topic Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ? in Plusnet Feedback

Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

BorgWales — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:51:12 GMT

I get some really slow speeds during the day, can't even watch youtube At night it seems to go up to around the 2 Mb/s during the day its almost like being on dial up. Can't even get the MAC code on a Saturday.
I'm out of here ASAP

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

jelv — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:59:10 GMT

Have you checked the status of the exchange? It sounds as if your problem could be exchange contention. If that is the case things are very unlikely to improve if you switch to another ISP using BT's intrastructure, instead you should only look at LLU providers. You can find out what LLU is available at you exchange from Sam Knows.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

BorgWales — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:20:20 GMT

LLU isn't available, the exchange is crap as well
The ETA fix time is: 01 Jan 70
Record last updated: 06 Aug 10
2070 FFS
Its always showing red.
I have a contract with Plusnet, they have a contract with BT why don't they get BT to sort the exchanges out.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

pierre_pierre — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:36:46 GMT

PN might be part of the BT group, but dear old Maggie T and OFCOM, wont let the different sections talk to each other
Leaving PN for another ISP will only take your problem with you

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

TicnTac — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:12:07 GMT

Quote
2070

To not sound like Victor Meldrew "I don't believe it!"
I would hope that by then, the internet just wouldn't be anything near what it is now, we should be teleporting about, firewire socket implants, wi-fi built into our optic-nerves, and living on Mars or beyond!
This country is so backwards it's almost 3rd world! As for the money that goes through the hands of BT, they should stop paying stupid top exec. wages, forget the share holders, stop disposing of ex BT staff cast offs onto half decent ISP's and actually get the infrastructure sorted once and for all, for every area, 8Mb minimum, no more download caps, or usage caps, just decent, always on, always working, broadband! Might even get happy customers then!
really is a mess!
Where's the Internet Fairy Godmother when you need her?

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

BorgWales — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:34:17 GMT

I don't like this Midnight till dawn thing either. Most ppl are in bed then. Its a con

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

TicnTac — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:47:56 GMT

Quote from: BorgWales
I don't like this Midnight till dawn thing either. Most ppl are in bed then. Its a con

........it's really because most Interneters are nocturnal Also for the vast majority of surfers, shoppers, facebookers, tweeties etc. Plusnut is pretty much fine, on the Value package anyway-ish - sort of, well not quite, depends!
Shouldn't have to be this way - but it is Really is all BT's fault! Or should we blame NTHell getting taken over by Virgin, as 100% of the UK could have been on fibre then!?

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

BorgWales — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:48:36 GMT

Doesn't work out though does it, if everyone is on a midnight till daft o clock time scale then everyone will be using it then so its just as clogged up.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

TicnTac — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:58:28 GMT

Pretty much, then you get the transatlantic peak users on, which then drags the Internet down even further. It is all just one big traffic problem, locally for ISP users, and then globably for the gateways and exchanges, throw in a little issue at LINX (London Internet Exchange Ltd) and traffic can really be on a go slow - used to be a live stat page for them, but can't find it
However, most large downloaders will use between 2am and 7am - UK traffic is lighter, depending where you surf, so for the hardcore netter, it makes sense, but the normal joe netter, it makes no sense, as sleep comes first, but then you never get to use your 'free usage'.
Fair for some not for others, maybe PN need to introduce a few more choices for folk?

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

BorgWales — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:30:11 GMT

This is getting stupid now.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

BorgWales — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:45:02 GMT

I'm heading over to The Channel 5 web site and logging this rubbish speed on their survey.
Quick enough to charge if I go over my limit but won't refund me if the speeds are so slow. This 'Up-To' rubbish is a con.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

Dom — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:23:06 GMT

Quote from: BorgWales
... why don't they get BT to sort the exchanges out.

When BT "upgraded" my exchange earlier in the year it seems to have caused problems, both for myself, and for the company that I work for (as we're all on the same exchange).

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

David_W — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:17:39 GMT

Quote from: BorgWales
I don't like this Midnight till dawn thing either. Most ppl are in bed then. Its a con

Most non-LLU ISP's don't even do that, they give you a limit (say 20Gb) and that's it, if you download at 4am it's coming out of your allowance. You can download 100+Gb off peak easily and PN won't say a word, how many other ISP's will let you download 100Gb and not blink an eye?

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

TicnTac — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:43:27 GMT

Quote
You can download 100+Gb off peak easily and PN won't say a word

because most PN customers won't have a chance in hell of ever being able to download that in such a short period of time;D Sorry, still feeling sore over my saga with BT
Maybe PN should think about something else, charge people for what they connect at - so the max you pay for 8Mb is what we all pay now, but if you connect at 1.16Mb you only pay for that amount? Could be an interesting concept?

