BSNL broadband providing 15 KBps to sites like GitHub

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MikeHolmes

MikeHolmes

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Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but BSNL broadband has become a huge pain in the derriere since last month. I'm currently subscribed to the plan where one gets 5GB daily at 10Mbps and 2 Mbps thereafter. But, since the last week of February, I've been getting a maximum speed of 15KBps and an average speed of 10KBps for sites like GitHub. AUR repositories for Arch Linux gives even less speed. Same goes for Fedora repos. Only Ubuntu stands high at about 50-80KBps.

I have contacted BSNL's local office, and they've changed the ports of my connection, but nothing has changed. I have tweeted BSNL, and they have shamelessly side-stepped the issue by saying my daily usage is about 8 GB. I can't make them understand that unimportant sites like YouTube and Google Play Store are working perfectly, and one can easily cross 8 GB by watching Full HD videos on YouTube. I have sent them traceroute reports and mtr reports, but I doubt they've bothered to go over them.

They have been pushing us to go for FTTH connection, and frankly, I might, if that means getting decent speeds for those sites. What I'm afraid of, however, is the fact that the speed for those sites might remain the same even after switching to FTTH.

The only other connection available in our area is Siti Broadband. The connection comes with coaxial cable and not optical fibre, and the LCO is local goon attached with politics. So that's a huge no-no.

And if someone wonders if there's something wrong with the modem/PC, there's not. I have 3 PCs and all of them are exhibiting the same behaviour, and a BSNL technician has checked the modem and the line and it seems to be in excellent condition. Also, download speed from GitHub with Vodafone 4G reaches about 1.8MBps at night.

So, anyone here with BSNL connection, FTTH or otherwise, are you facing the same problems I'm facing? And will getting a FTTH connection alleviate the problem?
 
If the problem is with BSNL's servers or even your local exchange, switching to FTTH will probably not help. In fact, I am on BSNL FTTH and certain websites are slow and even downloads are slow, when it's fine on Airtel/Vodafone/Jio.
 
it is most likely a routing issue. one easy way to get around is to use a VPN. check with a free/trial one.
 
This is a less talked about issue in BSNL. I am a heavy user of git and run a Home server. It's frustrating when Update command take a lot of time. This might be routing issue. Usually it works fine but sometimes I get this issue. I had similar problem with ACT. DNS resolution itself used to take a lot of time. Hi had to change DNS to solve the problem. If speeds are slow VPN is a easy solution

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On weekend I was looking at BGP Instability Report data. As usual (and unfortunately) BSNL tops that list. BSNL is the most unstable autonomous network in the world. In past, I have written previously about how AS9829 is the rotten IP backbone. This isn’t a surprise since they keep on coming on...
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Changing to FTTH may improve speeds slightly but not much. I am on BSNL FTTH, same issues with github slow speeds. But I get around 10-15 mbps when doing git clone on my 100 mbps plan 1277.
 
Interesting, I just tried a git clone of the Kubernetes repo and I got the full speed 45-50 Mbps on BSNL FTTH 50 Mbps 777 plan.

Viveks-MacBook-Air:tmp varkey$ git clone kubernetes/kubernetes
Cloning into 'kubernetes'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 1285, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1285/1285), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (627/627), done.
remote: Total 917798 (delta 732), reused 975 (delta 655), pack-reused 916513
Receiving objects: 100% (917798/917798), 613.19 MiB | 5.40 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (634533/634533), done.
Checking out files: 100% (18936/18936), done.
Viveks-MacBook-Air:tmp varkey$
Click to expand...

Not bad at all, impressed that BSNL Kerala is doing a great job.

That aside, as @vishalrao mentioned, moving to FTTH might not show much improvement as it essentially shares the core infra with ADSL broadband as well. However, FTTH is definitely much more stabler and consistent in performance, and that alone is good reason to try FTTH IMHO.

The problem I see with BSNL is that it is difficult to reach the technical people who can fix problems. Ever since I got the connection, I am not able to access http://fuptopup.bsnl.co.in, it appears to be because they haven't white listed or configured the IP ranges that gets allocated to me. I raised 2 complaints, first one got closed after 10 days without any resolution with just a note "sde". So I called 1500 and explained the problem and he raised another complaint saying BB is entirely down. Although I had properly explained that I had no issues other than accessing this specific site. Couple of days later some lady called who appears to be from the main office in the city (Ernakulam), and I explained the issue again and she didn't appear to even understand the technical details, but gave me a "@gmail" email address where I should email with all the details.🤷‍♂️

On searching online, it appears to be an email account referred in multiple BSNL FTTH documents belonging to the FTTH team in Ernakulam. So I emailed the details yesterday, fingers crossed, hopefully will get some assistance. 🤞
 

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@varkey hope you get a prompt reply from them. the problem is almost everyone working is unaware of all the deep technical stuff we talk about. i too had issues with specifics sites before. i tried complaining. all they would do is change the line profile or downgrade my line to make it stable. and finally i stopped complaining.
 
@InkTone I'm still following up, but no resolution yet. I got another follow-up call from their non technical person asking whether it's fixed. Well, atleast the follow-up is there, even though it doesn't really help. She said only the GPON team can fix my issue and the only way for customers to reach them is through the email, and I'm still waiting for a response.
 
Well, I have applied for FTTH, and I tweeted BSNL Corporate regarding the problem with GitHub. A few days later, an official from DGM's office called me and scolded me for complaining that I am getting slow speed for GitHub. His rationale was this: I am getting proper speed to sites like Youtube and Google. Why should I be complaining for slow speed for a few obscure sites like GitHub? I didn't have an answer to that.
 
Seeing that I will probably shift to FTTH within a fortnight, I don't want to create a hullabaloo right now. If the problem persists with FTTH, then I will try till the very end to get it sorted. I don't need Youtube or other entertainment sites. I need full speed to GitHub, AUR and all other Linux distro repositories.
 
If things don't get sorted out even after migrating to FTTH, I think we should all as a group tweet BSNL regarding the predicament. I think the issue here is not many people actually complain about this issue. Or they do it at a local scale. We should actually tweet it to BSNL Corporate. Unless it comes to their notice, nothing will probably be resolved, as this is something that's beyond the scope of the local BSNL personnels.
 

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