Throttling RTMP to Twitch

[RedLir]

Hello,

I'm curious if any other Twitch broadcasters are experiencing this issue with Rogers.  I get 250 down / 20 up consistently and my upload to Twitch will start to drop frames/packets if I exceed around 3000 bps, which is not even a 1/4 of my upload.  

I've been troubleshooting the connection issues streaming to twitch, for almost a year now with support.   Modems have been replaced. Techs have come and replaced wire and tested to the curb etc.  Speedtests are fine.  The issue persists across multiple machines/cables and every Twitch ingest server that I can reasonably test location wise.

At some point, someone suggested I encapsulate my data by testing with a VPN to the local cities of the ingest servers I was testing.  This is when I realized, that Rogers may in fact be throttling my RTMP uploads by payload. When I use a VPN, and test to any of the ingest servers I had issues with, I get no packet loss or dropped frames to Twitch.  I can push the Twitch cap of 6000 bps without issue with the VPN enabled. ( testing to Toronto, NY, Chicago ingests primarily)  

I did another test.  I streamed my feed to restream.io ( which also uses RTMP) to rule out a rule specific to twitch completely.  I saw the exact same issue.  Without the VPN, I would get frame/packet loss, but with the VPN on, I would have no issue.

I've been running with the VPN for some time now as a workaround, but it's an additional cost of course, and one I shouldn't need to incur.  Ater a few months of solid streaming through the VPN, I tested again without it. As expected I immediately started to lose frames/packets intermittently through the broadcast, due to insufficient network when I disabled the VPN. 

I'm at the point where I think I'm going to need to change providers.  Calling front line support doesn't seem to get me anywhere.  They just want to replace a modem or close my ticket the next day without any feedback/consent or resolution.

 Is anyone else out there experiencing these types of issues uploading to twitch via rogers?  Advice on how I can escalate this to an appropriate resource within the support team who will look at it seriously?

Thanks!

***Edited Labels***

[TheBudLab]

Almost certain this is what is happening to me now, First call to rogers about inconsistent Upload speeds was 6-7 months ago.. It just keeps getting worse, I've upgraded everything I can on my end. 

[RogersCorey]

Good morning @TheBudLab!

Welcome to our Community!

Should you be experiencing a degraded Internet connection, I can help. Please PM us @CommunityHelps whenever you are free so that I can provide additional troubleshooting and deep dive into this issue for you.

Regards,

RogersCorey

[Cozmetic]

Having the same issues.

I recently came from TekSavvy (who uses Rogers' infrastructure) on a 150/15 plan and had no problems streaming on Twitch at a bitrate of 8000 kbps with 0 dropped frames for hours. 2 weeks ago I signed up with Rogers and now on a 1000/30 plan, and have had problems every single day even streaming at a measly 6000 kbps, even though I have two times the upload of my previous ISP.

Judging by the size of this thread, I'm assuming this is normal and something I just have to deal with?

[John1969]

Yup.

It comes and goes.
Tune into this thread for more red square shenanigans!

[TheBudLab]

Nothing you can do! 40 calls in, 3 Calls with the Office of President.. Numerous Supervisor Tech visits. I got the Text this morning with "Ill be honest, im not sure theres much else we can do for you in the house but it will let me verify for the it" 

THE ONLY "FIX" I found is Modem in bridge mode "Residential Gateway".. and use the Wifi on a secondary Router. seems to Route the connection differently and I can finally stream again. "Sucks I have to run a home Server over Wifi and using another program to allow me to combine both the connections coming in"

What my problem seems to be is with the Intel Puma Chipsets when the Signal is to strong "Reason why they use Filters / why the 50mbps internet package was removed" the CPU will over heat.. if the signal strength is to low "Upstream signal 29-32" the chipset can't relay a constant speed. Could be why other providers who are using Rogers lines have no problems.. different modems! I already tried to get another line into the house and the NEW Ignite internet installed "the stuff that comes with TV" they wont install it because of the complaints I already have!

