Whirlpool

My connection with Spin continues to be slow at times. Not sure if this is just congestion from time to time or if I have a problem at my end. Ran a traceroute to Modwest.com and this is what I got.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
© Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

Tracing route to modwest.com [204.11.247.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms home.gateway [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 94 ms 80 ms 80 ms 203.23.236.1
4 82 ms 80 ms 79 ms vlan551.22rrc76f000.optus.net.au [59.154.10.17]

5 81 ms 80 ms 80 ms 61.88.221.73
6 235 ms 227 ms 226 ms 203.208.192.201
7 228 ms 360 ms 348 ms 203.208.145.146
8 551 ms 289 ms 227 ms te4-3.mpd01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
69]
9 239 ms 239 ms 237 ms te4-1.mpd01.sjc01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.3
0]
10 238 ms 239 ms 238 ms te3-3.mpd01.sfo01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.1
33]
11 241 ms 242 ms 240 ms te4-1.ccr01.smf01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
114]
12 401 ms 441 ms 352 ms te4-3.ccr01.sea01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.3.9
0]
13 256 ms 255 ms 255 ms gi4-0-0.core01.sea01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.
25.113]
14 256 ms 259 ms 257 ms vl3527.na21.b001703-0.sea01.atlas.cogentco.com [
38.20.38.42]
15 256 ms 256 ms 258 ms transaria.demarc.cogentco.com [38.104.124.86]
16 289 ms 396 ms 322 ms ge-0-1-0-17-1q-msslmt-fh.core.ip.transaria.net [
209.200.200.41]
17 268 ms 267 ms 267 ms modwest-edge-msl.mt.cust.cutcom.net [209.137.237
.142]
18 269 ms 269 ms 269 ms www.modwest.com [204.11.247.1]

Trace complete.

It seems that every time I do one of these it times out at number 2.

I also did a ping to Spin and got this.

Pinging spin.net.au [203.23.236.69] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 203.23.236.69: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=61
Reply from 203.23.236.69: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=61
Reply from 203.23.236.69: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=61
Reply from 203.23.236.69: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=61

Also did a ping to Spin and came up with the following.

Ping statistics for 203.23.236.69:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 79ms, Maximum = 80ms, Average = 79ms

I don't know how to decipher this information and was hoping someone could assist me please.

Now lah! i'm not going to quote any of your text as i think that it may be deleted (trolling and personal attack).
However i am home sick today and find my speed very good right now, and yet in the eveings it is crap.
It appears that there is a lot of issues with people having the same problems.
Now i may stand corrected, but i would think that if you can achieve certain speeds in the mornings, then you should be able to nearly the same speeds in the eveings, on less of course the sites you are visiting are congested, then you may find dropouts etc.
I seriously think that the Optus network is under some strain and we are all suffering because of it.

Like Stevo5, I'm not going to quote the troll. If we think of it logically, there are a number of places congestion can happen. Starting from the end user we have:

1) Upstream congestion. The user is uploading at 100% of their line capability. This slows down downstream data as the ACKs will be delayed (therefore the server won't send the next packet). Pings get higher, things seem to lag.

2) Line fault. This is usually either a physical problem with filters, DSLAMs, or the copper between the modem and the DSLAM. Most faults are faulty filters (or incorrect setup), followed by faulty line (water etc), followed by faulty DSLAM ports. This is something that tech support at Comcen is best to deal with.

3) Optus backhaul congestion. This is the path from the DSLAM to Comcen. This is the step you see in the traceroute between your ADSL modem and the Comcen LNS. Response times in traceroutes sometimes show this, sometimes not. It will generally affect people in a certain area – while others won't have any issues at all. If this is the case, all Comcen can do is whinge at Optus until they upgrade the backhaul link.

4) Optus to Comcen layer 2 link. This is the ethernet connection that links the Optus ADSL2+ network to Comcen. Every ADSL2+ user goes over this link. If there is congestion here then EVERY ADSL2+ user on the Comcen/Spin network will see slowdowns. This can happen when growth exceeds expectations – as Optus can take up to 21 days to make changes to the speed of this link. ADSL1 users will be unaffected.

5) Optus to Comcen layer 3 link. This is the ethernet connection that goes out to the rest of the Internet. All the traffic comes through here (except PIPE stuff) and to dialup, ADSL1 and ADSL2+ users. If this is congested EVERYONE will see performance issues.

6) Router load. This is the least likely, however when Cisco routers get very high CPU usage, things are delayed. Under a Denial of Service type attack against Comcen or one of their users, a router can become overloaded and slow things down a lot. The effect on this depends on where the attack is targetted. It is rare, but sadly script kiddies seem to enjoy this kind of thing.

I think I've just about covered most of the possible congestion points to do with the ADSL network... Obviously I haven't gone into detail about congestion outside of the Comcen/Spin network – which is also a major factor into speeds – I've only mentioned things that Spin/Comcen can actually do something about.

mildew writes...

My connection with Spin continues to be slow at times.

My speed has been pretty good over the last week or so during the day.
My speed tests from comcen speed test page have pretty much been faster than 1Mb/s.

After 6pm my speeds are generally halved which is obviously a lack of bandwidth from Comcen.
Frustrating because I cant even stream Youtube vids with out constant buffering.

Something has gone wrong tonight though.
Just did a test :
You can download at 94.79 KB/sec from our NSW servers.
That is pretty terrible for a sync rate of 14882 kbps :(

Although my previous problems have been somewhat rectified.
I would not call Comcen ADSL 2 consistent.
Need more bandwidth during peak times to rectify this problem, and not sure if it will ever be fixed?

