Akamai and streaming data - traffic management problem(s) are NOT fixed :-(
In fact, not only is the most recent traffic management problem most definitely NOT FIXED despite service.status claims to the contrary, it is actually significantly worse tonight than it has been earlier in the week ... and it was way bad enough then !!!
Streaming media (and 4oD in particular) is 100% unusable tonight as opposed to most things being around 90% unusable for significant periods of time as they have been since the problem first started. As per bleedin' usual, this problem very much appears to be due solely to PN quite unreasonably and totally unjustifiably throttling AKAMAI traffic to near zero data transfer rates for some (but not necessarily all) users
The following netmeter graph demonstrates and positively confirms the problem occurring right now:
Do you see that tiny weeny little line showing data transfer at sub dial-up speeds ? Well that's Akamai streaming video data for 4oD programmes, all 4oD programmes that I've tried. The other somewhat more reasonable looking data transfer is for certain adverts and general web traffic etc. In addition to this, some adverts from some other Ad houses and/or media hosts are simply not working at all so there is either just a great long pause of nothingness where the relevant Ad servers should be sending data or the expected adverts are missing completely.
Streaming data in general (and 40D in particular) has once again been virtually unusable ever since this repeat performance of previous remarkably similar problems occurred. Somewhere around 2 seconds of video followed by around10 secs of buffering (repeated ad infinitum for ALL programmes tried) tends to somewhat spoil the overall viewing experience and all that
EDIT:
The Akamai server used above was "b.scorecardresearch.com" [84.53.138.27 or 84.53.138.32] AKA "a1294.w20.akamai.net"
PLEASE ALSO NOTE before adding "everything is working perfectly OK for me" stylee comments that some users may be fortunate enough to not be suffering with the latest problem(s) and in addition, some 4oD programmes being streamed to some users may also be being served from totally different sources. Just because everything is working for you doesn't mean that it's working for everyone else
Streaming media (and 4oD in particular) is 100% unusable tonight as opposed to most things being around 90% unusable for significant periods of time as they have been since the problem first started. As per bleedin' usual, this problem very much appears to be due solely to PN quite unreasonably and totally unjustifiably throttling AKAMAI traffic to near zero data transfer rates for some (but not necessarily all) users
The following netmeter graph demonstrates and positively confirms the problem occurring right now:
Do you see that tiny weeny little line showing data transfer at sub dial-up speeds ? Well that's Akamai streaming video data for 4oD programmes, all 4oD programmes that I've tried. The other somewhat more reasonable looking data transfer is for certain adverts and general web traffic etc. In addition to this, some adverts from some other Ad houses and/or media hosts are simply not working at all so there is either just a great long pause of nothingness where the relevant Ad servers should be sending data or the expected adverts are missing completely.
Streaming data in general (and 40D in particular) has once again been virtually unusable ever since this repeat performance of previous remarkably similar problems occurred. Somewhere around 2 seconds of video followed by around10 secs of buffering (repeated ad infinitum for ALL programmes tried) tends to somewhat spoil the overall viewing experience and all that
EDIT:
The Akamai server used above was "b.scorecardresearch.com" [84.53.138.27 or 84.53.138.32] AKA "a1294.w20.akamai.net"
PLEASE ALSO NOTE before adding "everything is working perfectly OK for me" stylee comments that some users may be fortunate enough to not be suffering with the latest problem(s) and in addition, some 4oD programmes being streamed to some users may also be being served from totally different sources. Just because everything is working for you doesn't mean that it's working for everyone else
It's a long shot but have you rebooted since the issues last week?
You could still be on a default traffic management profile which would explain the Streaming throttling you are seeing?
Alex
You could still be on a default traffic management profile which would explain the Streaming throttling you are seeing?
Alex
Hmmmm *good* point, I generally try a quicky PPP termination and re-establish a shiny new connection first before whining profusely but have to admit that I haven't done on this particular occasion 
Thanks will try a bit later on to see if changing gateway and/or obtaining a 'new' TM profile helps in any way at all. It hasn't on all previous occasions that this recurring problem with Akamai and Premier A/C users in particular has cropped up ... but PN and Traffic Management work in mysterious ways and all that so you never know !
