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Slow VPN speeds

killingpingu
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Slow VPN speeds

Hi,
According to the plusnet traffic management site, VPN speeds are capped at 2Mb between 6pm and midnight for the option I'm on. I've not been able to get more than 0.2 Mb in the evenings for the past few days. That's 10% of what I'm supposed to be getting which effectively renders it useless. I use two different VPN accounts and both are affected so I'm pretty sure it's not a problem with the VPN service. It seems like it's being capped as it only goes this slow during the evenings... the rest of the day I have no problem with it. Anyone else experiencing this problem?
Cheers,
KP.
21 REPLIES 21
killingpingu
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Oh I forgot to mention that whilst I'm getting 0.2Mb download speed, my upload speed is around 1.3Mb....
jeevesm
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎28-01-2011

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Do you have Plusnet Extra?
Did you check your usage report? In my case, usage report doesn't show any VPN traffic. Everything is shown as either Web or Peer-to-Peer. I don't use P2P sites. I am on VPN connection between 9:00 and 17:00. Customer support told me that VPN is a type of P2P ("...The VPN traffic can show as Peer to Peer usage as technically this is file sharing from one PC or server to another...."). If VPN traffic is treated as P2P then it can go down to 128Kbps (http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/download_speeds.shtml#extraSpeeds) even on Extra. I guess the only alternative is to go for Pro.
I will monitor my speeds and post them next week. Please check your usage stats and see if you have any VPN traffic listed.
killingpingu
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Yes I have Plusnet Extra. I checked my usage and there is no listing for VPN. I don't use P2P and there is no P2P activity listed on my usage history so I have always assumed that VPN falls into the 'Other' category. If Plusnet is seeing my VPN activity as P2P and therefore capping it on that basis then shouldn't they list it as P2P?
I would go for Pro but the usage limit is only 20Gb and with a family of 5 that'll soon get eaten up before the end of the month.... unless, hmm... I ban everyone else in the house from using the net... *evil laughter*
fourfourdevon
Grafter
Posts: 1,101
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎10-09-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

How the hell is VPN like P2P?
Virtual Private Network, the key there being NETWORK.
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,573
Thanks: 5,408
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Quote
Customer support told me that VPN is a type of P2P ("...The VPN traffic can show as Peer to Peer usage as technically this is file sharing from one PC or server to another...."). If VPN traffic is treated as P2P then it can go down to 128Kbps (http://www.plus.net/suppo..._speeds.shtml#extraSpeeds) even on Extra. I guess the only alternative is to go for Pro.

As fourfourdevon says, 'what an absolute load of twaddle'.
What is at the other end of the VPN ?, if its just a normal ADSL connection ( as my office is ) then don't forget that your VPN download speed is going to be limited by the 'upstream' speed of the other end ( which is likely to be 448kb ).
I use VPN on the Value product and don't seem to suffer from rate limiting, other than the remote upstream ( 1024kb in my case as its an ADSL2+ ).

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Hi killingpingu,
As the others say, P2P and VPN are different and the speed will be dependent on the upload at the other end. Is the remote connection a plusnet one? If so we could look at upgrading the upstream for you.
Jojo Smiley
killingpingu
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Thank you for all your replies. Jojo, the remote connection isn't a Plusenet one. I use VyprVPN and Overplay VPN. I expect there to be a slight drop in the evenings due to traffic and I understand that Plusnet cap VPN at 2 Mb in the evenings with the account that I'm on, but a speed of 0.2 Mb seems a little strange. I have tried several of Overplay's VPN servers and VyprVPN's server with the same drop in speed of over 3 Mb down to around 0.2 Mb in the evenings which seems to be more than coincidence. I have raised a ticket with Overplay to see if they can shed any light on the matter. I also raised a ticket with Plusnet a few days ago regarding this matter but have as of yet received no response, apart from Jojo here Smiley
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
KP.
jeevesm
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎28-01-2011

