Web Squad ISP

[websquadza]

Hey all!

Recent Web Squad member over here, loving the customer service and everything during my sign up, very efficient and helpful!

With reference to the above, I have had similar issues for quite a while now.
Octotel, 100/100mb - Southern Suburbs, Cape Town.

Was hoping that swapping to a different ISP would remove this problem (had a different ISP at my old location, very near by, also Octotel), but unfortunately seems to remain.

Reading all the posts and everything about Octotel on the forum, I am assuming that this in no small part is related to their last mile congestion rather than Web Squad specifically, however @websquadza - if there is anything you could do about this, I would be forever thankful.

As you can see a local test yields perfectly acceptable results:
View attachment 764734

but any test to london or another international location for that matter, not so much:
View attachment 764736

Obviously understand that 100% line speed internationally is not usually possible, but even 50% would be much more pleasing!

Thanks for the feedback here! Welcome to Web sQuad!

Quite surprised to see how pronounced this effect is in your area given how close you are to the DC. We'll get our network team on Octotel's case about this.

Nonetheless, we are working on a fix to "handle" packet loss (to mitigate the effect on you, the end client). This is partly due to FNO packet loss, but also the wide range of services we're launching in 2020. We're starting testing in the next week or two in JHB and as soon as we're satisfied, we'll be rolling out in CPT. Hardware has been ordered for CPT already.

 

[websquadza]

@websquadza Any news on when the website pricing will be updated?

Which pricing are you referring to?

 

[Loppas]

Which pricing are you referring to?

openserve

 

[Phinix]

@websquadza Any update on when you will get 200Mbps on OS?

 

[Chiller89]

Thanks for the feedback here! Welcome to Web sQuad!

Quite surprised to see how pronounced this effect is in your area given how close you are to the DC. We'll get our network team on Octotel's case about this.

Nonetheless, we are working on a fix to "handle" packet loss (to mitigate the effect on you, the end client). This is partly due to FNO packet loss, but also the wide range of services we're launching in 2020. We're starting testing in the next week or two in JHB and as soon as we're satisfied, we'll be rolling out in CPT. Hardware has been ordered for CPT already.

Thanks so much for this reply! Time for a confession and a story on my part.

I've had this problem across a number of different ISPs on Octotel, for the better part of a year, now in two different locations. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to networking and routers, having worked in the industry.

I have always used a Mikrotik HAp AC Lite to dial PPPoE on my link, and Unifi AP's to broadcast the WiFi network and manage everything nicely. I usually swear by Mikrotik's as the gateway, and have for years, to get proper control of the connection and run queues and limits etc to properly monitor and manage things.

After sitting with this issue the other day, it occurred to me that I have never tried a different router, in the somehow off-chance that this would make a difference. So, since you guys had generously sent me a free router, I thought, why not, let's give it a go.

Well, I can safely say I feel rather stupid now, as the issue is totally gone, from what I can tell. Full speed to whatever international destinations deem important and speedtest to. In fact all international traffic looks far far better than it did before.

So, not believing that this was even possible, I totally factory reset the Mikrotik, set up totally from scratch (no preset configuration at all) only just enough configuration to dial PPPoE, masquerade the traffic and give me DHCP. The problem was easily reproducible, the minute the Mikrotik was back as the gateway, terrible international speeds, and full speed with the free (Tenda) router that was provided.

I am attempting to get another Mikrotik to test with, to confirm my suspicion that this is Mikrotik related somehow, as I struggle to believe that the one I have is faulty, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.

So if anyone is struggling like I am, and is using a Mikrotik as the gateway, I would propose trying as I did, admitting that sometimes things don't make sense (to me anyway) and giving a totally different router brand a shot.

Thanks so much for the tentativeness on this issue, but it seems resolved!

 

[DeatheCore]

Thanks so much for this reply! Time for a confession and a story on my part.

I've had this problem across a number of different ISPs on Octotel, for the better part of a year, now in two different locations. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to networking and routers, having worked in the industry.

I have always used a Mikrotik HAp AC Lite to dial PPPoE on my link, and Unifi AP's to broadcast the WiFi network and manage everything nicely. I usually swear by Mikrotik's as the gateway, and have for years, to get proper control of the connection and run queues and limits etc to properly monitor and manage things.

After sitting with this issue the other day, it occurred to me that I have never tried a different router, in the somehow off-chance that this would make a difference. So, since you guys had generously sent me a free router, I thought, why not, let's give it a go.

Well, I can safely say I feel rather stupid now, as the issue is totally gone, from what I can tell. Full speed to whatever international destinations deem important and speedtest to. In fact all international traffic looks far far better than it did before.

So, not believing that this was even possible, I totally factory reset the Mikrotik, set up totally from scratch (no preset configuration at all) only just enough configuration to dial PPPoE, masquerade the traffic and give me DHCP. The problem was easily reproducible, the minute the Mikrotik was back as the gateway, terrible international speeds, and full speed with the free (Tenda) router that was provided.