Thanks
will try a bit later on to see if changing gateway and/or obtaining a 'new' TM profile helps in any way at all. It hasn't on all previous occasions that this recurring problem with Akamai and Premier A/C users in particular has cropped up ... but PN and Traffic Management work in mysterious ways and all that so you never know !
Tracert to Akamai server on the original PPP connection used for above graph:
I have no idea why tracerts are occasionally different when performing multiple checks but this could well be indicative of an associated PN DNS issue as has also occurred recently for several other domains and has occurred previously for various channel4 domains.
Trtacert to Akamai server on shiny new PPP connection:
RESULT: No significant difference and if anything the problem(s) are marginally worse on the new connection when compared to the transfer rates shown in my first post General data transfer rate is somewhat lower and more erratic than previously for most things and especially so for the all-important streaming data from Akamai.
Apparently there are exactly the same problem(s) with ITVplayer and BBC iplayer whilst working somewhat better is still considerably lower quality than usual and has frequent pauses for buffering. Generally speaking, streaming video is still completely stuffed during peak hours no matter what ... but it will no doubt be reasonably OK again just after midnight when traffic management changes take place ... so watch this space for the evidence to most likely prove it
This is almost certainly yet another repeat performance of numerous previous problems where Akamai data in particular is being quite intentionally and totally unreasonably killed by PN for some users on some A/C types .
Nice one PN ... Grrrrrrrrrrrr
1 0 ms 192.168.1.1 Router-adsl
2 32 ms 195.166.130.73 lo0-central4.ptn-ag01.plus.net
3 46 ms 84.93.253.3 - - -
4 * * no response * - - -
5 32 ms 195.166.129.39 po2.ptw-gw02.plus.net
6 * * no response * - - -
7 31 ms 84.53.138.27 - - -
-or-
1 0 ms 192.168.1.1 Router-adsl
2 31 ms 195.166.130.73 lo0-central4.ptn-ag01.plus.net
3 32 ms 84.93.253.3 - - -
4 * * no response * - - -
5 31 ms 88.221.84.42 a88-221-84-42.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com
I have no idea why tracerts are occasionally different when performing multiple checks but this could well be indicative of an associated PN DNS issue as has also occurred recently for several other domains and has occurred previously for various channel4 domains.
Trtacert to Akamai server on shiny new PPP connection:
1 0 ms 192.168.1.1 Router-adsl
2 32 ms 195.166.128.202 lo0-central1.ptn-ag01.plus.net
3 47 ms 84.92.3.137 gi2-6-111.ptn-gw01.plus.net
4 * * no response * - - -
5 * * no response * - - -
6 31 ms 212.159.1.135 po4.ptw-gw02.plus.net
7 * * no response * - - -
8 47 ms 84.53.138.27 - - -
RESULT: No significant difference and if anything the problem(s) are marginally worse on the new connection when compared to the transfer rates shown in my first post
General data transfer rate is somewhat lower and more erratic than previously for most things and especially so for the all-important streaming data from Akamai.Apparently there are exactly the same problem(s) with ITVplayer and BBC iplayer whilst working somewhat better is still considerably lower quality than usual and has frequent pauses for buffering. Generally speaking, streaming video is still completely stuffed during peak hours no matter what ... but it will no doubt be reasonably OK again just after midnight when traffic management changes take place ... so watch this space for the evidence to most likely prove it
This is almost certainly yet another repeat performance of numerous previous problems where Akamai data in particular is being quite intentionally and totally unreasonably killed by PN for some users on some A/C types .
Nice one PN ... Grrrrrrrrrrrr
Well guess what ... yup, it's now just after midnight and 4oD is making a halfway reasonable attempt at working 
HOWEVER, performance is still poor even compared to what I would consider as 'normal' relatively poor performance when using PN.
No further changes in gateway or indeed anything else whatsoever from earlier on but exactly the same programme streaming now looks like this:
Still pretty poor really with significantly lower BW than is usual for PN and not even remotely close to what is actually appropriate for my connection when downloading data from Akamai servers of course.
