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Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Hi,
The following has been working flawlessly for the past 3 months without any issues:
2 x Fibre lines installed, both lines reaching speeds around 73 - 80 mbit down with 16 - 18 mbit up.
I have my firewall set that all NNTP traffic using port 443 goes out of line 1 and all NNTP traffic using port 563 goes out of line 2.
I have two SSL Astraweb accounts using port (you’ve guessed it..) 443 and 563 separately.
The above gives me a crude yet very stable load balanced SSL NNTP solution yielding around 150 - 160 mbit on any given download.
HOWEVER… a couple of days ago this suddenly (and without warning) dropped to 100 mbit (pretty much exactly)… which leads me to believe packet shaping is processing my traffic. Also, both lines still report speed tests around 73+ mbit.
I’ve tried a new Fibre router, different clients running the NNTP client on the same and other PCs & Macs all with the same result.
I’ve even tried new NNTP unlimited accounts with new providers to rule out Astraweb causing the issue.
What;s weird, is that a single line will run quite happily at 70 + mbits and when I turn on the other line, the fist line drops to around 45 -50 and the second does the same.
Nothing has changed at my end and I have removed and added the Pro setting on the Add-ons page (for both accounts) in the vain hope this may reset my account back to the unlimited status it should have.
I’ve opened a support call but I just received a stock email stating my configuration isn’t supported (i’ve had the same setup through ADSL & ADSL2 without any issues)… They have asked me to send them a wireshark capture which I’ve tried to do but due to the very tiny file sizes allowed through the portal this hasn’t been possible.
Does anyone here know what might be causing the issue and what the best way round trying to get this fixed is please?
Many Thanks for your help,
Cheers,
Martin
17 REPLIES 17
indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Update… I’ve just checked both Speedtest.net & speediest.btwholesale.com and both of my lines are running at around 50 mbits.
Weirdly this wasn’t the case a few hours ago… I will update this in the support information in case it’s relevant.
indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

An hour later the speeds pm both lines were back up to 70+ mbit. I wonder if I have a line fault?
adie:quote
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Could be line fault or cabinet contention - heck could even be a bit of moisture in your connectors leading to crosstalk.
Fingers crossed it was a random glitch though.
indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

The line speed seems to be all over the place. What is constant though is my NNTP downloads stuck at 100 mbit.
Nothing yet from support but it has been a bank holiday weekend and I’m guessing they are getting through the barrage of support calls as quickly as they can...
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Could it be your NNTP restricting you to 50Mb per connection ?
Also, is your switch operating in gigabit mode ? If you're transferring compressed data you'll see more than 100Mb through a 100Mb switch (compressed at one end and decompressed at the other) but already compressed material will max out the 100Mb switch (badly explained but you will hopefully get the gist !)
indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Hey Dom,
Thanks for getting back to me…
As posted, if I use one line by itself I can get the full 70 - 75 mbit (NNTP traffic)… If I swap over to the other line, I get the same.
If I then activate both lines I can only get 100 mbit.
To rule out Astraweb, I bought two new NNTP server accounts and got the same results.
I’ve tried a different router with the same outcome.
I’ve tried a different client with the same outcome.
I’ve also tried two different hosts (PC & Mac) with the same outcome.
My switch is a Cisco 2960 (running all ports as gigabyte and currently on a flat network (i.e. no vlans))…. I’ve connected directly (just in case) and I get the same outcome.
The only place the restriction can be is with the ISP… Unless you can think of anything else?
How can I escalate this call through the support portal to the 3rd line engineers? I’m more than happy to work with them as I keep getting fobbed of by the help desk crew.
Answers on a postcard please.
Cheers,
Martin

PS this has now been capped down to 30 - 50mbit with both lines connected but 70 - 75 with one line by itself! Go figure
PPS I enabled the Pro add on , on both lines to hopefully reset my firewall traffic profile. No change.
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

