Is my ISP throttling my speed? What can I do about it?

mike_nofx · 12-12-2016, 09:42 PM

I'm with Optus for my home phone and ADSL2+ Internet, no NBN available here yet.

Last couple of weeks I've noticed my internet speed has slowed to a crawl, I cant recall my previous speeds but they were quite acceptable, but anyway recently I was getting 0.7mbps which is ridiculous.

Theres something weird going on though, my speed is faster when tested with a VPN on. I'll get to that in a minute.

So far I've made 3 calls to optus and here is my outcomes.

Call 1, my speed is around 0.7mbps, I call Optus and am told my issue is because I haven't reset my modem in 7 days. I give it a reset and no change.

Call 2 (the next day) I inform them my speed is still slow, and there must be an issue somewhere. The Optus person (direct from Calcutta or Mumbai) does a reset from their end and an adjustment to the settings and hey, my speed jumps to 1.2mbps. The operator tells me that since im 3.8km from an exchange the expected speed is 1-2mbps, this is complete BS to me though. I leave it for another couple of days.

Call 3 (today), I call and tell them that 1.2mbps is still unacceptably slow. The woman does a reset and adjustment from her end and what do you know, speed jumps to 2.5mbps. But this STILL to me is way too slow.

Just messing around with the optus speed tester on their website and I decide to do a run with my VPN switched on, I was expecting an even lower speed but was shocked than I am getting speeds of over 6mbps!!

What could possibly be going on? I'm now assuming that Optus is speed limiting my internet and the VPN somehow gets around their speed limiter.

I'd like some advice on what could possibly be going on here.
Is it possible I'm being speed limited?
Can this speed limiter be removed by Optus operators?
I'd also like to know if I should be making a complaint about my service, and to who? Or would possibly threatening Optus that I would make a complaint be enough for them to remove my hypothetical limiter?

Help is very much appreciated. This is very frustrating.

Junkyard-Dog · 12-12-2016, 10:10 PM

What do you mean by "mbps?"

Are you getting 1.2 Mb or 1.2 MB per second?

I have actually experienced faster transmission rates to popular sites like youtube when using VPNs, which is probably due to having substantially fewer clients saturating the network.

.:4:. · 12-12-2016, 10:10 PM

Do you have an unfiltered phoneline? It may sound stupid but if you have something like a security system that has a call out on it, it will ruin your adsl.

mike_nofx · 12-12-2016, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Do you have an unfiltered phoneline? It may sound stupid but if you have something like a security system that has a call out on it, it will ruin your adsl.

I've tested with only the modem plugged into any phone socket. Usually I have a splitter which you connect the phone and modem into one socket but I've even tried disconnecting for the test.

I also have an alarm system connected in with the phone lines but it is unplugged from power and is not being used. I suppose I can disconnect the alarm from the phone lines but it's never been an issue before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junkyard-Dog

What do you mean by "mbps?"

Are you getting 1.2 Mb or 1.2 MB per second?

I have actually experienced faster transmission rates to popular sites like youtube when using VPNs, which is probably due to having substantially fewer clients saturating the network.

When you run an internet speed test it gives a result as X Mbps which I assume means Mb per second but I could be wrong, but regardless, ADSL2+ will have speeds up to 20Mbps. To me, 5Mbps is acceptable, under 3 is not.

Edit: it's megabits per second. Not megabytes.

Junkyard-Dog · 12-12-2016, 11:16 PM

Thanks for clarifying which unit you meant with your OP because it wasn't clear. Even though most internet speed tests use Mb, I have come across some which show the results in MB.

Now that I know you're referring to bits rather than Bytes, it seems like you are getting unacceptably poor performance. In your OP I read 1.2 mbps and thought you must be referring to MegaBytes because that would be right in the acceptable range for ADSL2+ but now that I know you are referring to bits, it's clear you have some serious issues.

I kindly doubt that your ISP is targeting you specifically to throttle your internet service but I guess anything is possible. I find it much more likely that there is a surplus of clients trying to access an overcrowded (possibly outdated/already overtaxed) infrastructure. That would mean slow speeds for everybody on the network... whatever the case, if you're getting speeds below 8Mb per second with ADSL2+ you're not getting the service you're paying for and something needs to be fixed.

