Sync Speed Reduction after 2 years Stable

[#1]

@Junkman 

You say you've taken out a new contract, are you now 'Fibre' with no landline phone? If yes, have you removed any redundant internal extension telephone points.

New Hub Two or still using old Hub which is?

Have you tried connecting to the test socket found inside the openreach master socket.

Apart from sharing your Public IP Address the speedtest does indicate high latency, have you done any ping test to anything like google.co.uk? Some latency can be caused by internal network traffic

[#2]

@Dan_the_Van nope still on FTTC.  Billion router that I can interrogate.  Latest BT phone socket so direct to master.  Not done ping tests recently but the speed test I posted correlates.  I do use a NAS to stream music and video over my network, but this doesn't correlate with the times of high latency.  It can happen when there is no network traffic and the internet connection is idle.  And ta for the IP address tip I hadn't thought of that.  Wonder if I can take this thread down when it's exhausted?

[#3]

@Junkman 

Does the billion router record data sent/received on a device basis? Which model?

What is noticeable there are some dropped packets during the latency. Here is a BQM of mine from 4th March, here I am streaming Sky Go to my tablet, probably Monday Night Football LIVE on Sky.

If you have a landline phone is the line clear of noise during the high latency periods? Dial 17070, select option 2 for quiet line test.

Be interesting if you ping something wired local on your LAN (NAS drive or Router) during these latencies see if the ping times out of has extended reply times

Do you use any Quality of Service?

[#4]

Thanks again@Dan_the_Van  but it's not from streaming.  Firstly I do very little of that and, secondly, on your BQM the minimum latency doesn't increase at all and the average latency only marginally.  Mine go through the roof when the issue occurs.  I also doubt that your latency goes over 400 when you are streaming

Router is a Bipac 8800AXL R2.  I can access a QoS page but nothing is set there - both upstream and downstream are zero.  I don't think it records data per device - or at least I can't find it.  Haven't been able to check the landline in such a period yet.  It's seldom used, but the last time (about 3 days ago) it was a crackly connection.  But Plusnet continue to tell me they can't see any fault on my line (despite sending me a text saying they have rectified one) and their only solution is for me to junk my router and have a Hub2 delivered, which doesn't work for me for a few reasons - I'm relatively certain it isn't my router having switched it out for a period already, it would be a PITA to set up the LAN static IPs I need etc, and I wouldn't be able to get the same data from it as I can now.

I'll try the ping test next time I get the latency issue.  Edited to add take a look at the BQM named 1.png and you will see the difference between your latency change and mine, including significant packet loss.  And I believe that the BQM works by pinging my router so don't understand how that could be affected by my NAS.  In any case it isn't - as I've said I can get this issue on an idle connection.  Edited again to add that my NAS currently pings at 5ms with no packet loss

Cheers, Stuart

[#5]

@Junkman 

My reference to a BMQ for streaming was an example for comparison only.

Not suggesting the NAS drive was causing your issue but to use it as a local LAN ping target, around 5ms is what I would expect.

The landline phone connection should not be crackling is must be silent, speaking from experience any noise with have an impact on your sync speed. It is not unusual for line tests not to detect the cause of crackling, it can be caused by a poor joint anywhere between the Master Socket and the Green Cabinet possible beyond towards the Exchange.

Master Socket 5c with a MK4 faceplate, sometimes the faceplate through time can become poorly seated and can be the cause of noise, a suggestion would be for now to try using an in-line ADSL filter to illuminate any internal cabling.

I would not recommend the Hub Two DHCP server, its not the best for giving devices fixed IP Address assignments.

Maybe consider using 'Routerstats Lite'  which your router supports, this allows you to monitor the signal noise margin for your connection

[#6]

@Dan_the_Van all good info thank you very much.  I'll certainly have a mess with the master socket as I'm sure I have an inline filter somewhere.  Routerstats Lite already downloaded and monitoring - I can get all this info from the Billion stats page in real time but it might be very useful to have a graph of it over time.  You've confirmed my thoughts about the Hub2 also, so we won't be going there. 

Since two of the houses at the same distance from the cabinet as me (but down a 'branch line') are still synced at 40, then I suspect it's an issue with the last 200m or so of copper from that branch to my house.  It's getting them to check it that's the problem.  So I'll listen for that phone crackling again and report that if it reappears.

[#7]

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@Junkman wrote:

I suspect it's an issue with the last 200m or so of copper from that branch to my house.

So I'll listen for that phone crackling again and report that if it reappears.

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Not necessarily so.  Your d-side is your d-side all the way to the cabinet.  It might or might not share the same trunk segment as your neighbours.

Certainly check regularly for noise on the line ... or just report and intermittent noise fault to your phone provider.

[#8]

Update.  I replaced the BT filter socket with an inline one and the interruption has cost me another 1.5Mbps; sync speed now down to 32.  I reported the intermittent phone problem and, of course, Plusnet can't see anything wrong with the line because it's intermittent.  Latest from them is a formula message saying check my wifi, when what we are discussing is sync speed not download speed.  Also that I should do a BT Wholesale speedtest, which is also useless as all it does is measure whether the download rate looks right against the sync speed, which obviously it will.  It's increasingly looking like I'm stuck with this.

[#9]

One final question that I hope someone can help me with.  Plusnet have insisted that they send me a Hub Two as my Billion router is about 5 years old now.  But I have some LAN static IP addresses, some virtual servers and some specific ports open on my existing router .  And I love it's interface and the stats it gives me etc.

So I'm sure that trying to configure all that on the Hub Two is going to be a time-consuming big pain.

If I were to use the Hub Two in bridge mode (so my connection is VDSL to Hub Two to my existing Billion router), do I get around all that reconfiguration - and does it make sense to do that?

Thank in advance for any answers on this one.

Stuart