Vodafone throttling?

adox

I’ve had my broadband with Vodafone the last few years and have been happy enough. Very few issues. Consistent and reliable connection. I’ve been getting around 45 Mbps on average.

However the last few evenings I’ve noticed that there has been a big drop in speeds. Daytime speeds are as normal but once it hits 6 or so speeds drop dramatically, down by half and as the evening goes on as low as 5Mbps. Ping time also drops from around 8ms to around 50ms.


I’m wondering with the current situation if Vodafone may be throttling in the evenings?

I stream a lot of 4k content so this is having a big effect on it.

punisher5112

adox wrote: »

I’ve had my broadband with Vodafone the last few years and have been happy enough. Very few issues. Consistent and reliable connection. I’ve been getting around 45 Mbps on average.

However the last few evenings I’ve noticed that there has been a big drop in speeds. Daytime speeds are as normal but once it hits 6 or so speeds drop dramatically, down by half and as the evening goes on as low as 5Mbps. Ping time also drops from around 8ms to around 50ms.


I’m wondering with the current situation if Vodafone may be throttling in the evenings?

I stream a lot of 4k content so this is having a big effect on it.

I'd say due to at least 30% more using it then normal won't help....

adox

punisher5112 wrote: »

I'd say due to at least 30% more using it then normal won't help....

True but I would have thought it would affect the daytime more than anything else, which isn’t the case for me.

punisher5112

adox wrote: »

True but I would have thought it would affect the daytime more than anything else, which isn’t the case for me.

If they're working at home they wouldn't be streaming usually but in the evening everyone will be on watching Netflix etc....

Prezatch

I've noticed Vodafone has gone to pants in the evening also in Dublin 15 area. Tonight and last night very poor. Upload speed is higher than download speed

Marlow

punisher5112 wrote: »

I'd say due to at least 30% more using it then normal won't help....

30% ? Traffic is at levels 50% higher than xmas time for most providers, which is usually, when it gets pounded most.

adox wrote: »

True but I would have thought it would affect the daytime more than anything else, which isn’t the case for me.

Erhh .. no. People would usually be in the pub, out and about in parks, at the beach or elsewhere. Everyone is stuck at home.

Daytime is low traffic volumes normally, so it now is at maybe twice or tripple that, but that's still half from normal evening speeds.

Evening traffic is now the highest of the year for any provider. So it shows you how good (or not) your providers network is. And 4k streaming would be difficult. Most platforms have switched it off for now or limited it to more lossy codecs, to help ease the traffic. So if you are streaming 4k, then you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

/M

jumbobreakfast

From around 6pm to around midnight fast.com speed tests drop from the usual 96Mbps to around 20Mbps-30Mbps. I can live with that but the latency also increases from 9ms to 50ms. This might not seem like much but if you play fast paced online games then this +40ms makes them impossible to play. I'm getting up to 109ms ping to UK servers and I'm sure it's spiking higher at times. It's a pity it's so poor as that's how I socialise at the moment.

Is Vodafone via SIRO the same or is this a local contention issue?

Marlow

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

From around 6pm to around midnight fast.com speed tests drop from the usual 96Mbps to around 20Mbps-30Mbps. I can live with that but the latency also increases from 9ms to 50ms. This might not seem like much but if you play fast paced online games then this +40ms makes them impossible to play. I'm getting up to 109ms ping to UK servers and I'm sure it's spiking higher at times. It's a pity it's so poor as that's how I socialise at the moment.

Is Vodafone via SIRO the same or is this a local contention issue?

Vodafone is Vodafone. It's the same backbone and backnet. There is no "special" network for other products.

The only change in backbone and upstream is achieved by using another ISP.

/M

jumbobreakfast

I have Simply Broadband Fibre which I think is fibre to the cabinet. I'm just wondering if it's limited by whatever non-FTTH equipment they have there rather than the backbone.

