Slow Internet performance – Optus Fusion Broadband in Brisbane

[Dennis]

Hello,

This past week we have been experiencing very slow broadband performance at home, in a random or ad hoc fashion. Sometimes it picks up and performs normally, but mostly it is very slow and today all my e-mail downloaded twice. We have only used 5% of our monthly data allowance so there is no speed throttling going on - well at least not customer caused throttling!:P

Is anyone else experiencing similar issues with Optus in this area as the system is basically unusable at the moment? It took me some 5 to 10 minutes to post this message…waiting for web pages to change/update/respond to my mouse clicks and keystrokes.

I tend not to bother ‘phoning Optus, because they always start off with “it must be my computer” even though we have the same problem with all 3 WinXP PCs and an iMac…

I have re-booted the PCs, powered off the Router and Modem, waited the obligatory 60 seconds before powering on again, ad nauseam!

I’m even having problems trying to access the Optus Speed Test site and my CISCO Network Magic Internet Speed Test (eventually) indicates a download speed of a pedestrian 45.9 KB/sec transfer rate whereas it is usually around 3 to 5 Mbps.:shrug:


Luckily I have a good balance between on-line and other non-digital activities, so I can do other things whilst Optus sorts itself out…:lol:

Thanks

Dennis

[Exfso]

Sounds like there is too many users for the available bandwidth. I had the same problem here with BigPong. Gave them the flick and went back to my old ISP, back up to full speed and at the same exchange as BigPong. Obviously the original ISP equipment is superior to that of Telstra. I was getting 56kbps a lot of the time with Bigpong and when I changed back to my old ISP, back up to 950kbs. Had both connected on ADSL2+ go figure...:screwy:

[Dennis]

Thanks Peter. I guess that I'll just monitor the situation and I can always jump onto my iPad2 using the 3G network when I get frustrated.

Cheers

Dennis (sent from my iPad)

[Tandum]

Dennis, connect to http://speedtest.net and check your speed when it is ok and when it is bad, get the figures and complain. If they don't fix it go to the ombudsman and complain. Optus overload their network and shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. I'm on uncapped adsl1, unlimited TPG and I fully expect 1/3 of full speed in the evenings during peak. Optus is often crap during the day which is unreasonable.

[Dennis]

Thanks Robin – that sounds like a good plan! :thumbsup:

It is slightly more responsive this morning, but still way underperforming compared to historical performance.:(

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Well, the saga continues.

First of all, the good news.:)

When I ‘phoned Optus, I was speaking with a person within 15 seconds after I had navigated my way through all the recorded messages and made the appropriate selections.
The Optus Rep was helpful but could not fix the problem and so booked a service call for the next day.
Approx 30 mins later an Optus Tech ‘phoned back just to run through the fault scenario again to re-check some details.
The next day an Optus Tech arrived, climbed the ladder, did some stuff up the telegraph pole, replaced the Modem and the problem (appeared) fixed.

Now the bad news....:sadeyes:
The 2nd day after, I could not reliably connect to the internet from 6:00am to around 8:30am (drop outs and poor performance) and then suddenly it was all good, all day long. I captured screen prints during the morning’s poor performance session.
The 3rd day after, the same thing. Problems connecting between 6:00am and around 8:00am so I called Optus again and once again got through very quickly and am now waiting for an Optus Tech to visit once more.
The performance was so poor this morning I could not even access the Optus speed test page to grab screen prints of the performance.
In terms of getting hold of Optus and speaking to people, it has been good, as has the quick turn out of the Optus Tech, so far.

It’s just a pity that their network does not appear to be stable.:(

Cheers

Dennis

[Rick Petrie]

That last speedtest result has a very good download speed. The upload speed could be a little better though. That result shows for ADSL2+ you must be either close to your exchange and have reasonable cabling to your house. This shows what your line speed is capable of so Optus should be able to stabilise this for you.
I had a similar experience with Telstra Bigpond and knew what speeds I should have been getting. Turns out in my case that they reconnected me for some strange reason to a faulty DSLAM port at the exchange. After hounding them I was reconnected by a techo to a decent port...problem fixed?
Be a squeaky wheel and stay on their case Dennis. :thumbsup: Good luck.

[Dennis]

Thanks Rick!:thumbsup:

It seems odd that the problem on 23rd and 24th May seems to have been limited to between approx. 6:00am and 8:30am ‘ish, after which normal performance returned? Last night (Wed 23rd) was unusable from around 9:00pm, but I thought that might be due to folks streaming State of Origin over the internet?

Oh well, the Optus Tech is due between 12 noon and 4:00pm today so lets see what he/she can tweak up the telegraph pole.:lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[Rick Petrie]

Dennis, if Optus are overloading their bandwidth as said before it is definitely a case for the ombudsman.
There is definitely a major problem if you are getting those two earlier poor download speeds as opposed to the really good one. If your linespeed is extremely good as indicated, the worst you could expect during peak periods is about half the download speed, which would be acceptable at about 9000kb/s with ADSL2+.
Cheers Rick. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Hi Rick

Well the Optus Tech arrived and I showed him the screen captures of the poor performance. It was fortunate that I had recorded that data as the (remote) Optus folks on the end of the ‘phone only had their local data and could not see the problem!:(

It seems that the end user experience, of having reasonably stable system performance over 5 or 6 years, then comparing it to this sudden blip over the past week or so, carries little if any weight? I’m not sure if that is just the result of the data they have access to, or whether they generally classify users as lacking the technical skills to contribute any “objective” input?:shrug:

Anyhow, the on-site Tech could see there was a problem from the screen prints, inspected the Optus box on the side of the house and changed some internal components. So, we’ve now had the telegraph pole mounted stuff overhauled, the box-on-the-wall innards overhauled and the Modem replaced. So far, it all looks good.:)

It was interesting that after the first on-site call, the Optus speed test which used to hover between 3 and 9 Mbps began to report 18 to 19 Mbps and we have not changed our plan.:shrug:

Overall, the folks on the ‘phone at Optus were easy to reach and as helpful as their systems and data allowed and the on-site Optus Techs were excellent and always arrived within the specified time slot.