BTW, the last identical occurrence of this particular problem was reported HERE and if my logfiles are anything to go by, a good many peeps have been reading this ancient old thread just recently, presumably after searching for "4oD streaming problems" or similar. There is quite obviously absolutely no way anyone would be reading a 9 month old message board thread over the past week for the first time in 9 months ... unless they just happened to have stumbled across it whilst looking for any information about similar problems ! Kinda proves that a good many other users are also experiencing these problems but are not actually posting about them doesn't it ?
I wonder when PN are going to learn to:
(a) Not quite intentionally break websites who pay no doubt very large sums of money to the likes of Akamai in order to ensure that their content is delivered to their customers at full speed, top quality and without any undue performance issues in general ?
(b) Having been found out breaking things once again, acknowledge the c*ckup immediately and then fix the fundamental problem in a timely manner without any totally unnecessary arguments, denials, excuses or finger pointing to "our suppliers" or whatever ?
(c) Test things properly before hitting that big shiny 'deploy' button to avoid dumping a whole load of untested tweaks and/or other problems on unsuspecting paying customers ?
@veryangry: I'm sure your user name says it all - and quite rightly so - however I would strongly suspect that your problems are primarily down to something else such as a genuine line fault or some weird setup/configuration problem. The problem discussed in this thread is most likely to only be affecting users with old accounts and in any case it is really only seriously affecting data coming from quite specific sources. If your connection speed or download rate is varying wildly as you mention in the other thread then this would tend to suggest a much more fundamental problem with your connection in general. Hope you can get it sorted very soon
HOWEVER, performance is still poor even compared to what I would consider as 'normal' relatively poor performance when using PN.No further changes in gateway or indeed anything else whatsoever from earlier on but exactly the same programme streaming now looks like this:
Still pretty poor really with significantly lower BW than is usual for PN and not even remotely close to what is actually appropriate for my connection when downloading data from Akamai servers of course.
BTW, the last identical occurrence of this particular problem was reported HERE and if my logfiles are anything to go by, a good many peeps have been reading this ancient old thread just recently, presumably after searching for "4oD streaming problems" or similar. There is quite obviously absolutely no way anyone would be reading a 9 month old message board thread over the past week for the first time in 9 months ... unless they just happened to have stumbled across it whilst looking for any information about similar problems ! Kinda proves that a good many other users are also experiencing these problems but are not actually posting about them doesn't it ?
I wonder when PN are going to learn to:
(a) Not quite intentionally break websites who pay no doubt very large sums of money to the likes of Akamai in order to ensure that their content is delivered to their customers at full speed, top quality and without any undue performance issues in general ?
(b) Having been found out breaking things once again, acknowledge the c*ckup immediately and then fix the fundamental problem in a timely manner without any totally unnecessary arguments, denials, excuses or finger pointing to "our suppliers" or whatever ?
(c) Test things properly before hitting that big shiny 'deploy' button to avoid dumping a whole load of untested tweaks and/or other problems on unsuspecting paying customers ?
@veryangry: I'm sure your user name says it all - and quite rightly so - however I would strongly suspect that your problems are primarily down to something else such as a genuine line fault or some weird setup/configuration problem. The problem discussed in this thread is most likely to only be affecting users with old accounts and in any case it is really only seriously affecting data coming from quite specific sources. If your connection speed or download rate is varying wildly as you mention in the other thread then this would tend to suggest a much more fundamental problem with your connection in general. Hope you can get it sorted very soon
Hi cmarks,
This type of thing could have many causes. More information would help. what radio station are you streaming? What time is it happening? How often does it happen? Is there anything else running on your computer that may slow it down? Have you tried running it with no other programs, tabs or browsers open? That's not an exhaustive list but as much information as possible would help.
Jojo
This type of thing could have many causes. More information would help. what radio station are you streaming? What time is it happening? How often does it happen? Is there anything else running on your computer that may slow it down? Have you tried running it with no other programs, tabs or browsers open? That's not an exhaustive list but as much information as possible would help.
Jojo