Re: OT: Possible Eclipse Weirdness. Performance levels in force?

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:57:37 +0100, Andy Fraser wrote
(in article <1he2h07.ry84z1brlh4iN%andyfraser31@xxxxxxxxxxx>):

There appear to be a lot of other Eclipse customers here so I think it's
worth asking/mentioning this here.

I've been downloading a lot of source tarballs tonight in preparation
for a buildathon tomorrow and noticed some weird behaviour on my
connection.

I was getting 50 - 60 Kb/s on my 2 Mbps line all evening. This is per
file so downloading two files gives 50 - 60 Kb/s each most of the time.
(I'd be very pissed off if I was getting 512 Kbps in total when I'm
paying for 2 Mbps.)


Count yourself lucky, buddy! I'd give my eye-teeth for 50-60kb/s. You want to
know what I'm getting? Divide the aforementioned by 10. Yep, that's right -
I've got the world's most expensive dial-up! I downloaded the Java update
tonight - took just under 3 HOURS! I've spoken to Eclipse and they've had me
connect to the BT test server in the past (and they want me to do it again)
but the results are always the same - fine when connect to the BT server,
absolute crud when connected to theirs.



I put this down to possible contention issues, a lot of servers being
used by open source projects either being hit hard or the servers not
having much free bandwidth or similar reasons.

So did I - until I noticed an odd phenomenon: I sat here and watched it drop
- it started off at about 150 (obviously still too slow) and dropped by
halves until it hit dial-up.


However, just after midnight I noticed that all of a sudden I was
getting > 220 KB/s from most of the same servers.

Yep, here too.



This isn't the first time I've noticed this over the last month or so. I
used to get > 200 KB/s from the Gentoo mirrors I use for daily updates
but now only seem to get this after midnight.

Same here. I have a speed test applet (which, unfortunately, I can only run
from my Windoze box) and I know that, around this time (!:30am) I will start
getting pretty decent speeds again.


The reason I noticed was because my download speeds suddenly increase
just after midnight. If it was contention I'd expect a slower increase
in download speeds as more and more people stop using their lines as it
gets later. I'd expect a similar pattern from local mirrors too.

Exactly.


I've noticed the same thing when downloading from Microsoft or Apple
servers and other servers run by companies who I'd expect to be able to
provide high bandwidth downloads before midnight too now I think of it.

See my response to your first paragraph.

After reading about Eclipse's new offerings recently which offer
performance levels I started to wonder if these performance levels were
already in force. Off-peak begins at midnight. Coincidence? Anyone else
noticed this?

Yep.




My 8 Mbps regrade is supposed to complete tomorrow and I've gone for the
£30 option 4 which should offer the best performance so I'll see what
happens once my account has been switched over (I bet it doesn't happen
tomorrow however but that's another topic).


I notice you're in London (I ran a trace on your IP) so you're bound to be
able to get 8Mbit. I live in Gerrards Cross, and I'm stuck at 2. Please let
me know your findings; I'd be interested to know whether, once you're
upgraded, whether you're finally able to achieve 2Mbit.


PS Since I started typing this post around 30 mins ago my connection
hasn't dropped below 220 KB/s and is currently staying at 230 KB/s.

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest.


I thought it might be worthwhile sharing with you the response I received
from Rob Prentice, Eclipse support.

From what you have said the speeds that you are getting are certainly not
what we would expect from a 2mb connection.

Can you go through the below checks so we can rule out all of the common
issues that we come across. Hopefully, the issue is something simple such as
a fault with a microfilter.


It wasn't - the microfilter had already been swapped - and he knew this.


If the physical checks do not improve the issue can you please perform the BT
speed tests listed further down so we can gather more information to pass
onto BT should we need to log it to them as an ADSL fault.

If it was a problem with the line (which is what, I assume, he's alluding to)
then surely I should have rubbish speeds when connected to the BT test server
as well?

---------

If you believe you are experiencing slow speeds on your broadband connection,
then we would advise first running through the following checks:-

- Download/Update your anti-virus and run a full scan on your computers hard
drive. It would also be worth installing a second Anti-virus program, since
not all Anti-virus programs can detect everything single virus out there. If
you are on a network, then it would be ideal to test connection plugged
directly into the ADSL router, isolating the rest of the network.
- Factory reset the ADSL Router or uninstall/reinstall USB modem drivers and
run through the configuration process again to ensure everything is operating
correctly. If necessary, consult the manufactures website for any newer
driver or firmware versions that may rectify this fault. Please make sure you
make a note of the devices current ADSL settings.


It irritates me how they assume everyone runs Windows.


Please run through the following checks also;

1. Unplug every device that plugs into the phone line (eg. phones, faxes, Sky
boxes, alarms etc) and then retest the connection.


I don't have anything.


2. If you still suffer from speed issues could you please swap the ADSL
microfilter for an alternative, with all non-ADSL equipment still unplugged
and retest.

Done. Didn't make one iota of difference.


3. Make sure the ADSL modem/router is plugged into the master phone socket
(via the filter), rather than connected to an extension cable or secondary
socket.

It is.

If you are still experiencing slow speeds, then we would advise running
through the following tests:

1. If your connection is set-up to use a static IP please can you set it to
obtain the IP dynamically from service provider. (If you are unsure, please
leave this setting as is).

It is dynamic.


2. Log on to the internet with the username - speedtest@speedtest_domain
(Please do this by changing the username displayed when dialling up to the
internet, or by changing the connection details stored in your router. If you
need assistance, please consult either the manual for your ADSL hardware or
contact the vendor/manufacturer).


3. Also set the connection password to ­ password

4. Apply/Save the settings and connect to the internet.

5. Open your web browser and go to www.speedtester.bt.com and follow the
on-screen instructions (or browse to either http://217.35.209.142 or
http://217.32.105.42) (Please note that you need to enter the telephone
number that the ADSL service is installed on when prompted for a telephone
number).

6. Please do this a minimum of 3 times with at least 2 hours between each
test. If the speed issue is intermittent, please also run these speed tests
when it is going particularly slow as well.

Just for giggles, Andy, perhaps you could try this (2 - 6) when your speed is
particularly crap? Let me know the results. If your results correlate with
mine, we might have a case to approach Eclipse together (maybe it's a South
East issue?)

Cheers

Sarah

.

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