HTTP incredibly slow to start off

[sej7278]

I'm seeing that websites take an age to start loading recently. I've switched to OpenDNS as I thought it was a problem with BT's useless DNS servers, it didn't help. I've also stopped using the Business Hub as my DNS server as I noticed that was incredibly slow.

Does BT use a transparent proxy or something (phorm?) as I don't have any problems with other protocols - SSH, IMAPS etc.

Generally the websites are OK once they've loaded, speedtest reports 8mb/1mb.

[jjf1312]

Hi,

sorry but this is not an answer to your problem, its just to let you know that the problem you describe is the same as I have and upon checking with other users around the country. they are all having the same problem.

I did think it was me at first but it now seems to be a BT problem.

[sej7278]

hi, thanks for the reply - is this a recent thing you're seeing (are there other forum posts?) as i don't think i've always had the problem.

my speed dropped from 12mbps to 8mbps (the router says its capped at 9mbps) since i've had the problem too.

i can only suspect that its a transparent proxy getting in the way as non-http protocols work fine, even https, or its rate-limiting going on, or over-subscription on the dslam.

[jjf1312]

Hi,

Yes the problem has only been obvious for about the last 3 or 4 weeks, but as my exchange is about to change to Infinity, I thought it was a result of the changes being made in my exchange, this does not seem to be the problem though, as I have spoken with a relative who is on Infinity and they are experiencing the same slow startup of web pages and they are in another part of the country.

[sej7278]

Interestingly I don't see the problem when VPN'ing into the office, using SSH or SSL, so I can only conclude that the problem is with BT's transparent proxy which is intercepting unencrypted HTTP traffic as when I packet trace HTTP i get lots of duplicate ACKs and TCP retranmissions.

Not sure how I can raise this as an issue with BT though......

[knobbster]

Try these tests.

Ping www.yoursite.com

Tracert www.yoursite.com

We will see where it slows down.

[sej7278]

ping and traceroute won't help as icmp isn't being affected. oddly enough it seems better today.

my parents just got talktalk installed and its just as fast as my bt business adsl that i'm paying over £700/year for and they're paying under £200, they don't have the HTTP delay at all. plus their little dlink router is much better than my business hub.

The Openreach guys were trying to sell me 80Mbps fibre, but I can't figure out from the website if my unlimited bandwidth adsl would translate to unlimited fibre (the extra £5) and the same goes for my static ip and geographic restriction.

plus the 16mbps SLA doesn't mention upload speed or if option2 gets a better SLA or if it includes the £5 unlimited option - you could burn through 100 Gigabytes in under 4 hours, so i doubt unlimited is anything like unlimited, where's the fair usage policy?

i think i currently pay:

geographical restriction: £5

static ip: £5

unlimited bandwidth: £5

unlimited calls: £15

line rental: £15

adsl option2 £20

so how would that translate to fibre option2?

[sej7278]

its slow again today, it seems to have problems loading images too, i wonder if its the content screening in the router, despite it being disabled. i'm tempted to try a neatgear adsl modem instead of this business hub rubbish.

[sej7278 · Accepted solution]

i've fixed it!

i ditched the useless "business" hub and plugged in my old netgear DG834Gv3 and now there's no delay in page loading, plus wireless has better coverage too and i can use the router as a dns server again.

so seems like with infinity, the bt-provided hardware is useless.