Problems in Leeds

[FRY]

Hellooooo all

Since September been experiencing major low bandwidth and ping issues.
Lost count how many times i hav phoned NTL to complain about this but nothing seems 2 b getting sorted as 'we have no problems at our end'.
I know theres 80+ ppl in the LS13 region experiencing the same problem as me. I know its 2 do wiv the Upstream Congestion now that NTL hav stopped doing dial-up connections.


Sat, 6 Dec 2003 12:49:27 UTC
1st 128K took 14721 ms = 8904 Bytes/sec = approx 74 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 5769 ms = 22720 Bytes/sec = approx 189 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 5698 ms = 23003 Bytes/sec = approx 191 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 7591 ms = 17267 Bytes/sec = approx 144 kbits/sec


Thu, 4 Dec 2003 12:06:48 UTC
1st 128K took 6720 ms = 19505 Bytes/sec = approx 162 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 7551 ms = 17358 Bytes/sec = approx 144 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 9073 ms = 14446 Bytes/sec = approx 120 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 6128 ms = 21389 Bytes/sec = approx 178 kbits/sec


This trace was taken @ around 20:30pm:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\FRY>tracert 130.88.105.189

Tracing route to coolin.co.umist.ac.uk [130.88.105.189]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 121 ms 269 ms 189 ms 10.74.48.1
2 284 ms 187 ms 166 ms leed-t2cam1-a-ge-wan34-110.inet.ntl.com [80.0.54
.113]
3 239 ms 105 ms 271 ms leed-t2core-a-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.0.241.33
]
4 391 ms 135 ms 91 ms lee-bb-a-so-120-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.17]
5 174 ms 116 ms 65 ms pop-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.238]

6 114 ms 191 ms 321 ms tele-ic-1-so-000-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.82]

7 146 ms 159 ms 256 ms linx-gw2.ja.net [195.66.226.15]
8 220 ms 374 ms 120 ms gi4-0.lond-scr3.ja.net [146.97.35.129]
9 273 ms 134 ms 169 ms po6-0.read-scr.ja.net [146.97.33.13]
10 260 ms 167 ms 207 ms po3-0.warr-scr.ja.net [146.97.33.54]
11 136 ms 272 ms 133 ms po1-0.manchester-bar.ja.net [146.97.35.166]
12 77 ms 396 ms 171 ms gw-nnw.core.netnw.net.uk [146.97.40.202]
13 134 ms 136 ms 232 ms gw-man.netnw.net.uk [194.66.25.98]
14 132 ms 244 ms 150 ms gw-umist.netnw.net.uk [194.66.21.245]
15 430 ms 130 ms 145 ms coolin.co.umist.ac.uk [130.88.105.189]

Trace complete.


This was taken @ 12:30pm today:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\FRY>tracert 130.88.105.189

Tracing route to coolin.co.umist.ac.uk [130.88.105.189]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 224 ms 258 ms 150 ms 10.74.48.1
2 259 ms 236 ms 169 ms leed-t2cam1-a-ge-wan34-110.inet.ntl.com [80.0.54
.113]
3 537 ms 463 ms 179 ms leed-t2core-a-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.0.241.33
]
4 620 ms 500 ms 562 ms lee-bb-a-so-120-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.17]
5 381 ms 481 ms 485 ms pop-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.238]

6 568 ms 90 ms 674 ms tele-ic-1-so-000-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.82]

7 406 ms 258 ms 908 ms 212.250.14.34
8 1415 ms 495 ms 543 ms po3-0.lond-scr2.ja.net [146.97.35.137]
9 588 ms 215 ms 296 ms po5-0.read-scr.ja.net [146.97.33.5]
10 209 ms 98 ms 99 ms po3-0.warr-scr.ja.net [146.97.33.54]
11 399 ms 561 ms 82 ms po1-0.manchester-bar.ja.net [146.97.35.166]
12 985 ms 948 ms 284 ms gw-nnw.core.netnw.net.uk [146.97.40.202]
13 815 ms 94 ms 73 ms gw-man.netnw.net.uk [194.66.25.98]
14 145 ms 137 ms 464 ms gw-umist.netnw.net.uk [194.66.21.245]
15 810 ms 241 ms 51 ms coolin.co.umist.ac.uk [130.88.105.189]

Trace complete.


Usually the problems were between 8-12pm but latley thay hav been constant and at the moment online gaming is a definate NO no matter wot server i go on, i did hav a ping of about 30-50 and now its between 200-5500!


