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Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

machare
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Registered: ‎13-01-2011

Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

What monitoring does Plusnet do to ensure that the links from their centre to BT exchanges are not overloaded?
14 REPLIES 14
Oldjim
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Plusnet doesn't have any links to local exchanges as they use BT Wholesale backhaul
The usage is shown here http://www.plus.net/support/service/network_performance/broadband_bandwidth_usage.shtml#totalTraffic
machare
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Thank you, that link appears to show some sort of agregate usage. It does not tell me the load on the backhaul from the exchange I am connected to.
Can Plusnet tell what this load is and whether the link is perhaps overloaded?
ejs
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

You may be interested in this page:
http://community.plus.net/exchange-information/
Oldjim
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Do you think that you have exchange congestion problems and, if so, what are the symptoms you are seeing
jelv
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Quote from: machare
Thank you, that link appears to show some sort of agregate usage. It does not tell me the load on the backhaul from the exchange I am connected to.
Can Plusnet tell what this load is and whether the link is perhaps overloaded?

Accurate information from BTw or OR is very hard for ISPs to obtain. We've seen cases where they swear blind there is no problem until faced with incontrovertible evidence from several users from multiple ISPs complaining of the same issue.
If Plusnet have multiple users on the same exchange all with open speed faults reporting slow speeds at peak times and normal speeds at others it can get the ball rolling. The starting point is to run BT speed tests ONLY at peak times to demonstrate the slow speed. Unfortunately it seems that if you run a BT speed test at 4am and it gives a normal speed they will say it proves there isn't a problem!
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
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plusnettony
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Hi machare,
I've done some checks and the information that I have shows that your exchange isn't near capacity (I don't have percentages I'm afraid).
As you've been asked, if we have a bit more information about the fault, and wired speed tests, we'll be able to advise further.
Tony
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Tony T
 Plusnet Help Team
machare
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Thank you. 
This speed test results demonstrates the contention:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/141502217690306627038.png

This is another test where the connection is working fine:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/141504882904094262583.png

What I notice as a user, is that sometimes my web browsing is very slow.
In general I do very little streaming of video or music because my internet connection is very slow as I have a long (6.1Km) telephone line.
jelv
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Can you confirm that those tests were run using a wired connection to the router please.
Are you using any P2P (e.g. torrent) software?
(Note to other readers of this topic: I don't like the look of the upload result)
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)
machare
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

I don't run any P2P software, and it was a wired connection. I don't normally get Wifi contention!
jelv
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Something doesn't stack up. Contention usually shows up as the x6 download being way faster than the single threaded download. I wouldn't expect it to significantly affect upload either and your upload is very badly affected.
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)
machare
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Registered: ‎13-01-2011

Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

For now, my web browsing is working OK.  I will see if the problem re-occurs.
machare
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Registered: ‎13-01-2011

Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

jelv
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

You need to run BT speedtests when it is going slow (when the first pass completes click the Further Diagnostics at the bottom to get the full results). Post the results back here and also add them to the fault ticket you've opened).
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)
plusnettony
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Re: Is the Plusnet link to my local BT exchange overloaded?

Hi,
I've done some checks on the network and your exchange and I don't believe this to be a contention issues (though I can see why you might think it is).
If you could provide the information that Jelv has asked for, it would allow us to advise further.
Tony
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Tony T
 Plusnet Help Team