topic Slow speeds and dropped connection in Plusnet Feedback

Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:50:56 GMT

Test to see if I can post before I actually post

Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:02:13 GMT

Hi, Ok so it looks like I can post so here goes ...
Not sure how far I'm going to get replying to an 'older' post (not sure
if it's just the recent one's that get read) but... my situation...
I'm at my wits end here. Being given the run around by PlusNet, suffering
ramdom disconnects, suffering slow speeds etc, oh and never having the
same analyst looking at the problem, so the one that replies to you has
never read all that has gone before - believe me that's correct.
At the end of the day wondering if I was to post to the forum (i)would it
get me anywhere (a real solution to the problems above) (ii)how to put it
all into words. I raised the ticket (# 28724592) on the 7th May nearly
3mths ago, I have posted quite a bit of info (router stats, BT speed tests
etc) to PN & I wasn't really sure how to put all of that into words.
By sheer chance I started to look at the forums just wondering if (& how
many) people may be suffering from slow speed and/or disconnections.
Then I happened upon this post. I could't believe what I was reading. It
read almost word for word like my situation apart from the speed involved
(I only ever got close to 2Mb on a good day usually it's around 1.8 Mb)
but that aside I was practically reading my own situation (thank you snailspace).
The sting in the tail however is that the BT visit I arranged on the phone
with PN never happened. I took a day off and the engineer never arrived.
(thanks PN for a wasted day's holiday). He was booked for between 1 - 6 pm.
I updated my ticket (Fri 31st) to tell PN that he had never turned up.
Guess what their [PN] reply was - yet more stats about my connection
followed by ... "Please can you confirm if this is correct and that the
issue is now resolved". What the !!*&%%$£$
When an actuall line inspection is now the only thing left to do & is
now highly likely to be the possble root cause - how the hell does the
fact that the BT engineer not showing up mean that the 'issue is now
resolved'.
Words fail me at this point.
If you made it this far - thanks for reading & sorry to have taken up so
much of your time. But thanks for listening.
Rant over.

Slow speeds and dropped connection

Mark — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:52:51 GMT

Hi there.
I'm really sorry this has dragged on as long as it has.
I've asked one of our senior engineers to review the history and work with you to get this resolved.
Mark

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

dvorak — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:49:45 GMT

mod:note
I've split this topic out so it achieves maximum visibility.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:16:34 GMT

Hi Iomega,
Sorry about the hassle, I've had a look at the ticket and the fault and am chasing this for you now.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:36:24 GMT

Right... the connection's still stable and you're on a 7150 profile on BTs side so I've updated our side to match - sorry about that. Please post back if it hasn't made a difference though you may need to reconnect to get the faster speed (I don't think you will though).

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:51:12 GMT

To adiewoo
Kind of understand why you have split this out but I would be grateful if
you could put in a link to the topic originally started by Snailspace. He
put a lot of work into describing the problem he was having and at the
time (unbeknown to him) ended up describing the situation I was in. He
should get the credit for that.
Thanks

To Orbrey
Thanks for your action on this. The best 'Current line speed' I have EVER
had was 2500 due to the distance I am from the exchange so I know it will
drop. Just wanting my 1.7 / 1.8 Mb's back.
Just wanted to check with you - when you say 'reconnect' are you talking
about
(i) simply unplugging the telephone cable then reconnecting it
or
(ii) rebooting the router
both of which will force a re-sync. But then won't the equipment at the
exchange see this as a disconnection & start uping my SNR ratio thereby
dropping my speed ?.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:30:08 GMT

I'm now worried I'm looking at the wrong account... is it not the one you're posting from? That account has a profile of 7150kbps on both our and BTs sides.

Quote from: Iomega
Just wanted to check with you - when you say 'reconnect' are you talking
about
(i) simply unplugging the telephone cable then reconnecting it
or
(ii) rebooting the router
both of which will force a re-sync. But then won't the equipment at the
exchange see this as a disconnection & start uping my SNR ratio thereby
dropping my speed ?.

Either should be fine, and no, not unless you reconnect several times in 10 minutes or so (I'm not sure of the actual figures but one reboot will certainly not cause the exchange to think there's a fault).
Hope that helps,

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Mark — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:22:11 GMT

Matt
Thanks for picking this up.
Iomega, you're in good hands here and matt will get to the bottom of this for you.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:57:21 GMT

Orbrey
Hi. When I posted that message at 14:51 I was at work & we're on a fiber
optic line. Don't know who's acc. you were looking at but if you're quoting
a profile of 7150kbps it definitely isn't mine (if only :))
Ok, for now just disconnected / reconnected the phone cable. I'll try &
attach my router stats.
The (re)sync is 1792 (was 1152) & while it is better it is nowhere near
the 23xx I used to get.
I'll await 10:00pm with interest - that's when your records have shown
my sync usually gets knocked back to 11xx.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:21:33 GMT

