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Loading Webpages vs. Loading Video

Hello!  I'm currently away at university, and I've been running into an issue with the WiFi for awhile now.  Even now, when there's nobody here (I'm on the orientation team, and I arrived a day before everyone else), I can't load webpages.  The strange thing is (at least to me) that if I can manage to load a webpage like YouTube, I can stream 1080p content with no issue, and my speed test returned excellent results.  However, I usually have to try to load the page, try again, wait a couple minutes, and try a few more times before it finally goes through.  Does anyone know why this may be, or if it's something that I can fix?  Thanks!

speed test.PNG

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Sounds like its probably a DNS issue, you could try forcing your DNS to Google (8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1) although they might block that from working.

 

The only other alternative if that is the case would be to see if they allow you to use a VPN.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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19 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Sounds like its probably a DNS issue, you could try forcing your DNS to Google (8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1) although they might block that from working.

 

The only other alternative if that is the case would be to see if they allow you to use a VPN.

I've already tried the DNS with both Cloudflare and Google, to no avail.  I have a VPN, but when I try to turn it on when connected to the school's network, it takes nearly 5 minutes to fully connect, and then all of my webpages fail to load.  As this doesn't happen at home, I think I'm right in assuming that the school has somehow blocked it.  The obfuscated servers option doesn't help either.  I'm using NordVPN.

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That'd odd, as if they blocked the VPN I would expect it to fail to connect at all.

 

Have you tried connecting the VPN by IP address rather than its domain name to see if it connects any faster?    Although at this point it sounds like either your client or their network is messed up.

 

Could it be as simple as them doing network maintenance due to you arriving early?

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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I would suggest contacting the school system/network administrator and see if it is a school problem (like some awful security setting) if it is not you can maybe try others vpns? 

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On 8/17/2018 at 9:22 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

That'd odd, as if they blocked the VPN I would expect it to fail to connect at all.

 

Have you tried connecting the VPN by IP address rather than its domain name to see if it connects any faster?    Although at this point it sounds like either your client or their network is messed up.

 

Could it be as simple as them doing network maintenance due to you arriving early?

Sorry for taking so long to get back, running orientation has kept me rather busy.

 

OK, so the weird thing is that I can both activate and use NordVPN on my mobile device, but still have the issues connecting on my laptop.  How would I go about connecting by IP address rather than domain name?  I don't see that in the settings.

 

No, we've had this issue here for the past several years, and I didn't start using a VPN until this summer.  Supposedly our tech department "knows of it and is working on it," but as the issue has only gotten worse, and we (the students) can't get a straight answer out of them, the main IT guy's name has essentially become a curse word around here.  And it's not like there's been an increase in students, either; we went from about 65 in the college when I came in a couple years ago to 42 this year.  But again, this issue persists during breaks and the summer as well.

 

 

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On 8/18/2018 at 6:54 AM, mymande said:

I would suggest contacting the school system/network administrator and see if it is a school problem (like some awful security setting) if it is not you can maybe try others vpns? 

Yeah, I've tried that.  Typically, with my questions (because I happen to know just a tad more than the average philosophy student when it comes to technology), I either don't get a response, or, if I do, it's very vague and doesn't really give an answer.

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Sounds like some other underlying issue out to the edge like MTU since everyone else is having issues.

 

You could try manually forcing your adapter's MTU to like 1300 to see if that helps anything, but it's probably a long shot.

 

I've seen a lot of network people throw in things like GRE and not account for overhead, leading to the issues you described.

 

You could do something like ping google.com -f -l 1472 in cmd to validate.  If you get a Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set. type of error or no response when you usually would get a response, then you know what's up.

PC : 3600 · Crosshair VI WiFi · 2x16GB RGB 3200 · 1080Ti SC2 · 1TB WD SN750 · EVGA 1600G2 · Define C 

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2 hours ago, beersykins said:

Sounds like some other underlying issue out to the edge like MTU since everyone else is having issues.

 

You could try manually forcing your adapter's MTU to like 1300 to see if that helps anything, but it's probably a long shot.

 

I've seen a lot of network people throw in things like GRE and not account for overhead, leading to the issues you described.

 

You could do something like ping google.com -f -l 1472 in cmd to validate.  If you get a Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set. type of error or no response when you usually would get a response, then you know what's up.

OK, so I did mean just a tad bit more when I said it.

I tried the command, and here's what I got:

image.png.b9406e0b6c26d00b4ccc1b702f94b1bb.png

 

I'm mostly self-taught, so could you walk me through what all this means?

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That latency looks pretty variable, I think the rest would be up to your network dude to troubleshoot, although they don't sound particularly awesome from what you've described.

 

-f tells your ping to not fragment, and send one large packet per ping

-l specifies a packet size, in this case 1472 plus overhead equates to a full 1500 byte MTU

PC : 3600 · Crosshair VI WiFi · 2x16GB RGB 3200 · 1080Ti SC2 · 1TB WD SN750 · EVGA 1600G2 · Define C 

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2 minutes ago, beersykins said:

That latency looks pretty variable, I think the rest would be up to your network dude to troubleshoot, although they don't sound particularly awesome from what you've described.

 

-f tells your ping to not fragment, and send one large packet per ping

-l specifies a packet size, in this case 1472 plus overhead equates to a full 1500 byte MTU

They're generally pretty hit-and-miss, leaning toward the "miss" side of the spectrum. 

 

Thanks for the assistance.  I figured it would eventually come down to a "nothing I can do" scenario, but I figured it would be best to try here first.

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