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Slow Broadband

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guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Slow Broadband

Hi,

 

Ok first of all we've only had the plusnet connection for one week so we haven't waited the full 10 day settle in period however over the 7 days the connection speed has reduced from 1.9Mbps to 1.6Mbps so I am less than confident that we will see speeds of 5Mbps (minimum estimated speed). Here is the relevant connection information from my router.

 

  Data Rate: 448 / 5952   Maximum Data Rate: 836 / 6100   Noise Margin: 14.0 / 5.5   Line Attenuation: 28.5 / 41.5   Signal Attenuation: 0.0 / 41.5

 

I have the router connected direct to the test socket and am testing the speed on a hard wired PC not a wireless connection. I have tested the speed several times a day since we got the plusnet connection and the maximum throughput I have seen has been 1.9Mbps and as I say this has been steadily decreasing over the week to the current 1.6Mbps. 

when we were with BT which was now 8 days ago out speed was 5.5Mbps. So why does the router give a data rate of 5952 (which is approximately what we got from BT) yet the real world experience is only 1.6Mbps (0.3Mbps upload)? If we can't resolve this I will be forced to cancel the contract (which as we don't meet the minimum estimated speed I believe I can do without penalty) and return to BT as soon as the 10 day settle in period is over. My wife is Romanian and uses skype constantly to speak to her family and as it stands our connection is simply not good enough for that. She is currently on maternity leave with our 5 month old baby daughter and relies on skype constantly so I cannot afford for this to not be reolved!

 

Thanks for any help that can be offered.

 

Regards


Tom

15 REPLIES 15
Townman
Superuser
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Slow Broadband

Hi Tom,

A warm welcome to the forums.

By the sounds of it you are getting what was estimated - a synch speed of 5mbps or better.  Estimates are never in respect of through put speeds.  Something is a bit amiss here, but see that we need to see a full set of stats please rather than pits picked out.

How are you measuring the DATA speed?

How is your line performing?

Please post your router stats; for PN TG582n and 2704n routers use the buttons below, for other routers look at the Kitz link.

Also run a BT Wholesale speed test (ideally using an Ethernet wired PC with the WiFi turned off) then run the further diagnostics and post the results here. DO NOT REBOOT the router!

Also find your CURRENT SPEED (PlusNet line profile) from the PlusNet user portal - you will need to log in.


 

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.

guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

Hi Townman, thanks for the reply. Here are the details you request.

 

First of all I am using a BT Home Hub. I have also tried the router sent to me by PlusNet and also a Netgear 3700v2 but I am using the BT Home Hub because this is giving me the lowest line attenuation and therefore the highest line speed.

 

Here are all the stats from the BT Home Hub - as you can see I have disabled wireless and for the purpose of testing this PC is the only device hard wired in. I have also deleted my username, Mac Address and SSID as I do not wish to put that on a forum.

1. Product Name: HomeHub4
2. Serial number:
3. Firmware version: v0.07.04.01235-BT (Type B) Last updated 9/3/2017
4. Board version: 01A
5. DSL uptime: 1 days, 21:58:57
6. Data Rate: 448 / 5696
7. Maximum Data Rate: 828 / 6320
8. Noise Margin: 14.0 / 7.1
9. Line Attenuation: 28.5 / 41.5
10. Signal Attenuation: 0.0 / 41.5
11. Data sent/received: 279.6 MB / 1.4 GB
12. Broadband username:
13. BT Wi-fi: Yes
14. 2.4GHz wireless network/SSID:
15. 2.4GHz wireless connections: Disabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))
16. 2.4GHz wireless security: WPA & WPA2 (Recommended)
17. 2.4GHz wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
18. 5GHz wireless network/SSID: 
19. 5GHz wireless connections: Disabled (802.11 n (up to 300 Mb/s))
20. 5GHz wireless security: WPA2 Only
21. 5GHz wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
22. Firewall: Default
23. MAC Address:
24. VPI/VCI: 0/38
25. Modulation: G.992.1(DMT)
26. Latency type: Fast
27. Software variant: -
28. Boot loader: 0.4.3-BT (Mon Jun 9 14:23:56 2014)

 

I have run the BT wholesale test and the results are as follows

Download Speed (Mbps): 1.36

Upload Speed (Mbps) 0.17

Ping Latency: 130.75ms

 

interestingly these are worse than the results I have been getting from speedtest.net.

 

The further diagnostics results are as follows

 

Download speed achieved during the test was - 1.36 Mbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds
is 0.4 Mbps-2 Mbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :5.7 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.45 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 2 Mbps

 

I am unsure where to find my line profile speed on the plus net portal.

I think it is worth repeating though that when I was with BT only 10 days ago my results from speedtest.net were always around 5.5Mbps. The physical line has not changed so I do not see why the speed should be lower with plus net.

 

Thanks again

Tom

 

 

 

Townman
Superuser
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Re: Slow Broadband

Hi Tom,

There is a lot going on here, which bits are essential and which bits are fringe is going to need help from Plusnet.  Note you can find the PN Profile using the right hand button in my previous post (not the sig buttons).

