Eir throttling 4g? Speeds dropped to the floor

KrakityJones

I've had Eir 4g for years as can't get any alternative, but due to being quite close to a mast with line of sight to it I've always had good speeds - 40Mb down on average. Almost a year ago spotted I had 4g+ coverage so got a compatible router + external antenna and amazingly averaged between 100-120Mb/s (might drop to 80 now and then).

The past 2 weeks I've not gotten over 20Mb down and evenings it's going as low as 10 with constant ping dropouts every couple of packets, response time is woeful -109ms,128ms etc etc - used to be 3 or 4 ms.

I have a phone with 4g+ also with them and while that never got as high as the router+ext antenna it would get up to 80 or 90Mb down, that's the same now also, very poor. Drove around town, getting closer to the mast, same crap speeds.

Upload speed however is still at about 40 or higher, so it aint signal.

Got on to Eir support, no problem as far as they're concerned.

So in short - anyone else notice speeds gone to crap recently, have they begun to throttle , or am I just unlucky. Hoping its just an issue with a mast and it gets resolved but given Eir say everything is fine and it's going on 2 weeks I'm not too hopeful.

Ten Pin

Those are symptoms of congestion. The upload figure of 40 kind of confirms it as congestion mostly impacts download traffic.

Probably related to more people working from home and schools closed.

Eir could be prioritising 5G traffic but the reasons above are more likely.

ED E

Good up is a hint at congestion but a very sudden change doesnt match that, also the fact that its gone really to bits by the sounds of things (no loss to what sounds like significant loss). Without knowing the site in question I'd be suspicious another nearby cell stopped Txing and you're seeing the result of a mass move of users onto your cell.


Krakity, whats your speed like in the middle of the night?

KrakityJones

There are only 2 masts (according to comreg site viewer) in the area and the 2nd one is the opposite side of the house to the antenna, and a good few miles away so I don't think the mast I'm looking at is out of action, plus signal, snr etc all shows very good connection. Unless there is another transmitter on that mast thats gone belly up recently.

I do wonder about 5g prioritisation as that's launched here very recently I believe.

I haven't checked it at say 3am but at 11 or 12 it's really bad, last night ping response was over 400ms and every 2nd packet was dropping, speed test didn't even hit 5mb. That was with cat6 cable directly to router, nothing else running on the laptop. Signal strength etc still showing perfect. I do notice in the morning about 8 or 9 it's better, getting 35mb currently and steady ping tests. Just frustrating that eir won't even acknowledge there's an issue. I'm going to try them again today and keep at them til they at least acknowledge something has changed.

Oh location is Loughrea, East Galway case anyone is around that area and noticed the same.

ED E

I was suggesting the other cell was out. People between both cells are now all loaded onto one. Just one theory.


5G should only take existing users from one band to another, should help the 4G if anything.

KrakityJones

ED E wrote: »

I was suggesting the other cell was out. People between both cells are now all loaded onto one. Just one theory.


5G should only take existing users from one band to another, should help the 4G if anything.

Could well be it, it happened way too suddenly for it to be a rise in people working from home etc, especially as its worse at night and I'd be very surprised if Eir are after taking on a lot of new customers considering all the negative press recently.

Having said that had to go into town at lunch there and was standing outside not more than 50 feet from where the mast is, did a few tests and it stayed at exactly 50mb/s down each time, never once went above that so I wonder have they capped it at that. I may have to go to a place for work in a couple days that has another mast on the building across from it, always get mad high speeds there (got 180mbs down once) if its bad there too then its deliberate on the network, if not probably just a fault like you say and everyone is on the one cell.

Cheers for your input

KrakityJones

This is starting to really annoy me now - 4.3mb/s down and 30 up. Not much point I know in this other than to rant about it somewhere as eir don't seem to give a crap, same story today, sorry can't get through to technical guys I'll let them know and someone will call you back. Guessing that's their new strategy. Contract up end of Feb, time to start testing alternative providers I guess.

ED E

Honestly if you're reliant on mobile buy a SIM free device and have a few PAYG SIMs, use whatever provider make sense from month to month.

KrakityJones

Router is not locked to anyone (tplink 4g+) so yep will have to by the looks of things. It's a pity as they were excellent up to a couple weeks ago, and if they'd just admit there is a problem and say it'd be fixed in X number of weeks I'd be fine with it, it's more the lack of support thats annoying me now. At least my contract is up shortly.

What really annoys me (sorry the lack of BB is bugging me this evening as I had work to do) is there's ftth about 100 feet away but they won't bring it this far. So close and yet so far.. ah well.

ED E

KrakityJones wrote: »

What really annoys me (sorry the lack of BB is bugging me this evening as I had work to do) is there's ftth about 100 feet away but they won't bring it this far. So close and yet so far.. ah well.

Make friends with the neighbours, point to point between houses, split bill.....

KrakityJones

ED E wrote: »

Make friends with the neighbours, point to point between houses, split bill.....

Well whatever the cause it was temporary, been in and around 100 mb/s since yesterday. Here's hoping it stays that way.

lukin

Yeah mine has dropped significantly. Hopeless in the evening especially. I am going to try replacing my SIM but I'd say that won't do one bit of good.
Edit: great, got the new SIM but now the both the old one and the new one are inactive. The girl in the store assured me it was ported over but she seemed to do it very quickly. Thankfully I have a Vodafone modem I can use instead.

