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Random slow page loadings

FIXED
orby
Rising Star
Posts: 107
Thanks: 13
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎24-10-2009

Random slow page loadings

Hi there, for about the last 7 days I've noticed that quite randomly webpages can take longer to display, sometimes giving a brief warning on Chrome about being unable to resolve but then a few seconds later going to the page (Amazon UK being an example). It's very random and probably 85% of the time unnoticeable but sometimes bad for a period of an hour or two then it seems fine again.

I'm on FTTC for about 5 years, always rock solid, the TP Link W9980 modem never drops the connection, it connects successfully and reliably getting about 72mbps/18mbps in speed tests, but when the web page issues crop up the speed tests can be vary all over the place (fluctuating heavily while doing the speed test)

Same results on 3 windows 10 desktops, all hard wired, TP Link W9980 modem is wired direct to VDSL port at master socket (This was a BT installed VDSL / Phone socket back when BT installed fibre).

I get same results by using OpenDNS 208.67.222.222 · 208.67.220.220 on my router. All tests using wired ethernet, this is not a wifi issue and I doubt internal wiring issue as modem straight into VDLS port on master socket.

While not a show stopper, I thought I'd ask if anything could be going on at my exchange or connection to Plusnet. Thanks.

8 REPLIES 8
prosser99
Grafter
Posts: 66
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-02-2010

Re: Random slow page loadings

Hi,

I've seen similar/same for some time (and was also have a very slow connection from time to time) see my recent post 'Slow broadband and DNS issues'.

I did some nslookups when having the slow page load/DNS issues reported via browser and could see that there was a timeout occurring when trying to resolve.

I use a standard PlusNet router and have not changed any DNS settings.

I think my situation has improved since the suspicious outage I had for 3 hours in the early hours of Sunday morning, I suspect some work was being done which I've benefited from, but I am still seeing these DNS issues from time to time.

 

 

prosser99
Grafter
Posts: 66
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-02-2010

Re: Random slow page loadings

Correction - my outage was early hours of Friday morning 29/5.

balancedfire
Grafter
Posts: 25
Thanks: 6
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎15-01-2015

Re: Random slow page loadings

Have had some similar issues myself recently on various devices.

Try cloudfare's 1.1.1.1 DNS server

Also try 'netsh winsock reset' + 'ipconfig /flushdns' on Windows PCs to remove old DNS records and reset the winsock catalogue. Can help in some instances. 

orby
Rising Star
Posts: 107
Thanks: 13
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎24-10-2009

Re: Random slow page loadings

Well I tried various things and no real improvement, so I replaced the TP Link modem router (W9980) for a Draytek 2762 and since then (ony 2 days testing mind you) I haven't seen a single page loading delay or error. So I'm hoping it was my old modem router starting to misbehave.... I'll update this thread as things progress.

I got the Draytek from ebay second hand for £50 and it seems to perform slightly better than the TP Link.

orby
Rising Star
Posts: 107
Thanks: 13
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎24-10-2009

Re: Random slow page loadings

Hi, yes I tried those things and no change and I saw the same issues on 4 different computers so am sure it's not those... replacement router seems to have resolved it althougn only used the new modem for 2 days so might be a red herring.

prosser99
Grafter
Posts: 66
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-02-2010

Re: Random slow page loadings

Update from me ... i'll post this in my ticket too when its reopened tomorrow:

Openreach engineer arrived around 08:00 and did some line tests, no issues seen and a good rate reported.

I did some tests of my own which also showed good results.

During the day I had a couple of Zoom meetings which seemed to indicate an unstable connection, with colleagues unable to hear me without turning my video off. My Son may have been using face-time at the time but there would have be nothing more bandwidth consuming than that (no streaming video etc).

Into the evening speed continued to drop - 14.34Mbps/7.32Mbps at 18:18 and 1.32 Mbps/0Mbps? at 20:23:20

Router disconnected on its own 1/6/2020 @ 20:00 (suspicious time)

 

From the event logs (I assume 1h behind as UTC) >>>

19:00:05, 01 Jun. (6233004.400000) PPPoE is down after 690 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]


Once router returned (I have a report):

Download speed achieved during the test was 1.32 Mbps For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 20 - 38.67
Upload speed achieved during the test was 0 Mbps IP Profile for your line is 10 Mbps

 

I also did a nslookup which failed and worked OK later, shown here:

C:\Users\chris>nslookup www.autotrader.co.uk
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.254

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

 

Later

C:\Users\chris>nslookup www.autotrader.co.uk
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.254

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: prod.at2.p.autotrader.co.uk
Addresses: 2606:4700::6810:e650
2606:4700::6810:e550
104.16.230.80
104.16.229.80
Aliases: www.autotrader.co.uk


20:29  It seems to have returned to normal now
21:26 - slow for the line but stable (11.7 / 7.27 Mbps)

21:34 - 20.15 / 7.24 Mbps

orby
Rising Star
Posts: 107
Thanks: 13
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎24-10-2009

Re: Random slow page loadings

Have you got another modem you could try? 

Also maybe do a BT line test, dial 17070 and choose the 'quiet line' option which leaves the line connected without any dial tone, then listen for a minute, the line should be fairly clean and clear of crackles, it's a very basic test but a noisy scratchy line could indicate some issue.

Other things included plugging modem directly into the BT master test socket to elliminate any internal house wiring causing an issue.

 

Since replacing my modem router, I've had no further issues, it's only been 3 days since swapping the modem over but looking like a possible modem issue for me.

orby
Rising Star
Posts: 107
Thanks: 13
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎24-10-2009

Re: Random slow page loadings

Fix

Well I'm fairly certain this was a hardware issue with my TP Link W9980 starting to misbehave, since replacing for a Draytek 2762N I've not experienced any web page loading errors or delays. I also feel that overall web searching and page displays are a little quicker but that could be psychological because something has changed.

If anyone is considering getting a Draytek, I would certainly recommend, they're a bit more aimed at small business than home users but it can be set up fairly quickly to just work reliably.