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Superzoom speed problem

SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Superzoom speed problem

The rate on my line never changes - it is FTTP, fibre all the way.
Yet I can only assume that PlusNet's profile system is still screwing it up.
The network is quiet at the moment, but attached is what the BT speedtest came up with about 15 mins ago.
Terrible.
(*Edited only to correct minor title typo from mod thread split.)
180 REPLIES 180
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Superzoom speed problemnk your PN profile is not updating as it should?

@SuperZoom
I've checked your connection and our profile is matching your IP profile, can you try again?
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Superzoom speed problemnk your PN profile is not updating as it should?

Definitely something strange going on over there as usual, Chris, from what I can see.
The attached tests are all from the same computer within a 5 minute window, but to try and pin it down I've tested from 3 different computers, with different operating systems and versions of Firefox, on a wide variety of gateways, connected both via the router and directly via PPPoE using Windows XP and I've had BTw download speed test results from about 12Mbps to into the 70s. All entirely random as far as I can tell. No pattern to report.
In the end I thought I'd amuse myself by running the BT speedtest on all three machines simultaneously through the router, just to see what would happen!!! The laughable thing is that the results were in no way anomalous, producing a range from about 19Mbps to about 40Mbps, with the slowest machine sitting in the middle   Cheesy
OK, I have more useful things to be doing now so no more testing. Continuing would only get me annoyed anyway.
EDIT: Before anybody asks, apart from the above deliberate folly, there was no other network traffic this end during any of the tests.
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Superzoom speed problemnk your PN profile is not updating as it should?

I can't see any obvious cause for this.
There's no reported capacity issues at your exchange.
Are you able to test an alternative router?
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Superzoom speed problemnk your PN profile is not updating as it should?

Sorry I didn't have chance to post earlier, but I did have chance to do a speedtest about 2 hours ago.
Back to what I'd expect!
Same router...
EDIT: Forgot to say that at around the time that speedtest was done, web surfing became faster - ie. more snappy - than it has ever been. Very noticeable indeed on our slowest and oldest machine. Back to unremarkable now (a polite way to say it feels sluggish), but I don't have time to investigate further. Just shows that PlusNet can deliver a fast browsing experience, though, even if briefly and mysteriously!  Shocked
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Superzoom speed problemnk your PN profile is not updating as it should?

I don't mean to be rude, Superzoom, but you have latched your personal speed issues onto a thread that is supposed to be about a mismatch between your BT IP Profile and your Plusnet Current Line Speed persisting longer than it should.  Chrispurvey reckons you don't have this particular problem (and you can verify that yourself) in which case it would be more polite to start your own thread and leave this one to those that do. 
Oldjim
Resting Legend
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

Split off to its own thread
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

Quote from: ReedRichards
I don't mean to be rude, Superzoom, but you have latched your personal speed issues onto a thread that is supposed to be about a mismatch between your BT IP Profile and your Plusnet Current Line Speed persisting longer than it should.  Chrispurvey reckons you don't have this particular problem (and you can verify that yourself) in which case it would be more polite to start your own thread and leave this one to those that do. 

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to be impolite at all.
I added to the existing thread because I posited that the issue was profile-related and may therefore shed some valuable light upon the faulty profile updating issue already being discussed. This is because the speed of my line does not vary, unlike FTTC lines, although it presumably is subject to the same profile-related matching processes as all other connections, being provided over the 21CN. If the speed of my connection were being limited by a profile quirk of some kind (at whatever level in the hierarchy of these things) then the fact that the nominal speed of the line never changes is extremely useful in eliminating a variable and pinning down exactly where and how things are going awry for everybody.
Now, however, this thread is an orphan (with an extra 'n' - could you perhaps correct that in the title, Oldjim?) of little immediately obvious relevance to others who may have some knowledge to contribute to the collective understanding, it having been unilaterally decided that the issue is entirely separate. Yet insufficient information is available about PlusNet's network and profile setup to support that conclusion. Chris says the two profiles match, but it seems to me that something more is going on. Clearly not, however. It has been decreed.
The BT IP profile for my line is 76.8Mbps. PlusNet reports my Current Line Speed as 77.4Mbps. The title of the thread from which these posts have been split was Do you think your PN profile is not updating as it should? (that was the split point, I believe). It seemed helpful and relevant to add to it in the interests of providing a fuller picture. I didn't intend to hijack the thread with a personal speed issue, so I'm sorry if it appeared that way.
On a broader note, joining PlusNet seems to have turned what should be a basic utility provision which just works, and works well given the high headline speed, into a long-running science experiment. I am getting rather tired of the need to spend a lot of time investigating and proving things which presumably somebody at PlusNet already knows in order to establish where the bottleneck is and get the fast, responsive web browsing service I was expecting. HTTP traffic is sluggish and that sluggishness is not at my end. It is a complete waste of my time to spend it remotely teasing out the details of exactly how and where PlusNet is slowing things down when that is something which should be (and probably is) more than clear to them from their own much closer perspective. If the service were just fast (as in snappy/responsive, as it is now clear it can be) and stayed that way, I wouldn't need to post at all, except to say how great it was.
'Scientific method' can only take one so far if potentially relevant information is separated into silos like this a priori, and if it is convenient to obscure the subject of investigation. All I can say is it's a good job I don't have to do all this to get gas through in a timely manner to run the boiler!
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
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Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

Would you be able to run through our faults troubleshooter at http://faults.plus.net and we'll take a look to see what's going on as there's nothing obvious that is causing the results you're seeing.
gofaster
Rising Star
Posts: 369
Thanks: 16
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

You missed out the *21CN ONLY* part of the previous threads title.
You have confirmed that there was no other network traffic during the tests (despite saying that you ran 3 tests simultaneously  Crazy)
Can you also confirm that all of the tests were run via an ethernet cable rather than WiFi? WiFi can often struggle to keep up with the speed of FTTP
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

Quote from: chrispurvey
Would you be able to run through our faults troubleshooter at http://faults.plus.net and we'll take a look to see what's going on as there's nothing obvious that is causing the results you're seeing.

Yes, of course, but not today I'm afraid. I did send you some further tests from last night showing clearly that the issue was unrelated to the router.
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

I'll take a look at those and attach the necessary one's to the fault ticket once it's raised.
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

Thank you, Chris. There are 4 of them: 2 via the router and two directly via the ONT. I accidentally attached the first one twice, but there was no way to delete it.
@gofaster
I don't know why on Earth I would want to add in another variable by using WiFi for testing, but yes, ethernet.
Could you explain exactly which part of the provision is not 21CN? Thanks.
SuperZoom
Grafter
Posts: 353
Registered: ‎17-05-2013

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

I followed the faults link, Chris, but it failed at the first hurdle. It shows the service being provided on a Sheffield number. Is that just because it's FTTP? Should I accept that and continue, or is that an error?
It seems to me that if there is indeed no profile issue, the combination of high reported ping and low throughput in relation to the BTw and other speed testers points to a congested link.
The fact that running multiple instances simultaneously produces a very similar spread of results supports that inference.
General latency is low (5ms to BBC) and DNS latency continues to be amazing (4ms ping and cached name resolution in 7.31ms).
I've been online very little, so don't have much of a sense of browsing responsiveness today: it seems OK but the quick tests I've done are much the same as before and the fact that TBB HTTPx6 results are often lower than the ones for their custom protocol also points to HTTP traffic congestion, or limitation (ie. QoS being used to allow the network to cope with the congestion) if a profile is not being incorrectly applied to artificially create that effect.
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Re: Superzoom speed problemn

If you could try that again it should now have the correct details.