Long line on FTTC and speeds dropping below 9Mbps

[#1]

If that's all your line is capable of then unfortunately there is not to much more that can be done, however since you did have the higher speeds and having read through your comments I have asked our faults team to investigate this further to see if anything at all can be done.

[#2]

Chris - thanks for getting the faults team to investigate further.  This was one of the reasons I stuck with PlusNet as the support has always been good and isn't outsourced. 
Are BT/OpenReach wholly responsible for the cabling and the estimates of speed?  They must surely know where their cables run and can test response times to determine lengths of cabling, in which case an estimate that so badly mis-represents the available service can be used to penalise them?
My current line speed in the Member Centre is still showing as 13Mb:
Phone exchange:
TIPTREE
Estimated line speed:
29Mb (Accurate to within +/- 1Mbit) - Checked on 2012-08-28 19:58:32
Current line speed:
13 Mb
- as I am only getting 8Mbps am I ok to reset the router and test again or will I potentially lose more performance?
Gavin

[#3]

That's no problem at all, just make sure you do a soft disconnect by logging into the routers interface and clicking disconnect then powering down your router and modem, leave for a few minutes and then do the reverse of what you have just performed.

[#4]

Thanks Chris - I might try that early tomorrow morning and see how it goes.

Gavin

[#5]

Chris,
Did a reboot and re-test and the results have deteriorated further (see below):
Sat 13 Oct 07:52 7.04Mbps download (max achievable 7.64Mbps) 1.78Mbps upload
Download speed achieved during the test was - 7.04 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 12 Mbps-7.64 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 7.64 Mbps
Upload speed achieved during the test was - 1.78Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10 Mbps
I'll add this onto the open ticket as well.
Various tests on speedtest.net to the same location have show the drop in speed since the fibre went live:
Date & Time: Dload Speed, Uload Speed, Latency ms
9/19/2012 3:12 PM: 14.22 dload,2.84 uload,19ms ping
9/22/2012 7:17 PM: 10.62 dload, 2.10 uload, 16ms ping
10/4/2012 4:35 PM: 10.36 dload, 2.01 uload, 29ms ping
10/8/2012 8:28 PM: 7.55 dload, 2.03 uload, 28ms ping
10/13/2012 7:21 AM: 7.37 dload, 1.82 uload, 39ms ping
This shows the drop to 1/2 of the original speed (and roughly 1/4 of the original estimated speed).
I did try the additional test on the BT SpeedTest site but after changing the username to that required by the tester but the technicolor wouldn't accept a blank password - is there a way around this?

Gavin

[#6]

Quote from: gavins

the technicolor wouldn't accept a blank password - is there a way around this?

You can use any password as there is no authentication involved - just use ADSL or anything else you like.

[#7]

Thanks for that info - I would give it a go but I can't really afford to lose anymore speed!
Interestingly I went round to next door but one neighbour who has BT Infinity and ran the BT Speedtester (albeit wirelessly).  They got a download speed of 25.64Mbps with an acceptable range of 12Mbps-32.65Mbps with an IP profile of 32.65Mbps.
The upstream test came back at 6.85Mbps witha  profile of 10Mbps.
Seems like all the neighbours are on BT and get decent performance (all with the same postcode and going back to the same cabinet), whereas with PlusNet the performance of my line is apparently a max of 12Mbps but with a current speed of 7-8Mbps.  Got to love this high speed fibre broadband, especially when I am nearer than my neighbours to the cabinet as they are further down the road and their cabling runs past my house!

[#8]

The ISP you are with can have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the sync speed you get. They have no ability to control it directly. Changing the profile of the line which has to be done by BTw IIRC, can restrict it between certain limits, but that is not happening here, you are seeing a gradual deterioration in sync speed, not the result of any line profiling (which is in effect a banding).
I'm suspecting a fault on the DSLAM in the cab, or the Modem (the most likely as there have been several reports of such problems, overheating being one issue - is it well ventilated?) or a fault on the line - can you hear any audible noise when using the phone or had any problems with incoming or outgoing calls?
You should be able to use the test user logins without a problem as you are not powering down the Modem - that's the bit that controls your sync speed. Changing the User & password is only changing the domain of the Internet session that you are connecting to.

[#9]

Our faults team have got all your updated results and are investigating your line. Once there is an update our faults team will be in-touch.

[#10]

Well thanks to all for their assistance - just had a technical Openreach engineer here for about 3 hours who spotted a split pair on the line.  He has resolved that and now from his testing has seen 20Mbps as the maximum download speed for the line.  Ran a quick speedtest.net and am getting 12Mbps but that is presumably due to the IP profile of 13Mbps that is currently set.  Upload speeds have just over doubled to 4Mbps.
It's great to know I wasn't going crazy and full credit to the technical support guys for continuing to push Openreach - it just proves you need to get the right engineer!
Hopefully won't need to run the extended BT speedtest now but if I ever do I know how to do it, so thanks to Jaggies and Anotherone for that.  Thanks also to Chris for his assistance and patience - just proves why it was worth sticking with plusnet when you get the level of service that is provided.
I'm hoping this is the end of the saga and this thread can rest.

[#11]

That's great news! I've adjust your profile to allow 20MB/s through although we do require the engineer to reset the line first for this to take effect.
If there's anything else please let me know.
Chris

[#12]

Hi Chris,
The engineer did ring back to someone to get the line reset I believe.
Once again, thanks for all your help.

Gavin
Update: Just hit 20.1Mbps download on speedtest.net!

[#13]

Well I'm glad the cause of the problem was found, as you say, a lot depends on getting the "right" engineer.