Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

archgeek · 2014-07-06 14:55:52

Hi, I'm struggling with a weird issue on my Arch install.

No matter which browser I use (FF or Chromium), when I try to load some heavy pages (with many js, gifs, ads ...) it takes forever to display the page.
With firebug, I see it is the connection phase for each page fragment that is very long (30, 40 s and even more).
DNS lookup is fine. I changed my DNS server just to make sure but it did not change anything, as expected.
When using pacman -Syu, runs fast. Same when trying to download a single file, no matter how big.

Things get strange when I use the OpenVPN provided by my company, over the same internet connection : Web browsing runs smoothly and the page takes just a few seconds to display, even with many different fragments from different servers.

I'm kind of stuck here,since I am no VPN expert.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Korrode · 2014-07-07 06:59:54

So long as you've confirmed it's not a DNS issue, then it's a weird one...

In:
Firefox -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Settings...
If it's set to 'Auto-detect' or 'System settings', try changing it to "No proxy".

dice · 2014-07-07 08:39:20

Do you have a firewall enabled which is disabled on VPN connection?

archgeek · 2014-07-07 16:35:00

Korrode wrote:

So long as you've confirmed it's not a DNS issue, then it's a weird one...
In:
Firefox -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Settings...
If it's set to 'Auto-detect' or 'System settings', try changing it to "No proxy".

Thanks for your answer, but it is already setup with "No proxy". Weird one indeed.

archgeek · 2014-07-07 16:47:19

dice wrote:

Do you have a firewall enabled which is disabled on VPN connection?

I do not enable nor disable anything when I start the VPN. At least, nothing that I'm aware of :-)
Checked my iptables with and without VPN, same result !
All input ports are blocked on my internet box except a few port forwarding (https, ssh...).
But I'll search in this direction, thanks for pointing it !

kokoko3k · 2014-07-07 16:55:20

Are you able to reproduce the issue on a different OS (on the same machine) or it happens just with your arch installation?

archgeek · 2014-07-08 03:50:39

kokoko3k wrote:

Are you able to reproduce the issue on a different OS (on the same machine) or it happens just with your arch installation?

Just tried no the same machine with PartedMagic and Firefox. Same problem, not as acute as Arch, but it is there.
Maybe not an Arch problem after all.

dice · 2014-07-08 05:40:47

Is this a wifi or ethernet connection?
As the problem is there for another OS on the same machine, can you test if it is there on another machine? I guess it is a router issue, although I've never had the situation where VPN works BETTER than normal...this is strange

archgeek · 2014-07-08 09:16:57

dice wrote:

Is this a wifi or ethernet connection?
As the problem is there for another OS on the same machine, can you test if it is there on another machine? I guess it is a router issue, although I've never had the situation where VPN works BETTER than normal...this is strange

Well, it is a little bit more complicated : Computer -> Switch -> Powerline -> Router -> Internet Box -> Internet
Except powerline, everything works with Ethernet to the Internet box.
Before migrating to Arch, I was on Ubuntu and everything worked very well.
I suspect my Internet Box to be the problem, but I cannot prove it.
I will install Arch on a spare laptop and see if I can reproduce the problem, and try to narrow it down by plugging the laptop closer and closer to the box, just to make sure.
Real mystery, thanks for helping.

ugjka · 2014-07-08 09:27:12

just my 2 cents. Maybe your isp doing some sort of bandwidth throttling/ shaping for http traffic?

kokoko3k · 2014-07-08 12:44:25

Probably your network is just slow in establishing connections.
VPN is fast because the real connection is established just one time and all the traffic is incapsulated into it.

archgeek · 2014-07-08 14:47:50

kokoko3k wrote:

Probably your network is just slow in establishing connections.
VPN is fast because the real connection is established just one time and all the traffic is incapsulated into it.

Yes I thought of something like that. When I wget a large file on a single http, works well because one connection. Same over a tunnel.
The problem is, when I chain a series of wgets or curls it seems to work well, except once in a while when it stalls. It behaves as if my isp or some hardware was limiting the number of connections...
I'm gonna try some parallel curls and wgets to see if the number of active connections is the issue.

archgeek · 2014-07-08 14:49:04

ugjka wrote:

just my 2 cents. Maybe your isp doing some sort of bandwidth throttling/ shaping for http traffic?

Please see the previous answer by kokoko3k, looks like http simultaneous connections is the issue.
I think I'll try to find a minimal repeatable scenario to confirm some of our assumptions.
Thanks!

Last edited by archgeek (2014-07-08 14:49:24)

Troll2 · 2014-07-08 17:55:08

Korrode wrote:

So long as you've confirmed it's not a DNS issue, then it's a weird one...
In:
Firefox -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Settings...
If it's set to 'Auto-detect' or 'System settings', try changing it to "No proxy".

I suggest you read up on this before suggesting things, because you're making yourself look stupid.

kokoko3k · 2014-07-08 18:35:41

you could try to lower
network.http.max-connections
in firefox (about:config url)

jasonwryan · 2014-07-08 18:58:17

Rօb wrote:

Korrode wrote:
So long as you've confirmed it's not a DNS issue, then it's a weird one...
In:
Firefox -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Settings...
If it's set to 'Auto-detect' or 'System settings', try changing it to "No proxy".
I suggest you read up on this before suggesting things, because you're making yourself look stupid.

