Fluctuating (slow) speeds - is this normal?

[#1]

Hi,
I joined Plusnet recently and ever since my servce went live I've had varying download sppeds. I was advised when I joined that I should get between 6-7 Mbps which is great. (Was used to less than 1 Mbps with Tiscali!!). I only live around 200 yards from the exchange so would expect to get close to the 8 Mbps. The speeds I've actually been getting have peaked at 6.5 a few times but are usually around 3 - 3.5 but I have seen as low as 1 on quite a few occasions. I'm past the 10 days which they advise you should wait to get maximum speed and I've also tried resetting the router but no luck...? Any ideas anyone?
ADSL Status Information 
       
  Status: Status

Configured
Current

Line Status
---
SHOWTIME
Link Type
---
Interleaved Path
     
 
       
  Date Rate: Data Rate
Stream Type
Actual Data Rate

Up Stream
448 (Kbps.)

Down Stream
8128 (Kbps.)


       
       
  Operation Data / Defect Indication: Operation Data
Operation Data
Upstream
Downstream

Noise Margin
28 dB
11 dB

Attenuation
7 dB
8 dB

Defect Indication
Indicator Name
Near End Indicator
Far End Indicator

Fast Path FEC Correction
0
0

Interleaved Path FEC Correction
0
123

Fast Path CRC Error
0
0

Interleaved Path CRC Error
0
0

Loss of Signal Defect
0
---

Fast Path HEC Error
0
0

Interleaved Path HEC Error
0
0


     
 
       
  Statistics: Statistics
Received Cells
1363625

Transmitted Cells
216103

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQ

This Test comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
Download  Speed
389 Kbps
 
0 Kbps 7150 Kbps
Max Achievable Speed
Download speedachieved during the test was - 389 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :8128 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7150 Kbps

This test was not conclusive and further testing is required.This might be useful for your ISP to investigate the fault.
If you wish to carry out further tests,please click on 'Continue' button.If not, please close the window using 'Exit' button and contact your ISP for further assistance with these results.

Please visit FAQ section if you are unable To understand the test results.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Must admit, never seen it this slow before???
Any advice wold be appreciated.
Thanks Mick.
 
   
 
     
     

[#2]

What does this give for Current Line Speed https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed and are you connecting to the router by wireless

[#3]

Forgot to say, I'm using my own (Belkin) router, not a plusnet one. Can't see this being the problem though as it does occasionally give good speeds, if it was at fault I would assume it would always be slow?
Thanks Mick.

[#4]

Quote from: Oldjim

What does this give for Current Line Speed https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed and are you connecting to the router by wireless

Telephone number:
<snip>
Phone exchange:
CLOWNE
Estimated line speed:
7Mb (Accurate to within +/- 1Mbit) - Checked on 2011-05-28 17:07:08
Current line speed:
7.15 Mb
Connecting wirelessly at present. Is that the problem?
jim:green phone number removed mod:end

[#5]

Just connected via cable and there is little difference. Result from speedtest.net:

[#6]

There is something badly adrift.
You will need to raise a speed fault as your exchange is presently showing as Green
When you did the BTspeedtest did you click on the Continue button

[#7]

Hi Jim,
I only did the first part of the BT test. I couldn't suss out where/how to change my user setting to complete the test? Does it mean I need to change the seeting on my actual router rather than my laptop?
How do I go about raising a speed fault, do I need to do that over the phone?
Thanks Mick

[#8]

Doing a bit of digging - it appears that the second stage test doesn't work.
To raise a fault go to http://faults.plus.net

[#9]

Thanks for the help Jim, appreciate it.
I've raised a ticket so will wait and see what happens. I've tried the plusnet router, wired / wireless changed filters etc..... Tonight within the space of 1/2 hour I've had 0.5 mbps, 6.5 mbps and now around 2.5 mbps?? Really can't understand it? Surely it can't be down to the amount of traffic on the line can it?

[#10]

In spite of the exchange status being green, it looks very much like exchange contention to me.

[#11]

There's a ticket open with our faults team at the moment which should be replied to shortly, I'd keep an open mind as to the cause for now but we'll start by trying to eliminate the more common causes of issues like this one.