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1306.5/5.564/887.375/1

9:00 PM Friday. I'd laugh if it were someone else's connection.

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1760.1/3.372/724.5/1

220.01 KB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1662/14.787/3000/1

207.75 KB/s

Congestion? Nah. Couldn't be.

Edit: what I said at 8:30 this morning, for context.

Speeds are obviously correlated with peak times. Right now I can pull well over 1MB/s from well-seeded torrents and 800kB/s from single HTTP threads. By mid-afternoon that will have halved, quartered by evening, and returned to most of full speed by about 11:30 to 12.

Wow all this information and I'm none the wiser??????
All I know is I open IE7 or Mozilla and it takes 30sec plus to load a page.

LOL writes...

After 6pm my speeds are generally halved which is obviously a lack of bandwidth from Comcen.

Sorry, but as always, I call bullshit on this. Read the post of mine just a little up from your reply and try to understand that you getting slow speeds doesn't always mean a fault or lack of bandwidth at Comcen.

mildew writes...

Wow all this information and I'm none the wiser??????
All I know is I open IE7 or Mozilla and it takes 30sec plus to load a page.

If that's the case then something else is wrong... Contact support and have a chat to them. Even on the worst of worst days I still don't have to wait more than a second or two for a web page to load...

CRC writes...

Sorry, but as always, I call bullshit on this. Read the post of mine just a little up from your reply and try to understand that you getting slow speeds doesn't always mean a fault or lack of bandwidth at Comcen.

I take exception to you and your accusation "I call bullshit on this".
Keep your opinions to yourself if you can not be helpful.

You should by now know that I have tried everything possible over the last 2 months to diagnose the reason for irregular speed on Comcen.
/forum-replies.cfm?t=1028457&p=2

And there is NO reason at my end for the speed issue.

Not sure why you are so intent on proving that everyone on this forum that has a problems with speed issues is due to reasons other than Comcen?
Do you work for Comcen?

Seriously, considering most people on these speed related threads are complaining about identical symptoms I suggest you start to acknowledge that the fault most likely lies with in Comcen and not the end user.

In so far as the problem being Comcen; I think it is their duty as provider to rectify any issues between the user connection to them; this includes Optus/Telstra issues that should be addressed as well as purchasing enogh bandwidth for all exchanges to have decent speed 24/7, not just at off peak times.

I have already been in contact with the TIO and spoke in depth with Nathan at Comcen regarding this issue.
He seems to think there is not much that can be done; and that my connection looks fine as far as he can see.
Things seem to have gotten better lately over all, but last night was terrible.
Generally the speed is fine between 9-5 each day (over 1Mbit from Comcen test page)
After 5 the speeds go down to approx 500Kb/s

The pattern has now become quite obvious.

NOTHING changes at my house from 5pm onwards everyday.

LOL writes...

Keep your opinions to yourself if you can not be helpful.

Obviously you didn't read (or didn't want to read) my post here:
/forum-replies.cfm?t=1037571#r4

From what you keep saying, I'd say point #3 might be your case. This means it's an Optus issue. It doesn't mean Comcen has bandwidth problems at all. All Comcen can do is lodge faults with Optus and hope they fix your area.

Do you work for Comcen?

LOL! Just because I worked in wholesale ADSL (not for Comcen, but in one of the 'gang of four') and I know how things work doesn't mean I work for Comcen :)

So instead of asking Comcen/Spin to fix the problem, we should ring Optus directly, as it's an Optus problem?

Dave writes...

So instead of asking Comcen/Spin to fix the problem, we should ring Optus directly, as it's an Optus problem?

No, but you do need to realise that Comcen cannot force Optus to do anything about your problem. It's not a line fault, so they can't go via the tech route. It's not a Comcen network issue, so they can't fix that.

There are some things that are just out of the control of your ISP. Now of course Optus will have a larger share of the backhaul for their own customers, however it's up to Optus (with some persistence from Comcen to their Optus Account Manager) to upgrade the backhaul if that's where the issue lies.

CRC writes...

with some persistence from Comcen to their Optus Account Manager) to upgrade the backhaul if that's where the issue lies.

Yep that's all we ask.

mildew writes...

Yep that's all we ask.

From the years I've dealt with Spin (they used to buy wholesale ADSL stuff from my area), I can tell you that this would be happening. That being said, Optus being Optus lately could easily take 6+ months to fix some issues... ;)

What the heck, I am new to spin and not to impressed. I am paying for adsl2+ and not even getting 512 speed. I was better off on adsl 1 at 1500, cheaper and faster.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/312931023.png[/IMG][/URL]

The speed test on spins website is slower than speedtest.net

Edit: My upload is over half the speed of my download

Chubby Guts writes...

What the heck, I am new to spin and not to impressed. I am paying for adsl2+ and not even getting 512 speed.

Log into your modem and paste your sync stats. That will help give some clue on what's going on.

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1073.1/15.276/2001.125/1

134kB/s with sync of 14.4mb/s. This is beyond ridiculous, and it is becoming worse every day.

If there is problems with Optus bandwidth then it is up to Spin Comcen to fix it. I don't care who they buy their bandwidth from as long as long as I can get descent speeds.
I have been reading Whirlpool forums for years and the most complaints about slow speeds are companies not having enough bandwidth for their customers.
As far as Optus goes I came from Optus and I was downloading on Optus the same day I got transfered to Spin and my download speeds were half of what I got on Optus.
I am still lucky to get 1500k speeds.
This is not an Optus or my connection problem it is a Spin problem.
My speeds are always like some one is throttling them as they always go up and down.
I think an official Spin rep should reply to people having problems.
I have called them and complained but nothing has changed.