As for getting an instant improvement after complaining - did you test at the same time of day? This part intrigues me the most because I would love if there was a gritty tale of espionage, where an IT expert funneled your data to every server so visited just for a day to appease and confuse you. I'm not even being a smartass here, that would be something.

- IT droid for the past 6 years.

**George V** · 13-12-2016, 07:05 AM

OP,

If line distance to exchange is 3.8km as stated, then speeds in the range of 20Mb is highly unlikely. Best you can hope for is somewhere between 3 to 5 Mbs with that kind of cable distances from exchange.

There may be other issues with your line. Any recent heavy rain in your area?

If modem reset did not improve speed from 0.8 Mbs then Get them to check the line.

It could be a line issue if the problem started recently and may improve when cables get dried out.

Regards,
George V

Fed · 13-12-2016, 07:41 AM

Give it a shot at speedtest.

I think I'm more than 3.8 Km from the exchange, if I find out how to check I'll post it.

I used to be slow until I complained now it's fine.

Edit: 3.5 Km from exchange.

mike_nofx · 13-12-2016, 09:09 AM

I'll try post some results.

Here is a test with my VPN switched off:

And with VPN on:

These results confuse me. Its faster with the VPN on (Sydney server) but the Ping is much slower, so I'm not totally sure how to decipher that.

I think I've heard that the Mb/s is like power, and Ping is like Torque... well maybe.

mike_nofx · 13-12-2016, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by George V

OP,

If line distance to exchange is 3.8km as stated, then speeds in the range of 20Mb is highly unlikely. Best you can hope for is somewhere between 3 to 5 Mbs with that kind of cable distances from exchange.

There may be other issues with your line. Any recent heavy rain in your area?

If modem reset did not improve speed from 0.8 Mbs then Get them to check the line.

It could be a line issue if the problem started recently and may improve when cables get dried out.

Regards,
George V

No recent heavy rain. I have had the rain issue before but it also made my landline very unclear. My phone landline is crystal clear.
They've done line checks 3 times, over the phone, and as I stated, I got slight improvements each time I've spoken to them.

I'm just wondering if this time of year there is high internet traffic so Optus may slow everyone down to share it around more evenly. Maybe I'm just paranoid?
But I'm hoping that the squeaky wheel gets the faster internet speed.

I also have the Optus Fetch TV service, I've previously never had any real issues using it but recently its been laggy and takes forever to download a movie on it. Optus informs me that Fetch requires a minimum 3Mbps to function smoothly, which I don't have, and that I can cancel my Fetch service if I like - because its only expected in my area to receive 1-2Mbps.

What annoys me is that I've had fast internet here and no Fetch issues before, so the explanation that 1-2Mbps is normal just sounds like BS to me.

I'll call yet again, and hope for another 0.5Mbps increase

Fed · 13-12-2016, 09:54 AM

I'd leave the VPN out of it and simply tell them 2 Mbps is not good enough.

I'd expect you'd have a problem with Netflix at that speed.

commodorenutt · 13-12-2016, 10:07 AM

I agree with your speed concerns.

I am just over 5km from the exchange, and it was 35-40 year old copper. I was getting 12mb/s speeds during the day, after a dry spell, but at night (peak) time, it would drop to less than 2.

If it was wet, I'd have constant drop outs & slow speeds until the pit dried out. ISP said it was a Telstra issue. Telstra handballed it back. I rang Telstra on a crackling line to complain, and after several "sir I can't hear you properly over the noise" comments, I explained the issue, and all of a sudden he says there's no problem, and the line is crystal clear (just minutes before he couldn't hear me over the fuzz).

Eventually I asked around about changing ISPs. That was when a neighbour told me they were also having time of day speed issues with the same ISP I had (except they didn't suffer the wet weather issues I did). A couple more neighbours with the same ISP also told similar stories. I managed to get the ISP to admit on the phone (someone in Australia this time) that local congestion was the likely cause of speed issues, and they were probably too tight to buy more bandwidth at the exchange.

As the NBN was coming, I didn't bother chasing the issue, as within a few months I was up & running on that (12 months ago now). That's when it got worse for my next-door neighbours still on ADSL. They thought it would get better as most of our suburb went across to FTTP NBN - freeing up the congestion, but they crawled down to 0.6 and even slower speeds. Eventually they gave up & ordered the NBN as well. They still reckon it was a conspiracy theory to get them off the copper as soon as possible......

