Terrible bufferbloat, packet loss, jitter, etc. Text support service DOES NOT WORK

[#1]

I've just had a look at your live graph 

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/2a942df0fd297d612fa3fc01cd8f5aa2e2...

It looks like a router disconnect at 8:30 pm and a bit after 9pm. The rest of the graph looks like a well used (and not particularly fast) internet conection.

Dropped packets are red specs (seen twice at around 9am and perhaps half an hour later).

The interpretation of the Broadband Quality Monitor is available at:

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/guides/broadband-quality-monitor

"My graph has lots of varying height yellow spikes is there a problem?"

is most appropriate to your graph I would say.

The Bufferbloat has been discussed, as for "packet loss, jitter, etc." I wouldn't say the BQM supports that assertion.

As for streaming, some services can require quite high bandwitch streams, particularly for UHD displays. See what the services you use seems to stream at. As average domestic bandwidths have increased, services have expanded to use them. 

Afterthought:

Does the streaming device allow some kind of speed test?

There may also be a WiFi issue as well as the connection not being that fast.

As it's a bit of a cheap bit of kit, the WiFi on the Plusnet Hub isn't that great (although you would hope it would manage with a slow connection).

[#2]

Also it does just go orange + flashing for like 10 minutes sometimes, but that's more rare so idk if I'll capture it in the BQM. No clue what that's about...

It looks like a router disconnect at 8:30 pm and a bit after 9pm. The rest of the graph looks like a well used (and not particularly fast) internet conection.

Well, disconnects are not going to be helping, and then there's the question of what's causing the disconnects ?  

@MyInternetisSoS  have you ever reported a line fault ?

[#3]

The disconnects are me in this case, they're not relevant. The 'organic' disconnects happen like once a month. Sorry for any lack of clarity.

The spikes are not correlated to my own usage of the internet. That's the key thing. I am not using it during much of the peak period. There is no correlation and the spikes do not, in any way/shape/form, come from my use or the use of anyone on my hub. It's not "well-used" outside that one upload period which is fine.

It stems from somewhere else, more likely upstream.

As I say, the latency jitter and instability was fine 1 month ago even, it has gotten worse very recently.

[#4]

It worked until very recently--maybe 1 month ago. It is only recently that it has become dysfunctional with insane jitter and such. 

The jitters/spikes do NOT correlate with my own use of the internet whatsoever. They are highest during peak time, yes, but not *my* peak time. I am not using the internet much at all during the peak time. E.g., in the evening. It matches up with the problem being further upstream where multiple users (many) are connecting through the node (sorry if my terminology is wrong) so their aggregate peak time screws me over, no?

The red bits are me, ignore them. The 'organic' disconnects only happen like once a month.

Yes IK the speed isn't great but it's not saturated whatsoever and it was fine so recently that, as I say, it cannot be the causal factor by simple comparative analysis.

[#5]

@MisterW 

The flashing orange light and associated total packet loss on the BQM is a known observed "feature" of the Hub Two, when a line that is prone to bufferbloat gets totally overwhelmed with a sustained upload. 

Initially the connection just displays high latency, but after a while (tens of seconds) the rate of packet retransmissions increases the load on the upload path, causing the connection to exponentially get worse until all comms is lost and the light goes orange.  However the device attempting to do the file upload, continues to send more data to the router, at a reducing rate, but still contributing to the bloat, and the comms loss continues.  Eventually the sending device stops sending data that can't be forwarded over the internet, and the Hub Two reconnects as normal and the orange light returns to blue.

This has been seen with people running their own web servers, people who share their home NAS to stream video to remote family members, and there have been a couple of users that had this when remotely accessing their video doorbell.  Via this forum I've helped fix those server and NAS users by getting them to correctly configure upload limiters on their devices to about 80% of the internet upload speed,  and the doorbell users just needed to change the video quality to the next lower resolution.

[#6]

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@MyInternetisSoS wrote:

It matches up with the problem being further upstream where multiple users (many) are connecting through the node (sorry if my terminology is wrong) so their aggregate peak time screws me over, no?

