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Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

coastfox49
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎01-01-2015

Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

Have been having broadband problems - disconnections and unusable speeds on an off for about a month now.
Last night it went again. Today was able to get one speed test to complete after ages - 0.53 mpbs download / 0.72 upload so must be running faster today!
Have had openreach engineer out - last week 10th Nov- who said there were a lot of errors showing 'upline' and went off to investigate but heard nothng further and nothings changed, in fact it's got a lot worse in the last 2 days..
2 previous occasions after bb became unusable in the last month PlusNet did some line tweaks via this forum and got me  back working at around 3.8mbps - 4 mbps D/L and did  things with interleaving but the speed has collapsed again.
Last night spent 55 minutes on hold until I could get thru to tech support (couldnt get online at all so had to use phone). Tried the live chat thing on here just now but my broadband disconnected half way through the chat.
Had enough of this now, find PN customer serice is shocking. Just been back on phone and only a 20 min wait time - to accounts to find out about cancelling my service and going to another ISP who perhaps can provide a broadband service that is fit for purpose.
Any chance my broadband could actually be made to work at a usable speed again (even 1 meg would be nice) in the rest of November?
For about 10 years I got 8mbps with another ISP - but 2 weeks ago PlusNet told me they cant give me more than 4 to keep line stable. I'd be grateful if I could even get 1 meg download consistently ...
Thanks
5 REPLIES 5
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

Could you post your router stats (as you did here) please.
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)
MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 8,906
Thanks: 1,522
Fixes: 479
Registered: ‎01-01-2012

Re: Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

From looking at the notes on your account you're connecting with a extension lead?
In addition our tests are finding a Loop fault so if you are connected with a extension we'd need you to test the router in the master socket or the test socket preferably.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

Seeing Matthew's post...
@coastfox49
Please could you post the stats both as you normally have things set up and then again with the router plugged straight in to the test socket inside the master socket using the short lead supplied with the router.
If (as is very likely) it is the extension lead that is causing issues we can suggest options.
NB If it is the lead, moving supplier won't make any difference.
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)
coastfox49
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎01-01-2015

Re: Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

Thanks for your replies.
My broadband started working again this morning, after 2 days off - I am getting about 4 mbps download speed as before.
The comment about an extenson lead is erroneous . No part of internal system / wiring has changed in 10 years. When I said extension lead I meant a longer than average adsl cable from master socket to router as my PC is in a different room to the master socket. It does however go straight from the filter plugged into the master socket to my router without any joins/extensions. With said set up I got 7 -8 megs stable with BT for about 7 or 8 years and had a stable fast connection with plusnet until a month ago on same set up. Then something went wrong and I have been suffering multiple disconnections and 3 complete loss of services (well, when speed has dropped to virtually nothing so unusable) in last month - and each time it has been restored within about 2 days of raising the matter.
In addition a BT openreach engineer called out to me on Nov 10th and checked everything and told me the fault was 'upline' as a lot of errors were showing upline, in his words. He left to investigate, and mentioned it could be due to corrosion somewhere as I live by the sea,  but  have heard nothng further and PlusNet telephone support denied any such visit from an engineer which is strange as he had my mobile number and rang me about half hour before turning up and said a fault had been reported. To be clear - he connected his hand held machine directly into my test socket and told me clearly there were errors upline. He then spnt time outsid my property chcking the gry box on the wall where the line comes to the house and then went off to check points further towards the exchange. He asked me to show him my PC and the wiring set up and seemed satisfied the problem was not internal.
I've done the usual tests via test socket several times now and nothign has changed in the last week, let alone in the last 10 years.
As it's now working again at the 4mbps speed PlusNet told me a couple of weeks ago was the best stable speed they could provide I'm, again,  going to see how it goes. I've spent so much time on this that now its working again I need a break from it. Last night I had to tether my phone to my PC in order to check my emails so now it's working again (it seems from around midday today it came back ) I'm relieved and I'll monitor it.
Thanks for your time and sorry if came over a bit rude - I was very frustrated at the time.
However - below are router stats I have just obtained, in case it shows anything significant:
Uptime: 0 days, 1:16:16
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 888 / 4,434
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 34.71 / 130.56
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.8 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 22.9 / 41.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 10.3 / 6.0
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 45 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 5 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 107,221 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 264 / 1,714,538
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Persistent broadband speed problems - fed up complaining

Can you confirm that it is a specifically designed ADSL lead - i.e. twisted pair. If so it's unlikely to cause issues, but I'd suggest monitoring the number of errors and comparing it with the number you get using a standard lead.
Was leaving the router by the master socket and running a long Ethernet cable to the PC not an option?
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)