High Latency at Peak Times

[jibilah]

I have been having some regular issues in the evening at peak times for approximately 2 weeks, with my Gigafast 500mb service (using the Vodafone Supplied Router).

The issue: high ping fluctations, and packet loss, backed up by running Ping tests in command prompt.

It seems to be happening predominantly in the evenings from around 7pm to around 10:30pm.

I have a Thinkbroadband Monitor on the go, and will post once more data is shown.

Before reaching this point I have done the following:

1. Resarted Router

2. Switched off WiFi, and disconnected all bar a single PC to run Ping command

3. Tried another Ethernet connected machine to run Ping command: same results.

Is anyone experiencing the same issues?

Backstory:

I mainly play games and chat to friends on Discord. I began noticing high latency fluctuations around 2 weeks ago, and friends on the Discord server began to mention I was lagging/breaking up when I was talking.
It has now gotten pretty bad where I am getting kicked out of game servers due to the quality of the connection.

[jibilah]

Here are some thinkbroad band monitor graphs:

Sunday 4th Oct:

Sunday 4th Oct

Monday 5th Oct:

Monday 5th Oct

As you can see, it appears to occur at roughly the same time for roughly the same period of time.

The red block from today was from a loss of power. Whilst the graph looks slightly better today the experience was just as bad as other days.

Any Vodafone employee able to help/advise?

Any other customers experiencing the same?

[Stubbo]

Hey @jibilah 

I know how important it is to have good internet speeds! The times you've mentioned are quite popular times when people are in the house, this combined with more people working from home at the moment takes it even busier. 

How many devices have you got connected? Please try some of the network steps provided here 

Let me know how it goes!

[jibilah]

Hi Stubbo

The link you have given appears to be related to Mobile connections, and this is a broadband issue.

Also as per my original post, I have removed all bar a single PC on the router, and that single PC is connected by ethernet. I have also swapped that PC to something else to ensure it wasn't the original PC (still connected by ethernet), and the issue still occurs.

[jibilah]

Anyone from Vodafone actually proactively look at the forum? 

You customer support is difficult to get hold of, and I see a lot of other posts highlighting the similar issues with their connection and the lack of customer support.

[jibilah]

---

@Stubbo wrote:

Hey @jibilah 

I know how important it is to have good internet speeds! The times you've mentioned are quite popular times when people are in the house, this combined with more people working from home at the moment takes it even busier. 

How many devices have you got connected? Please try some of the network steps provided here 

Let me know how it goes!

---

Hey @Stubbo , as you were the only Vodafone representative to comment on the thread, can you chase this up and provide an update.

We're paying good money for a service we can't use and it's at around the 4 week mark. 

[jibilah]

Again an update, as Vodafone still don't seem to be updating the thread even with a direct tag.

The issue I have been facing (high latency fluctuations and packet loss) had first been identified back in March!

They are looking at it daily, but they are waiting to roll out a firmware upgrade at their core sites.

These core sites have been in lockdown. 

I'm a little confused by this news. I would assume these core sites are not generally heavily populated with staff, and therefore the lockdown risk shouldn't be particularly high, or at least it should be manageable to fix such an infrastructure issue.

Secondly, the lockdowns were eased over the summer, therefore I'm surprised these weren't accessible during this period - only now are we starting to see stricter lockdown measures in various areas.

Finally, I was under the impression these employees are considered key workers, and hence even with lockdowns were still able to carry out their work and therefore resolve the issues.

Call me cynical, but whilst I'm in no doubt an issue may have been present since March, I find it a little hard to believe they've not been able to roll out the relevant firmware updates to their core sites for the last 7 months.

Hopefully they can roll this firmware update out soon. In the mean time, I have downgraded my Gigafast 500 to the 100 package so at least my monthly cost is lower for now. Whilst unlikely, I'm hoping it resolves the peak time issues we've been having. You never know 🤞

[jibilah]

So a week later and here we are, still with the issue. However I have had 2 updates from Vodafone.

There's a lot of technical jargon that I really don't know what it all means, but it in short it seems the firmware update I was previously told about,  wasn't actually the issue. They originally thought my issue (and others) had a 'Packet Clumping' issue, which turns out to be incorrect.

Today's update was that CityFibre have been monitoring my connection (and others with the issue), and have noticed that speeds have considerably dropped (apparently to 6mbps) amongst other things, and they're referring/escalating it to the Nokia team.

The unfortunate side of this is there is still no resolution date, as it seems it's out of Vodafone's hands so to speak.

Whilst it's not what we want (we want it fixed now!) at least for me, it feels like progress (albeit slow) is being made as I'm provided updates. 
See Vodafone, all it takes is a phonecall to keep the customer updated, and at least they don't feel like they're ignored! (Not that anyone from Vodafone seemingly bothers to read these 😝)

In terms of the service I'm getting, it's so bad that I've now resorted to using my Mobile phone to tether from for the three hours... 

[mehul_98]

For the record, I'm having exactly the same issues. Making even simple tasks like working from home in evening hours a nightmare!

Paid for PPV UFC 254 Event using BT Sport app and ended up missing that also due to terrible connection.

And its really is clockwork, every evening! 

There are at least another 4/5 customers having same issues including my neighbours which to me is a clear sign its nothing within the household setup.

Glad to see you've been getting some feedback atleast but its certainly not helpful feedback. 

Will continue to speak with Vodafone on my side to figure out what can be done.

[jibilah]

And another update for people affected.

I've now been informed that they have spotted the issue (again) and it's a cable between CityFibre and Vodafone that is at capacity in my local exchange (which suggests all those who are having issues are being fed from the same exchange?).

They will be investigating whether they can migrate (temporarily or otherwise) my connection to another cable to hopefully fix the issue. If this is not the case, they will then authorise the installation of a new cable (unsure of upgraded, or in addition to). All of which timescales are still unknown but it feels like progress is being made.

Fortunately I am being given these updates, but this is due to the complaint I have raised. I still have not been directly contacted by the Level 2 support team. 

I asked the question of why it's taken so long to 'find' the issue especially as any decent monitoring system should be able to quickly, easily, and automatically(!!) identify these issues. I was informed that the monitoring setup by CityFibre isn't as robust as that on the Openreach network, so these issues aren't as visible.

It's quite frustrating to say the least, capacity was suspected and mentioned on the 16th Oct HERE, and capacity (or the lack thereof) seems to be the issue!