All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
getOffMyTV
Enthusiast - Level 1

Something might be wrong with Verizon Fios in the NYC area. Since last night, any download from Apple times out. Also http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ reports a speed of less than 1Mbps. Connected to a VPN and everything worked normally. Verizon support guy said nothing was wrong, but someone please tell me why this is happening?

thanks

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
PearTree85
Newbie

Yup, exactly the same problem here. Trying to download iOS8 from Manhattan and the download crawls - 10Kb/s. If I run it through a Chicago proxy it gets back up to around 2Mb/s (which may well be limited from the Apple side). 

Impacting all Apple downloads by the looks of it - I tried to update iTunes and it suffered the same fate. 

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
eljefe2
Master - Level 1

I seem to be having a similar problem here.  Speedtest.net shows my normal 75+ mb/s download (and upload), but trying to install iOS 8 on my wife's iPhone, and some updates on her MacBook Pro, the download speeds are almost zero.

Yet I just updated iTunes on my PC and download speed was normal.  Smiley Frustrated

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

You might be seeing a problem with the regional CDN. Apple uses their CDN as a primary means of distribution, with Akamai and Limelight being used as alternate sources.

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
eljefe2
Master - Level 1

I found a solution that worked for the iOS update.

With my iPhone 5s connected to an at&t LTE tower, I turned on the iPhone's personal hotspot.  I connected my wife's phone to mine via the personal hotspot and presto....the iOS 8 update completed in 9 minutes.

So it would seem there is a routing problem between Verizon's network and Apple's servers.  I didn't both to trace the route, but it seems very similar to the problems many have had with NetFlix, etc.

In the mean time, my better half's MacBook Pro is still downloading updates at ~25 kB/s.

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
getOffMyTV
Enthusiast - Level 1

Thanks for posting everyone. At least I'm not alone. I've been pretty happy with Fios (compared to TWC) and this is the first time that I've had a major issue with the service. I'm just hope that I won't have to recover one of my Macs with Internet Recovery, VPN would not be an option in that case. Sure, there are always ways around a problem, but we shouldnt have to jump through hoops to access the data that we require.

I wonder is Verizon try to shake Apple down like they did Netflix?

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
Hubrisnxs
Legend

This is another good example of a VPN being a heavy handed approach to fixing the problem and giving a false impression of peering issues or throttling.

Simply change your DNS

FIOS horrible Apple download speeds.

Use Google DNS configured directly to your machine or router,

8.8.4.4 and the quad 8888's    8.8.8.8

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
eljefe2
Master - Level 1

@Hubrisnxs wrote:

This is another good example of a VPN being a heavy handed approach to fixing the problem and giving a false impression of peering issues or throttling.

Simply change your DNS

FIOS horrible Apple download speeds.

Use Google DNS configured directly to your machine or router,

8.8.4.4 and the quad 8888's    8.8.8.8


I tried that.  I set my router to Google's DNS servers and it made no difference.  Download from the Apple server(s) is still taking forever.

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
jimdwestboro
Enthusiast - Level 2

I've experienced the same problem here in Massachusetts.  At first I thought it was an Apple problem, but then I tried downloading iOS 8 via cellular and found it to be orders of magnitude faster than my FIOS 75/75 network despite speedtest showing full speed capability!  

I then tried downloading from Apple through my company's VPN on my home computer (same computer, same physical network as my FIOS setup) and was able to download iOS in about 8 minutes (about 7mb/sec) versus 11-12 kb/sec without the VPN.

This is outrageous for a supposedly high-speed network.  Does anyone from Verizon monitor this forum?  I'm reluctant to get involved with a level 1 support call on this, as it's clearly not a problem at my end.

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Re: All Apple updates time out. But through a VPN, it's fine!
getOffMyTV
Enthusiast - Level 1

When I first discovered a couple days ago, upon iOS 8 being released, I did a tier 1 chat with Verizon support, the guy "reset the main box" in our apartment, and then when that didnt do anything, he said that it MUST be Apple's fault. Typical tech support redirection **bleep**. Not his fault per se, but I work in IT and I know its too often the way things work.

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