VF being sneaky with speedtest results

VF have told me (Directors Office), that the will only accept speedtest results from the "BT Speedtest" servers (based in Lancs). This server is on Janet, so most of the route to it isn't over their own network, but Janet..... sneaky. Very sneaky.

Apparently speedtest results from all other servers, including their own can't be trusted/verified due to network issues. hahahaha

So that tells you probably running segments of their network hot i.e. congested

Very much so, it also makes it very hard to escape without penalty.

Curiously at 1800 a speedtest to their preferred tester server is only offering up 51Mbps. I'll keep an eye on it as the evening progresses and see if it gets worse.

Edited by mbames (Wed 30-Jan-19 18:03:57)

In reply to a post by mbames:

Very much so, it also makes it very hard to escape without penalty.

You could make an official complaint, apparently many others do:

"Vodafone tops most-complained about broadband provider list" - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/30/vod...

In reply to a post by mbames:

Very much so, it also makes it very hard to escape without penalty.

Curiously at 1800 a speedtest to their preferred tester server is only offering up 51Mbps. I'll keep an eye on it as the evening progresses and see if it gets worse.

You can leave if your usage is affected by the congestion. I have left, as you know free of charge as I couldn't run any on demand services between 5pm and midnight due to the congestion, and also due to their incompetence in fixing my fault.

I've been with another provider for a week now and the service is superb, no peak time drops or buffering, with single threaded downloads at line speed.

In reply to a post by mbames:

This server is on Janet, so most of the route to it isn't over their own network, but Janet..... sneaky. Very sneaky.

I am find it highly unlikely that a commercial organization like BT would be allowed to run speedtest servers on the UK's academic network. I don't see how BT would even eligible for connection under the Eligibility Policy, let alone a speedtest server being allowed under the Acceptable Use Policy.

For reference purposes my day job is a HPC admin at a UK university, and have been working in the University sector for over 20 years now so I know just a bit about JANET

In reply to a post by mbames:

VF have told me (Directors Office), that the will only accept speedtest results from the "BT Speedtest" servers (based in Lancs). This server is on Janet, so most of the route to it isn't over their own network, but Janet..... sneaky. Very sneaky.

Do you have the IP (and hostname). Like another poster has said, it is very unlikely this is the case. It's not as if BT Wholesale don't have enough network capacity to host a tester that is capable of dealing with the volume it must get.

Matt

Edited by uno (Thu 31-Jan-19 17:18:33)

I assume they are referring to this post

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/vodafone/t/4612171-...

The Speedtest server in question appears to be hosted by https://www.btlancashire.co.uk

Which judging by the traceroute, appears to be connected to Lancaster Council's network, via Janet.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

I am find it highly unlikely that a commercial organization like BT would be allowed to run speedtest servers on the UK's academic network. I don't see how BT would even eligible for connection under the Eligibility Policy, let alone a speedtest server being allowed under the Acceptable Use Policy.

I did seem odd, but...

Go to:

https://www.speedtest.net/

Change server and search for "BT Lancashire Services", that gives you a Speedtest server hosted by https://www.btlancashire.co.uk/, seemingly on Lancaster Council's Janet connected network ?

traceroute to www.btlancashire.co.uk (194.150.176.82), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.7.2 (192.168.7.2) 3.629 ms 9.904 ms 12.413 ms
2 * * *
3 172.23.64.141 (172.23.64.141) 39.100 ms 45.861 ms 36.487 ms
4 172.31.139.187 (172.31.139.187) 43.047 ms 37.575 ms 28.691 ms
5 188.31.255.54.threembb.co.uk (188.31.255.54) 31.918 ms 52.063 ms 45.317 ms
6 188.31.255.101.threembb.co.uk (188.31.255.101) 81.239 ms 55.091 ms 46.786 ms
7 188.31.255.189.threembb.co.uk (188.31.255.189) 62.809 ms 60.300 ms 48.285 ms
8 ae2.cr0-lon9.ip4.gtt.net (141.136.102.65) 31.282 ms 44.110 ms 59.335 ms
9 et-0-0-47.cr10-lon1.ip4.gtt.net (89.149.139.5) 47.366 ms 43.407 ms 59.258 ms
10 ip4.gtt.net (46.33.78.78) 53.256 ms 59.783 ms 50.092 ms
11 ae24.londtt-sbr1.ja.net (146.97.35.193) 40.476 ms 37.074 ms 34.435 ms
12 ae27.erdiss-sbr2.ja.net (146.97.33.14) 50.925 ms 46.263 ms 54.971 ms
13 ae29.manckh-sbr2.ja.net (146.97.33.42) 55.510 ms 45.600 ms 71.500 ms
14 ae25.manckh-ban1.ja.net (146.97.35.50) 60.638 ms 94.271 ms 40.391 ms
15 lancs-council.manckh-ban1.ja.net (146.97.40.50) 49.523 ms 56.419 ms 48.756 ms