Internet upload speed

[e4e]

I'm having an intermittent issue with internet speed. The download will remain steady between 35 and 42mb all day and every day. But my upload is all over the place. This morning we were getting between 0.01mb and 8mb.

 

We are in a small school and walked the building when upload speed drops and there is virtually nothing in use. What has been in use I have checked over to see for any malware virus etc and all are clean. There is no bit torrent type software anywhere on the network. I have checked for scheduled tasks and there is nothing running which would affect upload. I have also reset the wireless key incase this had been compromised. But upload is still getting killed. I have also check to see if anything had been looped back on itself and nothing has.

 

I have spoken with our internet provider and they say that we are maxing out our bandwidth but can't tell us what with.

 

I have got hold of a device which will log all Internet traffic and what bandwidth it is using but I can't get my hands on this until next week.

 

Have any of you got any suggestions as this is driving me up the wall

[6Foot2]

Can you compare your experience with other schools in your area using the same provider?

 

Maybe it's not just you?

[e4e]

Can you compare your experience with other schools in your area using the same provider?

 

Maybe it's not just you?

 

It is the only one of my schools with this provider. I have spoken with other schools with the same provider as myself and they don't have issues.

[Fazza]

I have spoken with our internet provider and they say that we are maxing out our bandwidth but can't tell us what with.

 

Time to tell them you're going to switch provider at the earliest opportunity then as if they dont know the answer to a simple question like that then they're a complete waste of space.

[ricki]

Do you have ipads they caused our 100 meg link at one school to max out Richard

[pantscat]

Have you got managed switches? Could be worth checking the port stats?

[ITGURU]

If you think it may be devices that are limiting your upload speed, either get some traffic graph software, or port mirror your broadband port with wireshark, view conversations and see what device is generating the most traffic outbound.

[nathan]

How are you measuring the bandwidth?

[e4e]

via speedtest.net i use this when access to the schools gmail accounts stop working. the download will show roughly normal but the upload will be none existent to unusable.

 

Speaking with someone last night and they say it could be the router not being powerful enough as it is a low end router supplied by our provider.

[ITGURU]

via speedtest.net i use this when access to the schools gmail accounts stop working. the download will show roughly normal but the upload will be none existent to unusable.

 

Speaking with someone last night and they say it could be the router not being powerful enough as it is a low end router supplied by our provider.

 

Are you on a symmetrical connection, and what type of circuit?

[e4e]

We are on a EoFTTC connection which should have a guaranteed 7Mb connection.

[Fazza]

We are on a EoFTTC connection which should have a guaranteed 7Mb connection.

 

I think you've answered your own question with that answer! That'll be why it's dropping down to 0.01Mbps download.

 

What's your contention ratio?

[e4e]

I think you've answered your own question with that answer! That'll be why it's dropping down to 0.01Mbps download.

 

What's your contention ratio?

 

need to check the contract for that. I just need to prove it and prove what devices it is that is causing it. as the no one can be in the building using the system except one person then it will drop out like this.

[pantscat]

EoFTTC *should* be uncontended...

 

What's the make/model of router? How many clients?

[e4e]

EoFTTC *should* be uncontended...

 

What's the make/model of router? How many clients?

 

its a microtek router and about 80 devices

[pantscat]

Any idea what model? they have a fairly big range with quite varying specs.

[e4e]

Any idea what model? they have a fairly big range with quite varying specs.

 

I'm not onsite at the moment so don't know the model number. It is quite a small sized one. But that is the equivalent of saying it is a grey one!

[pantscat]

Yep! Grey with flashy lights

[nathan]

via speedtest.net i use this when access to the schools gmail accounts stop working. the download will show roughly normal but the upload will be none existent to unusable.

 

Speaking with someone last night and they say it could be the router not being powerful enough as it is a low end router supplied by our provider.

 

Are you cabled in, over wireless?

 

Try and plug into a switch directly on the core to rule out any issues there.

[e4e]

wired troughout to the router. but ill try going straight to the router

[SchoolsBroadband]

Try a single laptop plugged directly into the router also if we are your isp (as I suspect this may be the case from what you say) then we can do tests from the router onsite into our core network so if there's still a problem even when us testing then we know you're not at fault and we either need to provide you with a new router (unlikely) or raise a fault with our carrier.

 

If it's is us then pm the case id if you've raised one.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[jamesfed]

What network switches are you running? If they support sflow/xflow you could hook into the data and work out very quickly which clients are using the bandwidth.

[angrycomputingteacher]

I use a piece of software that tracks internet use. It's called GlassWire. Don't know if it is of use to you.

[ZeroHour]

I use a piece of software that tracks internet use. It's called GlassWire. Don't know if it is of use to you.

 

I personally use that app as well and it's brilliant.

[EXA_Mark]

EoFTTC *should* be uncontended...

 

What's the make/model of router? How many clients?

 

EoFTTC is not uncontended (like for instance a leased line would be) no matter what your supplying ISP may state. It is only proportionately guaranteed. There is a guaranteed symmetrical throughput (subject to certain small print) of 75% of the maximum upload rate.

 

So for instance if you are told you are expected to get 10Mbps (upload) and your router has a synced upload speed of 10Mbps Up and 50Mbps Down then your guaranteed speed would only be 7.5Mbps Up AND Down. Everything above the guaranteed part is on best efforts, and the main provider of EoFTTC services (from a Telco perspective) is running this on the same infrastructure (at cabinet and exchange) as their residential service so don't expect all the bandwidth to be always available, it simply won't be.

 

If you are then maxing out your upload connectivity, and schools are using more upload that ever with various cloud based services (email, VoIP/Hosted PBX, learning platforms) and with virtual firewalls/routers these all add up and 7.5Mbps is not a lot. Once that caps out then you will see significant perceived slow down in your download speed (even if it is not maxing out the throughput) as the upstream is saturated.

 

Of course it could be hardware related but most routers (home user cheap model or not) should be able to handle your type of speeds without any issue. You could also be seeing an issue with maxing out SSL connectivity on your firewall too (this would show similar symptoms), and with the massive amount of SSL content this is worth investigating too. A single iPad or Chrome tablet can easily generate dozens of simultaneous SSL connections.

 

Using sites such as speedtest.net is okay but these often have bandwidth limitations themselves and don't give accurate representation of your ISP. You would be as well to run a speed test within your ISP's network first to ascertain whether the speed issue lies between you and them or beyond their network. If you are still seeing really slow speeds from your ISP on speed checker that will help them and you narrow down where problems exist. This is a more general comment too, as opposed to this specific problem.

 

Finally and I am assuming you have checked this already, and this is an issue that we find this more often that you'd think, have you checked your offsite backup schedule? Assuming you have one of course. If you have limited upsteam bandwidth (which you appear to have) then make sure you are not running the backup throughout the day (on constant incremental changes) and that you have it set for your quieter hours (lunchtime or after school hours).

 

Hope some of this helps at least a little bit.