topic Re: Utter Frustration in Plusnet Feedback

Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 10:16:31 GMT

I am utterly frustrated with your service. After years of good service our plusnet broadband is now awful. Drops constantly and when it is on is painfully slow. I have bought a new router from you already. Had to use over hour of my time on Saturday waiting for first customer services (15 mins), then "technical service" 50 mins is ridiculous and then I am still nowhere further forward. I will be going elsewhere soon where at least you can talk to someone and get a reply.

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 10:23:16 GMT

Sorry to see the line issues you've been having, along with the problems contacting our support team.
I've just had a quick look at your line and over the weekend it was dropping out on a very very frequent basis, but seems to be much more stable now:

Have you made any changes since the weekend to your setup or added/removed any electrical items in your house?
Are you still seeing the connection dropping and if so, are you using wireless? If wireless have you tried an ethernet cable to see if the same issues continue then?

Re: Utter Frustration

Townman — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:19:14 GMT

Quote from: Chris
If wireless have you tried an ethernet cable to see if the same issues continue then?

@Chris, - Can you please advise how the use of Ethernet cable rather than wireless would impact the frequency of PPP session loss as shown in the connectivity graph? Some of the gaps in the graph could only be human intervention if Kato is a night owl - 3 to 5 Sunday morning.
@Kato - can you correlate the PPP session disconnections shown above with any remedial activity you was doing - for example frequent restarting of the router on Sunday afternoon? Was the router left switched off during Friday night / Saturday and Sunday morning?

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:22:06 GMT

Quote
@Chris, - Can you please advise how the use of Ethernet cable rather than wireless would impact the frequency of PPP session loss as shown in the connectivity graph? Some of the gaps in the graph could only be human intervention if Kato is a night owl - 3 to 5 Sunday morning.

That's not what I was suggesting. I was asking about ethernet in particular over the last 2 days while there aren't any obvious drops.

Re: Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:42:50 GMT

On Saturday evening I changed the recently provided new plusnet router back to the old Belkin router after a completely hopeless conversation on the phone with your technical help who said it might be the router or the socket and it did became more stable for a while. I hvae not turned it on or off since. I am not a technician so don't understand some of your questions. I have not used an ethernet cable at all. Who does these days? I have a router connected directly to a prefiltered BT socket. Everything else is wireless.

Re: Utter Frustration

James — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:44:01 GMT

How has your experience been since Sunday evening?
The chart that Chris has posted suggests that there were problems up until then but your connectivity is now stable.

Re: Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:45:15 GMT

Last night speed was so slow it was painful - it may have been connected but nothing was happening!. p.s. I am not a night owl either!

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:51:14 GMT

Your router is connecting at 1408 to the exchange, but due to the large amount of disconnections over the weekend the profile of the line has been reduced to try to stablise it. I'm going to reset the line which should improve your speed within a couple of hours.
I'll update your fault ticket with this information too.

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:00:36 GMT

I'll try to perform the SNR reset shortly, we're having some issues with the tool we use for this at the moment.

Re: Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:21:17 GMT

Thanks for helping Chris - please let me know when you have performed the reset.

Re: Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:30:28 GMT

Are there any plans to increase speed of technical help via the phone or online or are we expected to use these forums to get problems resolved?

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:35:28 GMT

Yes, we've just opened a new call centre in Leeds and are recruiting heavily to fill it up and get the staff there trained. We know it's not good to wait so long for an update and we really do want to fix it./

Re: Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 13:05:43 GMT

OK - thanks for the advice. Hope I will go back to being oblivious about all the issues with broadband but we have been having speed issues for a while so I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed!

Re: Utter Frustration

gnicholson8 — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 13:13:40 GMT

Quote from: kato
OK - thanks for the advice. Hope I will go back to being oblivious about all the issues with broadband but we have been having speed issues for a while so I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed!

if you here
http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
Run a speed test and then press the further diagnostic button bellow (once the SNR has been reset) it will run a speed test with your current speed and what you're suppose to receive.

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:00:34 GMT

The SNR reset seems to have been accepted this time (we've been having some problems with 20CN resets today) so I'm just keeping an eye on your line to make sure it actually completes.

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:09:48 GMT

Your speed profile is back at 2500, which is pretty good for the length of line you've got. The SNR reset seems to have done the trick.

Re: Utter Frustration

kato — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:27:22 GMT

Many thanks for seeing this through Chris - will test out tonight.

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:28:49 GMT

No problem, I've also passed the fault ticket back to you. If you have any issues just drop a reply on this thread, or the ticket and we'll pick it up.

Re: Utter Frustration

Chris — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:26:16 GMT

From memory it's a very long (63db) 20CN line, syncing at 3040 which is actually pretty good for that line length!

Re: Utter Frustration

Townman — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:32:44 GMT

Chris,
In that case, on the basis of the figures you've quoted, 20CN should deliver 1952kbs and 21CN / ADSL 2016kbs. This line is clearly close to that threshold where ADSL2 delivers no advantage over ADSL1, indeed it might be worse!
Lets hope that the cause of the line drops has been eliminated and that this line now performs in a stable manner. Such reduction in speeds (and corresponding increase in target SNRM) are typically indicative of an unstable line, either due to a line fault of electrical interference.