Marlow

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

I have Simply Broadband Fibre which I think is fibre to the cabinet. I'm just wondering if it's limited by whatever non-FTTH equipment they have there rather than the backbone.

Yes.

- The quality of of your copper connection to the cab ( you can check that in the router based on attenuation and sync speed )
- The amount of bandwidth available at said cab
- The amount of bandwidth available from the exchange to wherever Vodafone is taking the connection from OpenEIR
- The amount of bandwidth available at the interconnect between OpenEIR and Vodafone.

All of those do not apply, when you're on SIRO. Then it's just Vodfones backbone and the bandwidth available at the SIRO interconnect.

So there is a "slim" chance, that it may be better. A traceroute might give you some insight. Where does the increase in ping times occur ?

/M

jumbobreakfast

Yeah I'll have to do some comparisons before and after 6pm and see. I'm curious because SIRO should be here in a month or two and since I'm already tied to a 12 month vodafone contract I will probably have to keep using Vodafone to avail of it.

dollylama

For what it's worth, Vodafone's 4G service is in the gutter too. It's pretty fast and usually reliable where I am but since the lockdown, it just literally turns off at random times throughout the day and particularly in the evening. It's not device related as both our 4G broadband router and all our phones see the same disconnect, it's not signal as we're blessed with strong 4G being just meters from the mast, it's not DNS related and it doesn't seem to be congestion as there's no noticeable slowness. We just seem to get kicked off the network for anything from 2 to 30 minutes at a time!

Marlow

dollylama wrote: »

For what it's worth, Vodafone's 4G service is in the gutter too. It's pretty fast and usually reliable where I am but since the lockdown, it just literally turns off at random times throughout the day and particularly in the evening. It's not device related as both our 4G broadband router and all our phones see the same disconnect, it's not signal as we're blessed with strong 4G being just meters from the mast, it's not DNS related and it doesn't seem to be congestion as there's no noticeable slowness. We just seem to get kicked off the network for anything from 2 to 30 minutes at a time!

There are a LOT more variables, when you're on a cell service. I don't even want to explain it Trust me .. the backbone is the last of your headaches. You NEVER know how many people are in the same cell.

Honestly . the lockdown actually should have made your service more predictable and consistant, because people are not moving anymore.

/M

TheDriver

I've got the vodafone FTTC product and getting the same speeds as usual, approx 90Mb, tested at various times of the day.

jumbobreakfast

TheDriver wrote: »

I've got the vodafone FTTC product and getting the same speeds as usual, approx 90Mb, tested at various times of the day.

Thanks, that's the sort of info I was after.


Sorry to be a pain but I don't suppose you could check fast.com before 6pm and then also sometime around 8-10pm please? I'm specifically interested in the details that you get when you click the 'more info' button as it shows the latency. Mine says 11ms unloaded and 42ms loaded right now but will be about 40-50ms higher during the bad period.

If anyone happens to read this and are on vodafone via siro then I'd appreciate if you could do the same

That will help determine if it's a local bandwidth problem that adox and I have (DSLAM in the cabinet being hammered perhaps?) or a vodafone backbone problem.

dam099

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

Thanks, that's the sort of info I was after.


Sorry to be a pain but I don't suppose you could check fast.com before 6pm and then also sometime around 8-10pm please? I'm specifically interested in the details that you get when you click the 'more info' button as it shows the latency. Mine says 11ms unloaded and 42ms loaded right now but will be about 40-50ms higher during the bad period.

If anyone happens to read this and are on vodafone via siro then I'd appreciate if you could do the same

That will help determine if it's a local bandwidth problem that adox and I have (DSLAM in the cabinet being hammered perhaps?) or a vodafone backbone problem.

Here is a current reading on Vodafone SIRO (which doesn't really make sense speed is greater than my 1Gb plan, I maxed out around 930Mpbs on Speedtest.net just afterwards which I think is about all my NIC can do as I've never gone above this).

