Eircom backhaul problems again?

Azhrei

Has anyone experienced this recently? This was supposed to have been fixed, wasn't it? I'm the admin of a game server (located I'm not sure where) and over the last week or so the ping has been triple what it usually is. In a game so sensitive to ping, you can imagine how that affects the experience. My router showed almost zero activity when I looked at it just now while testing in the game. I tried pingtest.net just now with four different servers - one in Galway (35 ping), one in Coventry (147 ping), one in Bilbao (85 ping) and one in Frankfurt (65 ping).

The Coventry one is telling. Wasn't this problem meant to have been fixed sometime before December/Christmas? Is anybody else having the issue, or is it just me? It surely isn't the line as pinging Frankfurt shows a typical number for the distance. I had Vodafone do a test on the line a couple of weeks ago and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. It's really irritating because I can no longer play the one game I've played every day for years now.

Anyone?

Hank Scorpio

It's never been fixed

http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057315815/8

Check my posts and others there

This has been going on for around 16 months at this stage

I understand your frustration, I play q3a and UT and unstable ping destroys the gameplay online

Azhrei

Oh God. I know Cobh is in the first phase of the ESB's fibre roll-out, but they really can't come here fast enough. This issue is so damn annoying - not too long ago I was getting a stable ping of 40, now it's back up to 140+, which is over three times as much. I'm going to pore over that link you sent me, but is there any kind of fix coming down the line?

ED E

Azhrei wrote: »

I had Vodafone do a test on the line a couple of weeks ago and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. It's really irritating because I can no longer play the one game I've played every day for years now.

You're mixing up issues here. Eircom had backhaul/transit issues, and seem to still be having some, but that will effect eircom customers. If you're ADSL your connection will enter the vodafone network at the BRAS and if youre on fibre it'll enter vodafones network at a core network point nearest to the exchange your cab is fed from. Either way if the problem was on the "eircom bit" youd see it to all servers, not just some.

What youre seeing is a vodafone transit issue, need to get onto them. Considering they own a large chunk of the international bandwidth you'd think they'd be doing ok, but then again theyre the only ones enforcing their FUP...

Hank Scorpio

ED E wrote: »

You're mixing up issues here. Eircom had backhaul/transit issues, and seem to still be having some, but that will effect eircom customers. If you're ADSL your connection will enter the vodafone network at the BRAS and if youre on fibre it'll enter vodafones network at a core network point nearest to the exchange your cab is fed from. Either way if the problem was on the "eircom bit" youd see it to all servers, not just some.

What youre seeing is a vodafone transit issue, need to get onto them. Considering they own a large chunk of the international bandwidth you'd think they'd be doing ok, but then again theyre the only ones enforcing their FUP...

Missed the vodafone part.

He's correct, not an Eircom issue if ping is fine to certain servers

Azhrei

Hmm... I figured that since the line is Eircom's, as is the infrastucture, they would be at fault. I'll give Vodafone another call, thank you.

Azhrei

The call went as expected, I explained to them three times what was happening and after each explanation was complete silence. They found nothing wrong with the line and were clueless as to any transit issues on their end. Oddly enough I connected to the server and my ping was down to 38, which is what it normally should be. So the issues typically start in the afternoon or evening - I mentioned that to them also but again, that was apparently of no use to them. Curious after the call ended, I tried pingtest.net again and chose the Coventry server - ping of 44 with 0% jitter and a line quality of A.

Hmm. If only Vodafone (and every other company) employed only people in technical support who know what they're on about, as in technician level, or at least had these people on-hand when a call needs to be escalated, and not just those who are trained enough to be able to see that there's a problem with a phone line.

On the upside, I asked if they had any idea when the ESB network would be up and running for first phase towns and they said they had no date, but that tests were on-going at the moment.

ED E

Level 1 support will always be poxy. Unfortunately no ISP is ever going to invest money in staffing them properly. If you could find your way to their business or corporate helpdesk you'd likely get real support.

If I were you I'd grab pingplotter, pick a few endpoints in different locations and graph it for a few days. Then post the results in their talkto forum. ICMP(ping) isnt solid evidence, but its an indicator, might get your case passed onto their level two guys.