Broadband Plus Speed Problems

[#1]

I have a Broadband Plus account.
My normal speed is between 3 and 5 Mbps and sometimes a little slower at peak times.
Recently I have been having intermittent speed problems where the speed drop down to a value of between 70 and 300 kbps as tested by the plusnet speed checker.
This normally seems to start occurring after about 4PM. Web browsing becomes exscruciatingly slow. Interestingly enough if I do a BT speed check it comes back with a download speed of about 4Mbps and also if I do a speed test on the Think Broadband site my speeds are not bad.
Sometimes if I reboot the modem the speed will go back to normal for a while.
I have not gone over my peak time usage limit.
I have also tried a different modem which gave no improvement.
This has been going on for quite a few weeks.
This appears to be that this is because by throttling at the Plusnet end.
Could someone from Plusnet please help.
Robin

[#2]

Hi Robin,
I'll take a look at your account and let you know if I find anything. Is it any particular protocols, or just all round slowness?

[#3]

Thanks for your quick response.
I only normally use the connection for browsing and downloading files, the slowdown affects both of those.
When I posted earlier this evening my connection was crawling along at between 70 and 120 kbps. I have just tested again on the plusnet speed tester and it is now back up to  5529 kbps.
This just seems to be very intermittent and seems to be much worse in the evenings. It has been particularly bad today since about 4PM.
The slowness sometimes lasts for hours. If I reset the modem the speed sometimes recovers but normally slows down again after a period of time.
I am getting close to my usage limit this month (3.34GB Peak,8.68GB Off Peak)  but I don't believe that has anything to do with it as it has been like this for over a month now.

[#4]

Well I can't see anything obviously wrong, though plus is an old account type - I'd say it would be worth upgrading to one of the newer accounts to be honest. You could try Value - that would save you some money too.
Hope that helps,

[#5]

I'm not interested in changing to value because the peak time starts at 8 A.M. as opposed to 4 P.M. and I would also be locked in to a 18 month contact without any guarantee of the speed problem being resolved.
I have left replying for a few days as I was about to go  through my month end and I hoped that might reset what was causing the problem. The speed was OK for 1 day but now it is back to being one minute fine and then the next going down to around 70 to 300kbps. This does seem to normally occur after the 4 P.M. and improves later in the evening (around 11P.M.).
I did try raising a speed fault from the portal but before by the time I'd persuaded the BT tester to do the 3 tests the fault report had reset itself.
What is the best way to move forward with getting this resolved?

[#6]

Hi,
You wouldn't be locked into an 18 month contract.  You'll be on a monthly contract as of October 22nd, as we're making changes to our contract durations from that date.  As long as you've not had a broadband activation, house move, or new hardware in the last 12 months, it'll be a monthly contract.

[#7]

I have an identical problem: thread here
there are a number of other threads running with a similar feel to them.
From experience of other PN "speed crises" over the past few years, this does feel as though there may be a more distinct problem than idiosyncratic difficulties with particular accounts and connections

[#8]

I also have a similar call logged.
My change has only really been noticeable in the past week. Has your issue been evident for longer?
Cheers.

[#9]

@chrisandnic -- about a month, but noticeably worse the past couple of days

[#10]

I have just done a speed test this evening 96kbps Down and 164kbps Up.
This started a couple of months ago for me but in the last week it seems to be getting worse.
Can some one from plusnet comment on whether they consider these speeds acceptable? If not could you please look in to getting this resolved ASAP. 

[#11]

i know it seems a pain, but you need to persist and log a fault through the Questions system ... posting here isn't a substitute for that, the faults and networks guys who answer posts are doing so "informally" mostly.
my issue is being attended to through that system (apparently they are seeing a possible fault) but only because I've done all the tests and so on as requested

[#12]

OK paulh thanks for your reply, I have now found the place on the member centre where I can log a traffic management fault, so I will try that route.
The first think it asks me to do is to use a program called wireshark. I went to download it and it started downloading at 5K/Sec....it will take over and hour to download at that rate. I will have to try again tomorrow.