IP Profile Incredibly Low

[#1]

Hey there to all at Plusnet!
I switched over to Plusnet just over 10 days ago and have been biding my time, waiting to see if my connection would work itself out over the first 10 days. Having run some speed tests, and looking at my www.speedtester.bt.com results, in my limited knowledge it appears my IP profile is set much much lower than it should.
Speedtester results:
Download speed achieved during the test was - 0.11 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0.05 Mbps-0.25 Mbps.
Your DSL Connection Rate :1.86 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.45 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 0.14 Mbps
Router stats:
Type Interleave Path
  Status SHOWTIME

                                            Downstream              Upstream
Data Rate (Kbps)              1856Kb                      448Kb
Noise Margin                      15                                18
Output Power (dBm)          0                                  0
Attenuation (dB)                  59                                31

Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, this is just a simple issue of the IP Profile being set too low and should be easily solvable. Even if this isn't the case, any help is much appreciated and I look forward to hearing back from you guys.
Best,
SamODJ

[#2]

Hi SamODJ,
Your line has been banded, this is why you are seeing lower speeds. Have you changed anything internally in the past 24 hours?
I have placed a SNR reset on your line that should resolve the banded profile and get you back to your normal speeds. This normally takes around 4 hours.
Let me know how you are getting on.
Chris

[#3]

Thanks for the quick reply Chris. I've not changed anything that i'm aware of, but i'll keep an eye out. Could you give you me a quick rundown of banding, just so I know what i'm dealing with?
Thanks for your help

[#4]

A general question with respect to this
From the stats given - upstream 448kbps - I would have assumed that the poster is either on 20CN or 21CN ADSL1 neither of which, as far as I know, do banding.
My understanding is that banding affects the sync speed not the profile and with an attenuation of 59dB and a noise margin of 15dB the sync speed is as good as it is going to get.
I appreciate that an SNR reset will improve the sync speed.
Another point - if the poster is on 20CN how long before the profile increases after an SNR reset

[#5]

Well my speed has just risen dramatically, up to the 1.8 mbps that my router was registering as the downstream bandwidth. As far as i'm aware, my sync speed is decent enough, that is, if i'm right in assuming this correlates to my ping (which is generally always at around 50ms).

[#6]

Well issues have arisen. Shortly after the SNR request was put in, the data rate upped to a glorious (for this household) 2.8 mbps, with my IP profile at 2 (all good here, in fact better than it has been for some time). It has then steadily dropped off, including a couple of router connection drops and now sits at a datarate of 480kbps, IP profile 0.35 mbps. Does this suggest the line has errors on it? Or that it simply couldn't handle that speed? We have had around 7 openreach engineers here over the course of the last year, and all have stated that there was no issue with any of our equipment or indeed the line, as they reported very few errors when they did their line check (well within expected limits).
Speedtester results:
Download speed achieved during the test was - 0.32 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0.05 Mbps-0.5 Mbps.
Your DSL Connection Rate : 0.48 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.45 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 0.35 Mbps
Router stats:
Type  Interleave Path       
  Status  SHOWTIME     
 
                                            Downstream              Upstream
Data Rate (Kbps)              480Kb                        448Kb
Noise Margin                      17                                18
Output Power (dBm)          123                            154
Attenuation (dB)                  58                                31

[#7]

I have escalated your fault to our suppliers as your profile is restricting your speed. This should help on the speed side of things.
We will also investigate your line to see if there is a fault and if there is then get this resolved.
As soon as the results are through from the diagnostic testing, your fault ticket will get updated straight away.

[#8]

Your speeds should have hopefully picked back up. I would advise that you leave your router switched on.
Below is a log of your connection.
<img src="http://ccgi.psmith12.plus.com/visradius/generated/image13479865895895.png" />
You have had a few drop-outs. Is there anything that happens internally at these times? Or are you rebooting your router?

[#9]

Thank you for the speedy assistance in the matter. Even since my last post, the router has gone haywire and disconnected/reconnected 6 times in a row, and now the speed has reset itself to 1.5 meg, so all in all very strange goings on. At least you guys at Plusnet are trying to sort it out, my connection was so hamstrung by O2's traffic shaping (a system that clearly doesn't take into consideration its effect on already slow connections); they simply kept sending out Openreach engineers, only one of whom actually bothered to do anything of any help. Ultimately, i'm very grateful you for help and can only hope the issue is quickly remedied.
EDIT: just seen the graph you have posted. I only rebooted once (reluctantly, as i'm aware that this can send false fault readings back to the exchange). The major dropouts happened twice in the past few hours. Both times, the connection dropped, then reconnected, then dropped again about 5 or 6 times successively. It happened about 10 minutes ago and since then, as mentioned, the speed has returned to about 1.5 meg with a downstream bandwidth of, currently, 1376Kb (it's fluctuating a lot.)