Exactly. It is besides the point that the problem might lie in Optus' network. We have not contracted with Optus; we have contracted with Comcen for Comcen to supply us with services, and it is for Comcen to see to it that there is adequate bandwidth in place to ensure that we can actually utilise some reasonable proportion of the capacity of our connections. How Comcen goes about that and what commercial arrangements it makes with upstream providers are irrelevant to us.

lah! writes...

Exactly. It is besides the point that the problem might lie in Optus' network. We have not contracted with Optus; we have contracted with Comcen for Comcen to supply us with services

Technically, you have bought an ADSL2+ service that is provided on the Optus ADSL2+ network. The best thing would be to see if you can change to an ADSL2+ Extend product if you're sure you've checked everything. This will put you on a different ADSL2+ backhaul (unless it's all the same cable – which is possible) – however you'd have to take a plan on that... I doubt anyone would care that much though – as I believe they're a little more expensive due to higher wholesale costs...

On home internet services, there are no guarantees of speeds – simply for this exact case. There are some things that are out of the control of your ISP.

To see if it really is a backhaul issue, I'm on the same ADSL2+ plans as you – try downloading this file:
http://www.crc.id.au/galaxy.mpg (right click, save as).

I'm getting 636Kb/sec sustained from there – which is 100% of my line speed. If you get less, then that would be an interesting indication.

Sporlan – you posted showing very strange ping stats here

/forum-replies.cfm?t=1028457&p=5#r94

i replied right after that and made a request of you. can you please reply to that.

CRC writes...

try downloading this file

and also

http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/puppylinux/puppy-unleashed-core-2.16.1.tar.gz

and

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/174.76/174.76_Stereo.exe

lah! writes...

This is beyond ridiculous, and it is becoming worse every day.

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/11314.9/2.172/3000/1

For you maybe – but not everyone. I hate speed tests – I think they are so shite – and can be easily manipulated by the end user. I recall and incident about 6 months ago when two users spammed the hell out of it and posted their rock bottom results (even though many of the results were 4x times above their posted speeds). Needless to say – a rep posted their logs from the test server showing their dodgy posted results – of course it was removed by admins – but was there long enough to show many of us the lengths people will go to overstate a problem. <-- Not directed at yourself – just in WP general.

However today I took the test – get the above – however I am maxing my connection at 1.8mB/s pulling down some torrents – so as far as I am concerned the Speedtest is wrong and SLOWER then what I am actually getting.

You might cry bandwidth problems – but I don't have a reason to yet. You expect everyone to agree with you because you are having some problems. Why you expect everyone to jump to the end conclusion of ISP Wide Bandwidth Problems – when many of us aren't experiencing what you are – is kinda flawed. Yes you appear to have some slow down – but there def isn't enough information for that satisifies me that it is anything other then your connection.

But I am sure I would be willing to agree with you when I see even a hint of slow down – because thats the nature of whirlpool – Disregard everyone elses opinion if they don't agree with what I say.

AuS

Sporlan – you posted showing very strange ping stats here

I will use the same computer tonight so the only change is the isp

Here is a tracert to Spin using Iinet
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms home.gateway [192.168.1.254]
2 13 ms 14 ms 13 ms nexthop.qld.ii.net [203.55.228.88]
3 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms gi1-1.bne-pipe-bdr2.ii.net [203.215.8.12]
4 14 ms 15 ms 13 ms AS18390.brisbane.pipenetworks.com [218.100.0.40]

5 29 ms 32 ms 36 ms syd-bne.comcen.com.au [203.23.236.25]
6 27 ms 30 ms 28 ms angel.comcen.com.au [203.23.236.69]

Trace complete.

Here is the same test when connected to Spin
Tracing route to spin.net.au [203.23.236.69]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms home.gateway [192.168.1.254]
2 62 ms 51 ms 110 ms lback9.comcen.com.au [203.23.236.9]
3 46 ms 53 ms 47 ms core-syd-lns2.comcen.com.au [203.23.236.45]
4 47 ms 51 ms 45 ms angel.comcen.com.au [203.23.236.69]

The first hop to Spin is 110 ms, All the hops from Iinet to Spin Iinet to Spin were much faster

I started a torrent on Iinet which had an average speed of 200k
I got 200k with Iinet.
I stopped the torrent and connected to Spin and all I could get was 20k.
I get faster results using a non Spin company than I can get using Spin to Spin.

Sporlan writes...

I get faster results using a non Spin company than I can get using Spin to Spin.

For the ping times, google "ADSL2+ Interleaving"

Is it ADSL1 with iiNet?

My Iinet connection is adsl2.

Dave writes...

So instead of asking Comcen/Spin to fix the problem, we should ring Optus directly, as it's an Optus problem?

Lol Ring them all at the same time. I'm sure they have oversold wholesale and i would like to find out too.

lah! writes...

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1306.5/5.564/887.375/1

9:00 PM Friday. I'd laugh if it were someone else's connection.

Laugh you bastard i sometimes get slower.

CRC writes...

larger share of the backhaul for their own customers, however it's up to Optus (with some persistence from Comcen to their Optus Account Manager) to upgrade the backhaul if that's where the issue lies.

Optus costomers are complaining about speed too!!!! Just check out the threads.

CRC writes...

Technically, you have bought an ADSL2+ service that is provided on the Optus ADSL2+ network.