[#12]

Thanks Adam, I think I've pretty much exhausted the usual suspects, like jelv, I'm also of the opinion that the problem is exchange related.
How long should I expect to wait for a reply, not heard anyhting back yet?
Thanks Mick.

[#13]

Hi Mick,
I've had a look and ran a few checks but there's nothing obvious. If it was traffic then we'd expect to see consistently good results at certain times of the day and consistently bad ones at other times. Could you run so,e speed tests and post the results with what time they were run, so we can get a better idea of what's going on.
Jojo

[#14]

Quote from: Joanne

Hi Mick, I've had a look and ran a few checks but there's nothing obvious. If it was traffic then we'd expect to see consistently good results at certain times of the day and consistently bad ones at other times. Could you run so,e speed tests and post the results with what time they were run, so we can get a better idea of what's going on. Jojo

Took these from my phone (using speedtest.net over wifi):
Your results are attached to this email in CSV format.
Ookla operates Speedtest.net using a massive global infrastructure to minimize the impact of Internet congestion and latency. With over a million tests performed every day across hundreds of servers, Speedtest.net is the ultimate resource for bandwidth testing and related information. Visit it on your computer today to find out why.

Date,ConnType,Lat,Lon,Download,Upload,Latency,ServerName,InternalIp,ExternalIp
"2011-06-21 19:10","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",365920,55571,60,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-21 07:44","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",831443,58909,63,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-20 19:34","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",306161,54396,80,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-20 17:59","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",811807,58401,66,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 18:57","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",284148,56093,57,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 18:24","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",169463,58032,67,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 16:57","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",216531,58828,67,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 15:40","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",286441,59000,61,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 14:03","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",189159,60316,68,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 11:29","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",174618,59908,69,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-19 10:03","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",513744,57386,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-18 22:50","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",590831,56220,62,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.243.235"
"2011-06-18 19:26","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",89273,58249,84,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.112.87.250"
"2011-06-18 18:15","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",152930,57600,66,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.112.87.250"
"2011-06-18 16:48","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",95703,59368,70,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.112.87.250"
"2011-06-18 15:38","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",139218,58758,65,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.181.191"
"2011-06-18 14:31","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",252403,56819,66,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","91.125.181.191"
"2011-06-17 23:49","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",407730,53498,62,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-17 15:54","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",399768,54936,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-17 07:12","Gprs","53.28032","-1.27445",5227,2036,710,"Manchester","10.127.68.79","82.132.243.40"
"2011-06-16 23:14","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",196091,58770,66,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-15 21:49","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",268990,58209,75,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-15 21:03","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",531211,51671,60,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-15 18:42","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",364826,42882,58,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-14 21:56","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",404519,46585,57,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-14 21:36","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",356713,53461,66,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-14 20:27","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",403254,58071,65,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-14 07:17","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",659618,55959,55,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-13 23:05","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",301170,51193,65,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-13 18:06","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",732750,53818,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-13 08:05","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",429381,55006,60,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-13 00:21","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",469517,56928,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 23:27","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",402702,58239,64,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 13:10","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",356749,50803,63,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 10:08","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",281269,62836,67,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 09:49","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",532233,59299,55,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 08:58","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",562418,51963,65,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 07:51","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",833354,58909,56,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 07:44","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",831734,57987,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-12 00:36","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",666766,58345,58,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-11 15:12","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",690992,56509,63,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-11 15:00","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",834827,56480,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-11 14:32","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",686942,56124,64,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-11 09:18","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",565445,58705,61,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-11 07:10","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",779979,57896,67,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 23:10","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",434904,57109,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 23:01","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",816948,53940,59,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 17:58","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",759676,54287,60,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 17:45","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",714276,46552,67,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 17:42","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",654593,54879,66,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 16:39","Wifi","53.28032","-1.27445",322742,49465,64,"Manchester","192.168.2.2","87.113.102.249"
"2011-06-10 16:20","Cell","53.28032","-1.27445",458232,54887,140,"Manchester","10.124.33.236","87.113.102.249"

For some reason the download speed doesn't seem to tally on the csv file that the app generated with what it actually gave on screen? Hope you can make sense of it!
For information on the latest (top reading) of "365920" the actual recorded speed was 2.8 Mbps.
Many thanks Mick.

[#15]