[#10]

Having suffered through another major disconnect this evening, i've come up with a theory as to what is happening (bear with me!): What seems to be happening is when my connection is running at 2 meg, when pushed to that limit (commonly from running more than one download - this was the reason for the d/c three times during the day) it forces a major disconnect. I've no idea as to the reason for this, whether its the number of connections (multiple downloads) or simply the quality, or lack thereof, of the line. Either way, it puts the router in a spiral of disconnects for a couple of minutes, connecting and disconnecting about 6 times before finally stabilising.
It is at this stage that the Downstream Bandwidth and IP profile drop to around 0.15 mbps (obviously the exchange is attempting to cope with the massive crash on my line). This however seems to be easily resolved on my end: I risked another reboot of my router and as soon as that was finished the Downstream Bandwidth shot right back up to 2 meg as it was before the disconnect. But now i'm left with my IP profile stuck at 0.15 mbps, meaning I can't access the bandwidth available to me for however long it takes the exchange to reset my IP profile (3 days?) which is seems very reluctant to do (as was the case with the first 10 days of my service on Plusnet, stuck at 0.15 mbps).
I'm unsure what you can do on the Plusnet end of things, but if there was a way to force a minimum IP profile for the line, or at least to push through the re-evaluation so it doesn't take 3 days, then this would at least afford me the capability to access that 2 meg bandwidth. Then of course I would just have to make sure that I only had one download active at a time. (This solution is all speculation on my part, as i'm far from qualified to make an objective evaluation of the tech behind the line).
Let me know your thoughts and whether or not i'm talking complete gibberish!

[#11]

Your IP profile can take 72 hours to update with the technology your line is on. It is currently set correctly(I have manually done this).
As you'r still having disconnections, it will be best to wait the results of the testing on your line. As soon as testing has completed your ticket will get updated.

[#12]

Hi again Chris, could I ask you to manually reset my IP Profile once again as it has been over 72 hours and my downstream is currently 2.62 meg, but my profile is still set to 0.14 meg. Thankyou.

[#13]

Done,
I've just bumped that up to 2500kbps for you.
PS I hope all goes to plan with the engineer visit today, let us know if there's any issues.
Adam.

[#14]

Thanks Adam for updating the profile.
Engineer has been and gone and results as expected - he could find no errors on line so was unable to do anything (he explained to me that BT now enforce a policy whereby if, when the engineer visits, there is no fault on the line then they are not authorised to go and examine the line outside of the property). This is the all down to the intermittent nature of the fault.
I'm hoping we will not be charged, as he found no errors on the line but it is not an internal fault (7 engineer visits, 3 ISP's and 5 routers can testify to that). After talking with him for a bit, it became pretty obvious that BT is unlikely to send someone to replace/repair the line in some back end rural hamlet with only a few houses i.e. where I live. I'm not really sure where we go from here. My only suggestion would be to tackle the symptoms if we are unable to tackle the cause. In other words, would it be possible to set a custom profile on Plusnet's end that sends a request for an IP profile update on my line every day/twice a day? My logic is that because BT are very much unlikely to attempt to find the fault between my property and the exchange, that the only way to stop my line being stuck at an IP profile of 0.15 mbps for weeks at a time is to have a request for an IP profile update sent through every day. Thoughts?

[#15]

What the SFI engineer advised you does sound right in principle but I'm not sure that if remote tests within the premises don't find any faults then they should not examine the line outside the property. In my personal experience that should still be done and faults should be traced back from the customer's premises to the exchange (obviously unless a fault is identified before they reach the exchange).

Quote

would it be possible to set a custom profile on Plusnet's end that sends a request for an IP profile update on my line every day/twice a day?

No, the system isn't designed to work that way. The profile updates as the result of our suppliers systems generating a report that determines the line profile every time the line resyncs, that is then reflected on our systems. I totally understand your logic but it isn't something that can be arranged I'm afraid.
Going forward one of our faults team should be checking with our suppliers ASAP to check the engineers notes and see which of the several tasks we requested to be done were carried out. If some were not then there's a good chance we'd need to arrange another visit for you.