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Plusnet throttling connnections?

gp
Dabbler
Posts: 19
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎08-04-2016

Plusnet throttling connnections?

My ADSL goes down umpteen times a day and syncs at speeds as low as 160k, this normally happens in the afternoon.  I got used to that and just wait until I have decent sync speed again, currently at 4.4 Mb/s (used to be better but I am happy with that for now).

Strangely, I only get about 900kb/s download speed, so I went to the BT Wholesale Speed Test and run their test:download speed 0.75 Mb/s. 

Run further diagnostics, BTW tell me that the IP profile is 3.87 Mb/s.

Go to plusnet portal - that tells me that the current line speed is 0.8 Mb/s.  So it seems that PN is using the "current" line speed (my modem synced at 928 kb/s at 17:02, I disconnected the line to resync and got the current 4384 kb/s at 17:04.  Now it is 21:21 and PN still believe that my line speed is 0.8 Mb/s.

I don't really care whether the PN page reports the correct line speed in real time but why are PN throttling the connection to what they believe the line speed is, even though the BTW IP profile is 3.87 Mb/s.

It is bad enough to have a rubbish connection which goes down all the time, but once there is a decent sync speed I still can't use the full ADSL bandwidth.

What's going on here?

 

6 REPLIES 6
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Plusnet throttling connnections?

Hi gp,

Plusnet do not throttle speeds in the manner you suggest.

The synch speed on your line is determined purely by the condition of the line and the ability of the exchange to establish a stable connection with your router.  The synch speed can vary depending on line conditions.  In the case of a line having an intermittent fault that sped can be highly variable.

Having established synch, BT sets a line profile at 88.2% of the synch speed.  BT pass that onto PlusNet (not in real time).  When received (it can be hours after the resynch) Plusnet applies that profile to your line.  That action SHOULD cause a PPP drop and reconnection to 'apply' the change - sometimes that latter step fails.

To see what's happening, a full, set of stats taken at the same time is helpful.

Please post your router stats; for PN TG582n and 2704n routers use the buttons below. Also run a BT Wholesale speed test (ideally using an Ethernet wired PC with the WiFi turned off) then run the further diagnostics and post the results here. DO NOT REBOOT the router! Also find your CURRENT SPEED (PlusNet line profile) from the PlusNet user portal - you will need to log in.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

gp
Dabbler
Posts: 19
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎08-04-2016

Re: Plusnet throttling connnections?

>> Also run a BT Wholesale speed test (ideally using an Ethernet wired PC with the WiFi turned off) then run the further diagnostics and post the results here. DO NOT REBOOT the router! Also find your CURRENT SPEED (PlusNet line profile) from the PlusNet user portal - you will need to log in.

done that, please see the attached files.

>> Please post your router stats; for PN TG582n and 2704n routers use the buttons below.

don't have a PN router but an AVM Fritzbox 7270, Status page attached

>> Plusnet applies that profile to your line.  That action SHOULD cause a PPP drop and reconnection to 'apply' the change - sometimes that latter step fails.

It seems that fails - I had this problem before.

So, if I understand your comments correctly, if the line speed drops, my download speed is just throttled for however long it takes for BT to pass this on to Plusnet in non-realtime.

Enough for today- let's hope that by tomorrow morning BT have passed the speed to PN (in non real-time)

 

 

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Plusnet throttling connnections?

Hi,

Yes I saw your previous BT wholesale speed tests.  You seem to have missed the bit where I said the figures requested data all needs to be supplied at the same time.  Otherwise it is likely to be useless.

The router stats show that the line is not performing quite as well as might be expected for a 41dB attenuated line.  Depending on service type (CN20/21) the synch speed should be between 6.6 & 8.6Mbps.

The elevated SNRM indicates that the DLM is managing the line for stability.  The cause of the instability needs to be identified and resolve.  Is the phone line noisy?  Dial 17070 option 2, using a corded handset plugged into the master socket.  Are the disconnections associated with use of the phone - either inbound or out bound calls?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

gp
Dabbler
Posts: 19
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎08-04-2016

Re: Plusnet throttling connnections?

The BT Speedtest and the PN Current Line Speed were all gathered at the same time (well one after the other to be precise).  The screenshot from the router was taken later, but the sync speed was (and still is) stable since 17:00 yesterday.

I know the line is sub-optimum but it's been like that for years and I may raise a ticket when I have enough time to go through the motions (and rather start a new thread on that subject).

What annoys me is the fact that Plusnet seem to apply a profile based on the non-realtime (not to say out of date) line speed on top of the BT IP profile.  Applying a profile once should be enough.

 

Anotherone
Champion
Posts: 19,107
Thanks: 457
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Plusnet throttling connnections?

The reason for it is to be able to provide good traffic management to enable the priority to be given to real-time traffic. Often the delays in the Plusnet Current Line Speed updating are due to delays in BT's servers not sending the updates in a timely manner! Also sometimes when there's been an increase BTs servers seem to be slower Roll_eyes and sometimes when the CLS updates it should initiate a PPP drop/renew to pick up the new profile - that doesn't always happen and you need to manually drop the PPP and then click connect.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Plusnet throttling connnections?

When there are frequent drops, the profile figures might be constantly changing slightly.

On CN21 the BT profile is 88.2% of the synch speed to 2 decimal places.  The PlusNET profile is rounded down to one decimal place.

There can be substantial delays in BT systems transferring profile changes to the ISP.  For an accurate assessment of things, one needs the BT profile (obtained from the further diagnostics part of the speed test), the PlusNET current line speed and the router speed data all taken AT THE SAME TIME ideally with the router data indicating how long the synch and PPP connections have been up.

Full knowledge of what is happening with your service needs help from PlusNET and that is best obtained by following the formal fault processes.  I would not recommend starting a new topic on the same issues - 1 you'll have the mods feeling your collar and 2 splitting information over more than one topic does not help us to help you.  So please do not adopt that approach, rather keep all follow-up here.

 

Edit: Grrr I do wish they'd get the concurrent post warning implemented here!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.