Marlow

dam099 wrote: »

Here is a current reading on Vodafone SIRO (which doesn't really make sense speed is greater than my 1Gb plan, I maxed out around 930Mpbs on Speedtest.net just afterwards which I think is about all my NIC can do as I've never gone above this).

fast.com is not very accurate in their testing. Speedtest.net Galway or Carlow server (as those have been confirmed to have 10Gbit/s+, many others may only have 1 Gbit/s or less) is a better test.

And it's best to use Mozilla Firefox to test. Other browsers can give odd results.

/M

jumbobreakfast

dam099 wrote: »

Here is a current reading on Vodafone SIRO (which doesn't really make sense speed is greater than my 1Gb plan, I maxed out around 930Mpbs on Speedtest.net just afterwards which I think is about all my NIC can do as I've never gone above this).

Thanks very much, my connection is slow right now (8pm)

37Mbps
latency unloaded is 49ms and loaded is 57ms


I understand these measurements are just relative but would be great to get a siro result now.

joe123

Just got my Vodafone router today. Only on adsl with speeds up to 15mb. During the day got 12. I'm currently on 1.5 mg download.

Terrible.

dam099

dam099 wrote: »

Here is a current reading on Vodafone SIRO (which doesn't really make sense speed is greater than my 1Gb plan, I maxed out around 930Mpbs on Speedtest.net just afterwards which I think is about all my NIC can do as I've never gone above this).

He it is tested again at 21.45.

Speedtest.net was 900 to Carlow, ping 4ms.

Marlow

dam099 wrote: »

Here is a current reading on Vodafone SIRO (which doesn't really make sense speed is greater than my 1Gb plan, I maxed out around 930Mpbs on Speedtest.net just afterwards which I think is about all my NIC can do as I've never gone above this).

dam099 wrote: »

He it is tested again at 21.45.

Speedtest.net was 900 to Carlow, ping 4ms.

Some test to UK servers would be more interesting. As they'd show how the backbone for Vodafone looks that way.

/M

littlecopilot

I'm on FTTH and also getting terrible speeds in the evenings. At the moment wired speedtest to carlow/galway server ping 38ms, 15.8Mbps d/l, 48.8 u/l. Been like it for past few weeks. Unfortunately very little can be done with congestion

dam099

Marlow wrote: »

Some test to UK servers would be more interesting. As they'd show how the backbone for Vodafone looks that way.

/M

UK & Europe still pretty good, starts to drop off to the US

jumbobreakfast

littlecopilot wrote: »

I'm on FTTH and also getting terrible speeds in the evenings. At the moment wired speedtest to carlow/galway server ping 38ms, 15.8Mbps d/l, 48.8 u/l. Been like it for past few weeks. Unfortunately very little can be done with congestion

Is your FTTH via Siro or openeir? That looks more like Vodafone's fibre to the cabinet results.

dam099 wrote: »

That looks very promising thanks. I guess everything after this is speculation but I really appreciate you taking the time to upload the results. Roll-on the fibre-rollout in my area

TheDriver

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

Thanks, that's the sort of info I was after.


Sorry to be a pain but I don't suppose you could check fast.com before 6pm and then also sometime around 8-10pm please? I'm specifically interested in the details that you get when you click the 'more info' button as it shows the latency. Mine says 11ms unloaded and 42ms loaded right now but will be about 40-50ms higher during the bad period.

If anyone happens to read this and are on vodafone via siro then I'd appreciate if you could do the same

That will help determine if it's a local bandwidth problem that adox and I have (DSLAM in the cabinet being hammered perhaps?) or a vodafone backbone problem.

I only saw it now but it says 85Mbps, 15ms unloaded, 90ms loaded

littlecopilot

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

Is your FTTH via Siro or openeir? That looks more like Vodafone's fibre to the cabinet results.

300Mbps FTTH Openeir

cudsy1

I reckon my vf 500gb fibre is throttling. Haven't tracked it properly over time yet tho.

Anyone else find similar recently?

BeerFarts

How are ye testing? Ethernet Vs WiFi?