Understand what you are trying to say , however i have to agree with Lah! and sporlan. None of us with Spin/comcen are paying our hard earned cash to optus , we are being charged by Spin/Comcen so they have to be repsonsible for the service , regardless of the issues with Optus. Now i can wait for better days , however where is all that customer service Comcen/Spin are number 1 for, as i have sent a email asking them several days ago and not have a reply. All i would like is an answer saying there is an ongoing proplem for several months or whatever, and then we are not in the dark anymore.
One thing though is my exchange Inala sevices at least 23,000 plus households, how can i find out the capacity of the exchange and how many dslams optus has in place there etc.

AuS writes...

["not everyone. I hate speed tests
Yep speed test are crap.

["You might cry bandwidth problems

You might not agree however there is a lot of complaints about speeds this month and it is with optus or isp's who buy wholesale through optus.

["would be willing to agree with you

Hey aus are you mellowing.

Sporlan writes...

Here is a tracert

thank you for doing a trace as i asked. you will notice the numbers make much more sense than the ping stats you showed in the other thread.

The first hop to Spin is 110 ms

actually no it wasnt. yes i know thats what it says but thats not the real number. to understand fully you need to read this guide to reading trace routes.

/forum-replies.cfm?t=98073

the relevant part for that 110 is

If hop 3 was really pinging that badly, every hop after it would ping badly as well. However, you can see that hop 4 is much lower in ping.

This is what is known as prioritization. The routers are prioritizing the ping requests lower than TCP/UDP data, as as such, they are put further back in the queue before being replied to. The actual latency of the router is at the very most, as high as the next hop.

so no that first hop is not 110 but is actually no higher than the following hops. since you have a 47 and 45 after that then that first hop is not really slower than that.

i would recommend also looking up adsl2+ interleaving as CRC said aswell.

I started a torrent

torrents are not a reliable way to test your speed. please try the links CRC and i posted instead.

I've been noticing the last few weeks the congestion is getting slightly worse in peek hours. My streaming is starting to suck, well seeded torrents won't max my 1.5 connection and pages are taking 2x as long to load.... Nothing has changed my end.

Fatten your pipes Con! =P

11:41 PM, with most people having gone to sleep before Monday morning:

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/7839.2/3.135/3000/1

980KB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/11436/2.149/3000/1

1.4 MB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/10648.2/2.308/3000/1

1.3 MB/s

http://www.crc.id.au/galaxy.mpg

1 MB/s

http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/puppylinux/puppy-unleashed-core-2.16.1.tar.gz

850-950 KB/s

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/174.76/174.76_Stereo.exe

650-750 KB/s

FT.com streaming video (great gobs of bandwidth)

http://www.ft.com/cms/bfba2c48-5588-11dc-b971-0000779fd2ac.html

1.3 MB/s

tl;dr Comcen is shit.

lah! writes...

Comcen is shit.

Wait a sec... with a MINIMUM speed of 650Kb/sec, you're saying that is shit? Jesus, what are you expecting? Your best speeds are 1.3-1.4 Megabytes per second – that's good by anyones standards...

Are you completely and utterly obtuse? This entire thread has been about peak time congestion. It is now no longer peak time. Accordingly, it is not at all surprising that speeds are good now, and it serves to demonstrate that there is nothing at all wrong with my setup, and that suggestions of 'LOL REBOOT YUOR ROUTER AND CHEK LINE FILTERS!1! THEN TRY THESE DOWNLOAD LINKS IT ISNT COMCEN HURRR' are nothing short of maddeningly stupid.

For most of the day, my speeds are in the range of 150-300 kB/s. It is only at night after everyone else has gone to bed, but before off-peak begins, as I have pointed out multiple times in this thread, that I achieve anything approximating line speed.

Here: to help you with your obvious difficulties, I shall compile several posts into one.

Initial observation, early Monday morning

Speeds are obviously correlated with peak times. Right now I can pull well over 1MB/s from well-seeded torrents and 800kB/s from single HTTP threads. By mid-afternoon that will have halved, quartered by evening, and returned to most of full speed by about 11:30 to 12.

Peak time on Friday night

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1306.5/5.564/887.375/1

163 KB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1760.1/3.372/724.5/1

220.01 KB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1662/14.787/3000/1

207.75 KB/s

Middle of the day on Sunday

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1073.1/15.276/2001.125/1

134 KB/s

Late on Sunday night

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/11436/2.149/3000/1

1.4 MB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/10648.2/2.308/3000/1

1.3 MB/s

HURRRRR LOOK AT THAT: HORRIBLE PEAK-TIME CONGESTION, EXACTLY AS I EXPECTED IN MY FIRST POST

This is why it is so flapping difficult to deal with ISP techs: they seem to have trouble following even the simplest steps in a logical proposition.

lah! writes...

I shall compile several posts into one.

your day time tests only show test from the 1 place. please test all the links at those times aswell.

Speeds are horrible today on the Glenelg exchange,im only getting 60k on torrents and net browsing is very sluggish......

Wish they would fix this allready!!Network is so congested its criminal!!!

lilyblackrose writes...

and net browsing is very sluggish

can you show a traceroute to such websites when this happens so we can see if there is anything obvious ?

of course stop all torrents and downloads etc first.

Sporlan writes...

As far as Optus goes I came from Optus and I was downloading on Optus the same day I got transfered to Spin and my download speeds were half of what I got on Optus.

Exactly what I experienced the day I got switched over from Optus to Comcen, both on ADSL2 but one is inconsistent and over all RUBBISH.

My speeds are always like some one is throttling them as they always go up and down.

Yes, once again that is exactly my experience.

CRC writes...

