Slow speed, Service degraded badly over time.

[#1]

1) Firstly some details regarding my speed issue
From mybroadbandspeed
Today 15:57 359 kbps (44.9kB/s) 137 kbps (17.1kB/s)
Router stats
                              Downstream Upstream
Data Rate (kbps) 2912 448
Noise Margin (dB) 23.5 20.0
Attenuation (dB)         39.3 24.0
Output power(dbm) 19.1 11.9
BT Speedtester hangs on an error message and I don't actually get a result
Current line speed
Phone exchange:
EAST LEAKE
Estimated line speed:
3.0Mb (This may vary between 2Mb and 5.5Mb) - Checked on 2012-01-25 21:31:26
Current line speed:
1.25 Mb
2) My service has degraded massively over the past couple of years and the current faults get more & more regular to the point that broadband is a waste of time & I'm far better off using my mobile as a hotspot using my unlimited data allowance.
On joining Plusnet a few years ago I was able to achieve 4meg+ without a problem & reliably, the year after that it dropped to 3meg & now I'm regularly putting up with 1-2meg, this is at a time where anything below a stable 2meg connection means you can't do much online & I'm wondering why I bother as I spend more days than not bouncing along the bottom starring at a constant 'buffering' symbol
How come I've suffered this long term speed drop & is there anything that can remedy it, seems odd that I had an IP Profile of 4500-5000 and now it depends which way the wind is blowing to whether I get 3000 (at the absolute most) or more likely somewhere around 1-2000
I love plusnet, please help save me from the clutches of my mobile provider where I get triple the speed with ease
thanks

[#2]

It would almost certainly be best to follow this: http://faults.plus.net/ make the necessary checks it advises, eliminate your internal equipment where possible (to avoid engineer call-out charges) and get it fixed.

[#3]

Can't... It just errors
Error
Sorry, An error occurred whilst processing your request.
The error has been recorded and our website team will investigate. Please try again later.

*edit* submitted now, wouldn't let me enter any text in the further info box

[#4]

Hopefully one of the very helpful staff will pick up this thread and assist (though it may not be until the morning now - you may just get lucky though as they seem to pick things up out of hours sometimes).

[#5]

I could have written this complaint myself:
"On joining Plusnet a few years ago I was able to achieve 4meg+ without a problem & reliably, the year after that it dropped to 3meg & now I'm regularly putting up with 1-2meg, this is at a time where anything below a stable 2meg connection means you can't do much online & I'm wondering why I bother as I spend more days than not bouncing along the bottom starring at a constant 'buffering' symbol"
After much complaining and testing i eventually got them to configure my line back up to 2.8Mb/sec.  but considering i have been used to 4.2mb/.sec for 1-2 years and a ping time of 36ms (not the 48ms i now get) then my service has been degraded by over 30% in the last few months. This causes all sorts of hangs on streaming video, especially HD which needs a minimum of 3.2Mb/sec and i used to have that!
All the issues have been accepted as being from the point of presence and beyond, no issues with my router to the PoP.  I can only assume Plus Nets line allocation is being cut down per user to facilitate more users, or some new form of line management overhead has been instigated that is sucking up bandwidth.  yes i used to work as an engineer in telecoms on the software, building telco systems, so i have an idea what's going on.
I just sent a final ultimatum to plusnet.  Return my service back to its previous level or suffer my complaint to OFCOM, plus a lost customer who will go to another supplier who has a decent allocation of bandwidth.

[#6]

Hi clarkec321,
I've just ran a line test and your current SNR is 18dB. This will be keeping your speed down. We'd need to get to the bottom of this, so can you tell me are you using any extension cables/sockets. Do you have a test socket you can plug into?
Jojo
dick:green Link fixed.

