topic Re: Confused.com in Full Fibre

Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:52:21 GMT

Hi Guys

I'm hoping that someone can help..... 🙂

I have recently joined Plusnet from Sky and to date the speeds that I am receiving are not what I was expecting. Before moving to Sky, I have previously had BT Fibre 2 at the premises and have previously been getting the expected speeds that their package offered at >70mb/s.

So, I have signed up to the 80/20 Fibre Max offering from Plusnet, and my line according to the wholesale checker is showing that I should be getting speeds in the range of 80 to 66.6mb/s. To date, I have never achieved these speeds and the speeds that I am currently getting fluctuate between 54.9 and 57.6mb/s (which I appreciate is above my guaranteed minimum speed of 54.6mb/s). I would have thought that the GMS would be the exception rather than the norm.

I have had an Openreach engineer out who has said that the line is clear and that everything looks fine, he has checked everything internally and also checked the cabinet and said there was no issues there either. The socket was checked with a device which showed three readings of 59mb/s, 54mb/s and finally 56mb/s (which is what I'm currently getting)

So from reading the wholesale checker output; it mentions a line handback speed of 60mb/s.... I was wondering what this is as obviously Openreach is taking the stance that the line is fine but nothing has ever reached even the handback speeds.

Having read a few forum posts relating to speed issues, I am wondering whether I have been set up on the right package with Plusnet internally, or whether a setting at the exchange is incorrect because having previously had BT; I would have thought that I would be back to enjoying a similar broadband performance.

On another note, and somewhat bizarrely the following is appearing now as my Broadband Service within the Plusnet dashboard

Product: Unlimited Fibre Extra
Estimated Download Range: 45 - 51Mbps - surely this should be between 66.6 and 80
Estimated Upload Range: 13 - 15Mbps
Minimum Guaranteed Speed: 41.2Mbps - This should be 54.6mb/s, but yesterday showed as little as 40.1mb/s
Current Line Speed (Download): 54.8Mbps - This did show 80mb/s, then a day or so later 78mb/s

Finally I have contacted Plusnet on a few occasions, leading to the engineer visit but since then they have referred back to the (incorrect) guaranteed minimum speed being exceeded, and whilst I believe that I currently have a ticket open; I have heard nothing further.

Any help & advice would be really appreciated 🙂

Many thanks

Re: Confused.com

jab1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:52:25 GMT

@twedd17 Welcome to the forums. There are a number things which could explain this - having moved from Sky to PN, the chances are that you were on SKYs own equipment at the exchange and have now been moved back to the BT infrastructure, which could be more congested (and is probably older), or your connection may have a problem.

For Community members to be able to help, information from these two sites, as screenshots:-

BT Broadband(obscuring your phone number) and BTW Performance Tester - Over a wired (ethernet) connection. Please report the 'Additional Diagnostics', and sight of the Help Desk tab from your Hub would be a start.

(IGNORE the report you have already provided)

It may also be a good idea to report the results of a Quiet Line Test - dial 17070 option 2 from a (preferably corded) phone. After the confirmation of your phone number, there should be total silence apart from the regular 'Quiet Line Test' announcement. Any other noise - report a PHONE fault first.

If phone test is OK then take the front off your telephone master socket, you may need to remove two screws. In behind you will find the test socket. Plug a filter in here and connect that to your hub. If it’s still dropping out then report a fault at https://faults.plus.net.

Re: Confused.com

RealAleMadrid — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:32:54 GMT

@jab1 The Op has already supplied the BT Wholesale checker result, he should be getting much higher speeds, possibly 80Mbps. The modem/router stats would useful to see. The fact that the OP was on Sky previously is not significant, all FTTC circuits are provided on Openreach equipment. It was only on Sky LLU (ADSL) where they had there own equipment in the exchange. I think the problem is more related to the sync speed rather than a congestion issue.

@twedd17 The Plusnet Speeds on the Broadband Account are not a lot of use in diagnosing a problem, they just track your actual sync speed which is why they keep changing. The "Current Line Speed" is not actually a speed at all but a Plusnet internal profile that follows the BT IP profile. It is only significant if you have a Static WAN IP address when it can limit your throughput speed. As mentioned the information in the Hub1 Help Desk tab or line stats from whatever router you are using would help.

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:36:48 GMT

@jab1 Many thanks for getting in touch 👍

It is funny how you mention Sky as the service that they provided was only marginally better than what I am getting now, but I put that down to Sky's equipment (router etc). However, having had BT Fibre 2 previously, and like I said in my earlier post, having speeds in excess of 70mb/s; I would have thought I would have been back to those speeds.

