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Declining broadband speeds

Nemo2000
Grafter
Posts: 40
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎21-12-2010

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Out of curiosity, I re-booted again just now (11:20am). Speed is now down slightly more at 2838.

At one time my physical BT line quality was quite poor, but after various upgrades it has been OK for a quite a long time. BT told me that it would support 5MB, so I was not quibbling too much at 4.7.  However my speed is now only at 60% of that and seems to be degrading all the time, yet no-one seems able/willing to offer any explanation.

I do not want to go to fibre, thank you. I am quite happy with 'about 5MB' which is adequate for our needs, so - unless someone gives me fibre at no extra cost - why should I pay more to get extra speed that I don't want?

Having apparently eliminated internal wiring as the cause, then IMHO it must be something external.

 

 

 

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Re: Declining broadband speeds

I'm afraid there's very little more we can do bar arrange an engineer visit to investigate further who may simply deem your service working within expectations and apply a call out charge(Which we'd like to avoid ideally).

If you want to give a fault investigation a go I'd report a fault to us online at faults.plus.net

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Nemo2000
Grafter
Posts: 40
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎21-12-2010

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Hmmm...no, I do not want to incur any possible call-out charges thank you.

Curiously, since posting my previous message I have re-instated my original set-up with the router on an extension from the master socket and the speed has gone back up to 3673 -  I'm even more baffled now !

I will monitor it for a few more days  to see if it alters again.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Re: Declining broadband speeds

Absolutely I agree that we don't want to arrange an engineer if your line is performing within expectations as it's not within our control if an engineer is able to find a fault or isn't. Let us know how it goes over the next few days.

Thanks.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Townman
Superuser
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Declining broadband speeds

I think that there’s a need to review the internal wiring and other things here.

Exactly how is the extension wired? Flat D section extension leads are far from ideal for good ADSL operation.

Which router are you using?

Can you please post the router stats?

I’m suspecting the the extension wiring might not be twisted pairs and therefore susceptible to RFI pick up giving rise to poor performance.

If help us to be offered here, we need to go back to basics. Has a quiet line test been performed?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Nemo2000
Grafter
Posts: 40
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎21-12-2010

Re: Declining broadband speeds

The extension is a dedicated hard-wired BT twisted-pair cable from the back of the master socket face-plate to another phone socket located closer to the router, so the only flat D cable is the short cable from the router into that socket.

Router is Netgear DGN2200v4.

>>>Has a quiet line test been performed?

I have no idea 🙂

 

Router stats attached - is there anything else needed?

 

Townman
Superuser
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Re: Declining broadband speeds

Quiet line test - you dial 17070 option 2 and listen for noise. Do this from time to time at different times of the day.

Netgear router - this is good news! Routerstats wirks with that router. I suggest that it would be worthwhile downloading that and using it to monitor your line to see if there is any evidence of RFI. See the links below for help and ask if you need more.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Nemo2000
Grafter
Posts: 40
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎21-12-2010

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Having been running RouterStats for some while now, I thought it was time to send an update.

In general, over the last few weeks, two things have happened - (1) the download speed has increased in stages from time to time and (2) the noise margin has slowly decreased. By the end of last week I was getting 4340 download (932 upload) and about 3.5db, so not bad at all. RouterStats graph showed steady sync speed and a noise margin than was fairly steady with just a little ripple (no big spikes/dips). So not bad really.....

However today, things took a nose-dive! DSL dropped out a couple of times and download speed is currently 3600 and upload is only 128 !! Noise margin remains at 3.5db. The web is noticeably sluggish at the moment. Hopefully this is only a  temporary external fault somewhere....I shall wait and see.....

 

OskarPapa
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Re: Declining broadband speeds

Thanks for your post @Nemo2000.

 

As the speeds you're receiving are still within the line estimates, I'd have to refer to @Gandalf's previous message with regards raising a fault on the line.

 

I would also recommend having your phone line provider run a test on the line to see if they can detect any sort of issue that we're not seeing.

Nemo2000
Grafter
Posts: 40
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎21-12-2010

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Well this morning, as the download was still only at 3600, I re-booted my router to see what would happen this time. The download rose to 4153K (not too bad), but the upload fell to just 40K !!!! 

I switched my PC off after that and went out. When I returned and switched on again a couple of hours later the download had fallen to 3894, but the upload has risen to 941, noise level is 3.4db.

How on earth can an upload speed of 40K be considered to be within an acceptable range - it would be almost quicker to send a letter 🙂

 

MasterOfReality
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,640
Fixes: 57
Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Hi @Nemo2000 

 

Have you yet been able to ask your phone line provider to check for any issue?

 

thanks, 

MoR

wotsup
Seasoned Champion
Posts: 1,809
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Registered: ‎21-11-2018

Re: Declining broadband speeds

I have also noticed a reduction in speeds ( via a u-switch broadband speed check ) when I first joined plusnet back in September 2018 my speeds were 77MB/s download and 17MB/s upload and I checked regularly since than and speed remained pretty much the same,  however over the last few weeks I am getting only 60MB/s and 14MB/s - nothing has changed equipment wise and the line is a BT line I rent off plusnet....  at the moment I put it down to school holidays and the little darlings on their tablets or computers playing games etc. but maybe that is not the reason.

MasterOfReality
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Posts: 1,640
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Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Hi @wotsup 

 

I've tested your circuit and i cant find any fault at all. 

 

Your router is syncing at 65.1Mbps which is well within your estimates as per DSL Checker and above your Minimum Guaranteed Access Line Speed of 35Mbps. 

 

Kind Regards, 

MoR

wotsup
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Registered: ‎21-11-2018

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Thanks for reply, but a speed reduction is a speed reduction...

When I originally entered my postcode in last September I was quoted 77mb and 17mb, which is what I got then, and for months afterwards. I hope plus net is not sneaking down people's speeds as more subscribers are loaded on to exchanges.  I never saw a speed of 35mb mentioned when I was signing up to plus net - I will continue to monitor speeds and if it gets any lower it may be that I switch back to virgin as their cable still terminates at our premises. 

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules.
TheMightyAJ
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Declining broadband speeds

Hi @wotsup,

When looking over the speed estimates for your line I can see that they currently fall between 49.9Mbps to 73Mbps. When more people are connected to Fibre in your area, it can sometimes cause the overall estimates for the line speed go down, though it shouldn't be too dramatic. As for the current throughput speeds you're achieving, these are what we'd expect and whilst we can't guarantee that you'll always get the very best speeds for your line, it's worth bearing in mind that the speed can improve and fluctuate in general over time, so it may improve in the future.

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 Alex H
 Plusnet Help Team