I'm out of ideas I'm afraid - only other thing is what is the CPU usage at full pelt ? No bottlenecks on your client network card / CPU etc ?
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Do you have any alternative NNTP servers to test?
It could be traffic shaping - http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/traffic_management.shtml
Are both connections on the same gateway? You can check here http://usertools.plus.net/@gateway/
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Sorry if this has already been answered but what happens if you max one line out using NNTP and then download something via HTTP on the other line, do you see the speed stop at 100Mb/s again?
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Also can you double check that both of the connections are logged in with the realm of @plusdsl.net after the username.
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the responses… I’ve answered them in order:
The CPU of the dual wan router is around 5% with 60% memory usage (the memory usage seems constant whatever the situation). The host is a quad core i7 media PC with 16GB ram and reasonably fast hard drives. As mentioned, I’ve also tested this on my Mac using a different news client (SABnzbd) and I get there same.
I’ve tried astraweb on 443 with astraweb on 553 (with all traffic on 443 going though line 1 and all traffic on 563 going through line 2). I’ve also tried the same but with easynews & astraweb.. plus the same again with one other (I cannot remember the name at present).
Both lines are on different gateways:
Line 1:
  IP: 81.174.138.169
  Gateway: 195.166.130.151
  pcl-bng02 (City Lifeline House)

Line 2:
  IP: 81.174.133.170
  Gateway: 195.166.128.171
  ptn-bng01 (Telehouse North)
I’ve just checked the NNTP and HTTP traffic and the NNTP connection DOES slow down whilst the HTTP traffic is downloading (as in they both still only make up 100 mbit) using the following load balancing:
Port 553 - Line 1
Port 443 - Line 2
Port 80 - Line 2
I’ve also just changed the realm on the second line login from @plus.net to @plusdsl.net and rebooted the router… however there is no change.
What I have noticed since the speed drop is that when NewsBin Pro used to connect it would speed jump up as follows:
50mbit -> 90mbit ->130 mbit -> 155/160mbit
Now the speed jumps as follows:
25mbit -> 50mbit -> 75mbit -> 90/100 mbit
I have to stress that nothing has changed on my end… this just started one day out of the blue.
Chris… can you please help as it’s driving me nuts and has been happening now for quite awhile.
Many Thanks in advance to all you guys for taking the time to help.
Cheers,
Martin



indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

PS Let me know if you need my contact details?
Acassim
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,075
Registered: ‎11-06-2007

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Hi indigoblue73,
Sorry to see you're having problems with this however I must stress that while we will try and help where we can, this is outside of the support remit given the complex nature of what is, in essence, a form of bonded line which is something that we both do not sell and also do not support.
I noted that you mentioned you're able to hit the upper limit of the connections individually so it seems that the services are working fine and the correct traffic profile is set respectively on each account, given that this doesn't change on the fly it doesn't sound like there is a restriction from the traffic management platform.
Taking this into account, has there been anything raised with the usenet provider/s in question to see if they have any restriction in place on their side with regards to the amount of traffic they will/can allow through across all threads your plan allows?
indigoblue73
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎25-08-2014

Re: Twin Unlimited Fibre hit by Traffic Shaping

Hi Adam,
Thanks for getting back to me… this is also effecting HTTP & HTTPS traffic not just NNTP:
"I’ve just checked the NNTP and HTTP traffic and the NNTP connection DOES slow down whilst the HTTP traffic is downloading (as in they both still only make up 100 mbit) using the following load balancing:
Port 553 - Line 1
Port 443 - Line 2
Port 80 - Line 2"

What’s strange though is that I’ve made no changes at my end and don’t understand why this has started happening?
There’s nothing complicated about the setup and as you say both lines will reach their intended maximums…The lines are not bonded just port load balanced through the same router (all I’m doing is sending one port down one line and another port down the other).
It’s not a restriction at the news provider end (if you read the thread above you will see I’ve tried different providers).
Please help me sort this out as I bought two lines for a reason… (plus I’ve bought the Pro Add on).
All the history of what’s been tried and tested is above this message… Can you please have this escalated to a member of your 3rd line team who I’m sure won’t take long to get to the bottom of this and get it sorted out.
Many Thanks,
Martin