So I'd put it down to 2 things:
1. There's too much congestion in your area, and they're limiting everyone's bandwidth to share it around more fairly (so the streaming & downloading hogs don't suck it dry).
2. The NBN will be available soon, and they're "encouraging" people to jump across ASAP.

mike_nofx · 13-12-2016, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

I agree with your speed concerns.

I am just over 5km from the exchange, and it was 35-40 year old copper. I was getting 12mb/s speeds during the day, after a dry spell, but at night (peak) time, it would drop to less than 2.

If it was wet, I'd have constant drop outs & slow speeds until the pit dried out. ISP said it was a Telstra issue. Telstra handballed it back. I rang Telstra on a crackling line to complain, and after several "sir I can't hear you properly over the noise" comments, I explained the issue, and all of a sudden he says there's no problem, and the line is crystal clear (just minutes before he couldn't hear me over the fuzz).

Eventually I asked around about changing ISPs. That was when a neighbour told me they were also having time of day speed issues with the same ISP I had (except they didn't suffer the wet weather issues I did). A couple more neighbours with the same ISP also told similar stories. I managed to get the ISP to admit on the phone (someone in Australia this time) that local congestion was the likely cause of speed issues, and they were probably too tight to buy more bandwidth at the exchange.

As the NBN was coming, I didn't bother chasing the issue, as within a few months I was up & running on that (12 months ago now). That's when it got worse for my next-door neighbours still on ADSL. They thought it would get better as most of our suburb went across to FTTP NBN - freeing up the congestion, but they crawled down to 0.6 and even slower speeds. Eventually they gave up & ordered the NBN as well. They still reckon it was a conspiracy theory to get them off the copper as soon as possible......

So I'd put it down to 2 things:
1. There's too much congestion in your area, and they're limiting everyone's bandwidth to share it around more fairly (so the streaming & downloading hogs don't suck it dry).
2. The NBN will be available soon, and they're "encouraging" people to jump across ASAP.

Hmm, now I'm convinced its number 2.

Did a quick NBN search and found that "construction of the NBN has started in your area".

Admittedly I know little of the NBN, but I was under the impression that once its available you had to switch over to it?

**GasoLane** · 13-12-2016, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

Admittedly I know little of the NBN, but I was under the impression that once its available you had to switch over to it?

Yep, we got a flyer the other day saying...........

"Telstra’s existing copper network will eventually be switched off, and everyone will have to change their home phone and internet service to the nbn™ network ."

**Mechan1k** · 13-12-2016, 03:03 PM

When NBN is available ... they will just switch you ... especially if it is just Fibre To The Node ... the remainder if will be standard copper to the premises anyway.

My area had no NBN slated ... but when the tech came to jumper my service over recently in my new place ... he advised Fibre is already at the data cabinet on street away ... and my area with all only FTTN anyway (only the new suburbs a few streets away will get FTTP.)

When did it start degrading for you. Bear in mind ... Private schools are already on holidays ... so your exchange is probably already congested now ... hence the slower speeds. VPN traffic may be classed as a high priority traffic and hence getting better results though.

I am about 4km from my nearest Exchange ... TLS advised me the best I could get is not more than 5Mbps ... so found that I could wholesale through them and use my works network (I work for "the other mob" LOL) ... had it installed ... and was getting 18.5Mbps direct from the standard NTU (14.4Mbps via wifi from my phone through teh NTU (while Netflix is running on one of the TVs). Telstra must give Wholesale customer's priority over their own ... go figure.

Depends on your area and infrastructure. Just wait to see if it comes through.

**Mechan1k** · 13-12-2016, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Yep, we got a flyer the other day saying...........

"Telstra’s existing copper network will eventually be switched off, and everyone will have to change their home phone and internet service to the nbn™ network ."

Be wary when this occurs ... as existing PSTN services usually DON'T work ... especially for back to base alarm systems.

**Mechan1k** · 13-12-2016, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

I'll try post some results.

Here is a test with my VPN switched off:
image

And with VPN on:

image

These results confuse me. Its faster with the VPN on (Sydney server) but the Ping is much slower, so I'm not totally sure how to decipher that.

