FTTC weirdness

[#1]

So it's not possible to download faster than your IP Profile.
Have you had any line issues/rebooted your modem recently?
What does it say for your estimates if you put your number in here http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ ?

[#2]

FTTC Range A (Clean)  (Down) High:69.7 Low: 52.7 (Up) High: 19.9 Low: 15
FTTC Range B (Impacted)  (Down) HIgh: 60 Low: 34 (Up) High: 19.9 Low: 10
Had no line problems, and I was on a perfect 76Mb/s before the regrade. The fact the +net shows a current line speed of 80Mb, with an estimated speed of 52Mb does indicate something is not right.

[#3]

Quote from: tman247

Quote from: AndyH What's your BT IP Profile? Ok, found it. The downstream BT IP Profile shows as 54.56Mbps, upstream is 20Mbps.

This is what's limiting your connection speed at the moment. Either BT's profile is set incorrectly, or it's possible that BT reduced your profile a while ago, but it did not take effect because you had not rebooted the router/lost the PPPoE session. If you've rebooted the router, then you've reconnected on the slower profile.
Don't know if Plusnet can request BT to look into the profile, but I believe BT's system automatically goes off sync speed.

[#4]

The BT IP Profile is set automatically, based on the sync speed which is determined by the FTTC cabinet.
I think one of the DCT guys should be able to see whether the line is erroring and whether there has been a big drop in the sync speed.

[#5]

Hi tman247,
I've taken a look at your line and I've attached your line statistics which shows that your line isn't synchronising at the cabinet at full speeds now, but more closer to your line estimate. I've updated the speed profile set on our side too.
There's no clear explanation for the decrease in speeds. It could be a case that your cabinet is filling up with more and more take up for FTTC. The estimates are most likely based on this assumption that speeds would decline slightly with a cabinet full of customers. I wouldn't say it's anything to worry about, you're within your Speed Estimates and for quite some time, you've enjoyed speeds in excess of the estimates.
I've attached some profile details which show that it's aligned up correctly.

[#6]

I appreciate you looking into this. I'm not sure that the 'cabinet is filling up' is the answer I expect. I've had full line speed since my fibre was put in, and while I don't reboot the router that often, I've certainly rebooted it many times in that timeframe with no problem whatsoever. The sync speed is still 80Mb/s according to your site, so something is throttling me for no reason. Would BT do this is the local exchange was hitting FTTC capacity? I only noticed this when I rebooted the line following the regrade to 'unlimited', which still makes me think something isn't right somewhere. I know, officially, I'm on 'up to' 76Mb/s, but as I've had this for the last 3 years, then suddenly it drops like a stone, and I experience strange timeouts and lag on page loads, I'm not convinced there's not a problem elsewhere.
I know you get used to these speeds, but the whole family have noticed the slowdown and delays in loading pages. Can you categorically state that the 'unlimited' package doesn't actually throttle the line or introduce some extra traffic control I never had before?

[#7]

This morning there are some terrible timeouts and delays accessing some sites (but not all). Browser tabs are hanging or not completely loading again, and this is at 07:17, so I'm not expecting a heavily congested connection. There IS something wrong somewhere following the regrade. I'm not happy that my actual connection speed has now dropped so much (for no obvious reason), but even at 52-56Mb/s you should not expect pages to 'hang' the way they are. I'd still expect a fast and fluid experience (especially with the amount I'm paying every month!)

[#8]

The speed reported on our website was a profile set for your line, based on a report that we receive from BT. Unfortunately the report in this case hasn't updated for one reason or another. This has been set correctly.
I can confirm that we do not throttle out users on the Unlimited Packages that we advertise and offer. In my previous response, I've been really open and honest what the likelihood of the speed drop is for, and It really probably is due to increased take up of the service. There is only so much bandwidth available and even though you've had better speeds previously, it was never a guarantee that you would keep those speeds, nor is it to even obtain the speeds you're given as an estimate. That said, we do aim to try and provide a service as close to or better than your speed estimate where possible.
Which router are you using?
Are you connecting via Wireless?
Do you get pages hanging via Ethernet?
If you're unhappy with the service you're receiving, you may want to look at raising a fault at http://faults.plus.net

[#9]

Sorry for the delay in replying.
I'm connected via Ethernet over a Gb LAN to a Billion Bipac 7800N. This is the same router I've been using for the last 3 years, and it's been 100% reliable. Yes, pages are hanging or slow to complete over ethernet or wireless, it doesn't make any difference. I do not suspect the router, or the local network. The only thing that's changed in the last two weeks is the regrade from capped to unlimited.
I'm going to review the situation over the next few days before deciding what to do.

[#10]

Ok no problem.
The package change doesn't touch your line at all, so it is a little strange. As I say if you'd like to raise a fault, you can do this at http://faults.plus.net

[#11]

Quote from: tman247

I'm not sure that the 'cabinet is filling up' is the answer I expect.

Whilst one can understand your sentiments, it is sadly a technological fact that as FTTC populations increase, so does cross talk in the less than perfect d-side copper (or worse still aluminium) pairs between the cabinet and your home.  Reports of early adopters getting far better than estimates until the cabinets achieve their designed capacity are legion, as are reports of BTOR not delivering revised IP profiles to ISPs for updating the rates at which data can be sent.
Indeed it is well recognised that one consequence of the ISP profile being higher than the BT profile is that data is sent faster than can be handled by the end connection (cabinet to modem) thereby giving rise to increased end to end error recovery... Possibly leading to the very issue you are experiencing.

[#12]

What Townman says is correct.
Crosstalk is a big problem for BT on FTTC connections. I've seen stories on a couple of forums where a user will be able to get full 80Mbps until someone else on their road signs up, and goes on the pair next to theirs in the cabinet. The person who was getting 80Mbps now gets 55Mbps, and his neighbour who was newly put on gets 80Mbps no problem. As usual, BT refuse to acknowledge a problem as it's within his line estimates.
What BT don't usually tell you is that they will change their line estimates based on how many people are on the cabinet. The guy I mention above had a screenshot of his original line estimate as something like 69-80Mbps. However, when he checked it after noticing the slow speeds, it had been reduce to 50-65Mbps.
I agree with Townman, that you've more than likely had a few neighbours sign up, and they're on pairs near yours.