Who will I need to Strangle?

[stoke]

This is the exact reason that I cancelled my ADSL384. I managed to get hold of a guy up the road that is using the same exchange as me. At 01H30, we did some verry simple tests. I ran a ping to bzflag0.gamesunited.de, and he started a download from a site in the UK. I was pinging at 350ms, when he's download started my latency hopped about like crazy from 460 to 1300 to no response. When he's 7 MB file was done, he downloaded a file from saix.tucows.co.za. Exact same effect on my latency. So I cancelled the contract. This was Nov 2004.
P.S. When I was running ADSL 512, I did not have the same problem - I think.
I really wish that Teklom would provide more transparency as to the effects of other users on the same package on the same exchange.

Nways - axisK - thats my experience.

 

[axisK]

At least I didnt take out a contract *phew* , I will stick with this though, there is no way I will be able to go back to 56k

 

[mikkelz_za]

I'm loving this DSL384. I "upgraded" from ISDN 128k and am glad I did!

 

[FireFLi]

I also upgraded from ISDN and on the whole happy with DSL384, but it does tend to behave inconsistently. It's fine for general browsing but like mentioned it tends to mess with on-line gaming.

 

[axisK]

This is probably a traffic problem or something and frankly I am getting tired of it, considering the fact that I am busy during the day and can't play games then it was a pretty much useless upgrade since I can't play games now either. I could even live with a ping of 120, as long as it stays constant but my 56k was more constant than this. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can explain this predicament to a Telkom Technician (I don't think they will respond to good with a "FIX OR DIE" statement) ?

 

[grubman]

axisK, post the result of a tracert to www.telkom.co.za. You will probably find that by about the 5'th hop you get a "Request timed out." message - you can hit ctrl-C at this point.

 

[axisK]

C:\Documents and Settings\axisK>tracert www.telkom.co.za

Tracing route to tcen-itx-epapp.telkom.co.za [198.54.207.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 22 ms 30 ms 30 ms wblv-165-40-01.telkomadsl.co.za [165.165.40.1]
2 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms wblv-ip-er-1-fe-11-1-0-1.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.10.138]
3 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms rndf-ip-er-2-ge-2-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.11.158]
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 telkom-tienet-gw.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.25.2.190] reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

I think to my myself - wonderful now I can play some cs. I was on the server for about 2 minutes with no problems and my pings drop, so I quit the game and do another tracert

C:\Documents and Settings\axisK>tracert www.telkom.co.za

Tracing route to tcen-itx-epapp.telkom.co.za [198.54.207.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3872 ms * * wblv-165-40-01.telkomadsl.co.za [165.165.40.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * ^C

At this point I decided to stop.



*update another 8 minute or so session with perfect pings and .... you guessed it ... same problem back *

Telkom ADSL Speed Test Meter
Your line speed is approximately 6.4 Kbps or 0.8 kBytes/sec
( Where kb = kilobits and kB = kiloBytes )

Results:

Below is the data used to calculate your download speed:

Download time: 635.61 seconds
Size of file: 500 KiloBytes Estimated line speed: 6.4 (kilobits/second) Estimated line speed: 0.8 (kiloBytes/second)

Is this really what I pay for?

 

[bb_matt]

I'm happy with my 384 ADSL (except the price, of course)

I had a network problem on the 10th to 12th - noticed my ping on the SGS servers was double it's usual and other people were too. Also a bit more lag surfing than usual.

These network issues happen no matter what connectivity your using.

I think the biggest fear we as ADSL users face is Telkom over-extending thier contention ratios and of course, aggressive port shaping. Fact is, they have the power to do whatever they want.

Not having a contract is an absolute bonus however.

 

[FireFLi]

Where abouts are you bb_matt? Might want to move into the area of your exchange.

 

[grubman]

C:\Documents and Settings\axisK>tracert www.telkom.co.za

Tracing route to tcen-itx-epapp.telkom.co.za [198.54.207.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3872 ms * * wblv-165-40-01.telkomadsl.co.za [165.165.40.1]

ok, now you have to make absolutely sure that you have no virii or spyware installed on your machine. Even if you did you shouldn't experience such bad latency on the first hop. It should usually be sub 20ms or under heavy load ( you dl'ing / ul'ing ) be a few hundred ms. You also need to obtain some software so that you can monitor your line usage at the time of experiencing these bad latencies.

If you are 100% certain that your line is idle when experiencing these high latencies contact ADSL tech support. I found Gavin to be rather knowledgable ( or at least I think it was Gavin ) and explain to him that you are experiencing a bad latency on the very first hop on the telkom network. I suspect that it is your port which needs to be reset at the exchange, but what I know about these things is just enough to be dangerous.

I won't say say it, I promise ...

hehe, good thing you didn't

 

[axisK]

If the dumbass i just spoke to was here, I would hit him with my keyboard. "ADSL was designed for browsing and checking your email , if you are experiencing latency problems, phone your isp" Telkom is my ISP. Maybe I should try again and hopefully I get someone else.

 

[ic]

I recommend giving them an ear full- with one of those loud klaxon siren thingies!

 

[axisK]

I have just come upon the funniest ISP vs Telkom account ever. On many previous occasions Telkom denied my 56k problems are their fault and they always referred me to Mweb. This morning the person from the ADSL helpline (0800 375 375) told me that my situation is not a fault on their side and I should contact my ISP, I told him that Telkom is my ISP and the website says that I should phone the ADSL Help Line, after getting severly pissed off at the moron at the other end of the line i proceeded and did a quick online fault report at www.telkomsa.net , I just received an email from my ISP (Telkom) informing me that it is not a ISP problem and I should phone 0800 375 375 to report a Hardware fault since this is a problem with my line. At least this made me laugh now

 

[axisK]

I've finally got my problem fixed, last friday morning I sent Telscum support a mail in which I stated that I will be terminating my ADSL line and Telkom account if my problem wasn't resolved, they promptly mailed me asking for tracer routes which I sent them. The afternoon Gavin Eagle from SAIX phoned me and told me that he had put in a request for the exchange's ATM links and connections to be checked and the next morning a Telkom techie phoned me informing me that they have found the problem.

"Due too the amount of ADSL users in the Strand area , we have been experiencing some bandwidth problems, we have now doubled the bandwidth for the area"

He also informed me that a processor on some or other server was supposedly faulty (I still think he was lieing about this) but finally my adsl runs fine, my pings stay constant and my download speeds don't drop. Looks like the only way to get service is to bluff termination I also asked him how many ADSL users they have around here to which he couldnt give me a reply , he did however inform me that in the last 6 weeks, they did 120 ADSL installations in the Strand alone.