Recent peak-time speed problems (Nov 08) - Please read this!

[#1]

I had trouble with BT Tuesday This but this morngs effort
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 - 6382 kbps
Today 07:36  7013 kbps (877kB/s)  382 kbps (47.8kB/s)  Share
Yesterday 21:49 2781 kbps (348kB/s) 279 kbps (34.9kB/s) Share
Yesterday 20:52 3298 kbps (412kB/s) 267 kbps (33.4kB/s) Share
Yesterday 19:49 4105 kbps (513kB/s) 272 kbps (34kB/s) Share
Yesterday 18:57 4040 kbps (505kB/s) 380 kbps (47.5kB/s) Share
Yesterday 18:56 4770 kbps (596kB/s) 378 kbps (47.3kB/s) Share
Yesterday 17:31 6859 kbps (857kB/s) 377 kbps (47.1kB/s) Share
Yesterday 16:10 6270 kbps (784kB/s) 381 kbps (47.6kB/s) Share
Monday 22:34 5403 kbps (675kB/s) 278 kbps (34.8kB/s) Share
Monday 21:35 6294 kbps (787kB/s) 280 kbps (35kB/s) Share
Monday 20:31 2451 kbps (306kB/s) 277 kbps (34.6kB/s) Share
Monday 19:31 7205 kbps (901kB/s) 266 kbps (33.3kB/s)
You are currently connected to the "Telehouse North, Juniper 6" gateway. This gateway is sometimes known as thn-ag1.

[#2]

I've updated my post from last night with another test on the PN network I've just run: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,70503.msg562380.html#msg562380
What is interesting is that at 20:48 last night RIN was faster than PN's network is now!

[#3]

That is a very poor show.
Looks like I'm going to be studying at work next year if this isn't sorted out.

[#4]

Mitch,
Please understand that you are talking about something that you don't understand very well.  Judging us based on that isn't going to help you or us and it's almost bordering on scaremongering although I totally appreciate that that isn't what you're trying to do.
What we're looking at here is being caused by a change in web behaviours.  Gold traffic is increasing as more and more people discover the delights of iPlayer and streaming, which means that we're having to assign more and more bandwidth to gold traffic.  This also impact our forecasting onm our capacity management plan, but that's another story in it's entireity.
Grab me for a chat on MSN if you want to understand things a bit better.  If I don't know the answer I'll happily find out for you, but you need to get a better understanding of things before you start pointing the finger at specifically misconfigurations of our Ellacoya system.

[#5]

Doesn't what you've said in the second paragraph suggest that the price v. included GB calculation underestimated the growth in Gold traffic and we are in danger of going back to the situation of trying to get a quart out of a pint pot which no amount of Ellacoya tweaking can resolve?

[#6]

Ok James
I don't understand the finer points of your traffic management platform fair enough, what I am seeing is my connection speed yo-yoing up and down and getting a little fed up to be honest as this has only really started over the last few weeks,if the problems I am seeing aren't symptomatic of the issues described here than I apologise for mis-judging PN.
I would be really grateful if you could at least enquire with BT what has gone on with my line, even though its operating within spec

[#7]

Hi Mitch,
I understand what you're saying.  In your scenario, it's difficult to judge whether the problems that you have been experiencing are down to natural exchange or network congestion.
As I mentioned before, we don't really have a way of determining what, if any, work has been performed on your exchange as a matter of routine system maintenance.  we just wouldn't be able to get that information from raising a fault or by calling BT Wholesale.  If you are convinced that you do have a fault, then by all means raise one by going to http://faults.plus.net but I would strongly expect very little to happen as a result of that.
If you are seeing a continued higher noise margin, we can arrange to have your target noise margin reset to 6dB providing that you are aware that it could potentially impact your line stability.
Thought about moving house?

[#8]

I was seeing Plusnet speeds going up and down like a yo-yo last night - but when connected to RIN they were high and stable. Therefore it must have been the Plusnet network; and if I was seeing that, it is not unreasonable to assume others were as well.
Buying a  flat over the exchange wouldn't have cured what I was seeing last night.

[#9]

Hi John,
You're right and I'm not trying to take anything away from that.  Gold Drops on the platform were very similar to what they were on Monday night, which will have impacted peak time speeds.  However, all I'm saying is that I'm not convinced that Mitch's speed issues are necessarily related.
Mitch - I'm going to start a new thread on your line.

[#10]

ok fair enough

[#11]

Quote from: Jameseh

What we're looking at here is being caused by a change in web behaviours.  Gold traffic is increasing as more and more people discover the delights of iPlayer and streaming, which means that we're having to assign more and more bandwidth to gold traffic.  This also impact our forecasting onm our capacity management plan, but that's another story in it's entireity.

With another big change coming next week! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7737341.stm (Link courtesy of Bob in the Internet Event Calendar board)

[#12]

The beeb have no idea do they

Mind you, when you have your own backbone funded by a tax you can pretty much do what you like.
Check out http://support.bbc.co.uk/support/peering/ which gives info on their peering links
I particularly like the bit at the top ...and all this is possible thanks to the unique way the BBC is funded...
quite

[#13]

From Jelv...

Quote

Doesn't what you've said in the second paragraph suggest that the price v. included GB calculation underestimated the growth in Gold traffic and we are in danger of going back to the situation of trying to get a quart out of a pint pot which no amount of Ellacoya tweaking can resolve?

I agree.  I was with PlusNet, when we had these very issues, when I was on the Legacy BB+ product. This is what made me upgrade to the PAYG package, but the whole experience was one I wanted to forget, and I see it happening all over again, which is something I wish very much not to go though, and I wont!!.
@jelv, RIN network deteriorated for me as well last night at around 10PM ish. ??why?
This is really becoming a serious issue, and potentially a customer losing issue for PlusNet as well maybe.

[#14]

Penfold,
The RIN network isn't ours.  It's BT Retails.  The fact that that also sees slowdowns just proves that this is a global issue.
We're making some minor tweaks to our configurations tonight to see if it makes an improvement, coupled with the fact that the levels of traffic tonight should be lower than last.

[#15]

Might find he following site a good one to keep an eye on
http://www.internettrafficreport.com