Just switched to Extra (with Pro add-on) and have noticeable speed decrease

[#1]

I've been on an old Premium plan (80GB p/m) for a while now and have just switched to the cheaper Extra plan from the start of this month. Thought I'd try out the Pro add-on to see whether streaming video would work better since I've had issues with this in the past.
Since the switch, both my wife and I have noticed web surfing and streaming speeds have noticeably decreased to the point that YouTube or Vimeo isn't worth visiting without starting playback and then pausing the video until it's completely downloaded.
I only have one phone line coming into my flat and this is what my router is connected to with a filter for my phone.
I'm quite unfamiliar with the technicalities of routers and the like though I gather I should provide the following information. Unfortunately I've had to reset my router recently due to a tendency for my home network to drop completely (can't even access the router's menu). I've found the only way to fix this is to physically reset the router. Not sure if this is related to the speed issue or not.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Router stats:
Uptime: 0 days, 1:05:16
DSL Type: G.992.1 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 5,792
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 31.5 / 54.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 18.0 / 9.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / TSTC
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 5,183
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 14
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 15
BT speed test results:
Download speedachieved during the test was - 3733 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :5792 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 4500 Kbps
Current line speed:
Phone exchange: POPLAR
Estimated line speed: 5Mb (This may vary between 3.5Mb and 7.5Mb) - Checked on 2012-01-11 16:33:59
Current line speed: 21 Mb

[#2]

Are you in the process of being switched to 21CN/ADSL2+, (just guessing since Current line speed is (temporarily) set to 21Mbps)? No reason why that should be causing the present problems though.
Have you another router to try? From your comments about your TG585v7's tendency to freeze (here and in your Home LAN topic) I suspect your present router might be approaching failure.
David

[#3]

Thanks for the quick response David.

Quote

Are you in the process of being switched to 21CN/ADSL2+...

I'm afraid I'm not sure what that means or how to can check. Is this to do with the Pro add-on?
[EDIT] OK - After a bit of searching around I checked my exchange status here and found that 21CN is enabled
I do have an old Voyager 2110 router I could try to connect with though may take a bit of configuration to get it to connect. Are there any specific tests I should run with this different router?

[#4]

Switching to 21CN/ADSL2+ isn't associated with the Pro add-on, it's standard with the current products, and users on many legacy products will be switched too, but as part of bulk upgrades. The switch is done immediately following a product change.
I think it would be useful to try the Voyager if you can. I think those are supposed to be ADSL2+ compatible but sometimes prove troublesome. It should be OK before you are switched. Do you have any closed tickets or service notices on your account letting you know when the ADSL2+ switch is taking place?
If you do get the Voyager working the main thing to check are the router stats. See Kitz link http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php#15 if you are unsure how to get those. It might take 3-5 days before you notice any speed increase, depends how long the DLM takes to respond.
David

[#5]

Hi bbgmp,
How's it all gone with the Voyager? Hope it's all working, though if the connection has stabilised and your sync rate has increased but the profile hasn't please let us know and we'll get an SNR reset done for you to let the line retrain at its best possible speed.

[#6]

OK, have switched to the Voyager 2110. Had forgotten how horrible the menu system is with that router.
Repeat of tests below, doesn't look as though the speed is any better with this one according to the BT speed test.
I should say though that general surfing does feel a bit faster though (despite what the speed test says). Could it be that a slow internet connection could be caused by some sort of LAN issue?
Router stats

Line Mode	G.DMT	Line State	Show Time
Latency Type	Interleave	Line Up Time	00:01:04:49
Line Coding	Trellis On	Line Up Count	1

Statistics	Downstream	Upstream
Line Rate	5760 Kbps	448 Kbps
Noise Margin	8.7 dB	18.0 dB
Line Attenuation	56.0 dB	31.5 dB
Output Power	19.8 dBm	12.3 dBm
K (number of bytes in DMT frame)	181	15
R (number of check bytes in RS code word)	14	4
S (RS code word size in DMT frame)	1	4
D (interleaver depth)	32	8
Super Frames	228742	228740
Super Frame Errors	24	0
RS Words	15554486	3888580
RS Correctable Errors	3827	0
RS Uncorrectable Errors	176	0
HEC Errors	20	0
OCD Errors	0	0
LCD Errors	0	0
ES Errors	0	0

BT speed test results
Download speedachieved during the test was - 3351 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :5760 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 4500 Kbps
Current line speed
Phone exchange: POPLAR
Estimated line speed: 5Mb (This may vary between 3.5Mb and 7.5Mb) - Checked on 2012-01-11 16:33:59
Current line speed: 21 Mb

[#7]

The router stats for the Voyager and Thomson routers are very similar. You mentioned the Thomson had to tendency to freeze, how soon are you likely to know if the same happens with the Voyager?
In terms of line performance the IP Profile should increase to 5000kbps, but it takes 4 days for the 20CN DLM to make that change - Wed afternoon based on the timing of your initial post.
It looks like your downstream target noise margin is 9dB. Has that been raised by the DLM because of disconnections at the normal 6dB? The increased target noise margin will have reduced sync speed by 500-750kbps.
David

[#8]

The freezing problem is only intermittent so might wait a few days to see what happens.
As far as the noise margin, not really sure what's caused that. Would a few disconnections in a short space of time do this? If so, might be from when I was setting the router up as I did reset it a few times.
When checking things out this morning, it looked as though the noise margin had risen to 10dB even though there hadn't been any disconnections since.