Just for completeness attached is a BT speedtest run at 9:20pm

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:26:06 GMT

Yep, just checked now (10:20pm) and due to a fault somewhere on the line sync has been lost
& have just re-synced at 1088. Router stats attached.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

dinosaurdad — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:19:28 GMT

hi all
I was going to wait until my problem was resolved before posting but my patience ranout.
Responding to the cry dad its broke, whats broke, the internet!!!!!!! As dad is an engineer dad is expected to fix everything
The problem started i suspect at the end of april being informed by PN my connection was being moved from a 2 meg tiscali llu to a up to 8 meg btw connection. It matters not to me as to how the connection is achieved so long as i get what i need. Then i was asked to take part in the 21cn trial to which i agreed thinking it would future proof my connection, the link to wikipedia states 21 cn up to 24 meg. I am a realist i didnt think for 1 minute i was going to get 24 meg but i would see what happened, my bench mark was 2 meg. I got an email to say i was connected on 21 cn which concerned me as no one was interested in my connection speeds before during or after which i would have thought was paramount in a trial.
Then the cry dad its broke
Call to cs was a waste of time, the operator didnt listen to what i said and it was obvios i was to be got rid of asap.
I then turned to the forums and embarked on a steep learnig curve thanks mainly to Old Jim.
My speed had dropped to 135 kbps and as i have found out my profile had.
On return from holiday i get a reply to my ticket saying stable connection for 5 days ip profile 1000 kbps, strange as i at that point had done nothing.
As per forum suggestions jumped through all the hoops and fitted a filtered face plate and non filtered extension on 26/7 my ip profile has slowly moved up to 1750.
BT have been doing some diagnostic checks but found no fault, they now want to visit my house and check my end
but the sting is they want £144 +vat if no fault found.
No mention of the 3 disconnections sice 26/7 so i have doubts if they will find a fault.
My original speed was 1.8 to 2.2 meg all the time with no issue, now im just up to 1.5 meg which begs the question whats the point of 21 cn.
Bit long winded but writing letters is not my strong point

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:06:05 GMT

@Iomega I've updated your ticket for you and will keep an eye on this one, but testing reported a fault so hopefully we'll get some movement shortly. I'll post back when there's more info.
@dinosaurdad I'll have a look at that one for you too, though it's probably better to keep 21CN related issues to the 21CN test forums here: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,62.0.html - I'll update shortly.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:00:46 GMT

Just to confirm
No improvement to service
Looks like BT are in no hurry to fix this line fault
3 months - 2 days & counting

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:54:23 GMT

Hi Iomega,
The fault's been sent back to us because you've had a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s, which is over the fault threshold rate so there doesn't appear to be any dropping connections or any fault with the profile (basically if we pass the fault back again it will be sent back to us with no fault found). If you reboot the connection do you get the same sync rate? If so I'd recommend doing this once a day in the mornings for the next 2 days or so. If the profile hasn't uplifted by tomorrow then let me know and I'll see if there's anything further we can do for you.
Sorry for the hassle,

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:13:41 GMT

Quote from: orbrey
Hi Iomega,
The fault's been sent back to us because you've had a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s, which is over the fault threshold rate so there doesn't appear to be any dropping connections or any fault with the profile (basically if

Hi Orbrey
Sorry that's not makeing a lot of sense to me. Where have you got the 2144kb/s figure from ?. The last
comment on my ticket was
"The fault is now back with BT for further investigation as the line test reported a BT fault in the exchange."
So (i) Did BT attend the exchange to diagnose the fault ?. (ii) What fault did they actually find ?. (iii) What have
they actually done to repair it (if anything) ?
My router has sat at its sync of 1120 kb/s all through the weekend This has been borne out by BT Speed tests
run on Sat & Sun (I've posted Sat - Sun wasn't much different)
When I checked my 'Current line speed' on your site it said - 750 - which was also borne out by the BT
Speed tests. (it's not changed it's still the same today - now)
No updates to my ticket were made over Sat /Sun so I wasn't aware that BT MAY have done something &
that it might have been worth rebooting the router.
Basically you need answers from BT to the 3 questions I've asked above & I'd like to know the answers
as well 'cos nothing seems to have changed very much at my end.
You know - I'm convinced that the piece of wire between my master socket going out thru my front door
and connecting to the junction box just before the cable goes into the ground, the bit of cable that belongs
to BT, the bit of cable that is so old that part of the outer sheathing has decayed & dropped off to reveal
the inner coloured conductors - has some bearing on the problem.
It might not be the only bit of cable between my house & the exchange that is in such a bad way.
But I'm probably just grasping at straws here.
That would probably have been picked up on the engineers visit - the one that never happened - that was
booked for the 31st July - that I arranged for a day off for - yea that one.
Is it usual for BT to be booked for an appointment & then not attend ?.
Who do I contact at BT to find out why they never attended ?. (number / dept)

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:50:17 GMT

Quote from: Iomega
Sorry that's not makeing a lot of sense to me. Where have you got the 2144kb/s figure from ?

Your connection logs are showing a connection for over 2 days, and the line tests I ran on your line this morning from the BT Wholesale site showed a downstream speed of 2144kb/s.

Quote from: Iomega
The last comment on my ticket was
"The fault is now back with BT for further investigation as the line test reported a BT fault in the exchange."
So (i) Did BT attend the exchange to diagnose the fault ?. (ii) What fault did they actually find ?. (iii) What have
they actually done to repair it (if anything) ?

