Broadband Speed

[#1]

I was first attracted to Plusnet by the promise of 8 megs. This was followed by a more realistic sounding "UP TO" two megs and a sales person assured me that PlusNet would be much better than Pipex, my previous supplier, who I was fed up with.  Atfer fourteen days on line with PlusNet they sent me an email to say a line test was showing 0.35 megs. I had previously checked it myself at 0.38 megs. My complaint with Pipex was that I rarely got better than 0.48 megs.(!)
Plusnet has a great advantage pricewise but that seems to be it.

Their promised  "smooth transition" involved taking me off line without warning. I went through the rebooting routine a few times and waited patiently because I have often been cut off for an hour or several in the past. Eventually (more than 24 hours later) it dawned upon me that maybe Plusnet was effecting the changeover. I eventually found a phone number for them and they were  provoked into connecting me a few hours later.
Of course PlusNet is not the only provider playing the speed promise confidence trick, nor the only one that will not accept emails. Can't really blame them for that. They might be absolutely inundated with complaints from customers like me!

[#2]

Fundamentally your broadband speed is set by the quality and length of the phone line between your house and the telephone exchange.  At that level Plusnet are no different from any other ISP, particularly those who, like Plusnet, rely on BT equipment in the telephone exchange.  However Plusnet do seem to me to be unusually good at (eventually) sorting out problems which prevent you achieving the maximum broadband speed that your phone line is capable of.  This does require the active co-operation of the client.

[#3]

Hi Marker,
Just run a line test and got the following:

Upstream Link Info 
Loop Loss   SNR Margin   Errored Seconds   Hec Errors   Cell Count   Speed 
31.8        18.1         0                 0            0            444 

Downstream Link Info 
Loop Loss   SNR Margin   Errored Seconds   Hec Errors   Cell Count   Speed 
46.5        27           0                 N/A          0            572 

That's a very very high SNR for a downstream and is almost certainly the reason for the slow speed. What router are you using, and more importantly is it in the master socket? Also, is everything else that's plugged into the line going through a microfilter?

[#4]

Quote from: Matt

Downstream Link Info Loop Loss   46.5

That suggests that the line has "potential" for up to 5mbps!
The commonest cause of NOT achieving the potential is faulty wiring in the home, which is almost always your responsibility not BT's or PN's.
However, people here can help you sort that out (or eliminate it). 

[#5]

Quote from: HPsauce

The commonest cause of NOT achieving the potential is faulty wiring in the home, which is almost always your responsibility not BT's or PN's.

I'm not sure if there is any UK ISP that would actually take responsibility and come to your house to set up your broadband for you in order to make sure such issues are eliminated.  If so, you might expect to pay a hefty premium on your bill for such a service.