Trouble with openvpn?

[elmatador]

I saw the below post about Sonic no longer being a var to AT&T. I'm on the Sonic resold U-verse product(since it came out). Been using the openvpn since that started. Now it seems that my internet is down unless I use the vpn, right now I'm lucky to get 1-2 MBps download.

Has this got anything to do with AT&T?

Thanks

[kgc]

That sounds like it is probably a DNS related issue. Are your clients hard coded to a specific set of servers?

[elmatador]

No, everything behind the router points to the router which in turn points to sonic. I'm now noticing since this morning I've regained normal speeds. This has occurred in the evening rush hour traffic of the net.

[elmatador]

I've checked 3 days in a row now, about 4PM through at least 10PM is when I'm getting my speeds reduced to about 2 MBps. Checked first thing this morning and speeds are where they're supposed to be.

[dkirker]

That sounds like it is probably a DNS related issue. Are your clients hard coded to a specific set of servers?

I've actually been noticing similar for the last week or so. I did some tests this evening.

SpeedTest over Sonic OpenVPN (IPv4 connection) to Sonic in San Jose:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/14784314343


SpeedTest over AT&T to Sonic (IPv6) in San Jose:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/14784332317


SpeedTest over AT&T to Pigs Can Fly (IPv6) in SF:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/14784326545


SpeedTest over AT&T to Fastmetrics(IPv4) in SF:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/14784364841


SpeedTest over Sonic OpenVPN (IPv4) to Sonic San Jose:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/14784527489


I've been noticing my speeds over OpenVPN have been pitiful all week. The modem was reporting the correct line rates (user rate: 25311 kbs/2036 kbs and max: 49386 kbs/2036 kbs) and I was wondering if maybe something was throttling me, so I gave the above a test. I haven't tried to see about forcing an IPv4 test from AT&T to Sonic in San Jose, though I am not convinced that will make much of a difference. (Right now I force connect to the IPv4 OpenVPN interface.) It also seems that I wasn't able to try to test with any SpeedTest servers at Sonic in Santa Rosa (at least not easily from their Select a Server option, despite seeing listings from all around the globe).

With my current hardware I am used to getting about 11Mbps over OpenVPN (I'm in the process of upgrading my edge router). But recently it seems that it can be around 3Mbps, 5Mbps, or 7-8Mbps.

[joss]

I just checked (28 May 2023 at 14:30) and am also running at about 1/3 speed over VPN. Had been about 70Mb/s, now 23Mb/s down.

[joss]

I just turned my connection to OpenVPN off and was able to connect directly through AT&T at 82Mb/s. And when I turned the connection back on, the speed dropped to below 20Mb/s

Edit:
I called support last night. After some checking the support rep said that this is normal behavior for the shared resource. Perhaps more people are using the VPN than when I first switched over to it. I tried another test this morning and I am getting over 70 Mb/s. I imagine the VPN is hit heavily in the evening when everyone using it is streaming something.

[elmatador]

Unfortunately I was thinking the same but this is a recent occurrence(last week and a half to 2 weeks). I tried using proton vpn when I'm getting the 2Mbps from sonic and proton jumps up to 21+ on my FTTN product.

[dkirker]

I called support last night. After some checking the support rep said that this is normal behavior for the shared resource.

Really? That was their excuse? How can they expect this to be acceptable as a core access product? Unless their expectation is that since they aren't going to offer AT&T based Fusion any more then they shouldn't bother increasing VPN resources?

I did try th beta server, but it was just as poor...

At this point getting 1/2 of 1/2 of the advertised AT&T speed for more than what the AT&T speed is worth and 0 ability for any upgrades is not worth it... I originally was putting up with 1/2 of the AT&T speed with the goal of upgrading my edge router to something that could handle the encryption better (I'm using an ASUS RT-N66U and had heard that pfsense boxes got better performance, so I was going to upgrade to an opnsense based box); but now it sounds like that isn't worth the effort... I also was going to bump to the 50Mbps level which uses bonded, but I can't do that now, either. (Oddly, AT&T doesn't show 50Mbps available at my address any more, but I am not sure if that is because it detects existing service or something?)

[elmatador]

I've also tried the beta and agree with you. The vpn is hosed. Maybe Dane wants us gone, we're not worth the hassle anymore. A shame, been with Sonic a long time, before the FTTN product came out.