topic Re: Ever decreasing speeds in Broadband

Ever decreasing speeds

Lee10 — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 10:46:27 GMT

Hi, I've had plusnet unlimited fibre for at least 5 years now and despite estimated speeds of 7mbps when getting it, I have constantly achieved 30mbps up and 7mbps down whenever I have tested. That is until the last few months when we have had multiple dropouts and disconnects and my speeds are now 7mbps and 4mbps respectively.

I have done a quiet line test, connected to the Master socket etc over Xmas and all appeared ok (speeds then were 24 & 4 mbps).

I do use a Draytek 2762 router instead of the Hub1 (weak wifi), but this has been in place for over 2 years without issue. The router tells me that the VDSL2 connection had been up for 13 hours now, so there was obviously another dropout last night.

The only change in the last 3 months are the ever present Trooli engineers who appear to be living in our villages green telecom boxes.

I'm guessing that the constant drops have caused the speeds to be lowered to try and stop issues (which is not working).

its difficult to do tests during the day as we both WFH and disconnecting routers etc. cannot be done.

any help/advice very welcome.

Lee

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Townman — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 11:32:58 GMT

Hi Lee,

A warm welcome to the forums.

If the phone line is quiet, I would jump in and raise a broadband fault report - use the link below.

Can you correlate the drops with the use of the telephone - either inbound or outbound calls?

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Lee10 — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 11:52:02 GMT

Thanks Townman, I guessed that would be my next step.

The landline is rarely used so I don't think it will be that.

Been with Plusnet 15+ years now and rarely had an issue, so never though of joining or looking at the forum before.

I'll double check the phone line again tonight after work when I can plug an analogue phone into the master socket, then I'll raise the ticket.

Cheers,

Lee

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Townman — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 12:00:58 GMT

Use or non-use of the phone line for voice will have no bearing on its integrity. The copper circuit carries both voice and data services and can impact one without impacting the other...

Broadband can falter due to a copper circuit issue which does not impact voice services
Voice services can be totally non-existent (no dial tone) whilst broadband continues to limp along

Is your voice service with Plusnet?

EDIT: Previously, I confused this topic with a different one!

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Lee10 — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 12:06:42 GMT

Both phone and Broadband are through Plusnet.

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Lee10 — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 12:26:42 GMT

Now I've finished work for the week I can unplug everything and do a quiet line test again, and run the BT diagnostics.

Below are my router stats, though a speed test says that I am getting closer to 7mb rather than 11 and I used to get 33-35mb not 27mb. Does anything stand out as wrong here?

Of course 2 power cuts in the last few days isn't going to help.

Cheers,

Lee

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

MatthewWheeler — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 12:45:36 GMT

Hi @Lee10

I'm really sorry for how long it's taken to get back to you. We've been quite busy recently so it's taking longer than we'd like to reply.

After testing the line I can see there's a high resistance fault that's causing this. Can you respond to the text I've sent with your availability for a engineer visit?

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Lee10 — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 13:26:07 GMT

Thanks Matthew,

I've replied to your question with days/times.

Funny enough after doing a quiet line test 1/2 hour ago (pretty quiet) and reconnecting the router. Another speedtest has shown a significant jump in speed. I don't know if you kicked something at your end or not.

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

MatthewWheeler — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 14:02:56 GMT

Thanks for responding @Lee10

My tests are still showing an issue so it's best to go ahead with the engineer visit.

I've booked it for you now and sent a confirmation via text/e-mail.

Let us know how you get on

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Townman — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 13:03:56 GMT

@Lee10

There is no point doing data speed tests given those router stats. Both SNRM and attenuation are grim.

The attenuation figure is a function of line quality and length. Length cannot be changed, but the repair might improve its quality. Do you know how close you are to the green cabinet?

The SNRM is the DLM's response to attempt to gain stability at the expense of speed in the presence of the fault.

Nothing more to do here other than wait for the engineer's visit, see what they find and do make sure to ask them to do a DLM reset before they depart, do not settle for the "wait 10 days" mantra. Otherwise there will be another waiting game.

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

Lee10 — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 15:24:22 GMT

Thanks Matthew,

Engineer came 2 days ago and detected a fault in the cable 120metres up the road from me. It doesn't help that the cables were just buried underground here and are impossible to get at without digging up the road.

He swapped me over to a free line and I am back to the speeds that I had before the issue and haven't lost connection for 2 days.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Re: Ever decreasing speeds

MatthewWheeler — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 15:42:34 GMT

Looking good @Lee10

Happy to see it's finally sorted now