Slow internet
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: There and here
Slow internet
Since yesterday one's home internet has inexplicably slowed down, often pages take 20secs plus to fully load (photos), compared with whoosh! as before. It seems to be on all the websites visited and I have the feeling that it's a network problem rather than my router or computer. When using websites that geo-locate you I seem to be in South Korea rather than the UK as before 
Are there any known slowdowns on the WWW at the moment ?
SHJ
Are there any known slowdowns on the WWW at the moment ?
SHJ
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,156
Likes: 113
From: There and here
I reset the router, did a purge on the browser and it's still slow. Every page starts as normal...whoosh! and then and then it loads reeeaaaalllllyyyy slowly, hanging almost tai chi like. Geo-location has me back in 'Old Blighty', shame I didn't get to have some Kim Chee (or whatever her name is!)
SHJ
SHJ
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
Are there any known slowdowns on the WWW at the moment ?
It's either
(a) contention/packet shaping / rate limiting at your ISP or your home setup is broken somehow
(b) DDoS or other against the website you are trying to visit
(c) DDoS againt Root DNS / other key infrastructure
99.9999% of the time, it's going to be (a).
00.0001% of the time, it's going to be (b).
(c) is highly unlikely, there's so much resilience and redundancy at that level.
So, having carefully checked your home network, next step would be to have good talk to your ISP. Also check sites such as ADSLGuide (aka thinkbroadband) for moans from other users of the same ISP.
Last edited by mixture; 14th May 2012 at 19:01.
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,156
Likes: 113
From: There and here
As per usual mr mixture you have educated me and baffled me in short shrift 
It would seem to have been a) as the most likely cause, as one is back up to top 
speed again after 2 days of stuttering and lagging.
SHJ
It would seem to have been a) as the most likely cause, as one is back up to top speed again after 2 days of stuttering and lagging.SHJ
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
SpringHeeledJack
Oh dear. Sorry.
At least you're not alone, I had great difficulty the other day explaining to a Windows user why the default IPv6 settings on their machine was causing problems on their local IPv4 network.
Its one of those frustrations of computing that most seemingly simple concepts are actually composed of a number of technical elements, which makes plain English descriptions difficult.
Someone could get very rich if they figured out a way to describe techy stuff in plain English. I've looked at things like the "For Dummies" guide and they're not really that plain English either.
Oh well... maybe next time I'll use an illustration instead.... pictures & thousand words as they say !
Oh dear. Sorry.
At least you're not alone, I had great difficulty the other day explaining to a Windows user why the default IPv6 settings on their machine was causing problems on their local IPv4 network.
Its one of those frustrations of computing that most seemingly simple concepts are actually composed of a number of technical elements, which makes plain English descriptions difficult.
Someone could get very rich if they figured out a way to describe techy stuff in plain English. I've looked at things like the "For Dummies" guide and they're not really that plain English either.
Oh well... maybe next time I'll use an illustration instead.... pictures & thousand words as they say !
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 81
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From: UK
Contention is a big issue and does vary with ISPs . You can check whether you exchange has LLU enabled and whether your ISP has installed their own kit . The excahang I use has some Talk Talk kit installed and their users do seem to suffer less than the rest of us .
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
I concurr with what HuntandFish says.
Wherever possible you should always favour an LLU broadband connection over what is essentially just a rebranded BT connection resold by the multitude of other broadband providers.
One of the key selling points of the LLU networks from day one has been lower contention and less traffic shaping.
They can do this because they are not constrained by BT's exorbitant pricing structure (save for the kit housing and backhaul fees).
ISPs reselling BT's product have little choice but to accept the high contention, both because it's part of the BT service specification, but also because BT bill them a large sum per GB of data transferred. Therefore it is in their commercial interests to maximise revenue generated per GB of data in order to at the very least break-even, if not profit ... albeit modestly, the margins are tight given the race to the bottom that's been going on with broadband pricing !
To this day, there remain only a small handful of LLU broadband ISPs. If your ISP is not on that list, then no matter what the sales rep tries to tell you, you're just getting a rebranded BT package (unless they're reselling someone else's LLU... in which case you're better off going direct as you won't need to play ping-pong with the middleman during support calls).
If you're unfortunate enough not to have the LLU option, whatever you do, don't go direct to BT (unless you enjoy dealing with lousy script reading support callcentres in the Far East). Go with a customer focused ISP such as Zen that's got a support centre in the UK and who know how to whip the BT behemoth into action.
Wherever possible you should always favour an LLU broadband connection over what is essentially just a rebranded BT connection resold by the multitude of other broadband providers.
One of the key selling points of the LLU networks from day one has been lower contention and less traffic shaping.
They can do this because they are not constrained by BT's exorbitant pricing structure (save for the kit housing and backhaul fees).
ISPs reselling BT's product have little choice but to accept the high contention, both because it's part of the BT service specification, but also because BT bill them a large sum per GB of data transferred. Therefore it is in their commercial interests to maximise revenue generated per GB of data in order to at the very least break-even, if not profit ... albeit modestly, the margins are tight given the race to the bottom that's been going on with broadband pricing !
To this day, there remain only a small handful of LLU broadband ISPs. If your ISP is not on that list, then no matter what the sales rep tries to tell you, you're just getting a rebranded BT package (unless they're reselling someone else's LLU... in which case you're better off going direct as you won't need to play ping-pong with the middleman during support calls).
If you're unfortunate enough not to have the LLU option, whatever you do, don't go direct to BT (unless you enjoy dealing with lousy script reading support callcentres in the Far East). Go with a customer focused ISP such as Zen that's got a support centre in the UK and who know how to whip the BT behemoth into action.
Last edited by mixture; 15th May 2012 at 10:56.
