CenturyLink Fiber Latency Issues (Seattle, WA)

Wed Nov 3 22:01:49 UTC 2021

My OPNsense box has a really large NAT table, more than there are IPv4 
ports, presumably due to the way FreeBSD's pf works. CenturyLink's 
routers are worse in this regard since NAT tables are small.

Even if I were to run Tor on my CenturyLink connection, my neighbors are 
affected as well. When I was running Tor at "full speed" with these 
spikes, neighbors had truck rolls.

I have ordered Verizon "LTE Home" as a temporary "workaround", namely to 
move my Wi-Fi traffic to it while I restart Tor. The reason for this is 
to force neighbors to put in repair tickets to force a GPON capacity 
increase.

It's not nice to my neighbors, but I don't **realy** have another option 
(even running Tor I don't want to make it too unbearablel for 
neighbors). Maybe the other options are to (a) pay $329/mo for Comcast 
Gigabit Pro and get stuck in a 2-year contract and a steep install fee 
or (b) litigate that I could lose since I'm not a lawyer and don't have 
a J.D. from Harvard Law School specializing in telecom law, both which 
are impractical and expensive.

I was about to sue CenturyLink in small claims, but instead decided to 
get Verizon LTE Home for 2 months while CenturyLink "fixes" their fiber 
network while restarting Tor there. Have the neighbors put in service 
requests to force CL to fix their network, but don't put in a request 
myself so the "solution" won't be to blame me.

While I may have to worry about an ETF with LTE Home, it's cheaper than 
Gigabit Pro, and of $300 for two months including ETF is still cheaper 
than $329/mo for two years.

It's a gamble but may pay off.

-Neel

On 2021-11-03 07:00, TJ Trout wrote:
> I second this, most best effort Broadband cpe equipment will choke
> with lots of concurrent connections
> 
> On Tue, Nov 2, 2021, 8:25 PM P C <pc50000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> If this is connection count related only, It is most likely an issue
>> with the CPE (router), NAT table, or similar.
>> 
>> On Tue, Nov 2, 2021 at 8:21 AM Neel Chauhan <neel at neelc.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> I tried that back in September, it didn't work. It doesn't happen
>>> on my
>>> hop but the one after that. Even a second GPON connection shows
>>> the
>>> issues if one is running the offending traffic.
>>> 
>>> The issue occurs even if I'm using 50 Mbps out of my 940.
>>> 
>>> It may be bufferbloat on CL's side but they keep denying the
>>> issue.
>>> 
>>> I guess I'll have to break the bank and get Comcast Gigabit Pro.
>>> 
>>> CenturyLink should just get bought out by another telco, like how
>>> Cablevision got bought by Altice.
>>> 
>>> -Neel
>>> 
>>> On 2021-11-01 20:52, Ryan Hamel wrote:
>>>> Neel,
>>>> 
>>>> Sounds like buffer bloat.
>>>> 
>>>> Run a speed test, whatever is your maximum for your download and
>>> upload
>>>> take
>>>> 10% away from it, and setup traffic shaping in OPNsense
>>>> (https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/shaping.html) with those
>>> values. If
>>>> the
>>>> issue goes away, then you're exceeding the buffer of
>>> CenturyLink's
>>>> device
>>>> with the bursts of traffic.
>>>> 
>>>> Ryan
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: NANOG <nanog-bounces+ryan=rkhtech.org at nanog.org> On Behalf
>>> Of
>>>> Neel
>>>> Chauhan
>>>> Sent: Monday, November 1, 2021 6:44 PM
>>>> To: nanog at nanog.org
>>>> Subject: CenturyLink Fiber Latency Issues (Seattle, WA)
>>>> 
>>>> Hi NANOG Mailing List,
>>>> 
>>>> I don't know if any of you work at CenturyLink/Lumen, very less
>>> on
>>>> their
>>>> Fiber network in Seattle, WA. However, here's my story.
>>>> 
>>>> If I attempt to run certain applications that use 1000, or 10000
>>> TCP
>>>> connections, I get latency spikes. It is based on how many
>>> connections,
>>>> but
>>>> also how much bandwidth is used. This means certain things like
>>> Tor
>>>> relays
>>>> are off limits to me (which I wish to run).
>>>> 
>>>> On an idle connection, the PingPlotter outputs look like this:
>>>> https://centurylinklatencyissues.com/image-000.png
>>>> 
>>>> If I attempt to run BitTorrent with 1000 connections in Deluge,
>>>> PingPlotter
>>>> looks like this:
>>>> https://centurylinklatencyissues.com/image-002.png
>>>> 
>>>> Getting support, or even executive contacts to admit the issue
>>> hasn't
>>>> worked. They all love to blame my equipment or applications,
>>> when CL
>>>> routers
>>>> also show the issue when I run the same things whereas my same
>>> exact
>>>> OPNsense box on Google Fiber Webpass running Tor at another
>>> address had
>>>> no
>>>> issues whatsoever, and I can ping other Tor relays on
>>> CenturyLink AS209
>>>> just
>>>> fine (from a VPS).
>>>> 
>>>> The most competent person I dealt with was actually one tech. He
>>> told
>>>> me
>>>> there was "capacity issues" in our neighborhood, and that's the
>>> reason
>>>> for
>>>> the issues. However, nothing was done about it afterwards, I'm
>>> guessing
>>>> since I turned off my Tor relay after the visit to avoid
>>> complaints
>>>> from
>>>> family members.
>>>> 
>>>> On an AT&T forum, people have said GPON gives latency
>>> spikes/packet
>>>> loss on
>>>> congestion:
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r33242889-How-rare-is-GPON-XGSPON-saturatio
>>>> n
>>>> 
>>>> The capacity managers in Seattle are literally dragging their
>>> feet:
>>>> it's
>>>> 100x worse than AT&T's 802.1X. I know AT&T and CenturyLink don't
>>> 
>>>> compete,
>>>> but if I had to choose between AT&T Fiber and CenturyLink, I'll
>>> take
>>>> AT&T in
>>>> a heartbeat, no ifs, no buts, even if I have to use AT&T's
>>> crappy
>>>> router
>>>> instead of my OPNsense box.
>>>> 
>>>> Going back, do any of you who work at CenturyLink/Lumen can get
>>> me to
>>>> the
>>>> right people, hopefully the capacity managers in Seattle?
>>>> 
>>>> I could go with Comcast, but it's either (a) 35 Mbps uploads or
>>> (b)
>>>> $329/mo
>>>> for "Gigabit Pro" with a 2-year contract and a steep install
>>> fee. I am
>>>> seriously considering Gigabit Pro even if it breaks the bank,
>>> but hope
>>>> I
>>>> won't have to go there.
>>>> 
>>>> I don't need 2 Gbps and would rather pay $65 than $329. 300-500
>>> Mbps
>>>> uploads
>>>> when I need it is the sweet spot for me (even without Tor) which
>>> CL
>>>> GPON
>>>> should easily handle without a sweat. I also don't exactly
>>>> **trust** Comcast, they're a horrible company in many metrics,
>>> but in
>>>> some
>>>> ways Comcast is more competent than CenturyLink.
>>>> 
>>>> Best,
>>>> 
>>>> Neel Chauhan