11.00am and speed no higher than 450kbps

[#1]

I'm getting so fed up with hardly ever getting line speed anymore. I'm downloading as I type this and it's so unstable ranging from 450 down to 250 kbps, where I have a constant profile of 7000 - and this is off-peak! Even when it does go up into the 700's in the early morning it doesn't stay very long and can fluctuate right down into the 300's. currently on pte-ag1. I ran a BT speedtest a few hours ago - that wasn't bad - returning just over 6mbps. But it isn't that now!

[#2]

A couple of questions - which product are you on and where are you downloading from

[#3]

PlusNet Broadband Premier Option 1
Peak usage: 122.66MB 4pm - Midnight
Off-peak usage: 2.73GB Midnight - 4pm
HTTP downloads from various websites

[#4]

I can see no reason for my not getting full line speed at this time of the day (putting aside any peak issues for now). I never go over my peak limits. I pay for a proper off-peak period of unlimited downloading which is where I do 95% of that downloading. I don't use the throttled P2P or Torrents. So I feel I should expect line speed, which for me is in the high 700's at this time. It's not always been like this - probably become noticeable in the last few weeks.

[#5]

Nope - Neither do I.
Do speeds improve after a reboot?  It's unlikely (but not impossible) for it to be our network causing those problems at this time of the day.
What sort of download are you trying to do, or is it just a speed test?

[#6]

<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05322918.png" /></a>
....and now suddenly, as if nothing was wrong, that's what PN's speed test shows I'm getting! It's the inconsistency that's the problem as clearly I can still get a proper speed some of the time.
A few minutes later:
<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05323006.png" /></a>
<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05323020.png" /></a>

[#7]

Ok - That shouldn't be happening.
Have you tried rebooting as per my previous post?

[#8]

Do you mean router or computer?
Tried both - no change.
<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05323113.png" /></a>
<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05323127.png" /></a>
<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05323148.png" /></a>

[#9]

Barring the odd really low result, it seems to be fairly constant at this low result, certainly post midday:
<a href="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk"><img src="http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/05323210.png" /></a>

[#10]

Right sorry - I thought you were talking about speeds in the 500Kbps range.
Your speeds are perfectly acceptable - fluctuations are to be expected via exchange congestion.  You are correct in that you have an extended off peak period - however, I believe that the problems you are seeing a re exchange based rather than on our network.

[#11]

This seems to be happening to quite a few members, myself included, and Plusnet don't seem to bother about it.  All they do is constantly rattle of the old cut and paste replies of try this speedtest and reboot your router!
To tell the truth if it wasn't affecting how I can use the internet connection I'm paying to use it would be laughable!
On mine, everyday the speed varies from <500kbps to my normal 5900kbps within the space of a few minutes and on the same router session.  This is happening no matter the time of day or night, and for Plusnet to say it's a contention issue when it's also occurring in the early hours, i.e. 3am-5am, is a joke.

[#12]

I agree with Azagoth - I do not see any evidence that PN appreciate how serious this problem is. Barry Zubel's data gathering thread has been up for some days now but apart from James acknowledging its existence, I've seen nothing in the way of status reports about PN's efforts to get to the bottom of the problem. Are PN doing *anything* to get to the bottom of this because from where I and many other users sit, there is an enormous amount of circumstantial evidence that this is caused by some unexpected side-effect of a recent update to PN's complex traffic management system.
For example:
Have all recent changes to traffic management been reviewed to see if they might be the cause?
Has there been any dramatic drop in traffic totals recently which might suggest a cause?
What kind of problem might cause the commonly reported wildly fluctuating instantaneous download rates?
I want to see evidence that PN are whole-heartedly investigating why this is happening - ideally via daily status reports - and that might just persuade me to remain a customer until it gets fixed, but without evidence that PN are really trying to sort the problem, I'll be off soon. I'm paying £15 a month for a service which is dire at the moment with web pages sometimes taking up to 5 minutes to load.
vof

[#13]

Hi vof,
I understand your frustration, let me catch up with James and see where he got to with this and we'll get an updated in here tomorrow.

[#14]

Hi Vof,
I'm sorry for your (and Azagoth's) frustration.

Quote

Have all recent changes to traffic management been reviewed to see if they might be the cause? Has there been any dramatic drop in traffic totals recently which might suggest a cause? What kind of problem might cause the commonly reported wildly fluctuating instantaneous download rates?

Firstly, there haven't been any recent changes in traffic management and we're not seeing a drop in traffic being reported.  However, with our traffic management approach, it's rare that we would - the network is designed to always run at capacity until off peak.  As to what might cause the problem I'm really not sure.  AAISP are reporting that they are seeing a drop in traffic which is potentially pointing towards generic exchange issues, however, they are always extremely quick to point the finger to blame BT.
I'm not going to post a service status with daily update because we're seeing a limited (and yes, it is a limited number) of customer reported what appears to be exchange based congestion.  Azagoth - It's probably best raising your issue as an EPP (End-user poor performance) fault to BT.  Can you possibly get me a list of BT Speedtest results together, coupled with everything else you have tried at your end into a ticket and I'll look at raising with BT *if* the speed results are below what BT deem unacceptable.

[#15]

Who or what is AAISP? (Found out - Andrews & Arnold FWIW)
Should I also raise a ticket including all my actions and test results?
vof