These r some of the reasons i hav heard on the other forums:

'LS13 and LS28 are experiencing problems in an evening, I have just spent all day chasing my arse on this one. After six o'clock the return path is dropping and killing all internet activity.... It is been looked into after a lot of lengthy phonecalls. Not to all customers in these areas, after spending all day in cabinets please bear with the problem for a little longer as it will be resolved as it has been escalated to management.
Thanks'

'Its probably a loose f-connector LOL
Blame the service techs for the whole upstream thing, it has nothing to do with the massive amount of new customers that have been connected in the last 3-4 months ?????'

'NOTE TO ALL CUSTOMERS IN LS13 AND LS28.....
There is currently a fault under investigation in these areas regarding the dropping of return path in the evenings.'

But its been 3 months with no change. Could i ask that they need to carry out resegmentation work on the UBR im connected to or couldnt they change my UBR (friend in Blackburn had same prob, changed his UBR he has no probs now).

Just wondering if any 1 can give me any ideas on how 2 fix this or any NTL Techs here can get this sorted 4 me? Because BT is looking far more appealing.

sry 4 the long post :)

Regards

FRY

[th'engineer]

If you could give some information of how you connect might be helpfull.

1. do you connect from the PC to Set Top Box or a Stand alone Cable Modem.

2. What do you use to connect ethernet card and Cable or Usb and cable.

3. What model of Set Top Box or Stand alone cable modem do you have Make and Model

BTW Welcome to the site

[th'engineer]

212.250.14.34 seems to be a problem but that is off the NTL network.
Get this from all net server can't find 34.14.250.212.in-addr.arpa: NXDOMAIN

On ping Ping coolin.co.umist.ac.uk (130.88.105.189)
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet lossHost reachable, average round-trip time: 86.243 ms

[Ignition]

inetnum: 212.250.14.0 - 212.250.15.255
netname: NTL
descr: NTL Infrastructure - Private Peering
country: GB

Not entirely sure what relevance of that is - some routers place ICMP echo on low priority as they have better things to do than respond to traceroutes, so long as the high pings don't persist after that hop all is fine.

I suppose connections dropping could cause issues, modems keep getting unbalanced when they come back on after being cut off, if a single upstream or 2 upstreams is dropping modems are going to go to whichever ones are still available when they lose their own one, this will certainly cause congestion.

No offense to Th'Eng but FRY please ignore Th'Eng's questions, this is either a long standing congestion problem, or upstreams are getting unbalanced due to the cutoffs you mentioned making modems re-range and cluttering up their new upstreams.

The solution to your issues depends on what they are. If it's just a case of load not being balanced properly, rebalancing can be done, doesn't take too long. If your entire physical 'microsegment' is full up, then either a resegmentation of the HFC network to increase the size of the microsegment so that load can be balanced across a wider area is need, quite time consuming and costly, RF upgrade work may be doable, very time consuming, not as costly, but in some cases just not possible depends on network, or a new uBR or CMTS card can be added to an existing one, and some load moved from current cards to new ones to spread load some more.

Not entirely sure what your issues are as I'm not at work + can't look, but best hope it's rebalancing ;)

[th'engineer]

inetnum: 212.250.14.0 - 212.250.15.255
netname: NTL
descr: NTL Infrastructure - Private Peering
country: GB

Not entirely sure what relevance of that is - some routers place ICMP echo on low priority as they have better things to do than respond to traceroutes, so long as the high pings don't persist after that hop all is fine.

I suppose connections dropping could cause issues, modems keep getting unbalanced when they come back on after being cut off, if a single upstream or 2 upstreams is dropping modems are going to go to whichever ones are still available when they lose their own one, this will certainly cause congestion.

No offense to Th'Eng but FRY please ignore Th'Eng's questions, this is either a long standing congestion problem, or upstreams are getting unbalanced due to the cutoffs you mentioned making modems re-range and cluttering up their new upstreams.

The solution to your issues depends on what they are. If it's just a case of load not being balanced properly, rebalancing can be done, doesn't take too long. If your entire physical 'microsegment' is full up, then either a resegmentation of the HFC network to increase the size of the microsegment so that load can be balanced across a wider area is need, quite time consuming and costly, RF upgrade work may be doable, very time consuming, not as costly, but in some cases just not possible depends on network, or a new uBR or CMTS card can be added to an existing one, and some load moved from current cards to new ones to spread load some more.

Not entirely sure what your issues are as I'm not at work + can't look, but best hope it's rebalancing ;)
Thank you for your analysis of the problem, as you can understand was trying to ascertain that there was not any other related problem in the set UP.

I was going to suggest that the Basics have to be checked first , Virus or other programs running at the same time. Also that it was not a USB or a power levels problem.

But of course you deal with the network every day and are a proffessional .

So i bow out to your knowledge