Peak Time Speeds Always So Bad!

[#1]

I regularly run speed tests and my peak time speeds are now so bad - typically less than 200kbps  - yes 200. (Evenings and weekends)
I know my line is OK because off-peak I always get 4000 kbps upwards and often over 6000kbps - which is what I am paying for.
Where is the bottle neck - my local BT exchange or Plusnet? If it's at Plusnet can it be improved? I cannot live with 200kbps, so I might aswell give up and forget using the Internet.
Is this likely to be because of BBC iplayer traffic through my exchange?
I would be very grateful if someone could help.

[#2]

well it is called peak time

Date  Download Speed  Upload Speed 
Today 22:31 1575 kbps (197kB/s) 267 kbps (33.4kB/s) Share
Yesterday 13:02 6359 kbps (795kB/s) 382 kbps (47.8kB/s) Share
Thursday 11:55 6201 kbps (775kB/s) 382 kbps (47.8kB/s) Share
Sep 8, 18:12 4679 kbps (585kB/s) 381 kbps (47.6kB/s) Share

[#3]

Hi Tfmason,
Could you possibly try running a BT Speedtest when your speeds are poor, so that we can see if you're seeing similar levels of throughput against that?
http://www.speedtester.bt.com

[#4]

James,
The problem I have is that the BT Speed tester 'never delivers' when my speeds are poor. For example at about 21:00 on Tuesday, when My BroadbandSpeed gave about 200kbps download, typical for the time of day, I got the following from BT:-
Test Error 
The IP address discovered on the network associated with your telephone number:XXXXXXXXXXX, did not match the one we have logged from this browser/connection. Please check your telephone number and try again. If problem persists please contact your CP.
(I always check the phone number I typed in - so thats not the problem)
Then when speeds are better, for example around 08:30 this morning (Wednesday) I got the following:-
    Your DSL connection rate: 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1833 kbps
I have never been unable to capture the evidence of bad speeds using the BT Tester.
I know for certain the peak speeds are really bad because of MyBroadbandSpeed and the fact that opening web pages is so sluggish.
Regarding my hardware, I'm straight into the BT socket and have tried new filters etc, although I wouldn't have expected there to be a problem here given my good speeds at off-peak times.
Do you agree that 200kbps at peak times is unusable?

[#5]

I'm not saying that 200Kbps is acceptable, no.
I'm, also concerned that your non-peak speeds are also poorer than I would imagine.  Don't suppose you have a friend with a modem that you could borrow to see if you notice an improvement?  I'd be more inclined to think that this points to poor hardware or internal wiring.
Appreciate that you say that you can see faster speeds, but 1800Kbps at 8:30 with an IP Profile of 7150Kbps is not what I would expect.

[#6]

I've used the BT speedtester on several ISPs and it takes an absolute age to do anything (if at all) and particularly in the evenings.
Indeed I was once on the phone with tech support at an ISP and the guy was moaning about how slow BTs systems actually are.
Perhaps they are running it on an old 486SX with 8 MB of RAM.