Re: Slow VPN speeds

The other end of my VPN connection is definitely not ADSL. It supports around 100 concurrent VPN connections. I understand VPN and P2P are not same. I didn't get any reply for my query as well. I just joined Plusnet this month. I am a bit worried about response time for ticket. I already closed a ticket after three days of no reply. Is everyone experiencing same kind of response times? 
killingpingu
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Still no response regarding my raised ticket with Plusnet. I raised a ticket with Overplay, received a reply within hours and after sending them evidence of my regular speeds, VPN speeds and VPN safemode speeds (which emulates normal traffic), they had the following to say:
"I can categorically tell you that your ISP is throttling your connection, probably to try to restrict BitTorrent usage.  One of the most blatant examples i've ever seen."
This had been my fear all along. I joined Plusnet because I was fed up with the lies that BT and O2 kept feeding me regarding their traffic management. Up till now I've felt that Plusnet have been honest with me and, baring a few hiccups along the way, done exactly what they said they would. I have nothing against traffic management as long as the ISP is honest about it, openly informs their users of their schedule, and informs their customers of any changes. That way we, as the customer, are free to make a choice based on the facts and not pay a 12 month contract only to find out a few months down the line that we've been cheated. I don't know how many hours I've wasted on the phone to BT and O2 that could have been avoided if only they'd have been honest about their policies from the get go. The thought of having to go down that line with Plusnet... ack, are there any decent ISPs left?
So, Plusnet tell me that they throttle VPN speeds down to 2 Mb in the evenings. Why am I only getting 0.2 Mb? BitTorrent usage? I don't use BitTorrent. Do they think that because I'm connecting to a VPN in the evenings and it's not a company VPN that I must be using BitTorrent? That would mean that they're throttling people on the off chance that they're using BitTorrent. If they want to cap VPN in the evenings to 0.2 Mb that's fine, as long as they inform us. If I call Plusnet customer service they tell me to raise a ticket. If I raise a ticket, I get no reply.
I thought BT customer service was bad, but at least they gave you an answer no matter how truthful or relevant it was.

jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Slow VPN speeds

If your weekday daytime usage is low have a look at http://aaisp.net.uk/
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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zubel
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,793
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Is the VPN traffic on a standard port?
Have you wiresharked the traffic to make sure it is identified correctly?
It sounds to me like it's not being identified correctly and is being squeezed into the Bronze queue, which will be subject to bandwidth limitations over and above the VPN traffic limitations.  This is a problem that can be fixed if you can wireshark the transfer and submit it to PN for classification.
http://community.plus.net/library/faults/using-wireshark-for-data-capture/
B.
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Hi killingpingu,
Can you perform a wireshark capture and add it to the ticket so we can make sure it's in the correct category.
Jojo Smiley
Barry beat me to it, but if you let me know when you've added it to the ticket I'll get it actioned.
_CN_
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 385
Registered: ‎11-06-2007

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Hi
VyprVPN is part of service offered by Giganews?  If this is the case and the remote server is a giganews server this will be classified as Usenet not VPN, can you say if this is the remote server your trying to use?  Not sure about Overplay, I'll wait for your reply.
killingpingu
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎18-05-2010

Re: Slow VPN speeds

Thanks for the input.
I don't know what port my VPN traffic is using but I've run Wireshark, as suggested by Barry and Jojo, whilst logged on to a UK Overplay VPN server and added the dump file to the ticket. Hope I've done it right!
As for VyprVPN, I believe it does use a Giganews server.  However, I've never had any trouble with the speeds until recently. It's been classified as VPN since I joined Plusnet over a year ago and I've had VPN speeds using it. If it were classified as Usenet then I should be getting speeds lower than 0.2 Mb from 4pm onwards which is not the case, I get line speed after 4pm. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be a set time when the VPN speed drops. Some evenings It happens around 5-6pm and other evenings a couple of hours later.