Wait a sec... with a MINIMUM speed of 650Kb/sec, you're saying that is shit? Jesus, what are you expecting? Your best speeds are 1.3-1.4 Megabytes per second – that's good by anyones standards...

I agree with you in theory.
BUT, even when I achieve 500+Kb/s I still find that I cannot stream youtube vids with out buffeting.
Also, general surfing feels sluggish.
Also, Google news page, images slowly download etc.

You know, remember what it felt like back in the days of dial up?

LOL writes...

even when I achieve 500+Kb/s I still find that I cannot stream youtube vids with out buffeting.

and this could be anywhere between you and youtube, thats the problem. if you get great speeds to 1 place but not another then that points at either an issue somewhere along that route, thats a different route to the first, or something at the server.

thats why we ask for things like trace routes, to try and see if there is any obvious problem spot. this post

/forum-replies.cfm?t=1028457&p=4#r76

shows exactly what i mean. you can see from the trace routes that there is an obvious problem spot. that then can be given to the ISP so they(or the carrier) can investigate what is the issue at that point.

LOL writes...

BUT, even when I achieve 500+Kb/s I still find that I cannot stream youtube vids with out buffeting.

When you go so fast the wind will really "buffet" you :D

dgodz writes...

thats why we ask for things like trace routes, to try and see if there is any obvious problem spot. this post

I have looked at trace routes and nothing seems to stand out to me.
But, Ill post a few next time to see if you or anyone else can notice anything odd.

When you go so fast the wind will really "buffet" you

Oh, so that is the reason for my problems ;)

Must admit I'm seeing some speed issues aswell.

Exactly the same torrent (WoW update for anyne curious)

Westnet is grabbing the file at an avg of 500k/s

Spin is struggling to maintain a constant 30k/s

Both have been running for about 20 mins now, So in theory should be booming in.

Both Utorrents are set to the same settings.

Greebo – can you try the links posted by CRC and myself on page 2 of this thread(no torrent etc running of course) ?

the reason being everyone can test the same links and testing multiple sites means more reliable results not dependent on just 1 sites status.

Will do as soon as the updates finish.

mate,

I've been with Spin since early March this year, least to say I wasn't impressed. Switching from Optus Cable to ADSL2+ service was new, but with the pricing of Cable I needed more then 32gb. I went with Spin due to their 40gb free pipe plan, which I'm sure most of you chose to join due to this, because after all no one wants to be capped!

Their customer service is great, very informative and kind. They're very organised i must say. However the connection itself isn't so good, least to say pings and download speed was bad.

I'm synced at 13MBPS 2km away from exchange, like the OP has said, pings are atrocious. Sure, its because there is no Interleaving and what not, but honestly, do you think 70-80ms is good. No, everyone I know who has adsl2 has pings of sub 10MS to local servers, and I'm getting pings of 55 for local servers. Yes, I wouldn't say this ISP is great for gamers, but hey, majority of us play games and download, a bit of both don't we. Download speeds?, once in a full moon I will download over 1MB/SEC, and hey I'm synced at 13MBPS :)

Before any of you SPIN Groupies (not mentioning names) full on try to back up, I just noticed that all you guys do is just undermine the OP maker, my situation you ask? They've 'investigated' it, recommended me to have Telstra come to my house, I gave authority and he didn't find anything and I was slapped with an awesome $200 bill at fault. And no, it didn't improve my situations. If you look hard enough you'll find a thread I made which outlined my problems, and to date, no, it's not fixed.

Apart from the rant, I guess what i'm saying, there are heaps of people who have issues with this ISP, and asking for help and majority of the times you'll get a dud response here which just hints off "Mines fine, im better then you"

Anyways apart from that, I hope your issues are resolved and you don't go through a horrible experience like I did. As for me, I'm leaving this ISP to sign up to a 'Premium' provider such as iiNet/Internode. Throughout this experience I've come to the conclusion, sure the pipe and data might seem tempting to join, but honestly the experience, lag, poor speeds and dropouts makes you question is it really worth it. Get what you pay for I would say. Id settle for 40gbs or so now, in which you get full speeds your entitled to, and you don't lag perhaps.

:)

I dont think any ADSL2+ service will give you 10ms to any game server, not even the first hop.

1.6 server: 118.127.0.205:27016

tracert 118.127.0.205

Tracing route to 118.127.0.205 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.1.1.1
2 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms nexthop.nsw.ii.net [203.55.231.88]
3 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms gi2-1.syd-ult-bdr1.ii.net [203.215.16.4]
4 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms te0-15-0-0.syd-ult-core1.ii.net [203.215.20.30]

5 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms AS24238.sydney.pipenetworks.com [218.100.2.13]
6 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 118.127.0.205

Trace complete.

I hope your _836_ posts are a little bit more informed then that one mate

i can replicate that on most servers in sydney, 10mpbs connect iinet on thrillseeker profile

pham writes...

No, everyone I know who has adsl2 has pings of sub 10MS to local servers

Woah man, you're tripping balls – there is no possible way that ADSL2+ can get under 10ms to the next hop – let alone across multiple hops to a server. It is physically impossible. Hell, even on ADSL1 you'll get 15+ms to the first hop in the best of situations. Light can only travel so fast dude...

You do need to realise that ADSL is waaay different than cable in both technology, operation and results. Considering your views, I would like to see your experience after a number of months with a different ADSL2+ provider to see if there are any differences in opinion...

looks like u missed the reply before you, mate.

CRC writes...

Light can only travel so fast dude...

Sure theres limiting technical factors to how fast we can send data but please, light?