That used to happen on old ADSL lines, but is almost unknown in recent years on VDSL lines.

If that was the case, your graph would typically display a noticeable bulge in the blue section during the 'peak time' contention.

Yours does not show raised blue, it does show that you stopped using your PC around 23:00, the connection was quiet overnight (other than devices doing random background updates), then around 7:15 probably mobile phones were being used on the WiFi, then either 8:00 or 8:50 your PC was being used.

Try disabling the WiFi on all of your mobile phones for 24 hours, and see whether the yellow spikes disappear.

If the spikes do turn out to be caused by your mobile phones, there are apps such as NetGuard which can be configured to rate limit the upload speed of your Android phone (to say 7Mbps) which could reduce the random latency you are seeing.

MyInternetisSoS overnight 2026-08-25.png

[#7]

I didn't stop using my PC at that time. As I just said, the spikes are unrelated to when I used it. Today things were not connecting to the wifi at 7:15AM, nor yesterday did they stop at 11PM.

Large parts of when the spikes are biggest are when nothing was even connected to the internet as the devices were either turned off or far away from the house/not connected to the wifi. Nor today am I using it more than yesterday despite the spikes being way worse throughout the whole day (indeed, I used it much more YESTERDAY than today!!).

[#8]

@ExForce9 

The flashing orange light and associated total packet loss on the BQM

If the light is flashing orange there is no DSL/WAN connection, so the BQM graph would show 100% loss as it (the hub) can not be reached, this would be the same for a solid orange.

So for the flashing orange light you are saying DSL Link Down was caused by bufferbloat?

[#9]

@Dan_the_Van 

I am saying that there are multiple times where other forum users have had their connection grind to a halt for many minutes when exponential bufferbloat has overwhelmed the upload path of a Hub Two, and they have said that the orange light has blinked, flashed, or maybe was on steadily.  Having subsequently upload rate limited their previously uncontrolled application, the Hub Two bufferbloat was eliminated, and whatever occurrence of orange light appearing stopped happening.  I can't say what the orange light was actually doing, other than it had been mentioned.

[#10]

OK. The spikes don't correlate with PC use.

My next suggested step is turn the WiFi off while out for a long period (with the PC off) and see what the BQM looks like.

With all devices off the network any spikes have to be caused by something in the wider network.

If there are still spikes, getting Openreach interested in investigating this will be a bit challenging.

[#11]

Wait, doesn't turning the wifi off and the PC off just disconnect the BQM?

The red patches people are discussing are when I had to restart the hub for unrelated reasons (I did say that they weren't what I meant when I said it occasionally dropped out, I think some might've missed it--no worries!).

But it says on the website that it won't work if your PC is off, and I imagine if the hub is off it'll just go red, no? 

Sorry, I think I'm a bit confused.

[#12]

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@MyInternetisSoS wrote:

But it says on the website that it won't work if your PC is off, and I imagine if the hub is off it'll just go red, no? 

Where ? - my laptop/phone and tablet are off from around 2100 to 0630/0700 each night, and on different connections for around three months in the year, but my BQM still logs.

If the Hub is off, then yes you will get a red block.

[#13]

@MyInternetisSoS 

When you configured the BQM did you give it a 192.168.xxx.xxx IP ?

[#14]

@PhilipHeyes 

That wouldn't work, as the remote BQM server needs an internet reachable WAN address - not a private LAN NAT address.

To ping off a LAN side PC, then the router would have to port forward ping requests to the PC.

[#15]

@MyInternetisSoS 

A very good question.

The usual way to configure the Broadband Quality Monitor is to set the router to respond to an Internet "ping" and that's what it graphs.

It would (I suppose) be possible to port forward to a different device but I assume you are monitoring the router's response to a ping from the Internet.

EDIT.

I think I may have caused confusion. When I suggested turning the WiFi off I meant disable the wifi on the Plusnet Hub not depowering the Hub!

EDIT 2:

How to do it

https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/Turning-off-wireless-on-Plusnet-Hub-Two/td-p/1936634