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Superzoom speed problem

Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problem

I really don't get it.  😕
Can you install firebug on FF (or something similar) and grab some data of the download speeds for the pages so we can see where the lag is?
I've attached an image from the (released today) OFCOM speed report which shows our web browsing speeds to be very favourable!
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

I don't get it either.
Could simply be issues related to the exchange.
But yes, I can certainly try to gather some more data for you. Won't be online much the rest of today, but over coming days.
dave
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 12,257
Thanks: 306
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Quote from: dave
Got approval to change the profile on Tuesday afternoon, you'll need to disconnect/reconnect once I've changed it to for it to take effect on your connection.

Made the change yesterday, you'll need to disconnect/reconnect for the change to take effect (same applies anyone else on 100Mbps FTTP) then see if that increases the speed any.
Dave Tomlinson
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Quote from: Kelly
grab some data of the download speeds for the pages so we can see where the lag is?

OK, this is just a start to see what I can give you that would be useful. Firebug isn't purpose-designed for diagnosing network latency problems as such and I don't want this to go down a fruitless avenue of "Oh, it's your router/PC/browser/OS/ethernet cables/electricity supply/printer/monitor/mouse..." That wouldn't interest me.
What I can most usefully observe from a few minutes of testing this morning is that there is a lot of variation, in percentage terms.
I used cURL to measure the initial TCP connection time to the BBC and to Wikipedia, stripping out DNS resolution time by specifying the IP address to use (which you can do since v7.21.3). This doesn't include any http setup, it's just the time to set up the TCP connection.
Pings to www.bbc.co.uk were between 3 and 4ms, and time to connect to www.bbc.co.uk/news was between 10 and 30ms.
Pings to en.wikipedia.org were between 11 and 13ms, and time to connect to download an article was between 40 and 90ms.
Of course, actually rendering the web page in a browser involves more than just the single connection to grab the html, so any latencies get compounded.
The attached screen grabs are from the new Web Developer Network Tool in Firefox 23 and show an even wider variation.
The first one is after freshly launching the browser, the second when refreshing the page (so it isn't that the first fetch takes longer). The browser cache was disabled.
I hope that may be of some use as a starting point.
I'll drop the PPPoE session shortly and see if the profile has updated.
EDIT: Doesn't seem to have done so far - still showing as 92Mbps in the Member Centre and getting similar throughput to yesterday ie. over 89Mbps payload throughput.
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Superzoom speed problem

I think the PN profile has changed but just not been corrected in the Member Centre.
I can get 89-90Mbps so something has happened as this was never previously possible. I do still think BT has a 92Mbps limit on the 100Mbps connection somewhere.
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Superzoom speed problem

bbc.co.uk - 158 requests  ❘  116 KB transferred  ❘  897 ms (onload: 899 ms, DOMContentLoaded: 746 ms)
en.wikipedia.org - 50 requests  ❘  482 KB transferred  ❘  1.13 s (onload: 1.28 s, DOMContentLoaded: 815 ms)
No issues here with any browsing...everything is lightening fast for me!
dave
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 12,257
Thanks: 306
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Yeah, I've changed it on the network not in the member centre (it's a bit easier to change on the network).
Dave Tomlinson
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Looks like that 89.98Mbps was with the new higher PN profile, in that case.
I think, psychologically, it may be better to leave it showing as 92 anyway  - thinking you're getting 90Mbps throughput out of a 92Mbps connection = satisfaction guaranteed!    Wink
I did some tests by putting a cap on the downstream bandwidth at the router of 80, 70 and 60 Mbps, and the "overhead" was 8 or 9% in each case - ie. the data payload throughput measured by cURL was only about 91 or 92% of the artificially-limited bandwidth. So that would seem to be about standard.
Getting 89.98Mbps throughput from a 96.54Mbps BT IP profile (and presumably slightly lower PN profile) is, therefore, extremely good - only 6.8% "overhead".
A BT Wholesale speed test this morning is showing download speed as 109.05Mbps against a BT IP profile of 96.54Mbps(!) with upload at 13.64 against a profile of 15; (and a 16.38ms ping latency). It was coming out at a maximum of 87.94Mbps on 23rd July with the same IP profile, and sometimes less than half that. So a big improvement there, for certain.
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

We've been seeing pretty appalling web surfing performance this morning and in recent days.
Long "waiting" times frequently shown in the FF23 Web Developer Tool network tab, but alternating with variously lengthened "Connecting" and "Receiving" times. No totally consistent pattern except to say that latency seems to have been consistently occurring across all the points in the transfer process.
This is across a diverse array of sites, both static and dynamic pages, very small pages as well as larger page sizes, so not web server related.
Same sluggish effect across different browsers and client operating systems. Power-cycling the router and reconnecting to a different gateway did not make any difference.
It's a network effect.
Where's the latency coming from, I wonder? Peering? Exchange? PlusNet? Can't pin it down.
Nothing terribly shocking showing up for the various standard latency measures, although some jitter in TCP 'ping' and DNS latency slightly elevated. Perhaps that simply confirms that these metrics can't be relied upon to give a useful picture of what's really happening in a complex, shaped and buffered network.
Throughput is lower than normal, at about 78Mps, though.
Plusnet website slow too.
But no problem with streaming from iPlayer and 4oD simultaneously.
I'd resolved to ignore the periodic browsing slowness and hope for improvement, since continually commenting on the ups and downs of basic browsing responsiveness is tiresome when doing so seems to make no difference at all to the continual vagaries of the service... but it got substantially worse this morning.
If no-one else is seeing it then maybe BT simply aren't getting to grips with things at the exchange or between there and PlusNet. If that's the case, and congestion is the cause, then they need to get to grips with it! The vans say "Superfast Fibre Broadband" not "We Deliver Sluggish As A Swamp Web Surfing at 100Mbps"  - and re-branding them would be such a faff. Currently, websurfing is either embarrassingly or astonishingly superslow, depending on how you look at it. Quite an achievement; but not one to be welcomed.
Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Could you screen cap the slowness or anything so we can see it?  How slow is slow?  What delays are you seeing?  50secs to load a page?
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Gosh, yes, 50 secs would be slow, wouldn't it?...
What we're talking about is a sluggish internet browsing experience because the network isn't delivering, even though the fibre is.
I'm not clear how exactly it is intended to fit into any methodology, or whether you have some thresholds already in mind, but I've nevertheless taken the time to do a screen cast for you, as requested. I do hope my fear that it will simply provide a diversionary opportunity is unfounded.

http://www.screenr.com/8yOH

Throughput from TBB is only 76Mbps today. So about 14Mbps lower than it was. DNS is slower than it was too.
Attached screenshots (from a different machine) show (once again) the variable latency previously noted.
Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Those firebug screen grabs are showing something.  Odd!
The screencast is a bit of a green mess, but I think the firebugs are showing enough.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Green mess??!
It's actually Firefox's own network tool rather than Firebug. New in FF23. Very handy.
Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problem

The screen cast doesn't display properly for me?  It's all green and only updating small parts of the screen Smiley
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problem

Oooh; strange.
My turn to say it must be your computer?  Cheesy
Screenr's player has seemed to be very robust and lightweight across different environments, from my usage of it. Maybe it's just a temporary glitch. I did test it before posting the link. The capture dimensions are quite large, though.