For the last month I have been having trouble with my connection to Orcon. The connection has been disconnecting at random times, and moreso when under load, like downloading a large Linux ISO over bittorrent. I’ve been back and forth with Orcon and Chorus several times, had line checks, tried different ADSL profiles, and even disconnected every device in the house. No joy. Same behaviour.
Snap Internet offered to help, and in a comedy of errors, Chorus ended up connecting us to Snap today incorrectly (it should have been via a second line). The upshot is, about 30 minutes ago our line was switched from Snap back to Orcon. I managed to start a test just before the line was switched.
Below is a picture of the speed graph from uTorrent. Let’s summarise:
- Same copper pair.
- Same ADSL router.
- Same jackpoint.
- Same computer.
- Same file.
- Same bittorrent peers.
- Different ISP termination in the Te Atatu Exchange.
You make your own conclusion:
Click to Enlarge
Don’t be distracted by the higher speed on Orcon. Yes this implies a lower SNR, but we’ve tried changing the Orcon ADSL profile to reduce the speed and increase the SNR, but the disconnect behaviour is identical.
I believe there is a bigger story behind this, but I need to get Orcon’s opinion before I go to print with it.
Hey Orcon, can you hear me now?
(50 posts) (3 voices)
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Posted 6 months ago #
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For the record: I remain impressed by Orcon’s engagement and openness, especially in social media circles.
However, I am doubtful about their ability to isolate and resolve issues with their unbundled gear in my exchange, and am investigating similar issues encountered by other users in different exchanges.
More to come.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Duncan Blair
InactivePosted by unregistered user: Duncan BlairHi Ben, in addition to my tweet we are of the opinion that this is more complex than the scenario you have outlined above. We would certainly appreciate the opportunity to share our side of the story. I want to make sure that I have the details right, so will get those from our tech team on Monday and come back to you.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I’d love to know how it can be more complex (seriously). Can we arrange a visit to the Te Atatu exchange so I can eyeball what lies between the end of my cable and the two different ADSL ports?
I’m struggling to imagine a scenario in which the problem is not with Orcon gear.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Rafael Fonseca
InactivePosted by unregistered user: Rafael FonsecaInteresting that from all providers I’ve read about so far, the only one that I did not find a single complaint from was Snap Internet.
I’m still an Orcon customer and plan to say this way since I’m not necessarily experiencing any issues at the moment, but to hear so many stories about them makes me wonder when I should start worrying.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Jesse Kershaw
InactivePosted by unregistered user: Jesse KershawJust chiming in to say that I live in Mt. Eden and have nothing but praise for Orcon. Fast, solid connection with great plans and a few (good) surprises thrown in for good measure (2 for 1 movie passes, free you tube for a few months, Iggy Pop!!).
Thanks Orcon,
Thorcon.Posted 6 months ago # -
The Morgan
InactivePosted by unregistered user: The MorganI’ve never had a faster connection or better support than I’ve had in my last two places with Orcon.
Judging by the occasional speedtest.net share-a-thon on twitter, no one else has as fast a connection as I do either, so while this may be anecdotal it’s also measured and consistent, and not imaginary.
It’s a bummer they couldn’t sort it out, I think it became quite obvious that the problem was at the exchange. Does that mean Orcon were at the mercy of the vagaries of Chorus, or does it mean an Orcon engineer never did the obvious thing and tried plugging you into a different port?
Posted 6 months ago # -
dave
InactivePosted by unregistered user: daveI’m interested to know if you have the same disconnection problems if you are downloading a file over say ftp, maybe orcon have a set up where they disconnect large numbers of connections (eg p2p) as they cause more damage to the network bandwidth than one connection downloading.
Posted 6 months ago # -
parsley72
InactivePosted by unregistered user: parsley72I had a billing issue with Orcon a few months back but didn’t get anything useful from their phone support until one time I called and found myself talking to Duncan. He fixed my problem and also promised to look into why it had happened in the first place. So all I can say about Orcon is – they’re fine if you deal directly with Duncan!
Posted 6 months ago # -
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@The Morgan
I wasn’t there to observe, but I was told that both the port and the tie pair were changed at various times.Although when Snap asked for a second line and couldn’t get one, I have to wonder if Chorus were bullshitting when they said they swapped the pair.
Posted 6 months ago # -
carrott
InactivePosted by unregistered user: carrottSo I had a similar problem with Orcon, the link became unstable under load. Orcon escalated my problem quickly to “Technical Support” where they sat on it. Eventually, my only option turned out to be to switch to another provider as orcon said they wouldn’t look at my problem for “weeks”.
I didn’t need to use bittorrent to provoke the problem, downloading an iso from citylink’s ubuntu mirror was more the sufficient to make the link drop. The problem was that the PPP LCP echo reply packets seemed to be prioritised below the regular internet traffic, so when you max out your connection, the echo reply packets stop coming back and PPP thinks the link has died. When you stop downloading, the missing echo reply packets all arrive (assuming the link is still up).
The problem was eventually resolved (switching to another provider turned out to be harder that you might expect) when Telecom installed cabinets and Orcon moved me onto the telecom service (because their unbundled service went to crap with the cabinet in the way).
Posted 6 months ago # -
carrott
InactivePosted by unregistered user: carrottKak. That first link should point to http://carrott.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/OrconInternet#15_5_9_ish_called_by_orcon and the last link should point to http://carrott.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/XnetInternet
Posted 6 months ago # -
Phil
InactivePosted by unregistered user: PhilOrcon used to have good service. Up until last year I would have recommended them, but not any more. Their service is now the pits.
Here is just one example. I’m still trying to resolve a phone issue that was first reported to them 13 Oct 2009. Got feed up waiting for a solution, so asked them to instead remove the service on 3 Dec 2009. Its now March and I’m still waiting for them to stop charging me for service I’m not receiving. Sent them a reminder 5 days ago via a new support call. Also backed it up by sending the same message via their website feedback form. Am now playing the waiting game yet again.
If anyone from Orcon would like to shock me with some service the call id is #IIJ-607030 – but based on the last 6 months I think I’ve got more chance of winning Lotto.
Posted 6 months ago #
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