FTTC - speeds vary by +/- 15Meg? Normal?

[#1]

Hi
I've had Plusnet fibre for a few weeks now. Pretty happy with it, as I'd been stuck around the 16-20Meg range for 8 years or so via my previous ADSL LLU ISPs (Bulldog -> O2 -> Sky).
However, I've noticed a couple of things... (wired connection to my main PC)
1) BBC iPlayer regularly stops and buffers, and sometimes times out. It's done it half a dozen times at least over the past couple of weeks, mid-afternoon. I never had issues like this when I was on ADSL so a bit worrying.
2) Speedtests vary from 40Meg to 75Meg, depending when I do it (to speedtest.net or bt wholesale). At the moment it's pants and in the low 40s. Some days it's always 50 something, others it's 70 something. My IP Profile is 77.43 and I'm less than 50m from the cab. Is this just normal expected behaviour, ie just due to the congestion at the time?
Uploads have been consistent, always always been in the 14.5 to 15.5 range.
Cheers!

[#2]

Hi there,
I've checked your connection and the status of your exchange and noticed that there could be a capacity issues looking at the report. This has been updated on the latest report that we've received and more capacity is normally added within 3 working days, so we'll need to check the report that comes through next week.
It may also be worth trying a PPPoE connection to see if that makes a difference.

[#3]

Hi,
Although I haven't noticed buffering problems with iplayer, my speedtests again vary from 35meg to 72meg sinced I joined last November. Is this normal?  Uploads never seem to vary and my IP profile is 77.43.

[#4]

It could be an issue on your line or at the exchange, your speed shouldn't fluctuate that much.
I'd try the PPPoE connection that I linked to previously and then we can rule out the router being an issue.

[#5]

Hi,
Checked speed on desktop (wireless ) pc, speed 60 meg. Connected direct to BT modem using pppoe connection with my netbook, speed 30meg. Reconnected  router, system as before, speed on my desktop (wireless) is 30meg. Why has the speed not returned to the previous level of 60meg? Any ideas?

[#6]

Thanks for the replies.
I've just tried the direct PPPoE connection - here are the results (ran btwholesale test 3 times in a row, showing the min/max figures below)
Down: 64.99 - 68.16
Up: 14.8 - 15.3
Ping 25.0 - 39.25
Immediately after I ran the tests using the Technicolor
Down: 47.25 - 72.16
Up: 14.84 - 15.29
Ping 22.10 - 24.63
And with a new router that ideally I'll be using (WD MyNet 750) as it has a greater wireless range
Down: 49.31 - 67.43
Up: 14.19 - 14.88
Ping: 33.50 - 48.63

Definitely more consistent download speeds with the direct PPPoE connection - there's quite a range of speeds with the 2 routers, though maybe that's just how the cookie crumbled at the time when doing the tests (congestion etc).
I guess I'll see what happens in a few days, as the info that there's possible capacity issues at the exchange is interesting, and would explain why my download speeds on average have noticeably gone down over the past week or so.
Cheers!

[#7]

Yeah, must be capacity issues at the exchange.
Peak time Saturday night and it's roughly ADSL speed instead of 4x faster, ie I'm getting 21Meg (real world http download with 6 concurrent connections).
Fingers crossed for this 'new capacity' next week...

[#8]

Quote from: protos22

Checked speed on desktop (wireless ) pc, speed 60 meg. Connected direct to BT modem using pppoe connection with my netbook, speed 30meg. Reconnected  router, system as before, speed on my desktop (wireless) is 30meg. Why has the speed not returned to the previous level of 60meg? Any ideas?

There's nothing obvious on your connection causing your slowdowns, I'd suggest running through our faults wizard and we'll take a closer look.

Quote from: psprog

Yeah, must be capacity issues at the exchange. Peak time Saturday night and it's roughly ADSL speed instead of 4x faster, ie I'm getting 21Meg (real world http download with 6 concurrent connections). Fingers crossed for this 'new capacity' next week...

I've checked and it seems extra capacity has now been added so hopefully you'll see an improvement.

[#9]

Hi Chrisp,
Sorry to butt in but can you see the capacity of any exchange/cab? could you check the capacity of my exchange for fttc?

[#10]

Hi.
Well it's a lot better now. Just done 3 BTWholesale speed tests, again here are the max/min
Down: 74.37 - 72.95
Up: 15.34 - 15.24
Ping: 19.63 - 38.75
That's more like it - nice and consistent and in the 70s. Looks like the extra capacity is doing its job.
Cheers!

[#11]

Quote from: Wulfy

Sorry to butt in but can you see the capacity of any exchange/cab? could you check the capacity of my exchange for fttc?

Your exchange currently has no capacity issues.
@psprog
Glad to see there's an improvement.