At some point during school they'll teach you light travels at ~300,000km/s

australias < 4000km vertically

sup CRC,
ADSL2+ with Internode

Tracing route to games.internode.on.net [203.26.94.189]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.138
2 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms lns11.adl6.internode.on.net [203.16.215.184]
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms vlan113.cor1.adl6.internode.on.net [203.16.212.201]
4 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms games.internode.on.net [203.26.94.189]

Trace complete.

Well there you go... This must be on Internodes own DSLAMS – as I've never seen any wholesale ADSL tail with this low a ping on either Telstra, Powertel, or Optus network....

EDIT: Oh, and they must have interleaving turned off on their ADSL2+ ports too.... Interleaving adds 30-40ms instantly...

Speeds are terrible today.

Between 39-70 Kb/sec from Comcen speed test page.

Another sign that Comcen does not have enough bandwidth I suppose.

Last day of the month, people trying to hit their quota and I am below dial up speed.

THIS IS RUBBISH!

LOL writes...

Speeds are terrible today.

hehe same. Everyone's browsing on Sunday afternoon, and my connection is barely functional.

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/654.2/32.632/2605.75/1

81 KB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/631.6/19.562/1508.25/1

78 KB/s

http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/1364.2/2.11/351.375/1

170 KB/s

I have been collecting speed tests for a few days to send to the network engineers, but I doubt anything will be resolved.

Same unfortunately. :(

lah! writes...

hehe same. Everyone's browsing on Sunday afternoon, and my connection is barely functional.

Here is my last one
79.9 KB/sec
http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/vic/639.3/5.906/460.875/1

Totally unnaceptable.
I have never experienced this type of slow down with any ISP I have been with.

Those include:
Bigpond Cable
Optus Cable
Internode ADSL
Optus ADSL 2

Same. I've used a fair few of the failed ISPs of the last 6-8 years, and even those tended to maintain good speeds up until the time that bankruptcy was announced. I could tolerate it if speeds were 500 kB/s, even though I sync at 15 mbit/s, but 50 kB/s is far past the limit of what is acceptable.

I sync at 350k I was getting 80k on the spin site this morning
at 7:15 pm I am getting 60k.
Spin needs to change the end of month dates as their speeds suck most of the time but this is just plain crap.

lah! writes...

I could tolerate it if speeds were 500 kB/s, even though I sync at 15 mbit/s, but 50 kB/s is far past the limit of what is acceptable.

Totally agree, I am syncing at 14461 kbps and cant even reach 80KB/s today.

I thought it was bad during the month when each night after about 5pm my speeds would drop down from 1Mbit to about 500KB/s on the Comcen Speed Test page.

The S... is going to hit the fan if things do not improve dramatically very quickly.

Host Information Host Connectivity
Resolve/Reverse Lookup
Get DNS Records
Whois (Web)
Whois (IP owner)
Check port:
Ping host
Traceroute to host
Do it all

Resolve
www.spin.net.au resolves to 203.23.236.90
DNS Query Results:
; <<>> DiG 9.4.2 <<>> any www.spin.net.au
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 59393
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 13, ADDITIONAL: 13

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.spin.net.au. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.spin.net.au. 52565 IN A 203.23.236.90

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
. 361281 IN NS k.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS l.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS m.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS a.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS b.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS c.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS d.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS e.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS f.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS g.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS h.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS i.root-servers.net.
. 361281 IN NS j.root-servers.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
a.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 198.41.0.4
b.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.228.79.201
c.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.33.4.12
d.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 128.8.10.90
e.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.203.230.10
f.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.5.5.241
g.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.112.36.4
h.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 128.63.2.53
i.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.36.148.17
j.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 192.58.128.30
k.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 193.0.14.129
l.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 199.7.83.42
m.root-servers.net. 361281 IN A 202.12.27.33

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Sun Aug 31 20:17:09 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 468

WWWhois Results:
No Data Found

RIR Whois Results:
OrgName: Asia Pacific Network Information Centre
OrgID: APNIC
Address: PO Box 2131
City: Milton
StateProv: QLD
PostalCode: 4064
Country: AU

ReferralServer: whois://whois.apnic.net

NetRange: 202.0.0.0 – 203.255.255.255
CIDR: 202.0.0.0/7
NetName: APNIC-CIDR-BLK
NetHandle: NET-202-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Allocated to APNIC
NameServer: NS1.APNIC.NET
NameServer: NS3.APNIC.NET
NameServer: NS4.APNIC.NET
NameServer: TINNIE.ARIN.NET
NameServer: NS-SEC.RIPE.NET
NameServer: DNS1.TELSTRA.NET
Comment: This IP address range is not registered in the ARIN database.
Comment: For details, refer to the APNIC Whois Database via
Comment: WHOIS.APNIC.NET or http://www.apnic.net/apnic-bin/whois2.pl
Comment: ** IMPORTANT NOTE: APNIC is the Regional Internet Registry
Comment: for the Asia Pacific region. APNIC does not operate networks
Comment: using this IP address range and is not able to investigate
Comment: spam or abuse reports relating to these addresses. For more
Comment: help, refer to http://www.apnic.net/info/faq/abuse
Comment:
RegDate: 1994-04-05
Updated: 2005-05-20

OrgTechHandle: AWC12-ARIN
OrgTechName: APNIC Whois Contact
OrgTechPhone: +61 7 3858 3188
OrgTechEmail: search-apnic-not-arin@apnic.net

1. ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2008-08-30 19:10
2. Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

