Fastly CDN slow in Dubai

Network Services
1

I get very poor performance (< 200 KB/s) from Fastly when using its CDN. I’ve used it via MacPorts (package.macports.org) and OpenBSD (cdn.openbsd.org). I seem to get US IPs:

$ host packages.macports.org
packages.macports.org is an alias for j.sni.global.fastly.net.
j.sni.global.fastly.net has address 151.101.2.132
j.sni.global.fastly.net has address 151.101.66.132
j.sni.global.fastly.net has address 151.101.130.132
j.sni.global.fastly.net has address 151.101.194.132

$ host cdn.openbsd.org
cdn.openbsd.org is an alias for openbsd.map.fastlydns.net.
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has address 151.101.3.52
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has address 151.101.67.52
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has address 151.101.131.52
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has address 151.101.195.52
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has IPv6 address 2a04:4e42::820
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has IPv6 address 2a04:4e42:200::820
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has IPv6 address 2a04:4e42:400::820
openbsd.map.fastlydns.net has IPv6 address 2a04:4e42:600::820
1 Like
2

Hi @mohd-akram could you go to https://www.fastly-debug.com/ and send back the generated text block with your network trace information?

3

Sure thing:

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
4

Thanks that debug information points to a good network connection, but are there specific URL paths or objects where you’re seeing this happen more frequently?

5

It happens with any download from the sites I mentioned, eg. https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.5/amd64/install75.iso . I’m getting 140 KB/s for this one. From MacPorts, eg. https://packages.macports.org/llvm-18/llvm-18-18.1.7_0.darwin_23.x86_64.tbz2 , around 500 KB/s max. For reference, I get 480 Mbps on a regular speed test.

6

Thanks. There’s nothing that directly indicates a network issue within Fastly. You might be running into some throttling within your local ISP, but that’s just a hypothesis.

7

Thank you for checking. It seems like it was throttling. The speed would initially be fast and then drop suddenly to a crawl. I contacted the ISP and after they did something the speed now remains steadily fast.

8

That didn’t last. It seems it only worked for that one URL, possibly because I downloaded it a few times in testing so it’s better cached or something. Trying another URL, eg. install75.img, I get the same slowdown. The response headers for both are identical:

backend-name: 5GnZ0LBU5CzDw9NCjFbkjI--F_fanout
via: 1.1 varnish
x-served-by: cache-fjr990024-FJR
x-cache: HIT
x-cache-hits: 0

This problem does not happen with other CDNs mentioned here.

It seems like Fastly says there’s a cache hit even though it only has in the cache up to the point where I cancelled the download, and seemingly its fetching from the origin server while responding is very slow.