Shameless throttling by Vodafone

[MMKP]

(Ich muss auf Englisch schreiben, bei Bedarf den Übersetzer verwenden)

Why is Vodafone so shamelessly throttling the bandwidth?

How can you charge for 1Gb and deliver 3Mb (top) on both Wifi (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels) and LAN? That is a crime!

Read carefully what I am going to write before you reply with something dumb and useless!

For about 4 weeks now our internet is barely crawling, in some rare occasions reaching 10Mb, but almost never getting past 3.4Mbps. A reminder: we are paying for 1Gbps! (And it was working not too great, but acceptable for maybe more than a year, so do not bother with "location" and similar nonsense, it's the same spot, same setup, same devices).

As being a tech myself I did all the troubleshooting possible, tried to repair it myself if I could somehow, but it's obviously throttled. How do I know that? Simple: I have to use VPN to make it faster (VPN should slow down the bandwidth, not increase it!). In past 4 weeks I got normal internet only on two occasions (and that lasted for just couple of hours): after I reset the router; and after I called Vodafone several times telling that I see that it's being throttled. Various speed tests during those weeks just repeat the results. Vodafone speedtest says that the provider is sending towards me about 900Mbps and I am receiving 3 or 4 or 8Mbps, depending of a moment. Tested with multiple devices (laptops, mobile phones, tv,and every time with only one device connected to the internet in order to eliminate the possibility of a leak. All the same). I suspected the modem / router cause it's not that great anyway, but I am absolutely sure it's not the issue with router cause simply the speed would not increase on VPN if that was the case.

But why am I SO angry right now?

Because I reported all the above, nicely, elaborately, asked for assistance and to stop throttling my connection or to provide any different assistance / solution to the obvious issue. And what did I get? Some imbecile closed the ticket saying THAT WE HAVE INTERNET! 

You cannot just decrease bandwidth to nothing and keep charging for it and then say "you have internet"!

Attached is some quick test performed while writing this.

We need immediate solution because we already waited for too long (didn't even report the issue until last week hoping that you will stop doing it), or we need reimbursement because we are not getting the service that we are paying for! Do not even dare to ask for any basic "troubleshooting" again because it was all done multiple times and it's described above. The time is only for solution.

[Martin59]

Hello MMKP,

please answer once the open questions from the Link , so that we get a complete overview.

Best regards, Martin

[MMKP]

Hi Martin,

I've given the most relevant information. The rest from that list is mostly either irrelevant, or misleading.
I am not sure if I mentioned, but the modem is Vodafone station (CG ...) and is in Kiel (which can all be seen from the account if any technician is actually interested in checking). Here's the ticket number for reference, it should contain details and the requested info (if it was properly filled, I do not know, I cannot see its contents): 001-061xxxx/21

I am not sure what is meant by Signal values ​​and what kind of information is exactly needed there (and by the way, it is so accurate that it shows one phone connected to modem via LAN, and the other phone not showing at all in the list. So anyway it wouldn't be accurate overview).

Nevertheless I checked further and noticed event Log showing some weird issues (attached the log below the log below, but here some preview:

2021-07-30T23:53:24 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:24 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-30T23:53:24 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:24 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:24 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:24 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:25 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:25 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:26 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:26 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-30T23:53:26 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:26 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-30T23:53:26 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:26 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:27 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:27 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:27 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:27 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:27 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:27 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-30T23:53:28 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:28 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-30T23:53:28 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:28 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-30T23:53:28 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-30T23:53:28 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:13:58 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:13:58 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:13:59 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:13:59 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:13:59 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:13:59 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:13:59 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:13:59 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-31T00:13:59 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:13:59 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-31T00:13:59 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:13:59 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:00 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:00 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:00 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:00 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:00 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:00 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:01 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:01 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-31T00:14:01 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:01 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-31T00:14:01 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:01 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:01 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:01 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:02 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:02 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:02 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:02 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:02 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:02 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-31T00:14:02 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:02 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-31T00:14:02 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:02 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:04 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:04 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:04 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:04 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:04 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:04 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:14:05 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:05 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-31T00:14:05 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:05 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-31T00:14:05 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:14:05 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:16:14 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:16:14 UTOPIA: IPv4 Blocked DROP
2021-07-31T00:16:15 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:16:15 UTOPIA: FW.WANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:16:15 FwLog.crit [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:16:15 UTOPIA: FW.LANATTACK DROP
2021-07-31T00:16:15 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:16:15 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 INPUT drop
2021-07-31T00:16:15 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:16:15 UTOPIA: FW.IPv6 FORWARD drop
2021-07-31T00:16:15 FwLog.notice [00000000]: 1,2021-07-31T00:16:15 UTOPIA: IPv6 Blocked DROP

So I did some further research and it looks this is common issue on Vodafone (it might be attacks, but it seems that there is consensus that this is probably the issue with crappy modem). Similar topics can be found around this forum as well.
Now, this issue started about 4 weeks ago while it was working somewhat correctly before (even though there were, honestly, issues with this modem from the day we received it, but that is simply because it's bad modem, not this particular one, but all of them), Regardless of this, even though it might be that the issue is with the modem, factory reset does not help (band steering off / on, not changing anything also) etc. BUT, when on VPN the speed is significantly better ... Which still makes a possibility of throttling ... And now I am growing suspicion that these "attacks" might actually be provider slowing down the network that way. Just a possibility.