I am attempting to get another Mikrotik to test with, to confirm my suspicion that this is Mikrotik related somehow, as I struggle to believe that the one I have is faulty, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.

So if anyone is struggling like I am, and is using a Mikrotik as the gateway, I would propose trying as I did, admitting that sometimes things don't make sense (to me anyway) and giving a totally different router brand a shot.

Thanks so much for the tentativeness on this issue, but it seems resolved!

That's a conundrum and a half, man. I've been battling with minor packet loss on Vumatel trenched with CISP as my ISP since basically day 1 of having fibre, my local speeds were good, but anything with a higher latency, i.e. anywhere out the country was roughly 1/4th of the speed, so like 10-25M on a 100M line (this was before they implemented a TCP acceleration service to combat last mile loss, things are better now).

This was especially noticeable with single-threaded traffic such as live video streams from UK (Twitch.tv for example), obviously hellishly annoying having a 6M video stream buffer on a 100M line.

I was using a MikroTik RB750GL for ages, and tried out a few different routers over the past year like the TP-Link Archer VR900 and ASUS AC-66U and never noticed any difference in terms of performance or loss between them (I've probably run hundreds of iperfs and speedtests by now lol..).

I'm curious to know if you have the same issue on a different MikroTik. I recently picked up a hAp ac2 and it has been great so far in all regards, even surprised me with pretty decent WiFi performance for a 2x2 device with integrated antennas. Bought it specifically because I wanted to upgrade to 1G and the RB750GL couldn't handle NAT at those speeds, which the ac2 does easily due to hardware offloading.

 

[powermzii]

That's a conundrum and a half, man. I've been battling with minor packet loss on Vumatel trenched with CISP as my ISP since basically day 1 of having fibre, my local speeds were good, but anything with a higher latency, i.e. anywhere out the country was roughly 1/4th of the speed, so like 10-25M on a 100M line (this was before they implemented a TCP acceleration service to combat last mile loss, things are better now).

This was especially noticeable with single-threaded traffic such as live video streams from UK (Twitch.tv for example), obviously hellishly annoying having a 6M video stream buffer on a 100M line.

I was using a MikroTik RB750GL for ages, and tried out a few different routers over the past year like the TP-Link Archer VR900 and ASUS AC-66U and never noticed any difference in terms of performance or loss between them (I've probably run hundreds of iperfs and speedtests by now lol..).

I'm curious to know if you have the same issue on a different MikroTik. I recently picked up a hAp ac2 and it has been great so far in all regards, even surprised me with pretty decent WiFi performance for a 2x2 device with integrated antennas. Bought it specifically because I wanted to upgrade to 1G and the RB750GL couldn't handle NAT at those speeds, which the ac2 does easily due to hardware offloading.

Monitoring this as in the market for a hAP ac2 as well.

 

[Chiller89]

That's a conundrum and a half, man. I've been battling with minor packet loss on Vumatel trenched with CISP as my ISP since basically day 1 of having fibre, my local speeds were good, but anything with a higher latency, i.e. anywhere out the country was roughly 1/4th of the speed, so like 10-25M on a 100M line (this was before they implemented a TCP acceleration service to combat last mile loss, things are better now).

This was especially noticeable with single-threaded traffic such as live video streams from UK (Twitch.tv for example), obviously hellishly annoying having a 6M video stream buffer on a 100M line.

I was using a MikroTik RB750GL for ages, and tried out a few different routers over the past year like the TP-Link Archer VR900 and ASUS AC-66U and never noticed any difference in terms of performance or loss between them (I've probably run hundreds of iperfs and speedtests by now lol..).

I'm curious to know if you have the same issue on a different MikroTik. I recently picked up a hAp ac2 and it has been great so far in all regards, even surprised me with pretty decent WiFi performance for a 2x2 device with integrated antennas. Bought it specifically because I wanted to upgrade to 1G and the RB750GL couldn't handle NAT at those speeds, which the ac2 does easily due to hardware offloading.

Yeah, confuses the entirety out of me. Even a friend of mine who I deem my Mikrotik expert, whose worked for a number of ISPs configuring them professionally, says it's odd, although he has seen it occasionally before, with no specific pattern to figure it out.

Hopefully will be getting that other Mikrotik soon so I can test.

While not totally perfect, even a single threaded test to London yeilds objectively acceptable results (to me anyway, and more than enough to sustain a 4k stream at least).

