Unexplained navigation delays after upgrading broadband speed...

Ronan H

Last week I upgraded from the Eircom 3mb service to the 7mb service. The download speed is fine but when I am navigating through verious websites there is something very strange and annoying happening.

An example is if I'm on a website and I click on a link or type a new address into the address bar, it says in the status bar "Connecting to xyz.com" but there is a gap of around 3-5 seconds before the new website kicks in. This appears to be happening regardless of the website I am on or navigating to.

Since upgrading, my ping time (according to SpeedTest.net) has increased from 43 to 95 but I didn't think that the ping time would cause this issue, would it? Apart from that nothing else has changed, not that I can see anyway.

It's very frustrating indeed. Anyone got any suggestions as to what this might be? This was NOT happening when I was on the 3mb service.

Thanks.

Head

Sponge Bob

Thank you for obviously not visiting this forum for the past 6 months and dropping by to say Hi !! to us now .

search for " 7.6mbits " and " eircom " and devote yourself to catching up with any noticeably long threads on the subject

See you next year for the next upgrade .

Ronan H

Thanks for that (sarcastic?) response. I am aware of the problems reported with Eircom's 7mb package, but none of what I have read is related to the issue that I outlined in my OP...

I am just looking for some clarification on whether the increase in ping times could cause the problem, and if not, what else could be causing it. As I mentioned earlier, my download speeds are as they should be, in and around 7mb speeds. My line has been tested and is capable. My router reports the correct information etc...

So if there are any techie people out there with some suggestions that would be great!

Head

Gonzo

Sponge Bob wrote: »

See you next year for the next upgrade .

what worries me is they mite upgrade us next year and the current 3meg will get moved up to 5meg or something with high interleving, eircom cud well end low interleving for good when the next upgrades come in, i wudnt put it past them.

Speaking of speed while clickin on websites, my netopia modem finally died on me there a few days ago so out I went to buy a new router, got a Linksys Cisco and it all feels more responsive when clicking websites yet my internet speed remains at the same 5120/512k

Hank Scorpio

High interleaving on those packages OP means longer higher ping times and latency , resulting in web pages loading alot slower

on 3meg 2meg 1meg they arent affected

brophis

Have you tried using the opendns dns servers? If you are already using them have you tried changing back to eircoms or direct your dns to your gateway (router)

PogMoThoin

Head wrote: »

I am aware of the problems reported with Eircom's 7mb package, but none of what I have read is related to the issue that I outlined in my OP...

That is exactly your problem, the 7.6mbit has high interleaving and higher ping times which is causing these problems you're experiencing. Ring them and ask them to turn down interleaving (they cannot turn it off, just high or low), I did but it only knocked 8ms off my pings, all helps tho.

Ronan H

I see, it's a bit clearer now. Looks like I will be reverting to the 3mb package then...

Thanks for the information y'all...

Head

PogMoThoin

This is mine after complaining, it was 42ms before they lowered it. Still not perfect, but that 8ms makes a huge difference.

C:\Windows\system32>ping www.heanet.ie

Pinging samhain.heanet.ie [193.1.219.57] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 193.1.219.57: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=58
Reply from 193.1.219.57: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=58
Reply from 193.1.219.57: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=58
Reply from 193.1.219.57: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 193.1.219.57:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 35ms, Average = 33ms

Also are You using Eircoms DNS, I prefer OpenDNS, seems quicker than Eircoms and corrects more mistakes (like .cmo instead of .com etc)

Yip

are you guys talking about the 7mb or the 7.6mb package?
or have they both got high ping times?
in the case would i be better off with the home plus package(3mb)
for gaming?i was gonna go for the home advanced(7mb) deal because
its only 10 euro more but if the ping times are aot higher,i'll settle for 3mb.
any advice?
http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/bladerunner/showContent.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1984603113.1233403522@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccceadegfligeejcefeceiedffndffj.0&cid=NewBBCompareTable&site=Res

Hank Scorpio

Yip wrote: »

are you guys talking about the 7mb or the 7.6mb package?
or have they both got high ping times?
in the case would i be better off with the home plus package(3mb)
for gaming?i was gonna go for the home advanced(7mb) deal because
its only 10 euro more but if the ping times are aot higher,i'll settle for 3mb.
any advice?
http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/bladerunner/showContent.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1984603113.1233403522@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccceadegfligeejcefeceiedffndffj.0&cid=NewBBCompareTable&site=Res

Theres only "one" package higher than the 3meg one and it supposed to be 7.6megs , people can sync in between those levels if there line is not capable of the full amount.
If your a gamer ( like myself ) stick to the basic 3meg package , anything higher is affected by high interleaving ( poor pings )

brophis

it says in the status bar "Connecting to xyz.com" but there is a gap of around 3-5 seconds before the new website kicks in

3-5 seconds is a bit severe to blame it on ping is it not? The OP mentioned that his ping was below 100ms at times when it happens. Me thinks it's more to do with resolving the dns. It's at least worth testing.