Office of President and pretty much ALL The support people i've talked to over the past 8 months didn't even know about the Rogers "Official" forum... What I would like to see on the website is "If you plan to Stream on Twitch.tv with Rogers ISP please let us test your connection before we make you pay"

[vzabizew]

anyone ever find a fix for this? Cause im losing my mind here.

[TheBudLab]

As far as I can tell it’s been fixed here... took them 10 months, 40+ calls, $2000 of my own cash “from techs recommending fixes”. What I got for the problem was

“ I did receive a follow up from the maintenance team that has been working on the Node this week. As per today they updated me that they isolated the distribution fault that was causing the issues you were experiencing as well as the OD Equipment that was causing this issue. They are installing a updated cable line on the node to a TX-15 cable line which is happening today from the update I received."

Do not let Rogers tech support say there isn’t a problem! Everytime you get a upstream drop phone tier 2 support and ask “has there been any noise on the line under the threshold” rogers doesn’t seem to think the noise causing our problems is a concern as it seems to always be under the "repair threshold".

Rogers might be selling unlimited contracts on limited lines!! If you need anymore help on the issue, I’ve seen / heard it all.

TTV /TheBudLabCA

[vzabizew]

Think I may have gotten something here.... Since I only have Ethernet on my Desktop and no wifi I swapped from ethernet to tethering my phones wifi to my desktop via usb has resulted in 0% dropped frames. @TheBudLab are you using Wifi or Ethernet? Also it seems it could be an issue with the realtek family controller along with rogers? Idk how its fixed but its fixed current will update progress, gunna head to the store to grab a usb wifi adapter to further test.

[vzabizew]

Yeah after about an hour right back to being useless, thinking the only option is leaving rogers at this point.

[RogersAndy]

Hey @vzabizew!

Sorry to hear that it didn't work out as you expected :(. I can appreciate wanting to see this resolved. Are you able to provide a traceroute to your twitch ingest server? We'll be able to assist if we can see the latency impacting the connection within the Rogers network.

Hoping that we can see a resolution to this for you and for all others impacted.

@RogersAndy

[vzabizew]

Just incase anybody reads this in the future and has been going to tech support trying to get help here's what my streams look like Before (Rogers) and After ( Bell)

[Koma]

Hello ive been having problems on and off with upload speed. I currently have the 500u package with 20 upload. i stream at 1080p 60 fps at 6k bitrate. last week i started having a problem where bandwith on the twitch test was maxed out at 10000 but quality was at 0. Called rogers support countless times had techs come over and everyone said my internet is working fine, when its not. If i can get some help it would be great because im running out of patience. 

[RogersAndy]

Hey @Koma!

I'm sorry to hear you're having upload speed issues. I know first hand how important it is when streaming for your upload rate to remain consistent. I'd be happy to take a deeper look into this for you. To begin, are you able to provide us with a traceroute to your twitch ingest server while you're streaming? I'd like to see where the latency is occurring. It's important that the test be run while streaming as well as with a wired connection directly to the Rogers modem.

To run traceroute on Windows:

1. Open the command prompt. Go to Start > Run > Type: cmd > Hit Enter

2. In the newly opened command prompt window, type: tracert www.google.com

3. You may have to wait up to a minute or more for the test to complete

4. Once completed highlight the results with your mouse then ctrl+c on your keyboard to copy

5. Provide the complete results (every line) here for analysis

Performing a Traceroute in Mac OS X

1. Launch Network Utility (Search Network Utility in Spotlight and choose the first option)

2. Click the Traceroute option in the top menu

3. Enter the network address to trace an internet route to: www.google.com

4. Click Trace at the bottom right

5. Select the results in the window below, and then right-click and select Copy or press COMMAND+C to copy the text

6. Provide the complete results (every line) here for analysis

Thanks!

@RogersAndy

[whateverfool]

Also a twitch user - https://www.twitch.tv/whateverfool

I am also having the same issues, I have gigabit internet with a supposed 30mb up speed and I am lucky to get 2mb.  So far they have sent 3 teks out saying the hardware is fine and as yet I am unable to stream due to the poor service of Rogers.  