KrakityJones

Did you get sorted with the sim, and did it make any difference to the speeds?

cuculainn

KrakityJones wrote: »

Did you get sorted with the sim, and did it make any difference to the speeds?

Are you based in the town, I am outside the town but never got more than 40-50 Mbits down......it's always consistent though.?

KrakityJones

I'm out by the hotel so close enough to town but the way the house is positioned have line of sight to the mast down near the cathedral/church (that area anyway). I've also an external antenna and 4g+ router. Speeds do tend to be mostly between 50-70mb/s down in the evenings but day time go as high as 120, and some evenings do get close to that

lukin

KrakityJones wrote: »

Did you get sorted with the sim, and did it make any difference to the speeds?

When I put it into the modem it was not activated. I rang eir and they said it has to be put into an eir phone and the SIM PIN must be entered. I am going back to the store tomorrow to get them do that. I doubt if a new sim will improve things, although the old one was from when eir was meteor so it is fairly old. I am buying a different modem as well (Huawei B818-263) but that is also more in hope than expectation.

cuculainn

KrakityJones wrote: »

I'm out by the hotel so close enough to town but the way the house is positioned have line of sight to the mast down near the cathedral/church (that area anyway). I've also an external antenna and 4g+ router. Speeds do tend to be mostly between 50-70mb/s down in the evenings but day time go as high as 120, and some evenings do get close to that

Oh right I'm more rural than that the other side of town. I wonder does the router make much difference. I have a hauwei b315. That might only handle 4g and maybe not 4g+?
Either way if the speeds stay as they are I will be happy enough

KrakityJones

cuculainn wrote: »

Oh right I'm more rural than that the other side of town. I wonder does the router make much difference. I have a hauwei b315. That might only handle 4g and maybe not 4g+?
Either way if the speeds stay as they are I will be happy enough

Router would make a big difference, I had that model previously and most it ever made was 40 down. Its 4g only. I changed it out a tp link archer mr600 which has 4g+ and it was a dramatic difference. Not fully knowledgeable on it all but as far as I know 4g+ uses two connections in parallel hence the speed boost. If you have a phone that does 4g+ see if you have it where you are, no point changing router if not I suppose.

KrakityJones

lukin wrote: »

When I put it into the modem it was not activated. I rang eir and they said it has to be put into an eir phone and the SIM PIN must be entered. I am going back to the store tomorrow to get them do that. I doubt if a new sim will improve things, although the old one was from when eir was meteor so it is fairly old. I am buying a different modem as well (Huawei B818-263) but that is also more in hope than expectation.

I'm curious as they were going to send me a new sim when I was having hassle as well. Never arrived actually now that I think about it. I suspect it'd have done nothing anyway as I'm back to normal now. The sim I have is about 5 years old as well. Best of luck with it anyway hope you get sorted

cuculainn

KrakityJones wrote: »

Router would make a big difference, I had that model previously and most it ever made was 40 down. Its 4g only. I changed it out a tp link archer mr600 which has 4g+ and it was a dramatic difference. Not fully knowledgeable on it all but as far as I know 4g+ uses two connections in parallel hence the speed boost. If you have a phone that does 4g+ see if you have it where you are, no point changing router if not I suppose.

Yeah I will try with phone alright...I have the b315 router down where my parents live and they get 80 Mbits......very annoying considering they just use it for RIP..ie!!!!

yop

What external aerial are u using out of interest?

lukin

yop wrote: »

What external aerial are u using out of interest?

Dunno if this question was directed at me but I will answer it anyway; I am using the Poynting X-POL 2.
I got the new eir sim card and when I put it in the router/modem (Huawei B-315s) in the store it picked up a signal straight away. But when I went home it gave no signal.
That happened to me before; a newer sim card doesn't work in some modems when they connect to some masts but is OK with other masts. I have an unlocked Huawei B-525s and it works in that. I bought a Huawei B818-263 and it works in that too but I am using that with a Vodafone sim as backup. No improvement in speeds despite all my fiddling though. I am not going to spend anymore money though because I can't afford to be buying different modems/routers and certainly not antennae's either. If I wanted to replace my antennae I would have to hire out a platform lift because mine is up so high a ladder can't reach it. So no thanks.

cuculainn

KrakityJones wrote: »

Router would make a big difference, I had that model previously and most it ever made was 40 down. Its 4g only. I changed it out a tp link archer mr600 which has 4g+ and it was a dramatic difference. Not fully knowledgeable on it all but as far as I know 4g+ uses two connections in parallel hence the speed boost. If you have a phone that does 4g+ see if you have it where you are, no point changing router if not I suppose.

Sorry for digging this up again, but i got a archer mr600 router.
where i was getting 60 mbps on the hauwei router i am only getting ~30 with the TP-link. has anyone experienced that before? when i swap sim back to hauwei it goes back up to 60 mbps,

can there be that much difference in routers or is there a setting i need to adjust?

thanks

ED E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116375735#Comment_116375735

Theyre both CAT4 but honestly Id never buy TPs cellular stuff. Never seemed more than meh.

Huawei on the other hand are making the towers themselves and are the go to vendor.