Switched to Plusnet Extra but no change in Line speed! (Resolved - 20/11/2010)

[#1]

Last Monday I had an email from BT (my landline provider) touting for broadband business and just out of interest I followed the link through to a line checker which suggested that my line would support a 10Mbps throughput if I switched to BT. Well, I am more than happy with my Plusnet service so didn't follow this up but did think to look in the Member Centre to see what might happen if I switched from my existing legacy product, Plusnet Unlimited, to the current offering Plusnet Extra. I was pleased to see that the same 10Mbps came up on the Plusnet line checker and so decided that I would transfer from the old to the new. I didn't want a new router so did the transfer over the phone, and when I asked if it would take a few days for the extra linespeed to kick in, I was told that in fact this would be noticeable immediately.
The changeover was due to take place today (the start of my new billing period) but despite the fact that my Plusnett Account now correctly shows my product as Plusnet Extra, nothing else has changed and so I am currently still on 5.5 Mbps which is what it was before. Surely having switched from an 'up to 8Mb' product to an 'up to 20Mb' product there should have been some difference or might the actual issue be that someone has neglected to flick a switch or press a button at the exchange?
So if someone could look into this I would appreciate it.
PS: My Plusnet username is pieris
Thanks.
Spruance
[Addendum: 11:21am-07.10.2010]: As an afterthought I ran the BT Speedtest a few moments ago and it appears that they have indeed changed my Line Profile but only to 6.033Mbps. What happened to the 10Mbps that appeared in both their line checker and the one on Plusnet (probably the same software no doubt). The only reason that I switched from Unlimited to Extra was the prospect of almost doubling my line speed. Had I known that I would only be getting an extra 533kbps I would have left things the way they were.
This is a clickable thumbnail of the BT test result:-

At the moment I am somewhat aggrieved, especially since I live only one mile from the exchange which would tend to support the theory that 10Mbps is possible. So again if this can be looked at, especially in view of the apparent misrepresentation on the line checker side of things, it would be appreciated.

[#2]

Sounds like you were probably on 20CN and the linespeed check was for 21CN.  I've just had a quick look at your account and it looks like we've sent an order to put you on 21CN and therefore take advantage of ADSL2+ speeds.  I expect you'll "regrade" over to this in a few days and you should start seeing better speeds.
I'll let one of the Digicare guys  confirm though!

[#3]

Thanks for the quick response Kelly.
I have to say that this is sort of what I expected to happen but with the Customer Services lady telling me that the change would be immediate If naturally expected that it would be.
Ok I will give it a few days and see what transpires.
Spruance.

[#4]

Since the BT speedtester gives you an upload test I reckon you are already on 21CN though with an ADSL1 service (upload tests aren't provided on 20CN). I assume the order Kelly mentioned is to change ADSL1 to ADSL2+. Once that completes it might take a couple of days for the system to raise your IP Profile.
You might not be aware that the 21CN BT speedtester is borked at the moment - see the long BT Speedtester - is it broken? thread. BT are due to roll out a fix on 9th October. The reported IP Profile, in particular, is unreliable at present though the value the system uses should be OK.

[#5]

Thanks for the further info spraxyt.
If only Plusnet Customer Services had explained all of this when I phoned, the changeover process would have been so much simpler.
Spruance

[#6]

Hi all,
Just replying as Kelly asked me to take a look at this post.
After doing some further checks I can tell you that he was correct in his assumptions and I'm processing an upgrade to the 21CN service now. 
Please bear with us as we should have you connected to that within the next 7 days.

[#7]

Ok thanks Adam, and all noted.
I'll keep an eye on the situation and report back when I notice a change.
Spruance

[#8]

I said in my previous post that I would report back when I noticed a change. Well today there has been a change in my linespeed but not in the direction that I had anticipated.
I have been running speedtests daily at various times of the day but until today (apart from a short time on 7th October) there had been no variation from the average of just over 5Mbps, and indeed throughout my IP profile had remained at its previous 5500kbps both on BT's speedtester and in my Plusnet Account details.
Today's test firstly on the Member Centre link and then confirmed via BT revealed an alarming drop of around 1Mbps in linespeed and mysteriously my IP Profile has also been reduced to 4500kbps on both BT and Plusnet!
As you can imagine, this isn't quite what I had in mind when I decided to forego my Unlimited bandwidth in return for 60Gb bandwidth but 10Mbps linespeed, and with only a worsening of the situation five days into the new arrangement I am distinctly unimpressed. I only hope that new customers tempted to join Plusnet by the current TV campaign aren't finding the same trouble, or maybe you're getting so many new customers that you can't cope with the demand?
Anyway, below are clickable thumbnails to the latest BT speedtest at 11:47am today, an extract from my Plusnet account page with phone number removed, and an extract from the Plusnet confirmation email I received in the early hours of 7th October, but with my name removed, and the promised linespeed highlighted.

[#9]

Hi Spruance,
your order for ADSL2+ is now complete and I have performed maintenance on your account to reflect this. If you reboot now you should see the sync rate raise considerably.
Jojo

[#10]

Thanks Jojo but what do you mean in this context by 'reboot' as I checked again at 22:42 this evening and nothing had changed. This was the first time that the PC had been on since lunchtime, so if by reboot you mean rebooting the PC it didn't make any difference and that is also reflected by BT's speed tester and the High Speed Broadband link within the Connection Settings area of my Plusnet account page, which still shows my line speed as 4500kbps.
I will run another check tomorrow and report back here with the results.
Spruance
dick:quote

[#11]

you have to disconnect the router from the line and reconnect,best way is via the router main page, but if you can power off the router in the morning daylight hours and power up will be ok - dont pull the plug, use the power switch on the router

[#12]

Hi Spruance,
As pierre_pierre says you need to reboot the router. Just go to the router homepage and disconnect then connect. The reason you still see the 4500 is because that is your current profile which will only change when your sync rate lifts, which it should do after the reboot.
Jojo

[#13]

Thanks for the further advice pierre_pierre & jojo.
Funnily enough I have had great difficulty connecting to the Thomson Gateway page over the last few days so opted for the power button on the router itself. Apart from anything else that has cured the accessibility problems for the Thomson Gateway which is now back to normal.
These are the router stats for my DSL connection...
DSL Connection
Link Information

Uptime: 0 days, 2:19:00
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 444 / 8,736
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00

So, if I am reading this correctly it is saying that I should be getting somewhere around 8Mbps download is it? Problem is that BT still have my IP profile set at 4500kbps and this is also (as of a few minutes ago) still the case on my Plusnet account page, so something is still surely wrong. Does something need to tweaked in terms of my IP profile in order to get the full benefit of the higher speed that my router 'thinks' is available?

[#14]

It may take a day or two for BT's IP Profile to catch up with the higher sync and then a further 12 hours for the PlusNet one to follow.
It SHOULD all happen automatically.

[#15]

Ah well. I've waited a week so far so I suppose another day or two won't make that much difference. It's just rather ironic that I have a lower IP profile now (4500kbps) than before I elected to upgrade (5500kbps).
[Moderator's note by Dick (Strat):  Full quote of preceding post removed, as per Forum Rules ]
[Sorry Dick! ]