disconnections every 5 to 15 minutes. It was one of those nights again...
Click to expand...

haha, one of "THOSE" nights? I've had this problem for a while now, no one cared :( It's just much worse now tbh. slow throughput, slow browsing, high pings etc. etc. At least, or should I say, I hope that something will get better now that more people are having same symptoms :D
 
@Vodacom3G.

For the past few days I have been having trouble using my 3G connection. I have a Nokia N70 that I use as a modem.

I connect about 18:00 or so and use the internet for the night.

Nothing has changed on my end but the network has become VERY unstable.

I am not talking about random spikes in the latency. I am talking about my connection just stopping.

I have 144MB left of a 500MB PPDB and it expires the 25th November (Confirmed with both *111# and www.vodacom4me.co.za)

Here are the symptoms:

I connect to the network (the same way I used for the past few months. Nothing has changed) and I open my network connection status window. It is connected and sending data but it received 234 bytes of data and that is that. Nothing I do can get it to receive any more data.

I disconnect and try again, and again, and again. Finally I get a connection that receives data. Yipeeee!

Now a random number of minutes later my connection stops. At anything between 1MB and 10MB it just STOPS. NADA. Nothing gets through. It still sends data but it does not receive anything.

I disconnect and try again, and again, and again. Finally I get a connection that receives data. Yipeeee!

Rinse and repeat for the rest of the night.

This makes playing Guild Wars kinda impossible.

Can you please let me know if this is a voda network problem or SAIX or what? Is there a network status page that I can go to to see if voda is having problems?

Calling 155 is really useless. They tell me to reboot my PC for crying out loud!

All I ask for is a semi stable internet connection. Is that too much?
 
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