Internet Services
This Support and Troubleshooting Guide provides information
about your internet service; including setting specifications, testing
instructions and common service issues. For further information,
please visit amcom.com.au/support
Support & Troubleshooting Guide
Amcom
Getting Started 2
Testing your Internet Service 3
Common Service Issues 4
Getting Started
WAN Port Settings
When configuring your device to connect to an Amcom Ethernet service, you will need to disable auto-negotiation and hard-set the duplex to full and the speed to 10Mbps, 100Mbps or 1Gbps depending on the speed of your service.
Failure to disable auto-negotiation can often result in the duplex mode not being detected, defaulting to half duplex. Having a duplex mismatch can cause symptoms such as slow speeds, latency and packet loss.
Traffic Shaping
If the speed of your Amcom service does not equal the physical interface speed i.e. 10Mbps, 100Mbps or 1Gbps, you will need to ensure that your equipment can rate limit the traffic to the purchased rate.
A 50Mbps Amcom ISP service will typically be delivered via a 100Mbps Fast Ethernet interface. Amcom applies a 50Mbps traffic policer to our interface; this will allow inbound data from the customer conforming to 50Mbps to pass through the network and any data exceeding 50Mbps will be dropped.
Without traffic shaping enabled, your hardware will transmit data at the rate of the physical interface speed. With a 50Mbps ISP service, the hardware will send the data at 100Mbps and, as it starts to exceed 50Mbps, the excess data will be dropped.
The drops are caused by the 50Mbps policer, these will be noticeable as slow speeds, latency, packet loss or severe fragmentation.
With traffic shaping configured on your equipment, your device will buffer and transmit data at intervals as to not exceed the rate specified, avoiding the drops. Traffic shaping is always outbound of an interface, with inbound traffic (downloads) shaped by Amcom avoiding dropped data.
Testing your
Internet Service
Demarcation Testing
A number of service issues raised with Amcom are found to be a result of customers’ equipment not performing as expected. In order to expedite the resolution, Amcom will request the customer to perform a demarcation test of their service when no fault can be found with the service within the Amcom network.
With a demarcation test of an internet service, we request the customer connects another device, such as a laptop, to the Amcom handoff point (demarcation) and perform the Internet service testing from that device to see if the service performs differently. The customer must ensure the laptop’s network interface card has auto negotiation disabled and the speed/duplex settings are set to that of the service.
Testing services
A basic throughput test that can be used to gauge Internet Service performance can be found at
http://www.speedtest.net
To test file transfers within the Amcom network we provide customers with the ability to download and upload files to and from an Amcom FTP server. The server and access details below:
› ftp.amnet.net.au
› Username: ftp
› Password: ftp@
We have placed some basic testing files in the public folder that can be downloaded. Customers can upload files into the uploads folder, whilst they won’t be visible, but you will see from your FTP application the upload speed for the transfer.
Internet service expectations
As the Internet is not owned and operated by any one service provider, Amcom can only guarantee bandwidth on your Internet service within the Amcom network. However, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to download at the same rate from another server.
Common Service Issues
The Internet is slow
› Ensure that the speed and duplex settings of your hardware, that connects to the Amcom NTU, have been hard set with auto negotiation disabled. If possible, check your interface for any errors. It is also recommended to check your own internal Ethernet port settings to ensure you have no duplex mismatches within your own network that may cause poor performance.
› The service is being highly utilised. Check the utilisation of your Amcom facing router/firewall to see if it is near your service speed. High utilisation can be caused by general usage or could be a result of a DDOS attack.
› If the uploads are slow ensure that you are traffic shaping your data to the service speed purchsed from Amcom.
› The firewall or router may need a reboot.
› The destination site may be slow. Check traffic to another site(s) to confirm speeds.
Internet is not working
› Ensure that all network equipment, such as your router and firewall, are powered on.
› Make sure you power cycle your router and firewall.
› Test that you can ping the Amcom gateway IP. If you do not get a response from this, ensure that you have configured the correct IP address and network mask on your equipment, and you have connected to the correct Amcom demarcation point.
› If you are unable to ping the gateway router, you may want to test with a laptop. If this fails, please raise a fault with Amcom’s Service Desk team.
› If you can ping the gateway IP address then try to ping an Internet address such as 8.8.8.8, which is the Google DNS. If you can ping that address then your Internet is working fine and you should investigate your hardware further. If you are unable to ping that address, ensure that the default route on your hardware is set to the IP address of the gateway. If this is set, and you still cannot ping the address then please perform a tracert to 8.8.8.8 and raise a fault with Amcom’s Service Desk team, including the tracert results.
Unable to access a certain site
› If you are unable to access a particular site, you can perform quick check to confirm if a site is down or not by entering the website’s URL into the following link
http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com
› The common causes for restricted access to certain websites include your IP address or the range of your addresses is blocked by the provider of that website. It could also be a routing issue.
› If the website is running and you are unable to access it, you can configure your web browser to use a public proxy. By using a public proxy, the web server is coming from the proxy server IP address and not your own. Once you have finished accessing the site, it is best to remove the proxy settings.
› If you are blocked, then you could contact the website provider directly. Alternative, please raise a service ticket with Amcom and provide the output of a trace route to the blocked site.
Customer
Troubleshooting
102214 Amc
om Int
ernet Servic
es Support Guide
Internet is not working
Are lights lit on the device?
Have you power cycled
the device?
Can you ping the Amcom
Gateway
Have you run a Demarcation
Test?
Tested if default gateway
is correct
Raise a fault with Amcom Support including trace logs
Power device
Power cycle device
Check IP Address and Network mask
on device
Perform Demarcation text
with a laptop
Set default gateway correctly and test
with trace logs
Yes
No
Still not working No No No Not Correct Internet is running slowly Have you power cycled
the device? Have you checked multiple websites Have speed and duplex
been set correctly Is your service over utilised? Are you shaping your traffic
to the correct speeds?
Raise a fault with Amcom Support
Power cycle device
Check if the issue is the same for all
websites
Hard set speed and duplex on
your device
Limit internal usage or check for DDOS attack
Configure traffic shapers on your
equipment Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Not Correct
Still not working
Are you connecting to the Internet via wired
connection?
Try connecting to the Internet via a wired connection No Yes Yes Yes Yes
