DownStream broadband at 284 kbps

[#1]

Regarding alternative speed tests, I did some tests yesterday 25/6/19 (already reported on ticket 175656946):

Router statistics before reboot (10:12):
ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Link Rate     5275 Kbps     811 Kbps
Line Attenuation     50.0 dB     32.2 dB
Noise Margin     3.6 dB     6.9 dB

Router statistics after reboot (10:20):
ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Link Rate     5443 Kbps     775 Kbps
Line Attenuation     49.5 dB     32.2 dB
Noise Margin     3.3 dB     7.5 dB

Speed tests done using Ethernet connected PC with no other users active, between 10:20 and 10:30:

BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 2.82
Upload Speed (Mbps): 0.49
Ping Latency (ms): 37.13 ms

Alternative speed tester speedtest.net as suggested by Plusnet 12 Jun 2018,  using a London server:

PING ms: 8
DOWNLOAD Mbps: 4.29
UPLOAD Mbps: 0.67

Repeated the BT test:

BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 2.06
Upload Speed (Mbps): 0.50
Ping Latency (ms): 23.38 ms

The BT further diagnostics test failed "Test Error The Performance Tester is currently unable to run a speed test for your broadband connection. Please try again shortly, however if this problem persists, raise the issue with your service provider."

Repeated the speedtest.net test:
PING ms: 7
DOWNLOAD Mbps: 4.28
UPLOAD Mbps: 0.66

I note that there is a discrepancy between the BT and speedtest.net tests, but the BT tests are similar to each other,
and the speedtest.net tests are similar to each other, despite the tests being interleaved.  Noting that there are negative comments to be found elsewhere on the internet about it, is the BT speed test no longer reliable?

[#2]

Stop rebooting the router!

[#3]

+1

[#4]

ejs - what's the justification for stopping rebooting the router?

Before using the BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test, you have to confirm the steps listed under "Before beginning the test, please ensure:"

Step 5 states "Reboot your modem/router by powering it off, waiting one minute, and then powering it up again. Wait for any lights on the router to stabilise before starting the test."

[#5]

I'm guessing you are on a static IP, or there is some other reason that your speed is restricted by Plusnet's copy of the IP profile. The problem with continually rebooting your modem is that the speed changes slightly each time, and it may take a few hours or a couple of days for Plusnet's copy of the IP profile to update, therefore if your speed keeps changing, Plusnet's copy of the IP profile tends to always be out of date.

Secondly, there's the issue that if you reboot your modem too many times per day, the DLM may see all the disconnections as a problem, and any action the DLM takes in an attempt to stabilise the line and fix the problem would reduce your speed.

The steps listed on the BTWholesale speedtester have to cover anything that could possibly cause the speedtest to give a slow result. It's possible that slow speeds might be caused by a router running low on free RAM or its CPU somehow getting overworked. If you rebooting your router hasn't made any difference to the speedtest result, then there's no problem with your router ending up stuck in some sort of overloaded state that could be fixed by rebooting it, so you don't need to. If you know there's nothing wrong with your wifi and your wifi is always faster than your broadband, then there's not really any problem doing a speedtest over wifi either. Most people can't be sure of that though, so the advice is always to use a wired connection.

[#6]

Hi @cjseymour

From what I can see your connection has been stable for the past 2 days:

Line tests are passing with no problem found.

Copper Line Test
Circuit ID:	CBUK00000000	Service ID:	BBEU00000000
Telephone NO.:	NA	Test Executed On:	28-06-2018 09:16:34

Status:	Pass	MFL:	OK	OR Test ID:	dys00556app06:398042094
Test Outcome:	CIDT LINE TEST OK - END USER EQUIPMENT DETECTED			DTR:	T300

Copper Test Details
	A to E	B to E
Capacitance:	270 NanoFarad	275 NanoFarad
DP Line Length Estimate:	2377 Metres	DN Line Length Estimate:	2447 Metres
Celerity:	46.8 dB	Line Loss:
Line Stability:	Stable
Fault Report Advised:	N
Service Level:	2
BRAGOutcome:	NA
Faceplate:	Not Detected