This is what the BT Wholesale checker shows in full

..... and these is the results of my speed test. This is using a hard wire from the router directly into my PC, with a cable length of roughly 1 metre.

I have performed a silent test on the line, which is fine, and to be fair to Plusnet, the connection that I have experienced so far has been very very stable, much better than sky, but it's the speeds received that are a little disappointing.

I hope that this helps or makes sense

Re: Confused.com

jab1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:38:05 GMT

@RealAleMadrid Ooops - forgot the VDSL gear is all BT/Oprenreach - my error. I know they have already supplied the BTW stats - see my post.

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:45:38 GMT

@RealAleMadrid Hi, thanks for getting in touch

Here's the output from my router as things stand

Product code:Plusnet Hub Two

Serial number:+108417+2137009416

Firmware version:v0.05.03.07154-PN

Firmware updated:Unknown

Board version:R01

GUI version:1.3 10_03_2021

DSL uptime:0 Days 3 Hrs 41 Mins

Data rate:15.809 Mbps / 57.632 Mbps

Maximum data rate:15.817 Mbps / 59.236 Mbps

Noise margin:5.8 / 6.1

Line attenuation:7.8 / 16.1

Signal attenuation:7.8 / 17.5

VLAN id:101

Upstream error control:Off

Downstream error control:Off

Data sent / received:269.5 MB Uploaded / 2.3 GB Downloaded

Broadband username:xxxxxx@plusdsl.net

2.4 GHz wireless network name:PLUSNET-2XC2H7

2.4 GHz wireless channel:Smart (Channel 1)

5 GHz wireless network name:PLUSNET-2XC2H7

5 GHz wireless channel:Smart (Channel 36)

Wireless security:WPA2 (Recommended)

Wireless mode:Mode 1

Firewall:On

MAC address:C4:E5:32:07:99:CA

Software variant:-

Boot loader:0.1.7-PN (Thu Nov 30 09:45:22 2017)

Hopefully this makes sense to you guys 🙂

Re: Confused.com

jab1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:53:02 GMT

@twedd17 Lots of info all at once, but something in your last post is of concern - you have an up-time of only 3.3/4 hours. I assume you are not intentionally disconnecting your Hub?

EDIT: And looking at your attenuation figures, you should certainly be getting the 70Mb/s speeds you were expecting, unless there are cab/line problems.

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:54:59 GMT

Hi @jab1 no nothing sinister in that just the wrong electrical socket was turned off by accident 🙄

Re: Confused.com

jab1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:58:06 GMT

That just leaves the question of why your profile is so low then. I'm afraid I can't answer that - it is something either a more experienced Community member or Plusnet will have to explain - sorry.

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:04:11 GMT

@jab1 Many thanks for your help, it is really appreciated. At least it's not just me that thinks that there's something amiss here, but the Openreach engineer insisted that everything seemed fine at their end.

Many thanks again 👍

Jonathan

Re: Confused.com

Baldrick1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:04:40 GMT

@twedd17

How long have you been connected? The hub is reporting a SNR of about 6dB which is the default when there is a new connection and the DLM is rebooted. If your line is good then this should reduce over the coming days/weeksdown to as low as a SNR of 3dB and increase your speed . All that you can do for now is to make sure that the hub stays connected and keep an eye on the sync speed and SNR. As more subscribers come on line the crosstalk on multicore cables increases, often necessitating an increased SNR. This could be the case here and the errors on your connection have increased such that the SNR will not be adjusted and you have to live with it.

I am on a good line but from the early days of me being 'one of the few' on FTTC to now I have lost 10Mbps of sync speed.

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 15:23:23 GMT

Hi @Baldrick1, many thanks for getting touch. Great username and picture BTW..... one of Blackadder's best episodes imo 👍

I must admit that I have only been a Plusnet customer for a week, and like previously stated have put these speed issues down to Sky BB and their associated hardware/infrastructure (settings at the exchange, router performance etc), as I have had BT Fibre 2 and have been getting in excess of 70mb/s previously. Judging from previous replies; it seems as if the potential problem might be quite long standing.

In terms of general connection: Other than this morning when I accidentally turned off the wrong socket; and when advised to reset the router by Plusnet Technical support staff I have never knowingly had my connection interrupted.

On the point about losing 10mb/s, the guy from Openreach did allude to possible congestion at the cabinet but on inspection advised that everything seemed ok. Nevertheless, I still would have expected that their infrastructure would be capable of delivering the minimum speed of 66.6mb/s or surely it would be a misrepresentation of what their service levels are.

