Troubleshooting the network connection speed

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Tue, 13 Aug 2013 10:00:59 -0500
Dale Dellutri <daledellutri at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 7:09 AM, Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Before I go complain to my ISP, I'd like to hear if anyone can give
> > me an idea what is going on with my networks... :-)
> >
> > I have two machines, with following link properties:
> >
> >  local --- 20Mbps/2Mbps (GSM wireless)
> >  remote --- 100Mbps/100Mbps (100Mbit LAN connected to optical
> > uplink)
> >
> 
> I assume that the local is connected to a cable service ISP.
> Cable service dpeeds are generally not guaranteed, and depend on other
> users on the same cable segment, whom you know nothing about.

This router uses a 4G mobile phone uplink --- it is wireless both
towards me (wlan) and towards the ISP (4G). There is no cable as such.
Somewhere in the nearby there is a telecommunications radio antenna
which provides coverage for my neighborhood --- for internet
connections, mobile phones, HDTV, and so on...

It is possible that some of that equipment might be broken, but I doubt
that it is working beyond its design capacity so badly that it cannot
provide me with my 20Mbps.

> Perhaps you would get better download speeds from remote to local
> if you tried it after local midnight.

Well, if I ma paying for 20Mbps download link, I expect to get 20Mbps
throughput at any time of day. The ISP also offers 40Mbps and 100Mbps
(for extra money), so I doubt that they are congested that much.

> If it "used to be" 20 Mbps, perhaps a new user has come online on
> your cable segment.

It is possible that the network is more congested during the day, but
if that were the case, I believe that my ISP would have a whole line of
people complaining all over the city... :-)

> > To test the local link, I opened 15-20 random youtube links
> > simultaneously in Firefox. It easily capped the full 20Mbps, so the
> > local link apparently works as advertised.
> 
> Here you are doing multiple downloads, not just one.  I don't know
> whether that makes a difference or not.

Yes, that seems to be the case, and yes, it appears to indeed make a
difference.

On further inspection, it looks like I can indeed get the full 20Mbps
"in total", but every particular connection appears to be capped at
either 2Mbps or 150Kbps. And that is very broken.

I have even tried to do a yum update, and it connects to a mirror at
15KBps (150Kbps)...

The question really is the following --- can that be a local effect of
something in Fedora, or my router, or is it down to the ISP?

I would test it with a LiveCD if I had one, but I don't and it will
take forever to download any iso... :-(

If all else fails, I'll contact my ISP (and work my way through their
seven-gates-of-hell "customer support" thing...), and hope they can do
something about it.

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts!

Best, :-)
Marko