I hope the problem is now finally fixed….:prey:

One thing that I was unaware of is that apparently, when I power off the PC and all attached devices every evening, this causes history data to be lost so Optus cannot look back at signal quality.

Cheers

Dennis

PS – we are on the Optus 'yes' Fusion $79 Plan

[Rick Petrie]

Sounds good Dennis. Hope all is well and you maintain that high download speed, as 18 to 19 Mbps is approaching the top end of speed for ADSL2+.
I am approx. 1.3 Km from our exchange and average between 14 and 15 Mbps on ADSL2+.
Anything above 8 Mbps with most ISP's would be acceptable download speed for ADSL2+.
Cheers

[gary]

Hi Rick,

Hope you have been keeping well.

As Dennis mentioned that the technician "inspected the Optus box on the
side of the house", from that I would deduce he would have an Optus cable
service, possibly connected to their hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network in
Brisbane, rather than a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection over the
switched public telephone network.

Dennis could possibly confirm that he has a cable connection and not ADSL2.

If he does have cable, then a comparison to what can be expected with best case
ADSL/ADSL2/ADSL2+ speeds would not be applicable with regards the problem
he experienced.

On the Optus site for the plan in question, I could not spot any quoted data rate,
only that it would be throttled to 250kbps once one exceeded the data quota of 120GB a month.
https://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadband/fusion/broadbandplan/79

[Dennis]

Hi Gary

Yes – we are plain, vanilla Cable Broadband as far as I know. We have the 'yes' Fusion Broadband + Home Phone Plan with a 120Gb monthly limit and typically use only around 5% per accounting period.

I have also been lurking on the Whirlpool Forum, browsing some recent posts where it seems several Optus customers are experiencing similar problems.

Cheers

Dennis

[Rick Petrie]

Yes Gary have been good thanks.:thumbsup:
I think Gary is correct on this being a cable connection Dennis and not DSL. Different speeds are available on cable and usually higher than DSL. I should have picked up on that when you mentioned the Optus Box on your house. It definitely wouldn't be acceptable getting those low download speeds however considering if it is cable service.
Anyway hope all is now good.:)

[Dennis]

Hi Rick

No worries, thanks for your kind help with our comms problem. We are fortunate that it has only proven mildly frustrating, as we have many old fashioned analogue pursuits that can stimulate and occupy us when the digital world is down!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[gary]

Good evening Dennis, Rick,

Found this user contributed page on Whirlpool that suggested that the
original Optus cable could technically, support "20Mbps (or approx.
2.5MB/sec) downstream and 512Kbps (64KB/sec) upstream."

But it adds the caveat that "Practically, it varies and it should be between
500KB/s and 1MB/sec And it depends on a lot of other factors, like where you
are downloading from, how many people on the same node as yours, etc."

See http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/onc_speed

So hopefully now that the technician has overhauled several components,
it will be all fixed for you now ... touch wood. :)

It is amazing how pervasive the Internet has become in the daily lives
of so many people in the developed world today that even short outages,
disruptions or slowdowns to a broadband connection can really throw
a spanner in the works. It is great you have those analogue activities in reserve.

[Dennis]

Hi Gary

I guess that most of my internet activities can be classified as hobby related and are therefore discretionary. Coupled with that, I existed before the internet became all pervasive and digital devices became extensions of our selves.;)

Having a sense of self that pre-dates the digital age certainly helps me manage these kinds of hiccoughs whenever they happen and keeps the frustration in perspective. Having said that, it would probably require significant work on my part to recalibrate myself should my digital lifestyle disappear for whatever reason!:D

However, if my lifestyle was built around these devices or I had a business to operate, I guess it would be somewhat different!:lol:

Blistering speeds this morning, the Optus Techs did a good job.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

The epic tale of the missing Broadband connection continues….:lol:

After the 2nd Optus Tech departed our household, it seemed that everything between the telegraph pole and my PC had been checked, replaced or overhauled, excepting myself of course!:P

The very next day, the connection dropped out once more, but this time it appeared catastrophic as the connection was dead; gone, no more, an ex-connection, open circuit big time.:sadeyes::shrug:

Another ‘phone call to Optus ensued and once again I found myself (guessing only) speaking to an overseas call centre person who again was apologetic and helpful. The rep finally confirmed that they have received a number of problem calls indicating a wider network problem than just chez nous.:rolleyes:

The next day two Optus Techs arrived; one a lineman festooned with climbing gear, the other more of a back office fella with a briefcase brimming with measuring devices. After shinning various poles in the neighbourhood and plugging in an assortment of black boxes, the line surprisingly and somewhat unexpectedly burst back into life, leaving them a little bemused.:screwy:

Although it has caused some mild inconvenience, mainly in having to repeat myself to the (remote) Optus Reps and having to be at home for the on-site visits, I do hope that it’s a case of 3rd time lucky and that the problem has finally been resolved.:)

I’m sure that when the 2nd Optus Tech removed the outer box of the CAU (Customer Access Unit) high on the side of our house, I might just have glimpsed an ionised cloud of gas escaping….;)

Cheers

Dennis