[#9]

Noise margin will vary during the day and is typically lower at night and highest around now. If you rebooted your router a few times within an hour without doing a disconnect first the exchange probably saw this as instability and raised the target.
If you disconnect then reboot ONCE when the noise margin is at it's highest to will resync at the target and you will see a higher sync speed.
The exchange seeing your line is stable and resetting the target may take some weeks. The best bet may be to make sure that you avoid resyncs for a number of days so that PN can see the line is stable and then you ask them to do a reset.

[#10]

Thanks to everyone for their help so far.
Updated stats after a few days using the Voyager 2110. So far have had no router freezes though did have a power cut today which reset the router.
Router stats

	Downstream	Upstream
Line Rate	5760 Kbps	448 Kbps
Noise Margin	8.6 dB	17.0 dB
Line Attenuation	56.0 dB	31.5 dB
Output Power	19.8 dBm	12.3 dBm

Speed test
Download speedachieved during the test was - 4073 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :5760 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 4500 Kbps
Current line speed
Phone exchange: POPLAR
Estimated line speed: 5Mb (This may vary between 3.5Mb and 7.5Mb) - Checked on 2012-01-11 16:33:59
Current line speed: 21 Mb
While the speed test is a bit faster, I'm wondering whether I should be able to expect faster speeds considering the line rate my router has as well as the IP profile I have.
I don't appear to have been notified that my connection has been upgraded to ADSL2+ so maybe this would have a positive impact if the upgrade does take place?
Can anyone give me some feedback on what my expected line speeds should be with this connection and what else I can do to try and achieve it?

[#11]

That speed is amazing for your attenuation - way higher than one could expect.
I thought I was doing well with 4,800kbps and a 51dB attenuation
However you could benefit from moving to 21CN but only because of the better IP profile system - this would give you 5080kbps profile immediately although your current sync rate on 20CN will give you a 5,000kbps profile eventually
Given all that there would be virtually no benefit in going to ADSL2 and it might even get worse

[#12]

Since your IP Profile is still 4500kbps it looks like the value is stuck. Resetting your line, which Matt mentioned on Tuesday, might fix that, and potentially increase sync speed. Unfortunately the staff are unlikely to be here again until Monday to action that.
Overall though your sync speed is exceptional for your attenuation, it's tempting to suggest leaving things alone in case performance gets worse. However your opening post mentioned streaming problems - I wonder if these reflect significant transmission errors because the higher sync speed is not supportable (in a line performance sense)?
What do the error counters (those at the bottom of the longer stats you posted previously) look like after a full day's usage?

[#13]

Updated full router stats are below:
Seems there was an unexpected router reset during the night so not a full day's stats I'm afraid.
Most recent speed test results:


Statistics

Line Mode	G.DMT	Line State	Show Time
Latency Type	Interleave	Line Up Time	00:20:50:25
Line Coding	Trellis On	Line Up Count	1

	Downstream	Upstream
Line Rate	5440 Kbps	448 Kbps
Noise Margin	10.3 dB	18.0 dB
Line Attenuation	56.0 dB	31.5 dB
Output Power	19.8 dBm	12.3 dBm
K (number of bytes in DMT frame)	171	15
R (number of check bytes in RS code word)	12	4
S (RS code word size in DMT frame)	1	4
D (interleaver depth)	32	8
Super Frames	4384407	4384405
Super Frame Errors	175	0
RS Words	302496738	75624143
RS Correctable Errors	505696	0
RS Uncorrectable Errors	1336	0
HEC Errors	154	0
OCD Errors	0	0
LCD Errors	0	0
ES Errors	0	0

Problems with streaming seems to have fixed themselves after switching routers.

[#14]

The sync rate has decreased a little following the re-sync so 4500kbps is now the correct IP Profile. However the number of uncorrectable errors in 20 hours looks quite acceptable to me. Since changing routers seems to have fixed streaming problems it looks like the old one was causing the problems. Are you inclined to request a new router from Plusnet?
If the connection remains stable with the Voyager and performs well over the rest of the weekend a line reset might be appropriate.
David

[#15]

Hi bbgmp,
How's it been performing over the weekend.
Jojo