Refrain from gratuitous ad hominem remarks, they are not welcome here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … ther_Users

ugjka · 2014-07-08 19:30:57

archgeek wrote:

ugjka wrote:
just my 2 cents. Maybe your isp doing some sort of bandwidth throttling/ shaping for http traffic?
Please see the previous answer by kokoko3k, looks like http simultaneous connections is the issue.
I think I'll try to find a minimal repeatable scenario to confirm some of our assumptions.
Thanks!

Try pinging your router https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … Traceroute
What times do you get?

Last edited by ugjka (2014-07-08 19:54:53)

archgeek · 2014-07-08 19:43:20

ugjka wrote:

archgeek wrote:
ugjka wrote:
just my 2 cents. Maybe your isp doing some sort of bandwidth throttling/ shaping for http traffic?
Please see the previous answer by kokoko3k, looks like http simultaneous connections is the issue.
I think I'll try to find a minimal repeatable scenario to confirm some of our assumptions.
Thanks!
Try pinging your router https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … Traceroute
What times do you get?

Pinging the router

belgarath@sendaria:~$ ping -c4 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=3.91 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=6.74 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=5.47 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=3.79 ms

Pinging the box

belgarath@sendaria:~$ ping -c4 192.168.0.1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=7.64 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=6.42 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=4.65 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=63 time=4.80 ms

Pinging my ISP's DNS

belgarath@sendaria:~$ ping -c4 89.2.0.1
PING 89.2.0.1 (89.2.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 89.2.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=20.1 ms
64 bytes from 89.2.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=18.6 ms
64 bytes from 89.2.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=22.7 ms
64 bytes from 89.2.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=39.2 ms

More info

I have a server (running Ubuntu Server) connected to the same switch, and pings give the same response times.
I have tried flood pings to the router and box, and this works smoothly.

ugjka · 2014-07-08 19:56:39

Well, those look ok. What happens when you ping something like www.google.com or some other website that you have problems with

archgeek · 2014-07-08 20:10:12

ugjka wrote:

Well, those look ok. What happens when you ping something like www.google.com or some other website that you have problems with

belgarath@sendaria:~$ ping -c4 lci.tf1.fr
PING a1272.g.akamai.net (213.152.6.88) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 213.152.6.88.static.not.updated.as8218.eu (213.152.6.88): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=49.6 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.6.88.static.not.updated.as8218.eu (213.152.6.88): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=39.6 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.6.88.static.not.updated.as8218.eu (213.152.6.88): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=78.8 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.6.88.static.not.updated.as8218.eu (213.152.6.88): icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=47.9 ms

This is a French news site, and the results are not worse than the following :-)

belgarath@sendaria:~$ ping -c4 bbs.archlinux.org
PING alderaan.archlinux.org (78.46.78.247) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from alderaan.archlinux.org (78.46.78.247): icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=55.2 ms
64 bytes from alderaan.archlinux.org (78.46.78.247): icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=62.1 ms
64 bytes from alderaan.archlinux.org (78.46.78.247): icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=45.4 ms
64 bytes from alderaan.archlinux.org (78.46.78.247): icmp_seq=4 ttl=49 time=49.2 ms

I suspect something with concurrent connections, and tried to reduce the number of active connections as suggested by

kokoko3d wrote:

you could try to lower
network.http.max-connections
in firefox (about:config url)

Default was 256, tried 100, 50 and then 5. Does not change much, page still takes over 1 minute to load.
When I turn on the VPN, time is no more than 5s.

This drives me crazy

ugjka · 2014-07-08 20:19:20

Heh i don't know anymore. Have you tried rebooting everything: your switch, router, internet box?

archgeek · 2014-07-08 20:49:30

ugjka wrote:

Heh i don't know anymore. Have you tried rebooting everything: your switch, router, internet box?

Frustrating, isn't it ? Yes, I tried all this. I'll try tomorrow with another PC plugged directly to the internet box and try to narrow the problem down.
Thanks a million for your time !

Last edited by archgeek (2014-07-08 20:50:06)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-07-06 14:55:52

Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#2 2014-07-07 06:59:54

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#3 2014-07-07 08:39:20

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#4 2014-07-07 16:35:00

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#5 2014-07-07 16:47:19

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#6 2014-07-07 16:55:20

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#7 2014-07-08 03:50:39

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#8 2014-07-08 05:40:47

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#9 2014-07-08 09:16:57

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#10 2014-07-08 09:27:12

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#11 2014-07-08 12:44:25

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#12 2014-07-08 14:47:50

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#13 2014-07-08 14:49:04

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#14 2014-07-08 17:55:08

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#15 2014-07-08 18:35:41

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#16 2014-07-08 18:58:17

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#17 2014-07-08 19:30:57

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#18 2014-07-08 19:43:20

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#19 2014-07-08 19:56:39

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#20 2014-07-08 20:10:12

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#21 2014-07-08 20:19:20

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

#22 2014-07-08 20:49:30

Re: Web browsing painfully slow except when using VPN

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