I can't address your queries specifically and unfortunately nor can BT. I'm not sure specifically what it was they did, but it did resolve the fault that was reported on the initial line tests.

Quote from: Iomega
When I checked my 'Current line speed' on your site it said - 750 - which was also borne out by the BT
Speed tests. (it's not changed it's still the same today - now)

That's the line profile, and that's what should update based on your reported sync speed.

Quote from: Iomega
You know - I'm convinced that the piece of wire between my master socket going out thru my front door
and connecting to the junction box just before the cable goes into the ground, the bit of cable that belongs
to BT, the bit of cable that is so old that part of the outer sheathing has decayed & dropped off to reveal
the inner coloured conductors - has some bearing on the problem.
It might not be the only bit of cable between my house & the exchange that is in such a bad way.
But I'm probably just grasping at straws here.

Maybe not, but if the line was decayed that badly I'd be expecting to see drops in sync - which may be happening, but in such short durations that the connection doesn't report as dropping. This is why it's awkward - there are no fault symptoms shown. I realise how annoying that is, but if there aren't connection drops and if the sync is not below the fault threshold rate, then anything raised to BT will be rejected as no fault found.

Quote from: Iomega
Who do I contact at BT to find out why they never attended ?. (number / dept)

Unfortunately there isn't a way to chase this though most likely the engineer visited the exchange directly.
Sorry for the continued hassle,

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

Iomega — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:11:19 GMT

Quote from: orbrey
Your connection logs are showing a connection for over 2 days, and the line tests I ran on your line this morning from the BT Wholesale site showed a downstream speed of 2144kb/s.

You're quoting 'a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s' so how come
my BT Speedtests over Sat & Sun are showing
DSL Connection Rate: 1120kb/s <- my router sync
IP Profile: 750
Actual IP Throughput: 224 kb/s
Who the hell is seeing 2144 !!! I'm certainly not & I certainly didn't over
Sat & Sun.

Quote from: orbrey
I can't address your queries specifically and unfortunately nor can BT.

That's worrying. I'm assuming BT did the work - but they don't know what it
was they did ?.

I was told to leave my router on for any test that you may wish to make
which I have done. I tend to leave it on permanently anyway so your logs
should show a connection all the time - apart from when the line fault
causes a loss of sync.
When I get home tonight I'll reboot the router. It'll then show a
sync higher that the 1120kb/s I've had since Fri.
This is part of the problem. Everytime I resync I get a sync speed higher
than the fault threshold but not as high as I used to get and then at 10pm
or just after -bang- the line fault knocks me back to 11xx kb/s

Quote from: orbrey
Maybe not, but if the line was decayed that badly I'd be expecting to see drops in sync - which may be happening, but in such short durations that the connection doesn't report as dropping. This is why it's awkward - there are no fault symptoms shown.

But my ticket history shows connection drops as well as the one that
always occurs at just after 10pm at night. That's one of the things one
of your [PN] engineers commented on.
And fault symptoms - well the symptoms are
Not having had a broadband speed of between 1.7 & 1.8 Mb/s
like I used to have over the months prior to Jan 2009
(from Jan 2009 speeds started to drop slowly)
Very poor speeds from 7 May when I raised this fault
Did suffer random disconnections
Line fault causes loss of sync at some point just after 10pm everyday
(see ticket 28724592 for full description)

Quote from: orbrey
Quote from: Iomega
Who do I contact at BT to find out why they never attended ?. (number / dept)

Unfortunately there isn't a way to chase this though most likely the engineer visited the exchange directly.

Why not ?
If any work on my fault was done over the weekend the why wasn't my ticket
updated to reflect this ?.

Re: Slow speeds and dropped connection

orbrey — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:06:05 GMT

Quote from: Iomega
You're quoting 'a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s' so how come
my BT Speedtests over Sat & Sun are showing
DSL Connection Rate: 1120kb/s <- my router sync
IP Profile: 750
Actual IP Throughput: 224 kb/s
Who the hell is seeing 2144 !!! I'm certainly not & I certainly didn't over
Sat & Sun.

I quoted this because this was the result shown by the line test. I realise this isn't what the line has been showing and that the connection hasn't been ongoing for 2 days as reported, but that's the figure that BT will go on.

Quote from: Iomega
This is part of the problem. Everytime I resync I get a sync speed higher
than the fault threshold but not as high as I used to get and then at 10pm
or just after -bang- the line fault knocks me back to 11xx kb/s

This was my bad - I'd not noticed the regular drops as the latest connection showed 2 days ongoing (though as I said earlier, the sync drop may not be long enough to be picked up as a drop in connection). This has been reported to BT and the fault passed back to them once more for further investigation.

Quote from: Iomega
If any work on my fault was done over the weekend the why wasn't my ticket
updated to reflect this ?.

The ticket wasn't picked up over the weekend I'm afraid, though I have now asked a member of the team to look after this for you. You should be getting regular updates as of now (and I'll be chasing this for you as well).