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Limited upload speed on international servers?

robbysyd
Level 2

"Originally posted on reddit/whirlpool, reposting here".

 

Hello everyone. I need some help as I am officially out of ideas and troubleshooted for the whole day. It is long but I will explain all info I have!

 

I have TPG 1000/50 FTTP in Liverpool NSW here (Sydney). Works well, never had any issues until recently I started to take notice. Now my download is always flawless – ranges from 700-920. No issues at all.

 

Now I usually regularly ran speedtests and always got around 900/45 or sometimes around 40 upload. Fair enough but recently I run some WireGuard Servers in India and Singapore (India = 40/40, 60/60 symmetrical plans for cheap unlike NBN lol) and Singapore is 100/100 basic from my friend (for like 40 bucks XD). I recently started noticing my upload speeds felt capped at 8mbps on any INTERNATIONAL server OUTSIDE Australia (except New Zealand). I tried, London UK, Los Angeles California, Mumbai India, Singapore and so much more but all cap out around 6-8mbps.

Now moving on to New Zealand, I get around 800 download and 35 mbps upload (tried Auckland and Christchurch).


But every other country I keep getting stopped at like 6-8mbps upload. That is just garbage. I tried connecting directly via WireGuard VPN tunnel to my India and Singapore VPNs, all get full download speeds but 6-8 Mbps upload? What the?

 

Now some info about my hardware and troubleshooting tests;
1. Router – OPNSense running Intel i7-7700 with Intel I340-T4 Quad NIC Gigabit.
2. Main Switch – Netgear GS308T (Managed Gigabit)
3. WiFi AP – Running ASUS GT-AX11000 as Access Point (this was my main router before OPNsense).
4. I ran all my tests via my desktop Gigabit Intel Ethernet. I also run these tests directly via OPNSense's FreeBSD Speedtest-CLI via SSH – all same results.
5. I then tried my S21 Ultra and Note20 Ultra via WiFi 6, I get full 900/50 as normal to AU Servers (tried Perth, Darwin, sydney, Melbourne, etc.) but again same 6-8 Mbps Upload – same as Ethernet.

6. I setup QOS/OPNSense Traffic Shaper to 40 Mbps WAN Upload (as some people say NBN Policy Limiter kicks in and drops speeds drastically). No luck. I set traffic shaper to 49 Mbps, no difference still getting fast upload to AU servers, all international 6-8 Mbps.

 

Now, my friend has same plan as me and lives 50m away from me 2 blocks away. He speedtested to exact same servers on speedtest.net and he got around 20Mbps upload. Same ISP, same plan, we got our internet installed together years ago. I also tried using my Telstra 5G, and I got 600/22 Mbps download/upload to all servers.

 

My uncle living in Parramatta TPG 250/25 plan with HFC, gets solid 23 Mbps to all international servers we tried (surprisingly 3mbps more than my FTTP friend but anyways).

 

So now I started thinking is my OPNSense at fault? I checked ALL settings, NO speed limiter is applied. Then I removed OPNSense and Directly used my ASUS GT-AX11000 – same results - bad upload on international, full upload in Australia. Then, what I did I got my desktop and hooked it up DIRECTLY to my NBN ONT Alcatel FTTP Box and did PPPoE dial from my PC directly, bypassing all routers. SAME RESULT, no difference! Then I turned off my NBN ONT FTTP Box fully for 60 seconds, rebooted the ONT. No help no fix, same issue.

 

Now you say this is all speedtest.net issues? I tried fast.com – same problems. I tried UPLOADING files to Google Drive. Now with Google Drive, if I upload without my VPN, I get 45 Mbps download (I presume drive.google.com's load balance takes me to Sydney Google Data Center so no upload cap).

Now I try using my Singapore and India VPN and upload to Google Drive and this time OneDrive + JottaCloud (some cloud providers). Boom 6-8 mbps limit.

 

At this point I have given up and have no idea what to do? I understand international usually will not give me full speeds as local ones do, but 6 Mbps is unacceptable. Especially when people around me get more than 6 Mbps with worse off equipment.

What can I try here?

13 REPLIES 13
Ahra_G
Moderator

Hi @robbysyd,

 

Seemed that you've done pretty much of the troubleshooting already.

 

Let's grab your details via PM as we're also keen to check the status of your connection

 

Thanks! 

Ahra_G

david64
Master

Hi @robbysyd . You, your uncle, and your friend could do some comparative timings. Do ping and tracert commands to tpg.com.au, an Australian server with good response times, and a foreign server with bad response times.

Since you've already done it, you can connect your PC directly to NBN box. Don't use VPN!

Since you all live around Sydney, tracert should produce the same ip address routes. 

