Slow speeds

[#1]

I recently switched from Sky to Plusnet (31st March), since then my broadband speeds have been slower with my speeds only ever reaching 3Mb whilst reaching 5Mb on Sky, now I know that doesn't sound like a big loss but it's lead to significantly longer load times, especially when multiple people use it, but this wasn't a problem on Sky, granted this could all be down to the current state of everyone being at home.

Data rate:	1159/3072
Maximum data rate:	1164/6264
Noise margin:	7.2/20.8
Line attenuation:	15.4/29.5
Data sent/received:	538.5K/885.8K

These are the main stats shown on the router, I don't know too much about noise margin or attenuation so I'm unsure if those numbers are good or bad. From what testing I have done the slow speeds partially come down to faulty internal wiring, as the test socket was showing speeds of 12Mb whilst the master socket was showing the above, I use an extension socket which performs the same as the master. Despite this I feel like the broadband could perform better, so I was hoping my line speed could be manually adjusted to be closer to my sync speed, and then from there observe how stable the broadband becomes. 

As it is it's impossible for me to currently use the master socket as it's in a poor location, and my speeds on ethernet are consistently below our guarantee of 2.5Mb, so I'm hoping something can be done to at least get it back to my Sky speeds of 5Mb.

[#2]

@phirani The glaring bit on the above stats is the downstream noise margin of 20.8. What downstream SNR do you get from the test socket?

Your attenuation figures are good, so my suspicion falls on either your master socket or your own wiring, but I'm no expert, and I could be wrong.

[#3]

If I recall correctly the SNR was around 9, but that margin has been changing the whole time, I've seen it as low as 6, it's only in the last few days that it's risen into double digits, so I'm not sure that would entirely be down to a poor wiring, though I do know either poor wiring or master socket is effecting my ability to reach the upper end of my range (5-12Mb), but there's nothing I can do about that in the current situation.

Edit: one thing that may be of interest, a few days ago my broadband had a lengthy downtime overnight, for at least a couple hours (don't know when the net returned), the morning after that both my line speed and sync speed dropped to about 1.5Mb, stayed like that for 2 or so days before getting to roughly the same results as above. It may or may not be possible that whatever caused that event has also effected my SNR.

[#4]

Another thing has occured to me regarding the SNR, is this updated instantly if the exchange increases or lowers it? because today in a short amount of time there were repeating disconnects, so that may be why the SNR is so high at this moment.

[#5]

OK, again I stress I am no expert, but if you get a lower margin (and higher speed) in the test socket, part of the problem could be your faceplate. The variation in SNR between 6 and 9 points to something else (possibly external affecting it - is this a drop from 9 to 6 as the day gets older or is it at any time? - the figure can decrease as medium wave interference gets stronger later in the day.

[#6]

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@phirani wrote:

Another thing has occured to me regarding the SNR, is this updated instantly if the exchange increases or lowers it? because today in a short amount of time there were repeating disconnects, so that may be why the SNR is so high at this moment.

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The SNR will increase if the exchange equipment attempts to stabilise the line, with a resulting reduction in speed, but at ~21dB, you have major problems - somewhere, possibly external to your property, but not necessarily so.

[#7]

It would've been as the day passed, I guess I'll just have to monitor the stats, see if the margin drops enough while the net stays stable. And since most of my problem is the wiring I'll just have to wait til I can actually get someone to visit and fix the wiring and the faceplate, still a couple months before that can happen. 

[#8]

OK - I'll leave it up to you.