  1. Your synch speed is fairly good, but not great at 5.7Mbps
  2. A line with the attenuation reported* might be expected to do 6.4mbps or better [*Note that different routers calculate attenuation differently: so it really is not the case that the router which reports the lower attenuation is going to give you the best synch speed.]
  3. The DS SNRM is a bit elevated, which might suggest that there was some line noise present when the line synch'd which has since gone ... note that the max data rate is 6.3mbps - close to that expected for the given attenuation ... the possibility of local interference needs looking at ... extensions ... line noise (do QLTs regularly see below)
  4. This is ADSL modulation (not ADSL2) so I'm guess this is a rural exchange which BT Wholesale has failed to invest in and bring up to modern standards ... if ADSL2 were available you might see speeds as fast as 8mbps... Cool_smiley
  5. The real killer here however is the line's IP profile 2mbps - this is a configuration error in BTw's management systems - that DS speed 5696 is a magic number which should just give you an IP profile of 4.5mbps.  If you previously had a data through put of 5.4mbps then the synch speed will have to have been north of 6240

Broadband is not going to work well if the "phone" line is not working properly.

Please perform a quiet line test - dial 17070 select option 2 using a corded phone plugged into the test socket behind the face plate of the master socket. It should be silent. A noisy phone line (or no dial tone) will have a marked adverse impact on the performance of broadband.

If the line is noisy or there is no dial tone, then a PHONE LINE fault needs to be raised with your phone provider. If this is PlusNet, you can report a fault on line using the button below.


 

 

This needs some Plusnet TLC...

@Gandalf - can you assist please...?

  • Why is the IP profile stuck at 2mbps given the reported synch speed - is the DLM being overly aggressive and just slow to relent?  May be all of the router swapping has made it bit cautious?
  • Is ADSL2 available to this user?
  • What's the error history looking like?
  • Is there anything hinting at the cause of the slightly off SNRM please?

 

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.

guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

Hi Townman, again thanks for your reply. Yes what you've said pretty much confirms what I thought. I am unable to carry our the quiet line test as I do not own a corded phone however I will try and obtain one. I have now gone to the plusnet button you posted (silly me missing that!) and the info is as follows

Phone exchange:SKELLISTER

Estimated line speed:6Mb (This may vary between 5Mb and 7Mb) Checked on 2017-10-03 17:51:08

Current line speed:1.75 Mb

We definitely live in a rural location (Shetland is as rural as it gets) however the local exchange is supposed to be getting fibre very soon. We are way too far from the exchange to benefit from fibre (approx 2.5 miles) so have to make do with what we can. To be honest if we got back around 5Mbps I would be happy enough. I would also note that when using the netgear 3700v2 router when with BT I could never get above 2.5Mbps. I put this down to the netgear router using adsl2 whereas the homehub 4 is using DMT which has less attenuation over distance than adsl2. However it was just an educated guess which may well be incorrect. The netgear router does give a line attenuation of 58 and a max data rate of just 3500 but then not all routers are created equal.

 

Anyway thanks again for your help.

 

Tom

Gandalf
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Re: Slow Broadband

Fix

 

Hi Tom. I'm sorry to hear of the problems the speed issues are causing you.

 

Why is the IP profile stuck at 2mbps given the reported synch speed - is the DLM being overly aggressive and just slow to relent?  May be all of the router swapping has made it bit cautious?

It looks like something happened on the 2nd October which caused the profile to drop to 1750kbps. Since then it steadily moved back upwards and interleaving was applied. It's now at 5000kbps as of last night.

 

I imagine the router swapping was on Monday?

 

 

As your connection hasn't dropped since the profile has increased to 5mbps I'd recommend a single reboot of the router or a single disconnect/reconnect in the router interface. When it reconnects you should be back up to speed.

 

Is ADSL2 available to this user?

Sadly not.

 

 

What's the error history looking like?

Nothing major I don't think.

 
  Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 28.5 41.5
SNR Margin: 14.3 9
Errored Seconds: 0 5
HEC Errors: 0 0
Cell Count: 24453774 102196390
Speed: 448 5696

 

 

Is there anything hinting at the cause of the slightly off SNRM please?

Line tests aren't pointing towards any issues.

 

Let us know how it goes after a reboot. Smiley

 

 

 

 

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

Thank you for your reply Gandalf and for looking into this. I have now re-started my router and my speed is up to just a fraction below 5Mbps. I am happy with this and it is close enough to what we were getting with BT to make no odds. 

 

I'm not sure if what happened to it was on the 2nd of October as it was slow since getting connected with plus net on the 31st of September. Yes the router swapping was on monday as I wanted to look at the line attenuations and SNRs different routers would give. 

 

I am half considering buying a third party router at this point but am wary because of experience. I want a router which will give reliable wireless coverage throughout the house at a speed which will enable me to stream video from my NAS to a variety of tablets, mobiles and laptops. The BT home hub 4 which I now have plugged in tends to drop wireless randomly ever since a firmware update BT forced on it back in March. This was actually my primary reason for leaving BT because of the lack of support they would give for this issue. However this router also gives the best line attenuation and snr and certainly when I was with BT gave a much better broadband speed than the Netgear 3700v2. I am wary of buying a router to fix the wifi issue precisely because of the netgear giving much worse broadband speed. Do you have any advice? I was thinking of perhaps a billion router? I also do not particularly want to use the router plusnet supplied me with as the wifi on it is limited to 2.4Ghz and it also only has fast ethernet. I really want 5ghz and gigabit ethernet. I may just end up using the homehub 4 as a modem only and connecting the netgear up to it as a router.