I think I've heard that the Mb/s is like power, and Ping is like Torque... well maybe.

Thought I'd add to this.

The reason the ping is different is due to the different server it is testing to .. it's not to an Optus server but to the VPN Server itself ... it may just have longer Round Trip Times(RTTs) due to it's location within it's network.

Would be interesting to see traceroutes from your command prompt to see which way your traffic is traversing though.

Junkyard-Dog · 13-12-2016, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

These results confuse me. Its faster with the VPN on (Sydney server) but the Ping is much slower, so I'm not totally sure how to decipher that.

I think I've heard that the Mb/s is like power, and Ping is like Torque... well maybe.

Think of the ping as distance and the Mbps as km/h. Although the VPN is following a longer route to get to the final destination, you are able to travel faster on that route.

Essentially it's exactly like driving on an empty road rather than a congested road. You're going to be able to travel faster on the network which is less saturated.

Basically it shows that the VPN you're using is less populated than the "standard" network you're using. I touched upon this with my earlier post... more clients typically means slower service for all.

2011G6E · 13-12-2016, 03:41 PM

It's Australia...what more do you expect....?

ford71V8 · 13-12-2016, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

It's Australia...what more do you expect....?

A price hike

mechanic · 13-12-2016, 04:24 PM

Saw this this morning
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...-for-rural-nbn

There'll be no limit to how far they will increase charges for the NBN, as per every other government charge.

Checked my speed here and it's 22.8 Mb/s. there's been a lot of problems here in the tropics with the high rainfall and humidity causing copper wire corrosion.
I have to say though Telstra has persisted in our street and fixed all the problems.
My brother in the Daintree is on satellite NBN and it's hopeless, very slow and only allowed 30G

mike_nofx · 13-12-2016, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junkyard-Dog

Think of the ping as distance and the Mbps as km/h. Although the VPN is following a longer route to get to the final destination, you are able to travel faster on that route.

Essentially it's exactly like driving on an empty road rather than a congested road. You're going to be able to travel faster on the network which is less saturated.

Basically it shows that the VPN you're using is less populated than the "standard" network you're using. I touched upon this with my earlier post... more clients typically means slower service for all.

Yes that makes much more sense actually, with Mb/s being km/h.

Ok, I could have this completely wrong but tell me if this makes any sense at all:

2.21mbps @ 29 ping
8.37mbps @ 148 ping

So can I compare the two by taking 8.37 (my higher speed), dividing it by 148 (ping)... then multiplying it by 29 (my non VPN ping) to make a comparison?

8.37 / 148 X 29 = 1.64mbps.

Therefore, should 2.21@29 transfer files faster than 8.37@148?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

Thought I'd add to this.

The reason the ping is different is due to the different server it is testing to .. it's not to an Optus server but to the VPN Server itself ... it may just have longer Round Trip Times(RTTs) due to it's location within it's network.

Would be interesting to see traceroutes from your command prompt to see which way your traffic is traversing though.

**George V** · 13-12-2016, 10:33 PM

OP,

Ping vs Mbps speed - response time for gaming etc vs download speed. If you are downloading a file, then Mb/s is the king, as long as the site you are downloading from is not congested.

If I am downloading something, I would try to get the higher Mb/s setting.

Cheers,
George V

blackf6 · 13-12-2016, 11:00 PM

Wtf is all this jargon about?

**Mechan1k** · 14-12-2016, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackf6

Wtf is all this jargon about?

In this line of work .... usually too many TLA's

Three Letter Acronyms.

mik · 14-12-2016, 10:01 PM

Our telcos are just crap .

MITCHAY · 14-12-2016, 10:41 PM

I'm in the 2Mbps or so club. No NBN for the foreseeable future.

If it gets bad and I need to do anything quick I just pass through my Telstra 4G from my phone which I rarely have any issues with.

It's obviously limited by data though as it is quite expensive and isn't shaped. Comparison right now between the two

iiNet ADSL2+ - 2.18Mbps down, 0.74Mbps up, ping 47ms
Telstra 4G - 41.65Mbps down, 21.74Mbps up, ping 24ms

I don't bother wasting time playing with settings or on the phone with ISP anymore. The infrastructure is crap plain and simple.