Appalling download speeds today!

[#1]

Not sure if there is something seriously amiss with the network today, but I am experiencing appalling download speeds.
Thinkbroadband speedtester reports 500kbps and the BT speedtester shows only 456kbps, despite my IP profile being 7150kbps.
Speeds over the past week or so have been some of the fastest since I joined PlusNet a few years ago, so just not sure what's up.
Anyone got any ideas?

[#2]

Well a line test shows that your line is a dream - constant sync of 8128 with no drops whatsoever. If the BT speedtest shows such slow results when connected on the BT test username then this is contention (or a network issue) across BTs network. It's not the exchange as this is showing as green so if your BT speed tests are consistently slow I'd say it's still worth raising a speed fault to us via the tool at http://faults.plus.net
I realise that BT do not believe a line to be faulty unless it's below 400kbit/s but your line is of sufficient quality for us to be able to push this - let me know if your fault is not raised for this reason and I'll pick it up for you.
Hope this helps,

[#3]

no speedtester should ever e trusted - if you want to gage your full speed do a http download with a download manager at 10/20 threads
the TBB speedtester really is a waste of bandwidth

[#4]

Speedtesters are just one of many tools that can be used to diagnose problems so saying they are a waste of bandwidth do them no justice.
Thay can often be used together with other tools as a diagnostic aid. By running different ones (and the BT one which BT do rely on) you can get an idea of what/where the problem might be. They are a useful tool no matter how inaccurate they can be at times.

[#5]

true, i was refering to the fact they should not be relied on soely as gospel - everyone when they get a ADSL or faster connection jumps on the speedtesters. and they are often disappointed by the results

[#6]

I'm experiencing major problems also. I can't log on to the member centre to report my problem as the page will not load.
I've just switched package to BBYW Pro with the default download. I've never exceeded this in all my time with Plus Net so I don't think I'm getting a reduced speed.
I did manage to view my usage but could not make sense of it. It reported 12% VoIP usage!!! What sort of traffic would generate this as I don't use any VoIP services.
Regards David

[#7]

I have used the Namesco speed test and it says I can download at my full speed.
I know all about the offpeak unlimited and I usually stick within these guidelines, but the last few days, even using the service at off peak times, my download speed from newsgroups is abysmal.
Hopefully this is a glitch somewhere and will be cleared up very shortly.

[#8]

I have been getting consistent readings over the past three weeks:
163 - 165kbps download
165-195kps - upload
I tried to use the Plus net speed test, dispite disabling norton pop-up blocker and firewall it will not work. I have tried to raise a fault but it points me in the direction of the speed tester.  I am on a 2mb account. Can anyone help?

[#9]

Beejays - As you are on an LLU line we have direct control over your line profile, I can change this to increase the speed however I can see some disconnections on your account that may be loss of sync (unless you are manually powering down the router). Please let us know if you have been disconnecting the router fairly often, if so I will make the profile change and we can see how this goes.
Photomad - I suspect this is due to the network being busy, I would suggest changing gateways to see if this helps - this is done by rebooting the connection, you can check which gateway you are on at http://ww.plus.net/@gateway - at present thn-ag1 and thn-ag3 are the least contended.
Delves - Your line profile is showing at 1mb, I'd recommend switching gateways as per the suggestiong above though if you usually get a higher speed try adding filters to all used phone points and testing the connection from the master socket.
Hope that helps,

[#10]

I wish i could get onto LLU - just purely for the fact you can maintan it from HQ and there is no need for BT's intervention unless necessary

[#11]

I had difficulty connecting a couple of months ago, when i changed router this seemed stopped. I turn the router off after shutting down.
Please could you make the adjustments - thanks

[#12]

Might be best if you raise a ticket aswell. so the staff have something in writing authorising them to do it.
May not be necessary but cannot do any harm

[#13]

Morning Y'all 
Just to backup the point i made about speedtesters, they both seem to measure about 1/2 my connection according to BW Meter Pro
TBB
Date  05/11/07 07:33:57
Speed Down 2785.68 Kbps ( 2.7 Mbps )
Speed Up 662.87 Kbps ( 0.6 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.adslguide.org.uk
BW Meter Pro states it actually sucked around 350kbps for that
Our very own speedtester

BW meter Pro shows roughly the same.
But a HTTP download from an american server such as Microsoft

Tis truely a strange one to call... and i do get 650kbps now most of the time apart from the odd HTTP server which gets grabbed by Ellacoya