Sadly I expected it...
That clearly shows something is wrong!
I'm on a 20CN exchange with an IP profile of 7150, Plusnet Extra with the Pro add-on. BBC test result using Chrome attached. I've run the test during the evening and the results are very little different.
I'm on a 20CN exchange with an IP profile of 7150, Plusnet Extra with the Pro add-on. BBC test result using Chrome attached. I've run the test during the evening and the results are very little different.
AlaricAdair,
I've just spoken at length with our network engineers and specifically the guys here that look after our traffic management process.
To clarify you are on the correct service offering for business option 3, literally the only thing that is managed for that in relation to video in any way is that youtube is managed to 2mb between 7 and 10pm and no rate limiting takes place at all on iPlayer, Skyplayer etc at any times.
This may be something our network equipment isn't identifying so here's what I'm going to suggest.
A, try installing wireshark whilst you're experiencing the issue you've reported: http://www.wireshark.org/
B, as Barry mentions a dial test would be a good idea here, however you would need to be offline for an agreed timeframe (at least an hour if possible) for us to do this for you. This will allow us to identify if the issue is account or line related in some way.
Adam.
I've just spoken at length with our network engineers and specifically the guys here that look after our traffic management process.
To clarify you are on the correct service offering for business option 3, literally the only thing that is managed for that in relation to video in any way is that youtube is managed to 2mb between 7 and 10pm and no rate limiting takes place at all on iPlayer, Skyplayer etc at any times.
This may be something our network equipment isn't identifying so here's what I'm going to suggest.
A, try installing wireshark whilst you're experiencing the issue you've reported: http://www.wireshark.org/
B, as Barry mentions a dial test would be a good idea here, however you would need to be offline for an agreed timeframe (at least an hour if possible) for us to do this for you. This will allow us to identify if the issue is account or line related in some way.
Adam.
Most of the Draytek dual WAN routers have throughput monitoring features which might prove useful to you. Have a look at the Dataflow page under the Diagnostics menu. Once enabled, the router will report the WAN throughput for each of the LAN hosts in (near) real time. Also have a look at the traffic graph if you have that feature. The throughput graph is not very useful here, being a Minute average. The session graph is more useful, making it easy to spot periods of high session usage (1000+), which might slow the router down.
Quote from: AlaricAdair We are trying some further testing to see if there is a general problem or just something related to my phone line/Equipment configuration.
There are several rate limiting features within some of the Draytek routers. Most of these are global, effecting all traffic types. The QoS features can be set up as application specific, so you probably want to completely disable QoS during testing.
If you can get 3Mbps to 5Mbps sustained throughput from, for example, a HTTP download server, you should be able to get uninterrupted video from the BBC web site and the iPlayer application. A general sustained throughput test isolates the problem at the IP layer, so you can stop worrying about your phone line.
If you have good general throughput and poor throughput per protocol, (video streams dropping out) it's likely to be an upstream problem;
1. Traffic shaping at PN
2. Congestion through PNs network
3. Congestion through peering network
4. Server congestion
VOIP reliability is not usually an indication of much of anything. The streams are tiny. You might need to (should) prioritise VOIP streams on your own router but they are unlikely to be the cause of problems upstream, unless the streaming protocol is being incorrectly discriminated by an ISP shaping policy.
iPlayer is a bit of a catch all term for a suit of technologies and protocols used by the BBC, so you need to be careful to speak very specifically (with Plus Net). Video from the website uses a different protocol to the video sent to the iPlayer application and the iPlayer application has several protocol adaptions. If you are being incorrectly shaped, you don't want to be complaining about one thing while the engineers test something entirely different.
The BBC web site streams are peaky. They use more bandwidth less frequently, making stream reliability less time sensitive. The iPlayer application streams are sustained. They use less bandwidth more often, making the stream reliability less bandwidth sensitive. So for the website you need more bandwidth and for the application you need less latency.
It is also worth remembering that PN use punitive traffic shaping on the Business accounts in some circumstances (Grr). Businesses shouldn't use the internet during peak hours, in PN's little fantasy World
Punitive shaping should only effect the services that PN say it effects but there is always the possibility that it is effecting other services. The vaguely defined 'Gaming' and 'Other' policies worry me. Traffic shaping and vagueness just do not mix. Trying to design a shaping filter that only effects the traffic you want it to can be pretty difficult. Filters not accurately discriminating is one of the more common issues I come across with shaping. Unfortunately with traffic shaping we (customers) are entirely beholden to the whims and the expertise of our ISP.
HTH
mssystems,
Thanks for an informative post there, this is what the community is all about.
I'm in no doubt though that it's not traffic management related, for one I'm keeping an open mind as we work through and eliminate different factors.
@AlaricAdair, given what you've advised me via PM as well it sounds like you are getting to the bottom of this, I'll continue to follow this with interest....
Adam.
Thanks for an informative post there, this is what the community is all about.
I'm in no doubt though that it's not traffic management related, for one I'm keeping an open mind as we work through and eliminate different factors.
@AlaricAdair, given what you've advised me via PM as well it sounds like you are getting to the bottom of this, I'll continue to follow this with interest....
Adam.