Our tests are showing your router in sync at 5.4mbps running at a profile rate of 4.8mbps, which is within the speed estimates/expectations of your line.

xDSL Status Test Summary
Sync Status:		Circuit In Sync
General Information
NTE Status:		NTE Power Status:	PowerOn	Bypass Status:

	Upstream DSL Link Information	Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss:	32.1	49.5
SNR Margin:	7.0	3.3
Errored Seconds:	0	8
HEC Errors:	0
Cell Count:	20034	29044
Speed:	775	5443

Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS):	8128	Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS):	6502
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds):	78309	Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds):	1374
Indicative Line Quality:	A	Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds):	229

ADSL Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Downstream Range(Mbps)
WBC ADSL 2+	Up to 4.5		--		3.5 to 5.5

I can see that DLM has assigned your connection a 3db SNR target.

Profile Info:

WBC 160K - 24M No delay (INP 0) 3dB Downstream, UC No delay (INP 0) 6dB Upstream (ADSL2+)

The lower the SNR target, generally the higher the sync rate, but in the cases of relatively long lines, a 3db target can occasionally cause throughput problems where your connection essentially runs so fast it trips over itself.

However it looks like this is a good thing in your case as the speeds you've done shown here are about right for your sync rate:

Alternative speed tester speedtest.net as suggested by Plusnet 12 Jun 2018,  using a London server:

PING ms: 8
DOWNLOAD Mbps: 4.29
UPLOAD Mbps: 0.67

I note that there is a discrepancy between the BT and speedtest.net tests, but the BT tests are similar to each other,
and the speedtest.net tests are similar to each other, despite the tests being interleaved.  Noting that there are negative comments to be found elsewhere on the internet about it, is the BT speed test no longer reliable?

I believe the cause of this is generally due to the web browser you use. Our suppliers recommend you use Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge as this is the best browser to run any BT Wholesale application.

Mind if I ask which browser you used?

I hope this helps.

[ejs]

ejs- thanks for your informative reply.

I don't see any mention of browser type on the BT wholesale speed test pages or on previous Plusnet instructions.  I normally run Firefox (v.60). The BT test runs on Adobe Flash which is a plugin, so should work the same in any browser.  Flash Player is installed as a NPAPI plug-in - Installing it in Netscape automatically installs Flash Player in other browsers that support NPAPI which I believe Explorer supports but not Edge.  Nevertheless I will be able to run the test on Explorer in future.

I am inclined no longer to trust the results from the BT tester.  No doubt broadband over copper is on the way out,  BT is planning the closure of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) by 2025, and Hull's telephone company probably sooner.  They are not going to be investing in copper phone lines so no-one should expect any improvements in service on that medium.

[#8]

I don't see any mention of browser type on the BT wholesale speed test pages or on previous Plusnet instructions

Indeed, browser developments are a constantly changing target, sometimes introducing undesirable foibles and defects.  Service providers could expend a lot of resources (which would be better deployed elsewhere) in attempting to document all of the evolving defects.

Empirical evidence seen here suggests that the result reported by (at least) Internet Explorer and Edge are reliable, whereas for a number of the other popular browsers they are not.  It is not the results from the BT speed test which cannot be trusted, but rather the performance of some of the browsers used to perform the tests which is suspect.  These are not the same - for your statement to be valid, then it would have to be shown that ALL BROWSERS deliver the same variance of false measurements, which is not the case.

The BT Wholesale speed test remains an essential diagnostic step, as running the tests delivers key diagnostic information to the ISP and BTw to support a problem report.

[#9]

Unfortunately, IE and Edge don't run on non-Windows systems, and not everyone has a Windows system available. The real problem is that the BT speed test relies on outdated software technology. It would be quite possible to provide a system that is more resilient with regard to modern browsers on multiple platforms, but I don't think BT (or some ISPs) see the need when they can ignore problems until the speed test diagnostics have been run.

[#10]

Edge runs on Android...

However I do agree that the speed test should be browser agnostic.

[#11]

At the risk of going off topic, one could equally argue that browsers should be content agnostic.

[#12]

Off topic & wrong imho.

Time critical data such as VOIP should be prioritised at router level.