Eighteen!

Last night our ADSL connection dropped from 1.32am - 3.32am. Kinda odd as it's normally rock solid (albeit slow as hell).

Partner noticed that latency was 18ms (normally first thing in the morning it's around 22ms and starting to rise). Did a bit of digging around, RIM was still capped at 3mb.

Approximately 9.52am this morning, the link dropped again and returned at 9.53am, IN ALL IT'S FULL 8MB GLORY. See! See!



My partner then grabbed a file to see what the transfer rate was like:



Now *that's* more like it!

Could this possibly have been the backhaul cable upgrade in the wee small hours, followed by the uncapping software fix (also touted) this morning?

I really want to believe our congestion issues are over. I really do. But two things concern me:

Telstra delivered.
Telstra delivered within the promised timeframe.

A part of me is waiting for Telstra to cap us again with a "PSYCHE!" in our direction. I really hope that doesn't happen.

Maybe we'll now get the service we're paying for. Time will tell I guess.

For the moment, I will make the most of it.

It's 6pm. Latency is a consistent 18ms :)

Gaming? Not so much.

Thought I might try my luck at a bit of World of Warcraft tonight.

Maybe not.

Pathetic.

Blindingly Quick... for 1994.

Check out the transfer rate.

5.97 k/second.

23 minutes for an 8mb file.

And for this, we pay $179.99 a month.

Note: There was NO traffic on the wire when this image was captured. NOTHING.

Where "April-May" means "by June 30"

Of course it was too good to be true. Our much touted and heavily promised backhaul cable upgrade has been delayed.

Having worked with Telstra in the corporate space the last two years, I should have known better than to take the first date given as the one they would deliver against.

My partner received an email today stating:

Morning Extremely Fed Up Telstra Customers (Partner's name changed to more realistic description)

I have been informed that the upgrade will be mid-May due to additional work needing to be undertaken.

You will note the commitment given on the Telstra Wholesale website at: http://telstrawholesale.com/products/data/adsl-reports-plans.htm

(Refer to the DSLAM Backhaul Upgrade Plans under Reports and Plans and note that the commitment is marked as due for completion by June 2010 notwithstanding our efforts to have your work completed sooner)

Appreciate your patience

regards

Latency is getting worse by the day. From approximately 9.30am daily performance deteriorates until 2.30pm when it becomes completely unusable.

Anyone like to put money on the upgrade being performed on the wrong RIM?

Still on track... supposedly.

Partner emailed our friendly CEO escalation rep last week who quickly confirmed by return email that the backhaul cable upgrade is still slated for last week in April/early May.

I hope they have their skates on. Time is marching on.

As I type this, latency is 300ms+, no traffic on the link. Impossible to VPN to work with any consistency.

Approved!

Yesterday my partner received a phone call from our friendly Telstra CEO escalation contact person who was very excited.

He had just come out of a meeting where a backhaul cable upgrade to our RIM was approved!

HURRRAHHH!

The upgrade should be completed by "end of April, start of May". My partner requested exact dates and these will be forthcoming next week. We are particularly encouraged by the fact that this is a hardware upgrade and not a software fix.

What does this mean? It means that if Telstra delivers on their promises, we should actually get the service we're paying for.

I am cautiously optomistic.

I really want to believe that it's going to happen, but until I see an unfettered 8mb connection and sustained latency of ~22ms across our gateway, I will remain skeptical.

We first experienced congestion symptoms towards the end of 2008 - sporadic periods of insane lag that tended to occur during peak times (after hours and weekends). It was over the Christmas/New Year of 2008/2009 that it became noticeably problematic and we opened the ticket with Internode on 18 January 2009.

Fast forward to 19 March 2010 and it looks like resolution might be on the horizon.

Stay tuned.

Its a new record!

1800ms ping. First hop, no traffic on the wire.

AND!

As an added bonus, we got 2% packet loss as well!

30 June is fast approaching and my patience is wearing very thin.

We're paying $179.99 a month for a CLEARLY DEFECTIVE SERVICE.

Hurry up Telstra.

Twelve.

Twelve. 12k/second we're trying to download at. There is zero traffic on the wire.

Actually it's anywhere between 8-50k/second, but not a speck more.

Latency is 700ms first hop.

"By the end of this financial year" is what Telstra have told us is the timeframe for resolution.

That's 30 June people. Chop Chop.

Progress? Surely not. But maybe!

Telstra contacted me a couple of days ago (I missed the call). My partner rang back and spoke at length to the CEO Customer Liaison person assigned to our escalation, who was very helpful.

The Telstra rep advised that they are still trying to figure something out and that we haven't been forgotten about (woot). They have a couple of irons in the fire and standing up another cabinet is an option. (woo-freaking-hoo). He also advised that "a lot of people are aware of your problem." Good, so being a squeaky wheel looks like it can pay off.

My partner asked about the timeframe for resolution? Were we going to be waiting until the NBN for any type of upgrade/resolution? Next week? Next decade? 7 weeks? - it seems to be a number they're comfortable with (sorry in-house work Telstra joke).

The Telstra representative promised to find out and call my partner the next day with some answers.

And guess what? He did.

And the answer was "in this financial year".

So our hopes are slightly buoyed by this latest information. Not getting too excited, but maybe... just maybe...

Of note since my last post:

- We cancelled our Internode service after 5 years and upgraded the Telstra service to one of the 200gb plans. Internode will be pleased they can now close the ticket that had been open since 18 January 2009. They did nothing to help us resolve this issue - Internode were the ones with the direct relationship with Telstra Wholesale, yet we had more action approaching Telstra ourselves. Internode were happy to throw their hands in the air and say "it's a Telstra problem", while still charging us full price for a known defective service.

Happy New Year. Situation Normal.

So here we are. 2010.

Latency: Still craptastic
Word from Telstra: *crickets*

My partner spoke to a couple of Telstra contacts mid-December. One contact asked him if he had $160,000 to stand up a new cabinet (not realising that my partner was actually the paying customer - not another Telstra employee).

My partner quickly pointed out that he didn't care how much it cost and he would burn more than that easily in tying up Telstra time in investigating the congestion issue. We just want the problem resolved. Telstra made $4 BILLION profit last year. They can spot us $160K for a cabinet.

He was also informed that there was a letter on the way from Peter Dowling (CEO Customer Care) "explaining" something (we're not quite sure what).

We're yet to see this magical letter.

Latency issues continue unabated.

Welcome to 2010.