 

Anyway thanks again for all your help Townman and Gandalf, you are wonderful people! 

 

PS my wife also says thank you, her skype is working much better now.

guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

As a quick addendum I just re-tested my internet and am getting the following speeds.

 

down - 5.35

up - 0.38

latency - 41ms

 

This is now pretty much exactly what I was getting with BT.

 

 

bmc
Hero
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Registered: ‎28-02-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

@guitartom76 

Not that this helps you but I had a look at CodeLook for your Exchange. One cabinet and 18 Exchange only "bundles" (which I suspect includes you). The cabinet is shown as having FTTC available from 14th September 2017

 

The OpenReach website is not showing any plans for a post code chosen at random - just the generic "We are Exploring Options"

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/index.do

 

Brian

 

guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

Hi BMC,

 

The fibre was installed very recently as part of the rollout of fibre throughout Shetland. It's actually very helpful because we are going to use it to supply fast ethernet to Nesting Primary School. The connection is in progress! We were using Point to point connections bouncing from Lerwick to Whalsay to Nesting and these were ok but had a tendency to stop working in the middle of winter when storms would knock the antennas out of alignment (we regularly get 100mph winds in shetland in winter). The fibre will at the very least stop me having to climb up to adjust the antenna in freezing rain and high wind!

 

As for my house I have little to no expectation of seeing fibre speeds here. We live 2.5 miles from the exchange but there is pretty much nothing in those 2.5 miles except rough hills and the odd sheep. I do not expect open reach will ever run fibre to the 5 houses here. To be perfectly honest I am very happy that we get the 5Mbps we do, it is better than I expected.

 

On the plus side we live in the most beautiful place. We regularly see Otters playing in the sea in front of the house. Every so often we see Killer whales swimming past and hunting mackerel in the bay. That really makes up for slow broadband speeds!

 

If you're at all interested you can see  for yourself

www.gletness.co.uk

 

best wishes

 

Tom

Townman
Superuser
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Posts: 22,921
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Re: Slow Broadband

Tom,

Nice website - are you aware that the getting here and contact menu items link to the same page?

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.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Re: Slow Broadband

I'm happy to hear you're back up to speed!

 

I'm not sure if what happened to it was on the 2nd of October as it was slow since getting connected with plus net on the 31st of September. 

It's possible that it was just due to the dynamic line management (DLM) software finding the best speed during the 10 day stabilisation period of the new connection.

 

PS my wife also says thank you, her skype is working much better now.

Awesomeness. Smiley

Btw, we can potentially improve the upstream speed to a theoretical speed of up to 832kbps, which should make a better experience for the likes of Skype calling, though in doing so it may sacrifice a bit of your download speed.

 

It's called Max Premium and we're offering it on a trial basis.

If you're interested and for more info, head on over to http://trials.plus.net

Whilst it does cost £7.83 per month, you can remove it at any time (with 30 days notice).

 

On the plus side we live in the most beautiful place. We regularly see Otters playing in the sea in front of the house. Every so often we see Killer whales swimming past and hunting mackerel in the bay. That really makes up for slow broadband speeds!

 

If you're at all interested you can see  for yourself

www.gletness.co.uk

 I'd probably someday trade my fibre speeds in the city to live out in the countryside.

But yeah Shetlands is definitely on my to-do list!

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

Yeah, it's a work in progress. I made it one night while up with my then 2 month old child. She would only settle while being rocked in her baby bouncer so I had one foot rocking her and did the website. Now she is 5 months old things have changed and I just don't get the time to work on the website. I'll fix it all one day!

guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

Dear Gandalf,

 

I purchased a new router - billion 8800axl.

When first connecting a was getting a speed of around 4Mbps, not too bad but not as good as before. After much messing around I have succeeded in reducing this to 3Mbps. Looks like my snr has gone up so I am assuming the server has detected fluctuations and reduced me accordingly. Any chance you could get my snr reset again? 

 

The new router is giving poorer speeds but is more stable and the Wi-Fi is hugely better. Not sure what to do now. May perhaps use the old router as a modem only.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Tom

guitartom76
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎06-11-2017

Re: Slow Broadband

This is where it starts to get weird, but probably due to my limited knowledge in broadband technology. My download speed has gradually increased since putting in the new router and is now back up to 4.9Mbps. So pretty much what it was before. The new router is still giving a higher line attenuation (47.5) than the bt home hub4 and the snr margin is still higher at 9.1db. My understanding was that the line attenuation and the db margin were what basically determined my speed but despite both these figures now being higher my speed has returned to near enough 5Mbps. Question is if I can now reduce the and margin can I get still higher speeds? 

 

At this point I'm happy enough with the speed I'm getting and don't want to rock the boat but I also have my curiosity piqued!