[#7]

Hi devonrevill,
I don't see why we can't get your speed back. We're certainly not withholding anything. Can you tell me if you're using any extension cables/sockets? Do you have a test socket you can plug into?
Jojo

[#8]

Hi Joanne
No I don't have a working test socket, when BT wired us up when we moved in they told us there was some strange issue that forced them to wire us up differently (that was 6 years ago), so if I plug into the test socket I lose telephone capabilities and I am not sure the test socket works even then. 
Like I said, i have been through the Plusnet test procedure many times.  There is no problem between my house and the PoP, it showsmy line to the PoP is quite capable of sustaining a 4Mb/sec + connection.  its from the PoP onwards that the problem exists.  last time I spoke to Plusnet support I was told they'd spotted the issue and changed a configuration at the PoP and to give it up to 10 days to settle out.  Which i did, and again i am back to 2.8mb/sec and a slow ping time.
I'd be delighted if you can review the long fault list and actions and re-visit that last issue to see what configuration option will solve the problem.
thanks

[#9]

HI devonrevill,
I can reset the SNR to 6dB, this will bring the rate back up. This also sounds like what was done last time. Since then, noise somewhere has caused this to gradually creep up, slowly bringing your speed down step by step. Is your router plugged into the main socket with no extension cables in between?
Jojo

[#10]

There is a 12 foot cable from the socket point (in my attic) to my router in the room below.  That's as direct as it can be without putting the router in the attic too which is obviously unworkable.
Let me know when you adjust your settings and I will reboot my router, how long before i should see the performance gains?
Geoff

[#11]

Hi Jojo
Well good news/bad news.  Over the weekend my speed went up to its previous level.  4.2Mb/sec (although ping times were still in the 40's not 30's as before).  SO I rashly closed the open question in the support database.
Today the speed has dropped back to 2.9Mb/sec.
Something has definitely changed.  The only thing i can think of is that when i use speedtest.net I note that the speed graph is pretty nice and stable.  Whereas if memory serves me correctly it was slightly more erratic in the past when I was getting 4.3Mb/s.  this might indicate that your line management system is now driving down to a more stable connection speed with a lower acceptable error rate than before?  Whatever the change is it occurred sometime in Jan i think, possibly Dec.
Geoff

[#12]

Hi Geoff,
Your rate has gone up slightly, so I've raised your profile to 3300. Your SNR is currently 6dB so it's not that stopping your sync rate going any higher. Have you a test socket you can plug into?
Jojo

[#13]

Hi Jojo
Things are going from poor to worse.  My speed is now below 1Mb/sec and is very erratic.  I tried an old previous router, it would not even connect and obtain a stable DSL light!
I do not have a working test socket.  When BT installed the phone line they had a wiring 'problem' and had to wire up in a non standard way.  That was 6+ years ago btw.  There is a test socket but if I use it I lose my phone line!  So i cannot use the test socket. Remember last year i had a stable 4.2Mb/s connection....
i have been doing speedtests with the BT speedtester and on the 2nd one it asked to do a tap3 test.  problem is that my router won't allow the change needed because the changes required need me to leave the password blank, and my router won't allow a blank password!  So i cannot do this test, and i cannot do any further BT speed tests because I have not completed the tap3 test!
I have started another fault report.  But I am about all out of patience now.  is this the 3rd or 4th attempt since the start of the year to get my speed back up to previous levels?

[#14]

what router are you using?

[#15]

The router on which I could not set a blank password for the BT test was a Linksys WAG325N.  As I knew you'd guys would just say get another router, I did, at the cost of £120 (for a decent one) I plugged this in yesterday.  I get exactly the same level of performance problem, 300K bytes/sec spiking downwards to less than 100K ! In other words almost unusable.  So the router made no difference at all to the line connection speed.
I tried the BT test on it twice yesterday, it crashed out twice with an error report. Tried today, same error
HTTP Status 500 -
type Exception report
message
description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.
exception
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot forward after response has been committed
org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.doForward(RequestProcessor.java:1078)
org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.processForwardConfig(RequestProcessor.java:396)
org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.process(RequestProcessor.java:232)
org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1913)
org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doPost(ActionServlet.java:462)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:710)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)

Your online support guys says they are investigating my error report, but that was 2 days ago and nothing heard yet.......