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Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Gus
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 3,236
Thanks: 26
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Currently on pcl-ag08 and getting anywhere from 1mbit too 4.5mbit on TBB/BTspeedtesters.  About to start a gatweway hop to hopefully find better
edit: after a gateway hop ended on pcl-ag01 and speeds are back to normal
FTTP 500 regrade from Tues 28th November
19 REPLIES 19
snozboz
Rising Star
Posts: 408
Thanks: 14
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎27-07-2007

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Around 10.30pm tonight, I experienced wildly fluctuating speeds when opening webpages.  Different webpages at different times showed the same thing - sometimes one website would load incredibly slowly (and fail), then a few minutes later it would load with no problems.  Then a few minutes later a different website would load incredibly slowly.
I restarted my computer, rebooted my router, switched off background programs, used a wired ethernet connection, and still experienced the same problem.
My router stats don't show any problem, and neither does the BT speed tester (though it showed upstream speed higher than the profile!).  I managed to catch it with speediest.net - 10.23pm 2790 kbps, 10:33pm 6155 kbps.
I've just spoken to the Plusnet CSC - unfortunately they interpreted my report as a "standard" speed fault.  I have to do the three tests at http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ ideally when the problem is occurring!  If the problem is occurring, the speed tester website is very unlikely to load.  And if the problem isn't occurring, the site won't detect any problem!
BTW, I'm currently on gateway PCL-AG05 - I didn't note which one I was on when the problem started before I rebooted the router.
I realise intermittent faults are difficult to trace, but there must be a better way to collect data and pass that to Plusnet faults technicians than what has been suggested...
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

HI guys,
we're not aware of any gateway issues last night. I often notice times when things load slower or seem to hang but in the main my speed is constant. I wouldn't say there was a speed issue as such, unless this was something you were getting constantly.
Jojo Smiley
Gus
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 3,236
Thanks: 26
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

It was a constant problem last night from 9.30pm, it made watching any on demand TV a nightmare with caching.  Up until 9.30pm it was fine but then the streams started caching.  I had checked with wireshark and they were in the correct traffic queues.
Plus I had a 15 gig game to get on steam from 12am onwards and wanted my full speed to get it all in one night, so was checking for any overnight issues to come
FTTP 500 regrade from Tues 28th November
snozboz
Rising Star
Posts: 408
Thanks: 14
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎27-07-2007

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Jojo,
Sometimes I've experienced what you describe - occasionally a page takes much longer to load than normal.  But what I'm describing above is much more than that - for the entire hour I was trying to use the internet last night, different webpages at different times slowed right down to the point of not loading or not being useable.
So far today, I haven't experienced this, so maybe the gremlin has gone.  Smiley
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Hi Guys,
goodness knows what it was. We checked the network and couldn't see anything on the graphs that would have caused that. If you can let us know tomorrow what it's like tonight I'd be interested.
Jojo Smiley
Blim
Grafter
Posts: 462
Registered: ‎06-03-2012

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Last night (10.4.12) I too saw problems. some high ping times to bbc.co.uk and ingame. I noticed it as I was getting rubber banding in my game then got dc'ed.
I'm on the pro add-on . normally it flat lines around 10-11 ping but I'm see spikes (jitter) up to 50ms and it appears to happen after 9pm.
oh and the other day my modem crashed so I gave it a hard reset and now my snr has dropped again. the errors stared and also saw some fec errors too. A restart got rid of the fec errors but the low sync and high ip profile is make a lot of hec and crc errors Sad

edit: tonight when I got home it seems to be doing then same. All gateways are spiking like this for me, this means its network throttling?
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Hi Blim,
Judging by what you're saying about errors and router problems I would suspect that over something on the network. Can you tell me if you're using any extension cables/sockets? Do you have a test socket you can plug into? Have you tried changing cables/filters?
Jojo Smiley
Blim
Grafter
Posts: 462
Registered: ‎06-03-2012

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

I am unable to replace the filter as it only came with the one. Yes the modem is only ever been plugged into the master/test socket. There is only one socket in the house and its directly connected (less than 30cm in the loft) to the line coming in from the outside wall.


Its all new stuff to me but from what I can see is the target snr is 3db and not 6db like bt suggests. When the snr drops to 3db Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,264 / 21,264 .  before when the link sits at 6db I would get a Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,228 / 19,448.
From what I can work out, its trying to sync at a faster speed but at the result in more errors. What Im trying to say is, I don't believe there is a problem if the downstream snr was to say at or above 6db.
Can I ask you this, is the modem forcing the snr because it was only after a hard reset of the modem did the snr change again. If so whats the command to do this manually?
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Hi Blim,
Thanks for the video. That's one of the craziest master sockets I've seen. Your target SNR is 3dB at the moment. I can set that to 6dB instead and see how that goes?
Jojo Smiley
Blim
Grafter
Posts: 462
Registered: ‎06-03-2012

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

lol i know, my landlord might have something to do with that socket being in the loft. The line is an old school cable from back in the day too but its so short I guess its fine XD

Please, I think it likes 6db more. 

thanks  Smiley
Blim
Grafter
Posts: 462
Registered: ‎06-03-2012

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

all seems to back to normal.
Thanks Jojo

luke Smiley
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Ah good, that was quick Smiley
snozboz
Rising Star
Posts: 408
Thanks: 14
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎27-07-2007

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

My problem has not reoccurred, so I think the gremlin did disappear on its own accord.  Smiley
However the CSC response after they ran tests on my connection was not good.  I felt insulted.  They did not directly address what I had said was the fault at all.  They just gave lots of information about how "Rate Adaptive" ADSL can mean varying speeds, leaving me to infer that they hadn't found anything wrong, and that they thought I was being overly sensitive.  Angry
It was in question # 54265678, if anyone from the Digital Care team wants to take a look.  Kiss  Wink
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Something happened tonight at 9.30pm? speeds fluctuating

Hi snozboz,
I've replied to that ticket.
Jojo Smiley