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Sudden download speed drop

mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Sudden download speed drop

Hi,
Been a happy PlusNet customer for over a year, and very appreciative of the great balance of good service and good value they offer.
However, early last week for no apparent reason my download speeds suddenly plummeted. It's most obvious on P2P downloads, but as far as I can tell it's an across the board drop: if I'm downloading even a small file, the response time on even normal web pages drops noticeably until it's finished. Whereas I was once getting over 1MB/s during off-peak usage, it's dropped to about a tenth of that.
I've checked for malware and drawn a blank, looked at my network traffic with Wireshark and seen nothing untoward. I've tried different hours of the day and resetting my router, none of which has helped. I've also banned file uploading from my P2P software, and tried large, heavily seeded P2P files like Linux distros as a test and they're still maxing out at 100kp/s *at best* - it's often a tiny fraction of that, down at *less than a kilobyte per second*.
I'm using the supplied free PlusNet router and connecting via WiFi.
Has there been some change to the PlusNet terms as regarding P2P, or any service issues I need to be aware of?
Cheers,
Matt
18 REPLIES 18
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Hi Matt,
I'm sorry to hear that you're having issues with the speed of your downloads.
I've taken a look over your line and it doesn't show anything obvious 😕 We've not made any changes recently to the way that we handle and deal with P2P traffic.
Are there particular times of the day when this is worse than others? Would you mind providing us with the Wireshark Captures to take a look at please?
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Thanks for looking in.
It doesn't seem to be time related. At first I had assumed I was just hitting bad peak traffic, even though PlusNet has normally been pretty good at maximising speed during popular times. But it's been consistently bad for a week, hitting me whenever I use the internet. Although I do seem to get marginally better speeds at quieter times.
I can't post any captures at the moment as am at work Wink I was planning to run through the diagnostics when I got home, and raise a ticket, but I didn't know if you'd be able to get an answer by looking at my account. One thing that did surprise me was that my apparent usage seems to be rather higher than I had thought, given the limited speeds I've been hitting, so I guess it's possible there's some undetected malware process that's gobbling up my bandwidth Sad
Anyway, I can run Wireshark again later, and post a capture. If there's anything else you can examine while I'm stuck in the office, that'd be appreciated Smiley
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Thanks for posting back.
A Wireshark Capture when is most convenient for you would be great - if you could upload them to any hosting site like Dropbox, that'd be useful and I'll grab it from there. If the file is around 2MB you should be able to attach it to a ticket (preferable).
Let me know if you find anything though - feel free to just keep posing on this thread, the more information the better. I've looked on your account but can't spot anything obvious Sad
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Ok, the plot thickens.
I rebooted my machine last night, before running any more traces, because I hadn't done it in ages. After the reboot the speeds improved dramatically until Steam started downloading an update. Steam seems to get priority - which is fine - and got up to 1Mb/s which is also fine. But the weird thing is, the P2P download speed never recovered. I tried another reboot, but that didn't do anything either.
So here's a couple of wireshark traces - one last night and one from this morning. There's nothing running on the latter one except P2P.
http://1drv.ms/1gJq8uT
I hope there's enough to sort this out. It's driving me crazy Sad
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Sudden download speed drop

What happens to the P2P speeds when you stop using/downloading on Steam?
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Nothing, makes no difference. And I've been using Steam and P2P together for years without any issues. On the second Wireshark capture I had Steam turned off.
dick:quote
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
Fixes: 221
Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Hi mattdp,
It certainly sounds like traffic management is doing what it should from what it mentions.
Not that we don't trust your opinion but mind getting a copy of the wiresharks over to us so we can have a nosey?
Adam
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

You've got it - check the link further up. It's a SkyDrive folder with two Wireshark traces in it. Here's the link again
http://1drv.ms/1gJq8uT
dick:quote
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
Fixes: 221
Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Cheers mattdp,
I'm a little green (but will be learning more) when it comes to WC captures.
I'll sit down with Dave ASAP and let you know.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

OK, looking forward to seeing what you uncover.
Hope it's not something grindingly obvious that I've missed!
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Anything doing on this? I happened to be up at 5am today and had a quick check, and the download speeds are still terrible even then. So it'd definitely not a traffic issue. Steam was still switched off.
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
Fixes: 221
Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Hi Matt,
Not yet. I'll sit down with Dave when we're both free today. I'll get back to you afterwards.
EDIT:
FYI, just had a chat with Matt and Dave on our products team, Matt is kindly having a look through this now for me so one of us will get back to you shortly.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
mattturner
Grafter
Posts: 246
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎25-06-2009

Re: Sudden download speed drop

Hi Matt,
Would you be able to get us a longer Wireshark capture file please?
Preferably at least 5 minutes long, started about 30 seconds before you launch you BitTorrent client.
Thanks,
Matt
mattdp
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎19-05-2014

Re: Sudden download speed drop

I can do it tonight, but not right now. Given the amount if entries you get in a short capture, I had presumed a five-minutes capture would be way too verbose to be of much value Smiley
Is there anything suspicious in the data you do have?