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

Jaggies — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:28:28 GMT

Quote from: TicnTac
Maybe PN should think about something else, charge people for what they connect at - so the max you pay for 8Mb is what we all pay now, but if you connect at 1.16Mb you only pay for that amount? Could be an interesting concept?

Won't happen. ISPs are charged by BTW for the capacity (bandwidth, if you will) they use. Speed is not an issue when pricing broadband services.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

TicnTac — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:34:39 GMT

mmmm Maybe BT can reduce the price it charges itself then, or maybe Plusnet could be unlike every other ISP despite what BT does? Now that would be a step forward and unlike any other ISP - or maybe those that don't reach the UP TO speeds could get a refund, or a larger usage allowance? However, it is all BT at the end of the day - so - service will always be poor, speeds always rubbish, and things will always go wrong!

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

jelv — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:21:17 GMT

Quote from: TicnTac
mmmm Maybe BT can reduce the price it charges itself then

It is BT Wholesale who charge for the capacity. OFCOM rules say BTw must treat BT Retail (and their subsidiaries such as Plusnet) exactly the same as all other ISPs so they cant reduce the charges without OFCOM approval.

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

WebDude — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:20:36 GMT

Well, although I'm probably not on the same exchange as BorgWales and suffered a drop to 160 kbps after the rain on Monday evening, I can understand some of the frustrations of poor speeds (yippeee, I am back up to 750 kbps, about all I am able to get on a good day!) - but not sure why traffic was stuck below 250 k until after lunchtime today (based on seeing the incoming data - the PN 'data transfer speed' has shown 750 kbps whenever I checked over the past 3 days)

Quote from: TicnTac
maybe Plusnet could be unlike every other ISP despite what BT does?

and lose money ? Hardly see any point in suggesting a lower fee - they must have their Accounts / Marketing people at war most of the time over the discounts (4 months free, promotions, for example) and have some of the lowest prices (for the data allowances) in the market, unless you have O2 / C+W / Sky offering LLU at your exchange. 60 GB for under 15 quid (and 10 GB for under a tenner) are both good deals for the majority of users (on Market 3 exchanges).

Quote
or maybe those that don't reach the UP TO speeds could get a refund, or a larger usage allowance?

the larger usage allowance is a bit of an ironic suggestion though as it might be awkward to hit any existing limit without running your connection 24 x 7 (which was part of what BorgWales was complaining about). Although, even on a somewhat limited (1 Mbps max) connection, my traffic has gone from 3 MB one day (rain stopped broadband) to 4.44 GB (in the 0800-2400 time slot - 6.25 GB total for the day) so maybe I was being too flippant to dismiss a larger allowance!
What I hate at the moment (nothing to do with PN) is the BBC iPlayer (I have to download, cannot stream) when it wipes a show (600+ MB) saying it has "expired" and I have only just downloaded the thing. It's a bug, I know, but makes at least half of what has been downloaded a stream of binary going straight into the bit-bin ...

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

David_W — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:32:22 GMT

Quote from: TicnTac
because most PN customers won't have a chance in hell of ever being able to download that in such a short period of time;D Sorry, still feeling sore over my saga with BT

I'm up to 104Gb this month and still have almost 2 weeks before my connection is reset. In fairness I do connect at 8Mb and schedule my downloading to take place off peak, also in fairness I'm on a grandfathered product which has my "peak" hours at 4pm-midnight. I am however strongly thinking of stopping downloading until my bandwidth is reset because I sort of feel like I'm taking the [censored]

Re: Bandwidth being throttled during the day ?

WebDude — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 14:06:37 GMT

Despite my (this month so far) maximum download speed being 750 kbps, [with 0 kbps for several days and maybe 2 of the 3 weeks at 250 kbps or less], I have reached near 44 GB, but that's because I've been downloading 24h/day (to pull some BBC shows on iPlayer). However, because of a bug in iPlayer where most are being deleted immediately as 'having expired' I have switched back to getting some items off USENET, and been listening to radio a bit.
Fortunately, BT came (after I reported the faulty line for about the 6th time this month) and under "wear and tear" they have not only replaced the drop cable, but fitted a new master socket in a far more convenient place (near power, instead of under a radiator in the hall with no power sockets in close proximity, unless one had a cable from one side of the hall to the other meaning anyone going in or out would be at risk of tripping / damaging said cable).
Line sync (with 21db and 15 db SNR for upstream/ downstream, so possible speed improvents may still be possible) gave me over 1700 kbps when first connected, and then 1856 kbps during the afternoon, and since just before midnight - leaving it connected now so BT end can adjust data throughput up from 128 kbps, with a few days and a bit of luck, of course).
I just hope BorgWales gets some higher speeds, as I suspect switching ISP (if there's an exchange problem) will just raise his boiling point...