 

[pain_killer]

Just signed up with Websquad, I must admit their service is great and they get stuff done. Short story: Signed up online with Vox last week waited for Rica to complete which it had, no call no email so I decide to follow up. The lovely lady who has no clue what she was doing says Vuma will take another week or up to 3 weeks to get my service up and running. I explained that my previous service provider released my line on the 31st Dec and she preceeded saying that it is because of Vuma's backlog due to the slow down over the festive season. I am like everything is there just tell them to connect me, I asked to speak to a manager and she said the manager will tell me the same thing l. I just decided stuff it up. Websquad got me sorted within 24 hours,the router arrived the following day. Thank you websquad... Only have one issue, my latency/ping is all over the place. Didn't have this issue with my previous provider and home set up hasn't changed as I used 2 routers. Struggling to play online gaming due to this. Any advice

 

[wingnut771]

Just signed up with Websquad, I must admit their service is great and they get stuff done. Short story: Signed up online with Vox last week waited for Rica to complete which it had, no call no email so I decide to follow up. The lovely lady who has no clue what she was doing says Vuma will take another week or up to 3 weeks to get my service up and running. I explained that my previous service provider released my line on the 31st Dec and she preceeded saying that it is because of Vuma's backlog due to the slow down over the festive season. I am like everything is there just tell them to connect me, I asked to speak to a manager and she said the manager will tell me the same thing l. I just decided stuff it up. Websquad got me sorted within 24 hours,the router arrived the following day. Thank you websquad... Only have one issue, my latency/ping is all over the place. Didn't have this issue with my previous provider and home set up hasn't changed as I used 2 routers. Struggling to play online gaming due to this. Any advice

install pingplotter, that should give an idea of what's wrong.

 

[websquadza]

Just signed up with Websquad, I must admit their service is great and they get stuff done. Short story: Signed up online with Vox last week waited for Rica to complete which it had, no call no email so I decide to follow up. The lovely lady who has no clue what she was doing says Vuma will take another week or up to 3 weeks to get my service up and running. I explained that my previous service provider released my line on the 31st Dec and she preceeded saying that it is because of Vuma's backlog due to the slow down over the festive season. I am like everything is there just tell them to connect me, I asked to speak to a manager and she said the manager will tell me the same thing l. I just decided stuff it up. Websquad got me sorted within 24 hours,the router arrived the following day. Thank you websquad... Only have one issue, my latency/ping is all over the place. Didn't have this issue with my previous provider and home set up hasn't changed as I used 2 routers. Struggling to play online gaming due to this. Any advice

Hi and welcome! Thanks for the great feedback!

Can you download pingplotter (great alternative to WinMTR, thanks @wingnut771) and send us some results. Also aerial/trenched? Area and destination IP will help in getting this sorted.

 

[websquadza]

Yeah, confuses the entirety out of me. Even a friend of mine who I deem my Mikrotik expert, whose worked for a number of ISPs configuring them professionally, says it's odd, although he has seen it occasionally before, with no specific pattern to figure it out.

Hopefully will be getting that other Mikrotik soon so I can test.

While not totally perfect, even a single threaded test to London yeilds objectively acceptable results (to me anyway, and more than enough to sustain a 4k stream at least).

View attachment 766840

Thanks for the update here. Glad to see that you’re seeing better results with the Tenda. Hoping that we’ll be able to better those single thread results on Octotel soon.

Big MikroTik fans here as well so certainly surprised to see this... Let us know if a replacement does the trick otherwise this will be a fun challenge for our MT techs to figure out.

 

[tracee]

Hi There

I am having issues with International this morning, it is unusable and a lot of packet loss. Local is perfectly fine.

This is to London on a 100/100 line

 

[Hingisp]

Hi There

I am having issues with International this morning, it is unusable and a lot of packet loss. Local is perfectly fine.

This is to London on a 100/100 line

Yip same problem here in Durban. 1Gbps line, vumatel trenched. This test to optimum online - New York. London had same result.

 

[Leno]

MikroTik

MikroTik makes networking hardware and software, which is used in nearly all countries of the world. Our mission is to make existing Internet technologies faster, more powerful and affordable to wider range of users.

mikrotik.com

You can see on the test results they have , the moment you start adding queue's or even have fastpath disabled then the throughput of this unit starts degrading

When you did a factory reset is your fastpath enabled?

 

[websquadza]

Morning all, quick update on international connectivity. WACS cable system is down, which means all 3 of our transit providers have failed over to EASSy. Early reports are that EASSy is experiencing a technical difficulty though we’re still waiting for further updates. Updates to follow shortly

 

[tracee]

Thank you very much for the update, it is much appreciated

 

[websquadza]

Update: Services are restoring via alternate paths including EASSY and SAT3, please note that services will remain degraded (higher latency and degraded speeds) due to continued issues on the EASSy Cable. We're awaiting an update on the EASSy issue.

 

[cavedog]

Update: Services are restoring via alternate paths including EASSY and SAT3, please note that services will remain degraded (higher latency and degraded speeds) due to continued issues on the EASSy Cable. We're awaiting an update on the EASSy issue.

Seacom not an option?

 

[websquadza]

Update: EASSy services fully restored. Please remember EASSy is a longer route, so latencies will be higher until WACS is repaired. No ETA on WACS repairs yet. transit SAT3 and SAFE (asia) remain operational.