[whateverfool]

I have just spoken to a rogers rep who told me that my service is being throttled due to my high usage of 4tb a month.  He also told me that I should cancel my service as there is nothing they can do for me, even though the service I have been sold is called unlimited - it would appear that if you go over a certain amount of datayou will be throttled and refused service and forced to cancel.  

[RogersZia]

Good evening @whateverfool!

Welcome to the Community!

We definitely don't want our colleagues to take the approach they did with you. I can imagine the experience was less than stellar. 

Can you please share what troubleshooting steps you've tried so far?

RogersZia

[Datalink]

@whateverfool fwiw, your post is the second one that I've seen following a conversation with Rogers staff, where that staff member indicated that throttling was in effect for high bandwidth users.  Seems there has been a policy during the Covid pandemic where throttling is in effect, so you might be affected by that policy, and, given your usage, I would guess that there's another "unofficial" limit covering high bandwidth customers.  What I had seen previously was a report that the upload bandwidth was throttled for a period of time, maybe 24 or 48 hours?

Just to note, Rogers has reported an increase in data usage somewhere around 50% or more during the Covid pandemic, which mirrors increases in data usage for other ISPs as well. 

Now, that doesn't negate the possibility that there's a technical reason for the slow data rates.  Are you seeing low data rates on the download side, upload side or both?

[whateverfool]

Only on the upload side of things.  Being told that my usage is excessive is not true - they advertised it as unlimited...

After contacting a lawyer and checking Bell-Aliant, I have found that they also have an unlimited clause - however this one actually means unlimited and instead of the basic package being a paltry 10mb upload, Bells is 100mb upload.

I have been told by Rogers to cancel if I do not like the way I am being treated.  It would seem Rogers staff are aware of this issue and prefer a person leave their service rather than try to use it as intended.

[Gdkitty]

Is the Bell Aliant there using direct fiber?  Might be a reason of higher upload bandwidth overall.  In general fiber will be better in those regards.

But just so you are aware, at least the reason is sounds like rogers was throttling your speeds, is fairly common practice with most ISPs.
Bell-Aliant has the same thing

(taken from their terms of service)
"How does Bell Aliant help to ensure fair network access, efficient operation and the
responsible use of Bell Aliant Services? Bell Aliant works hard to ensure fair network access to all users
and the continuous, efficient operation of the Bell Aliant Services. Bell Aliant may manage network resources
using methods which include: (a) prioritization or deprioritization of network access; and (b) Internet traffic
management practices such as allocation of bandwidth (which may impact speeds), filtering for spam and
malicious or illicit content, anti-virus mechanisms or other measures to protect the integrity of the network
Effective July 16, 2020 Page 6 of 17
(such as the blocking of your traffic or other traffic in the event of denial of service attacks), all in a manner
consistent with applicable law."

Every user needs to go with the service which will provide them with the best capable, for where they are.
(compare to me, the only other service other than rogers, is bell < 10mbps down DSL.  no option compared to getting 1gbps rogers)

[whateverfool]

I have found a solution to rogers.com throttling policy and lies - cancel rogers and install Bell-Aliant. Instant success and 100mb upload instead of the paltry and limited 30mb (barely 2mb when throttled). As for asking rogers to solve this imaginary problem of limiting data, I would phone Bell-Aliant and tell them of the problem you have with Rogers as it would appear that this gets you price matched service and a $150.00 gift bonus for leaving rogers,,,,lol.....also you get a service that is reliable and does not throttle its customers for being a streamer.

[whateverfool]

Bell-Aliant has the same thing - it does not have the same thing as you have suggested and instead recognizes the fact streamers exist. I have been running both packages side by side - and Rogers caps and throttles while Bell does not. Using twitchtest I am able to get the expected results everytime with Bell, yet with Rogers towards the end of the month this gets throttled. This is not a service I would not recommend to anyone that intends to stream to twitch.