Check Port:
Port 80 is open
Ping Results:
PING 203.23.236.90 (203.23.236.90) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 203.23.236.90: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=66.7 ms
64 bytes from 203.23.236.90: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=66.0 ms
64 bytes from 203.23.236.90: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=66.4 ms
64 bytes from 203.23.236.90: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=67.1 ms
64 bytes from 203.23.236.90: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=67.0 ms

--- 203.23.236.90 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4004ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 66.053/66.700/67.169/0.468 ms

Traceroute Results:
traceroute to 203.23.236.90 (203.23.236.90), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.xxxxx (192.xxxxx) 0.902 ms 1.188 ms 1.484 ms
2 lo1.rba-7206-f.wa.amnet.net.au (203.161.64.231) 8.792 ms 9.673 ms 11.223 ms
3 192.168.4.190 (192.168.4.190) 11.590 ms 13.183 ms 14.260 ms
4 ge0-2.br01.wa.amnet.net.au (203.161.64.9) 15.725 ms 17.306 ms 18.360 ms
5 vlan462.o6ss.optus.net.au (59.154.14.113) 19.659 ms 21.213 ms 22.243 ms
6 61.88.241.233 (61.88.241.233) 81.769 ms 81.633 ms 82.657 ms
7 spininternetserviceswholesale.22rrc76f000.optus.net.au (59.154.10.18) 85.327 ms 78.545 ms 79.909 ms
8 pluto.comcen.com.au (203.23.236.90) 78.547 ms 79.453 ms 79.346 ms

Pings seem to be high when getting ti Spin/Comcen

I am in the same boat. I check speed tests at least a few times each week, and generally get 1.2 MB downloads which are great (line sync at 17,700). Over the last few days have been getting test results of between 200KB/s to 300KB/s with a lot of ups and downs in between.

Have been with Spin about 10 months now and things have generally been good over that time with no major hassles.

Agree with LOL – if you sync at a reasonable figure (17.7 in my case) you should not have to suffer flashbacks to the days of dial up. while paying for ADSL2. Even gave up today watching small clips on you tube!

Just tested then at speedtest.net and received a 1397/652. I think this is a record low test for my connection.

SPIN – Please act soon.......and advise us.

seems a lot of people are having problems with youtube, check out on the internet forum

karl357 writes...

Even gave up today watching small clips on you tube!

Even when my speed is supposedly decent, approx 500KB/s after 5PM during an average week I still find that watching Youtube videos is not up to scratch.
I get constant buffering even on smaller 1 minute clips.

Just wish someone at Comcen would acknowledge to us that there are in fact network problems with in Comcen and tell us if/when they plan on rectifying them.

At least then I could make a decision to leave or wait a bit longer for things to improve.
These 12 month contracts make leaving more difficult than I would like.
But I definately did not sign up for 12 months of dial up speed broadband ;)

LOL writes...

Just wish someone at Comcen would acknowledge to us that there are in fact network problems with in Comcen and tell us if/when they plan on rectifying them.

Easy – just wait until the first day of the month :P

I'll never understand those that go "oh, I'm saving my quota cos I don't want to go over" then leech like crazy at the end of the month – having the end result of slowing things down for everyone...

Rotating reset times would make things easier, but harder to implement...

sigh at end of month slowness.

CRC writes...

Easy – just wait until the first day of the month :P

heh I wish, and I'm sure LOL does as well. Our connections are always slow, with the exception of those times at which no-one else is home. Funnily enough, we want to use our connections in peak times for the very same reasons everyone else does; so to have a connection that delivers 200 kB/s in peak times and 1.4 MB/s at 1:20 AM is somewhat intuile.

karl357 writes...

Even gave up today watching small clips on you tube!

youtube is in no way worth trying to use as any sort of speed test. if you are interested in different links to try then please go to page 2 of this thread.

well it's the first of the month, but i still apear to be shaped... comcen website is so slow i cant even get it to work lol

LOL writes...

Just wish someone at Comcen would acknowledge to us

if that is really what you want then you contact/talk to them directly.

lah! writes...

somewhat intuile

i assume you mean inutile ? as in not useful.

AlCaTrazz writes...

but i still apear to be shaped

have you tried reseting your connection(ie. your modem) ?

dgodz writes...

if that is really what you want then you contact/talk to them directly.

As if I have not tried.

I would estimate that since being with Comcen (approx 3 months) I have been on the phone to tech support at least 6-10 times.
Also, emails have been sent back and forth constantly.

Trust me I have tried!

Just did the speed tests this morning. Here are the results.

You can download at 259.41 KB/sec from our QLD servers.
http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/qld/2075.3/11.842/3000/1

You can download at 465.53 KB/sec from our NSW servers.
http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/nsw/3724.2/6.599/3000/1

Whats funny is I get slower speeds from the QLD server than NSW. Mind you I live in QLD. You would think it would be the other way round.

there is no pop server in Brisbane so all your downloads go to Syndey then Brisbane

LOL writes...

Another sign that Comcen does not have enough bandwidth I suppose.

I'm on ADSL2+ and I did 14GB on the weekend. The problem isn't Comcen. It looks as if you've tried to fix the problem with support. What have you/they done?

Honestly, I don't care but, your claiming the ISP is the problem. If even 1% of Comcen customers had a problems these boards would be packed.

I think the problem is at your end but, if you can't fix it and still have a problem, leave. If you still have the same problem at the new ISP then you know it wasn't Comcen.

This happens all the time on these boards. No one ever says the problem was at my end.

Again, if there was a problem there would be 100's of posts in a hour about speeds.

Sgt.Schultz writes...

Honestly, I don't care but, your claiming the ISP is the problem. If even 1% of Comcen customers had a problems these boards would be packed.

