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    Interpreting WAN quality RRD graph

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    • R
      rhy7s
      last edited by

      We seem to be getting peak time congestion for the past while which I'm assuming is more subscribers or heavier usage in our area. What would be the best way of logging this effect if present? Informally checking things out when things slow down, pings increase and total bandwidth on the traffic graphs drops from a bit over 3Mbps to about 756Kbps (though the RRD Traffic graphs don't seem to go as high as speed tests). It seems to correspond to large pings on the WAN quality graphs, but would they be affected by our own traffic out which would presumably peak about the same time?

      Attached is an example of the most recent WAN quality graph:
      status_rrd_graph_img.php.png
      status_rrd_graph_img.php.png_thumb

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      • D
        doktornotor Banned
        last edited by

        Well, the latency at peaks sucks, heavily… WiFi, presumably?

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        • R
          rhy7s
          last edited by

          No, ADSL1. And it gets worse than that, can go over 10 seconds. I'm assuming there is a bonded 2x E1 backhaul so there would be up to 4Mbps available for all local users. Probably something like this.

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          • D
            doktornotor Banned
            last edited by

            Not acceptable on DSL. Would contact ISP for sure.

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            • R
              rhy7s
              last edited by

              I'll try and arrange a night with no-one else using the connection to see what the spikes are like without any other traffic coming from our network. Saw this post when looking around which says PPPoE DSL can suffer packet loss when saturating the connection. Our connection is PPPoA but bridged to PPPoE via a Draytek Vigor 120. I'm assuming the congestion is at our exchange though as the total traffic speed is reduced at peak times.

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              • R
                rhy7s
                last edited by

                Here's an example from peak times (but with only one computer being used within our network), it seems like even a single thread at peak dominates the connection to the exclusion of everything else, whereas when the connection is running as fast as our local exchange allows then multiple activities within our own network don't seem affected. I noticed this before that even if I limited a single threaded DownThemAll download to 10kBps it would basically lock up the connection for everyone else (and the computer running the download) but there'd be no problem even when running unlimited outside peak times. Does this seem feasible? Ping times are fine in both cases if that's all I'm running at the time.

                Anyway, here's an example of just running a speedtest at the moment:

                I ran an update to Calibre and while doing that here's an example of pings from the firewall to the gateway:

                PING 222.153.64.1 (222.153.64.1): 56 data bytes
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=127 time=16357.440 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=127 time=16757.918 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=127 time=16978.610 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=127 time=16900.429 ms

                –- 222.153.64.1 ping statistics ---
                10 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 60.0% packet loss
                round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 16357.440/16748.599/16978.610/239.296 ms

                but just running ping alone:

                PING 222.153.64.1 (222.153.64.1): 56 data bytes
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=127 time=15.837 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=127 time=15.738 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=127 time=15.682 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=127 time=18.351 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=127 time=18.727 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=127 time=15.443 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=127 time=16.146 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=127 time=26.404 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=127 time=26.068 ms
                64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=127 time=26.754 ms

                --- 222.153.64.1 ping statistics ---
                10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
                round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 15.443/19.515/26.754/4.639 ms

                It doesn't seem to be pfSense getting overloaded in some way as pinging the modem itself still nets sub-second response times regardless.

                I'll get back with some other results in a non-peak time.

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                • R
                  rhy7s
                  last edited by

                  Here's a non-peak speedtest:

                  Pings still go up during a download but don't get packet loss, the connection remains responsive for other tasks:
                  PING 222.153.64.1 (222.153.64.1): 56 data bytes
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=127 time=574.626 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=127 time=684.047 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=127 time=775.483 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=127 time=1525.766 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=127 time=1387.464 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=127 time=2261.704 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=127 time=3014.055 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=127 time=3325.509 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=127 time=3015.579 ms
                  64 bytes from 222.153.64.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=127 time=3020.856 ms

                  –- 222.153.64.1 ping statistics ---
                  10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
                  round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 574.626/1958.509/3325.509/1037.934 ms

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                  • D
                    doktornotor Banned
                    last edited by

                    Oh my… You need to change your ISP ASAP. In fact, yesterday was too late...

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                    • K
                      kejianshi
                      last edited by

                      I agree - If your ISP were any slower, it would be Morse Code.
                      You might even consider switching to carrier pigeon over that service. 
                      Latency is similar.

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                      • R
                        rhy7s
                        last edited by

                        We're in a region that has no likelihood of improved fixed line service (the current service is meant to provide >1mbps speed, so most of the time it's better than we can expect). Changing ISP wouldn't achieve anything on the same exchange, and my ISPs bandwidth is generally considered one of the best in terms of consistency https://www.truenet.co.nz/articles/june-2013-broadband-report (Telecom). At some point in the future there'll be a greater than >5mbps wireless offering http://www.vodafone.co.nz/about/rural-broadband-initiative/

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                        • K
                          kejianshi
                          last edited by

                          I wonder what latency is like on the BGAN I-4 Asia-Pacific?  Can it be worse?

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                          • D
                            doktornotor Banned
                            last edited by

                            @kejianshi:

                            I wonder what latency is like on the BGAN I-4 Asia-Pacific?  Can it be worse?

                            Round trip for satellites on geostationary orbit is something around 540 ms.

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                            • K
                              kejianshi
                              last edited by

                              Clicking that link gave me some idea of what he is dealing with…

                              I clicked it and went and made a pot of coffee and a snack while the page loaded ;D

                              http://www.vodafone.co.nz/about/rural-broadband-initiative/

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                              • D
                                doktornotor Banned
                                last edited by

                                @kejianshi:

                                I clicked it and went and made a pot of coffee and a snack while the page loaded ;D
                                http://www.vodafone.co.nz/about/rural-broadband-initiative/

                                Some parts of the page still not loaded after 2 minutes here… Edit: Wow, the "tower" image loaded just under 3 minutes...

                                P.S. Reading the page, I seriously don't think they did get it. The issue is absolutely not bandwidth. With similar latency, speed does not matter.

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                                • K
                                  kejianshi
                                  last edited by

                                  Their main server is running off this modem I think:

                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHNvp7FfP6E

                                  (I used to use this sort of rig for long haul encrypted digital comms.  Just incase end of the world gear in my past jobs)

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                                  • K
                                    kejianshi
                                    last edited by

                                    I think Squid and some sort of dynamic content caching system would be the most important thing for someone on a connection like this to have.  I really do wish that for things like youtube, hulu, pandora and the whole plethora of semi-questionable content sites out there that pfsense had some sort of out of the box solution to cache them.

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                                    • D
                                      doktornotor Banned
                                      last edited by

                                      @kejianshi:

                                      Their main server is running off this modem I think:

                                      http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130721_PA_856/

                                      Impressive. I think they'd better get out of business soon.

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                                      • K
                                        kejianshi
                                        last edited by

                                        Beginnings are always an awkward place.  I'm sure they will improve.
                                        I think they should consider static high altitude "Blimp" like satellites for bandwidth.
                                        It faster than towers or satellites and cheaper.  Deploy overnight.  Can carry enough payload for their entire country on a couple.
                                        Its a no-brainer and yet - it rarely happens…

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                                        • D
                                          doktornotor Banned
                                          last edited by

                                          I wonder… who's the guy who happens to be in Nepal? Jim? Maybe he could compare that. Maybe moving to Nepal you'd be better off than at NZ, with a nice uncluttered view of Sagarmāthā as a bonus.  8) ;D

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                                          • K
                                            kejianshi
                                            last edited by

                                            There are no good bars near an uncluttered view of Sagarmāthā.  (and the internet sucks)
                                            I prefer clutter.

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