Additionally I've seen that there are issues with modem firmware as of recently (heard the same some week ago from some company member having same issues with Vodafone in Hamburg), but it was supposed to be with Fritz modems ... Not sure if that applies to this one.

So, permanent solution is required here. Because as I said in rare occasions it was made to work, but it comes back to the issue soon enough. And I've seen reports on this and similar forums where some "action" was made by Vodafone technicians, but the issue resurfaced a day or two later. Whichever it is, throttling or Modem issue, kindly resolve it as soon as possible, because we've been suffering this for about a month now, and this is not what we are paying for (that's something that even your own Vodafone speedtest says. See bellow screenshot.

Here some examples of various speed test tools on different devices, based on last few weeks, Wifi and LAN:

(Side note. This editor does not allow me to submit the message, and it doesn't show what is the issue)

Edit: Removed personal data and attachments with IP address.

[ERFD]

Hello MMKP,

can you please disable the firewall of the modem for a test? If I am not mistaken, this will not change the bandwidth. We would like to have a look at your modem and the problem. Please send us the customer number, name incl. address and date of birth of the contract holder via private message.

Write here briefly when the data has been sent.

Best regards Fred

[MMKP]

Message sent 

(disabling firewall didn't change anything in the bandwidth speed, as expected)

[ERFD]

Hello MMKP,

is the download permanently in this area or only at certain times? We are not currently aware of any network-side downstream restrictions in your area, and there are no reports from other users. Have you tested other devices on the modem and reset the modem? Otherwise a technician has to take a look at it on site.

Best regards Fred

[MMKP]

I will quote first thing I wrote, with the reason, before I started explaining the issue in the first post: "Read carefully what I am going to write before you reply with something dumb and useless!"

Therefore, make sure to read it now because all of your questions are answered in two of my previous posts, and even more information was given.

I will also be kind to give you a proffesional advice: 
When you read my 2 posts take out, in bulletpoints, the information that you or your colleagues might require for further investigation. Take it out in the form (and language) the most suitable for your modus operandi.

So I suppose a technician needs to take a look on the site. But not at my house, unelss he would replace the modem with the working one, in case that this one is faulty (which I till do not believe is the case because as I mentioned few times the bandwidth is having no issues on VPN, which indicates some directed downstriming (IP or MAC related possibly. Plus, at some rare moments that the speed looks appropriate, it is normal only on one device, while the other cevices are still showing slow. Which is not normal behaviour. And it is permanently low when measured over TV. It wasn't like that before and I need it maybe most frequently on TV, in this past period). Anyway, You can send a technician, but I know what will happen (as it usually does, and as it seems to have happened with some other users): they will come, possibly replace modem, it will work for some day, and then get back to this state that it is now... But we may try.
If a tecnitian is coming, please make sure to mention that it's preferable to speak English so that I can properly communicate with him (if he comes to the appartment).

Note reminder: I've seen through the forums that this issue is frequent with the users that are taking 1000mbps package, so you should probably have some good looks there towards resolvig it for good, instead of looking into individual cases (and it is shameful for the company to sell something and then just deliver a piece of it, isn't it?). Imagine going to the market and you order 10 kilograms of potato for each month in a year, you pay regularly for 10Kg, and then they give you one potato each month. Because they can. That is called a bad service.

[ERFD]

Hello MMKP,

I certainly understand your annoyance. But unfortunately there are no restrictions in your area and throttling of any kind is not done. No one in your area has sent a fault in this form in the last 4 weeks. Therefore, the offer with the technician remains. There is no visible current disruption in the network. Sorry.

Best regards Fred

[Kieferer]

If a tecnitian is coming, please make sure to mention that it's preferable to speak English so that I can properly communicate with him (if he comes to the appartment).

Use a translator of your choice.

Even I speak English I refuse to reply in english.

Das ist etwas anmaßend finde ich. Ich habe fast 30 Jahre Auslandserfahrungen. Unangemessene Forderungen wie diese habe ich nie gestellt. Entweder ich sprach ein paar Brocken Italienisch, Spanisch, Französisch oder ich organisierte mir einen lokalen Beistand. Ich glaube nicht das ich in den USA einen deutschsprachigen Techniker von AT&T anfordern kann.

Nur so ein Gedankengang.

...shameless throttling. Nein das gibt es nicht, da hast du ein anderes Problem.

[MMKP]

Hi again Fred. Thank you for your response.

Actually while I was on a call with vodafone I was told that someone from my building reported similar issue recently.  Anyway, regardless, you may send a technician so that he can investigate (and as mentioned previously please mention that it's preferable if they speak English, possibly). Thank you