 

ping -n 20 tpg.com.au

ping -n 20 Aust-ip-address

ping -n 20 foreign-ip-address

 

Repeat these with parameter  -l 65000   (data length 65KB)

robbysyd
Level 2

@david64 wrote:

Hi @robbysyd . You, your uncle, and your friend could do some comparative timings. Do ping and tracert commands to tpg.com.au, an Australian server with good response times, and a foreign server with bad response times.

Since you've already done it, you can connect your PC directly to NBN box. Don't use VPN!

Since you all live around Sydney, tracert should produce the same ip address routes. 

 

ping -n 20 tpg.com.au

ping -n 20 Aust-ip-address

ping -n 20 foreign-ip-address

 

Repeat these with parameter  -l 65000   (data length 65KB)


The pings were never a problem, neither in AU or India or Singapore or USA. My friends are asleep at this moment but I'll post my results.

I got stable 280ish pings to Mumbai servers and 320 where my Indian network resides. Singapore 230ish and USA 200ish. Download speeds aren't any issues either I can slowly hit 720mbps+ on Mumbai servers after the TCP congestion control lets it be. However, the results of your tests are attached in the text file below.

 

1. Pinging tpg.com.au

2. Pinging UTS (uts.edu.au)

3. Pinging amazon.in (hosted in Ireland apparently)

 

I cannot attach a .txt file on TPG so uploaded it to GDrive. ping.txt contains pings with default 32 bytes and ping_65.txt contains the 65kb pings.

Ping files: Ping Files here 

robbysyd
Level 2

@Ahra_G wrote:

Hi @robbysyd,

 

Seemed that you've done pretty much of the troubleshooting already.

 

Let's grab your details via PM as we're also keen to check the status of your connection

 

Thanks! 

Ahra_G


What details shall I provide in the PM?

BasilDV
Moderator

Hi @robbysyd 

 

Kindly send your TPG account details via private message for us to check the account and run some tests.

 

BasilDV

robbysyd
Level 2

Sent.

robbysyd
Level 2

Did receive a call from TPG "Technical Support" (not very technical if you ask me).

 

All they wanted to complain about was "Sir, you get fine speed on local servers, that shows its all good, international is not in our control" - well fair enough I understand, but they do not see the point that my neighbours who is 120m away from me gets proper speed INTERNATIONAL on SAME PLAN, SAME ISP, infact our nodes are probably same as well since it is a cul-de-sac road.

If everyone got crap 6mbps speed as me, I understand, but people right next to me are getting fine speed but me - and I've tried 3 pairs of equipment - something could be wrong. Somewhere my upload is getting limited.

 

And it's not like its due to international traffic congestion. If that was the case, I would get maybe 13 to Sweden, maybe 7 to Singapore and maybe 10 to India. That explains congestion. But when my speed goes fast and suddenly comes down and sits at 6-6.99mbps flat on ALL international servers, that explains somewhere there is a limit being applied. I doubt all international routes will be stuck at 6, especially when my friends next to me are fine, same ISP, same cable.

 

We will see what the "senior technician" has to tell me in 24 hours - but anyone else experience similar issues with their end here on the community?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @robbysyd 

 

I understand that our technical team helped you perform a series of tests and has proven that the connection speed is passing on both download and upload speeds when the service is not connected via VPN.

 

The speed issues only occur when a VPN is connected. Have you tried to connect using your mobile data and performed a speed test? If so, could you perform two separate speed tests with mobile data only and another test with a VPN?

 

This will help us identify if the cause of issue if its due to the VPN .

 

Please post the test result on this thread.

 

Regards,

 

 

robbysyd
Level 2

Shane you need to read my post properly. I'm not stupid to do these tests over VPN.

Please read my post and see when and where I used VPN.

I will not repeat myself. Also for your information TPG DID NOT DO ANY TESTS WITH ME OVER THE PHONE. All they did was ask for what I have done myself and they complained that is it not their fault. They failed to listen to me until I forced them to escalte further. I don't know who told you I did tests over VPN. Can you not make things up yourself mate. Thanks.

 

Now - I have been posting this same on reddit and whirlpool and most say its TPG routing issues. I am doing a trial with Launtel for FTTP soon on NTD Port #2 (TPG will stay active for time being). If Launtel is good just like AussieBB, it might be time to move because TPG has no idea on depth support. BONUS: Those ISPs have IPv6 unlike TPG on IPv4 only. But anyways this is something I am free to trial while TPG troubleshoots. It's on TPG how helpful they are. And if Launtel gets me proper speed on my second NTD port, you know who to blame. Smiley Happy

 

*PS: Please re-read my post the issue is NOT ON VPN ONLY. Have I tried connecting my mobile data? Please read my post again Shane. This is one line I posted "I also tried using my Telstra 5G, and I got 600/22 Mbps download/upload to all servers." - quoted from my post. Please re-read Shane.