Ronan H

brophis wrote: »

3-5 seconds is a bit severe to blame it on ping is it not? The OP mentioned that his ping was below 100ms at times when it happens. Me thinks it's more to do with resolving the dns. It's at least worth testing.

Agreed with your first point, I was thinking that an increase from a 3mb ping of 43 to a 7mb ping of 93 shouldn't result in such a severe delay in loading webpages. Especially when you consider that there was no (noticable) delay with the 3mb package.

It seems that before I go changing back to the 3mb package that there are some things I can try:

1. Ask for the interleaving to be switched off or at least set to low
2. Do something with the DNS settings

@ PogMoThoin: Regarding the DNS settings, I have never done anything to change them so I assume that I'm using the Eircom ones. I'll have a look at OpenDNS and see what that has to say for itself. Thanks for the suggestion...

Head

Gonzo

Gonzo wrote: »

what worries me is they mite upgrade us next year and the current 3meg will get moved up to 5meg or something with high interleving, eircom cud well end low interleving for good when the next upgrades come in, i wudnt put it past them.

Speaking of speed while clickin on websites, my netopia modem finally died on me there a few days ago so out I went to buy a new router, got a Linksys Cisco and it all feels more responsive when clicking websites yet my internet speed remains at the same 5120/512k

They can't bump the 7.6 meg package up any higher without going to ADSL2+ - they're already at the limit of G.DMT technology.

PogMoThoin

brophis wrote: »

3-5 seconds is a bit severe to blame it on ping is it not? The OP mentioned that his ping was below 100ms at times when it happens. Me thinks it's more to do with resolving the dns. It's at least worth testing.

Its exactly the way my connection feels, along with high interleaving they have fastpath disabled (its enabled on 1 & 3mbit packages) on both 7mbit packages. The 7.1mbit package only has interleaving disabled on the upload (it uses the 384k upload of the 3mbit package), download has interleaving.

@ OP, try OpenDNS, although it takes longer to ping OpenDNS, their nameservers appear to respond quicker. my pings to OpenDNS is 42ms, Eircoms is 32ms, but still OpenDNS feels faster. I also use OpenDNS to filter adult content, although you have to install software to update your dynamic ip address (I've a linux client doing this on my server).

Ronan H

Soooooooooooooo, I phoned Eircom, but I'll get to that in a minute!

I set up OpenDNS and it's working away now but it doesn't seem to be making any difference to the problem.

Now that phonecall. I asked them to lower the interleaving (as suggested by PogMoThoin) and according to the lady I spoke to, that means that I would have to revert to the 3mb service? From what you guys said here, that's not what I understood interleaving to mean. From what I understand it's a setting of some sort that Eircom can adjust in order to affect how your BB behaves, and in the case above it lowered the ping time by 8ms. From what the lady said, lowering it means going back to the 3mb service. My money is on you guys to be correct!

I explained that I was getting full download speeds as per the 7mb service and about the increased ping levels and the delay and she pretty much insisted that it was a problem with my machine, even though the problem happened overnight, on the same night as my service changed from 3mb to 7mb. Ironic or a problem with my laptop? Alanis Morissette methinks...

Anyway I'm going to phone back again and try to get someone else on the line and try the interleaving approach again...updates to follow...

Head

Ronan H

Just phoned Eircom again and got a different person who actually knew what interleaving was! He spent a half hour testing various things and pinging this and that, both wireless and LAN. End result was that he advised me to use OpenDNS. Reason being that Eircom are currently having problems with their DNS servers because they are being upgraded (they should be the fastest in Ireland when upgraded according to the man).

He also switched interleaving OFF and now my ping has reduced from 93 to 28 which is a considerable decrease. It appears to have improved the delays I was having also but I'll need to use the machine more extensively to get an accurate idea of the outcome.

Isn't it amazing the vastly different customer service experiences you can have!

Sorry about the multiple posts but I thought it might be useful and helpful to people to know the whole scenario.

Head

PogMoThoin

Remember, You heard it first Here on Boards.ie ...............

Glad You got it sorted. 28ms isn't bad, although mine were 12-15ms before the dreaded upgrades.

Interleaving is a way of overlapping data to compensate for the bad lines, the wiki should explain it

Ronan H

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Remember, You heard it first Here on Boards.ie ...............

Head wrote: »

My money is on you guys to be correct!

Nice!