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Connection and Speed Problems

arpy
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎26-10-2016

Connection and Speed Problems

 

I’ve always been very fortunate with my Plusnet connection, with download speeds somewhere between 4-5 Mb/s and a fairy stable connection.

 

In the past couple of weeks things have become a lot less stable, with multiple disconnects, some of them taking a number of minutes to reconnect. I have also noticed that these disconnects occur at the same time as there being no dial tone on my phone.

There has been changes to my set up (apart from moving the router to the mater socket) but BT have been rolling out of FTTC locally with a lot of BT engineers working on the cabinets in the local streets and a new ‘emergency’ BT duet 210 phone to replace an old ‘emergency’ phone.

 

On Sunday I moved the router and plugged it in to the test socket in the mater socket. I have tried it with and without phones connected to the micro filter. However I’m still having problems.

 

I raised a ticket with Plusnet (https://faults.plus.net/) at midday on Tuesday. I have not heard anything from Plusnet however my download speeds have dropped to around 1Mb/s and the connection seems to be more stable.

 

Any suggestions as to what I can do restore my previous speeds and steady connection would be most welcome.

 

My router is and ASUS DSL-AC68U and I have attached a copy of my DSL info / line stats.

18 REPLIES 18
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Your line didn't look particularly stable from last Thursday right up to Tues/yesterday.

 

Since then it's settled down, however those disconnections have caused the exchange equipment to alter your line profile by adding 'banding' to stablise the connection.

 

  Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 28.3 44.0
SNR Margin: 5.9 15.8
Errored Seconds: 0 0
HEC Errors: 0  
Cell Count: 679374 334260
Speed: 1032 1152
 
Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS): 7392 Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS): 5913
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds): 22933 Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds): 1764
Indicative Line Quality: G Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds): 86400
  Profile Info: WBC 576K - 1M Medium delay (INP 4) 6dB Downstream, 448 Medium delay (INP 2) 6dB Upstream (ADSL2+)

 

I'll get the banding removed, if you can monitor the connection to see if it starts dropping out again and let us know that'd be great.

Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
arpy
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎26-10-2016

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

 

Many thanks for looking at this Chris.

 

I’ve seem an immediate increase in the download speed although upload speed seems to have dropped as shown in the most recent line stats. I’ll leave it all set up by the master socket and keep an eye on the stability and speed.

 

It is strange that the line was so unstable on Thus evening and eventually dropped for almost 36 hours as I was away from Wednesday morning to Sunday evening so the broadband was not being used at all. Still, hopefully we are back to ‘normal’ now . . . .

 

arpy
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎26-10-2016

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

 

 

Hi Chris

 

The line dropped again at 1:40am on Friday morning.  There wouldn't have been anyone using the broadband at that time but I am not sure if there is any connection between this and an email I received from Plusnet support at 1:45am on Friday saying that they have asked their wholesale broadband suppliers to turn interleaving on for my phone line . . .

 

I also see from the line stats (see screen grab below) the downstream data rate has dropped to about 1Mb/s again.

 

LineStats_ 20161028-1112.JPG

 

 

 

estacado
Dabbler
Posts: 22
Registered: ‎25-10-2016

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Doesn't seem like a coincidence that BT are rolling out Fibre in my area too and since the engineer vans turned up I've had problems, in my case it's upstream speed and lag but it's annoying that during these upgrades BT don't seem to be ensuring existing customers are still receiving a good service.

ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

The capped upstream speed is nothing whatsoever to do with any work that may be going on towards FTTC, and everything to do with what Plusnet did when removing the banding.

Edit: arpy's line has also gone from using ADSL2+, to using ADSL1, which also shouldn't have happened, although that's possibly not helped by the Asus modems being a bit dodgy.

jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Where did you get the idea that he'd ever been on ADSL2 from? Information on another of his topics says he's on a 20CN exchange.

Deleted - mixed up with another topic. Embarrassed

jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

I was commenting on arpy's stats.

arpy
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎26-10-2016

Re: Connection and Speed Problems


@ejs wrote:

The capped upstream speed is nothing whatsoever to do with any work that may be going on towards FTTC, and everything to do with what Plusnet did when removing the banding.

Edit: arpy's line has also gone from using ADSL2+, to using ADSL1, which also shouldn't have happened, although that's possibly not helped by the Asus modems being a bit dodgy.


 

The ASUS router has what they call Dynamic Line Adjustment where it is supposed to adjust itself to match the settings of you line.  This may explain the switch from ADSL2+ to ADSL1 as the router adjust to the unstable connection

ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
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Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Switching from ADSL2+ to ADSL1 because the connection is unstable would be a completely nonsensical thing to do.

arpy
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎26-10-2016

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Thanks for the feedback ejs.

 

I'm not that knowledgeable on broadband technologies. I was wondering if, given I've rarely had a speed above 6Mb/s, the router was limiting the connection to ADSL1 to stop it from trying to increase the speed at the expense of a stable line. 

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules

Browni
Aspiring Hero
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Registered: ‎02-03-2016

Re: Connection and Speed Problems


@ejs wrote:

Switching from ADSL2+ to ADSL1 because the connection is unstable would be a completely nonsensical thing to do.


Rubbish.

Restricting a long line to ADSL1 can improve stability.

ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

The reputation of ADSL2+ for long lines was tarnished because the oldest type of BTWholesale ADSL2+ exchange equipment does it badly. The later kit automatically switches to ADSL2 on long lines, not ADSL1, and the really new kit seems to be perfectly capable of operating long lines on ADSL2+.

I find that ADSL1 is less stable than ADSL2 on my own long line (which happens to be on the oldest type of ADSL2+ exchange kit). I think everyone except Plusnet will be using ADSL2/2+ on any length of line wherever available.

ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Anyway, for arpy's line at the moment, the stats look so messed up that it's possible something is wrong with the equipment at one or other end of the line, possibly the exchange end, since Plusnet probably wouldn't mess up the reset order so that the 1152k speed re-appears, the upstream gets capped to 448k, and it goes back to ADSL1. The combination of those three things really doesn't make sense. Fixed rate 1152k lines have 288k upstream, and if the line were ordered as ADSL1, then that shouldn't have any banding.

jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Connection and Speed Problems

Deleted

I forgot which topic I was looking at! Embarrassed

jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)