Re: Confused.com

Baldrick1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:22:29 GMT

@twedd17

A bit of background:

There are two ways of reporting speeds. The sync rate, which is the maximum speed at which the hub can coneect to the street fibre cabinet and your real world download speed. The figures of 66.66-80Mbps is an estimate (note the word estimate) based on the distance between your property and the cabinet and other environmental considerations and is referring to the sync speed. Your hub is syncing at just under 60Mbps so is not achieving this estimate.

BT then set a line profile just under the sync speed. On top of this comes error correction. If this is set to retransmission high then you will only experience about 90% at best of the sync speed in an actual download speed test.

How much testing has been done on your line? Have you removed the front section from your BT master socket and plugged your filter directly in to the test socket? This disconnects any extension wiring in your house, which can affect your speed.

Have you seen the results of a GEA test that can tell us whether your line has been banded or has a bridge tap?

Have you paid for a static IP address? If so there is an often overlooked banding control on the Plusnet servers that can get wrongly set.

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 17:13:35 GMT

Err in honesty to much of your question all I can say is I don't know.

The Openreach engineer on his visit on Friday had the socket opened and plugged a device into it and got three different readings; these being 54mb/s, 59 mb/s before stabilising at 56mb/s. I didn't see these personally but that are the speeds that he read out. He did mention that the line is up to 80mb/s capable. No reference to banding or bridge taps were made, but he did quite a number of tests both at my home, and apparently at the cabinet, and said that the line was 'clean'

I don't believe that I have a static IP address, or rather all I can say is that I certainly haven't paid any extra for one over and above the standard Fibre Max product.

Re: Confused.com

LaurenB — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 09:17:19 GMT

Hiya @twedd17, thank you for getting in touch on our community forums. I am sorry that you are experiencing speeds lower than expected.

I have tested the line today and this showing the current sync is 57.6mb with no faults being detected. I have had a check and there is no bridge tap or any cross talk being detected on this. I'll attach a GEA of the line below for you and the others to view.

There have been a number of drops over the last few days, a number of this look to be from the engineer visit and then sounds like the others may be done to reboots so may be worth seeing how things go over the next few days.

We could look to send a further engineer but there's a good chance the result will be the same as with the previous engineer sent.

Re: Confused.com

LaurenB — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 09:18:04 GMT

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	57.6 Mbps
Upstream Speed	15.8 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	472.8
Upstream Rate Assessment	Low
Downstream Rate Assessment	Reasonable
Interference Pattern	Regular Interference Observed Daily
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Interference Duration Longest Occurrence	;00:00to23:45
Interference Location	Customer Premise
Interference Observed In Days	4
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream traffic detected
Technology	VDSL
Current 15Min Bin Retrains	0
Last 15Min Bin Retrains	0
DP Type	External
Profile Name	0.128M-80M Downstream, Retransmission Low - 0.128M-20M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2022-01-29T18:45:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	56.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps	57.5 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	15.5 Mbps	20.0 Mbps	15.7 Mbps
Up Time	352.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	897.0 Sec
Retrains	0.0	1.0	0.0

Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance
Parameters	Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)	Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)
Start Time Stamp	2022-02-01T08:25:13Z	2022-02-01T08:40:13Z
Ingress Code Violation	22	1
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

Re: Confused.com

jab1 — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 09:26:44 GMT

@LaurenB I'm no expert, but the OP is not achieving the Handback Threshold - see post #4, and looking at the attenuation figures, my untrained mind is suggesting they should be getting somewhat higher connection speeds?

Re: Confused.com

twedd17 — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 10:28:59 GMT

Hi @LaurenB, many thanks for getting in touch.

Yes, aside from one accidental disconnection; the only known times that my connection had dropped out was either after instruction from Plusnet staff or on Friday afternoon when the Openreach engineer was testing the line and working within the cabinet.

As @jab1 has said (many thanks John 👍), I am currently not getting the speeds that BT wholesale are claiming that I should get before a line handback is to be considered, and again I am no expert in this matter, but I would have thought that this would work in a similar fashion to Plusnet's Minimum Speed Guarantee. The speed I am getting is in line with my previous provider Sky and having put that down to having different equipment at the exchange and via the router; I thought nothing of it. I have had BT Broadband prior to getting Sky BB, on their Fibre 2 package, and was constantly getting speeds in excess of 70mb/s.

I have taken a look at BT's forum and some posts mention the ISP having to go via BT wholesale for them to do some wizardry in order to get a resolution, others mention faulty ports at the exchange/cabinet or a profile reset, but I also note that my profile is currently set to 80mb/s max, which is good news.

I'm happy to wait a few days to see if anything changes, but the speeds of 56/57mb/s to the router have been 'the' speeds I have been getting consistently, with 52/53mb/s being received to my computer.