Not really true.

I think the problem is at your end but, if you can't fix it and still have a problem, leave. If you still have the same problem at the new ISP then you know it wasn't Comcen.

If you search and then read some of my previous posts you will see all the things I have done to confirm it is NOT my problem.
As I have mentioned many times before I was on ADSL 2 with Optus prior to Comcen.
The second I switched over my speed problems began.
That is in a way the reverse of what you suggest, right?
Leave, and try another ISP only to find that one was ok the other was/is not.

Why is it that people like you refuse to acknowledge that the problem may be a Comcen problem?
There are enough people complaining about identical symptoms in this thread alone to make any unbias reader think that perhaps there is a problem with in Comcen.

What were your speeds yesterday Sgt. Schultz?
If they were as slow as mine (approx 60Kb/s) with a 14Mbit sync rate would you not hae been pissed off too?

My last test today is 179.64Kb/s
http://www2.comcen.com.au/testmyspeed/results/vic/1437.1/8.678/1522.375/1

Still way too slow, considering I normally would be able to achieve 1Mbit plus at this time of the morning.

have to agree that speeds were slow yesterday, end of the month and ppl leeching. mind you i got 40+ gb on the 30th alone, but then sunday it seemed to be alot slower. usenet was maxing at 300 in the day and then 150 tops at night. I normally get 1.5mb/s. Safe assumption that people were smashing end of month and they ran out of quota. while its annoying it only happens for a day so I can deal with it.

I still have issues with speed tests as well, I find I can max my connection on files from microsoft/apple/adobe but can only get 1/3 of my sync speed from speed test sites. Still they have more bandwidth now than they did last month...

My speeds over the last week or two are bordering on pathetic. I couldn't even use Wikipedia, Google, SMH last night – it was timing out constantly.

Yet on my bigpond wireless (usb mobile device) I was surfing away with ease. Better yet, using the same modem on a different phone line in the house with another provider is fine also.

I've spoken with them and advised them I've performed an isolation test, I've replaced my filters when not isolated, I've tried another modem etc.. I've done the works.
Yet when I told them this, I got told do it again, until then they can't help me out. Rinse and repeat – everytime I try to get support I simply get told to perform an isolation test and replace my modem. How many modems do they think people own?

Yesterday I managed to achieve a whopping 9kb/s on the comcem speed test, fantastic speed given I have adsl2. </end sarcasm>

I've made some terrible decisions in my life, and changing from 512 adsl (Supernerd) to adsl2 with Comcen is in my 'Top 10'.

Beer Guide to Australia writes...

replace my modem. How many modems do they think people own?

I have tried 3 routers and the speed inconsistency remains.
Only benefit of changing routers was one I had was causing drop outs, different router fixed that.

From what I was told by Comcen there is not much that they can do about getting lines checked either.
Optus/Telstra are not really prepared to do so, becasue the expense is large if passed on to customer.
Apparently it is Telstra that is responsible, even if I am on Oputs lines?
I dont quite get it, but I am supplied my internet by Comcen now...
You would think they need to supply a reasonable service.

I experienced slow speeds yesterday also;

I can usually pull 400KB/s from a multi-threaded download from the states, I was lucky to be pulling 300KB/s yesterday.

Youtube was a joke as well, continually buffering, I jumped on an iPrimus connection which is nextdoor and I was able to view Youtube with no buffering (Other then at the start).

Hopefully it was just because it was the end of the month.

LOL writes...

You would think they need to supply a reasonable service.

You would think, in fact it is something I'm chasing down myself as I write this. I'm sure there is a grey line here of what they advertised and what they are providing.

I'm sending a cancellation email now. :( bye guys.

Bleh. I have a 12 month contract, so I can't do the same. If speeds persist, I might contact the Ombudsman and see if I can be released from the contract. It simply isn't good enough.

Sgt.Schultz writes...

m. If even 1% of Comcen customers had a problems these boards would be packed

They aren't that big. There is lot of the same speed issues, not just with Spin/Comcen but any isp's who buy wholesale with Optus, even Optpus customers are complaining. One would think that there may be bandwidth issues.

Beer Guide to Australia writes...

You would think, in fact it is something I'm chasing down myself as I write this. I'm sure there is a grey line here of what they advertised and what they are providing.

From the terms and conditions:
http://www.comcen.com.au/terms

22.4 ADSL 2+

i) ADSL 2+ has a theoretical maximum speed of 20 Mbps which is not commonly achieved.

ii) Comcen will not connect an individual Service if the pre-setup test returns a result of less than 1.5Mbps. Accordingly Comcen will not guarantee a connection speed of more than 1.5Mbps on an individual Service.

I have been advised that these terms and conditions can be challenged though ;)

If you are syncing at over 10000Kb/s you would think it is a bit unreasonable on ADSL 2 to only get less than 500 Kb/s.

Dutch writes...

I'm sending a cancellation email now. :( bye guys.
Good luck. Try Internode if you can get it and dont mind the pricing...

stevo5 writes...

They aren't that big. There is lot of the same speed issues, not just with Spin/Comcen but any isp's who buy wholesale with Optus,

MY speed went from 300k to 100k the same day I went from Optus to Spin. Yes that is less than adsl1 speeds.
A good day on Spin is when I can get 200k downloads which is rare.
I doubt the Optus related problems started exactly when I swapped over to Spin.
I never had a day with Optys when I could not get close to my download speed and I have never had a day with Spin when I could get my old Optus speeds
Spin supplies my internet service not Optus, If their supplier has an issue they should report it to us and at least say they are working on fixing the problem.