cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hello,
Sorry, I'm sure this is the number one post type on these (and any other) broadband forums, but I'm posting it anyway!  Over the last couple of months our previously perfectly stable broadband connection has gradually deteriorated, to the point where it's now regularly losing the connection completely and then reconnecting OK for a bit. The speed has gone right down too. Tonight I've tried a new router and splitter on the line to no real effect. Not sure if there may be an issue with the BT line, though the phone seems to work OK, so I wondered whether there are any clues to be had from the router stats? I'm loathe to try and get BT in and end up incurring a £100 million billion charge...
I just ran a speed test and got 0.2mb download, 0.9mb upload. We were getting about 7mb download a couple of months back.
Are there any clues in these stats below? Thanks for any guidance anyone may be able to provide!

Link Information

Uptime: 0 days, 0:58:56
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,264 / 283
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 15.38 / 64.86
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 11.2 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 2.8 / 10.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 7.0 / 37.6
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 35 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 4 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 42 / 10
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 386
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
18 REPLIES 18
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

You need a SNR reset.
Have you had any problems with your phone line (noise/crackling)?
What does it say for your estimates here http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ ?
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

You are on a banded profile because of the regular disconnections http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/broadband_terminology.shtml
While you wait for it to be picked up here you should raise a fault - disconnections not speed - at https://faults.plus.net
The new router and splitter (I assume that you meant filter) won't help with that
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Thanks both for the replies. I tried that quiet line test thing and it was a little bit hissy, but that could just be our cheap wireless phone. I've tried disconnecting and unplugging the phone completely in case that was interfering, but to no effect. I think there is an old fixed line phone in the loft so I'll try the quiet line thing with that in the morning.
The dsl checker site says we should get 7-8mb and that's exactly what we were getting up to a couple of months back; not quite sure what's happened to change things.
I'll raise a fault in the meantime too - thanks both for the advice.
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Is your telephone service also with Plusnet?
It's worth trying a normal, fixed phone and doing the 17070 Quiet Line test.
Is your ADSL connected to the master socket or an extension?
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Thanks Andy - the phone is with BT. Router is normally plugged into an extension socket. Just tried it in the main socket and the test socket and also tried a quiet line test with a fixed phone in the test socket and the extension socket. The line was quiet in all sockets and the router connected exactly the same in all sockets. Just 0.2mb download speed. I guess if the old router was the source of the problem then there's no real way of knowing for sure until I've waited a few days to see if it picks up a bit?
Acassim
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,075
Registered: ‎11-06-2007

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hi luthergravy,
I've just taken a quick look over your account and can see the sporadic drops you mention, as you can see in the graph below it seems to be pretty frequent and as AndyH has pointed out, it has meant that the DLM (Dynamic Line Management) has kicked in and steadily reduced your speeds. You're currently being banded down at around 288k purely as a result to the number of times your connection has dropped.
It looks like this started on the 06/08/14 and has slowly but surely continued to reduce the speed down over the course of the month.
With regards to errors on the line, you had a lot of them showing around the 14/08/14 however these have now improved considerably and you're showing as having a very negligible amount as you had before the issues.
<img src="http://community.plus.net/visualradius/generated/image14086230455642.png"/>
A quick fault check hasn't highlighted anything at all on the broadband side of things. Sadly, as the Phone service isn't with us I haven't been able to test this however you should be able to request this from your current phone provider to see if the hiss you mention is causing a problem.
If they don't manage to pick anything up with their testing then we could do with you testing the connection from the master socket by removing the faceplace and plugging directly into the test socket behind it and remove all other devices connected to the phone line. If you find that the disconnections stop then it could well be one of the devices you have plugged into the line that's causing the drops.
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

That's really helpful thanks Adam.
Sounds like the current slowness of connection is just a result of these cut-outs in the line, then. I did try the router in the test socket but to be honest I just tested the speed of the connection, which obviously was just the same because of the line management issue. 
I changed router last night and, whilst the connection is really slow, I've not noticed it dropping out much so maybe the old router was the issue? Is there any way to get the line speed back up or do I just have to wait? How long would that take?  I don't want to keep unplugging the router and trying different sockets etc if that just causes the system to think I'm having more cut outs!
There's only the router and phone plugged into the same socket - nothing else connected here so I'm struggling to think what might have set this off. Will try BT and see if they can see anything odd on the line.
Thanks again
Acassim
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,075
Registered: ‎11-06-2007

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hi luthergravy,
That's certainly not a problem.
If you're able to test the connection from the test socket and leave the phone unplugged for an evening maybe (I know if can be difficult if you use the phone line a lot) then we should be able to see if the drop outs subside and then we may have an idea if the filter has broken or if the phone is causing interference.
As for the speeds, you should see these move back up as the connection becomes more stable so we should see how this goes as the first port of call. If we end up raising this as a fault then the profile will be reset as part of the fault being fixed so you should see it increase in this instance as well.
Let me know how you get on this evening  Wink
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Thanks Adam. I'm tempted to leave it for this evening, on the basis that I've only just changed the router; so if I plug in to the master socket now and it works fine for the evening, I won't know if that's because I'm using a new router or because of the master socket, if you see what I mean. If it gets to tomorrow morning and I'm still getting too many drop outs then I'll know the new router hasn't made any difference and I'll try plugging into the master socket for a day.  Unplugging the landline tomorrow evening will stop my mother ringing at stupid o'clock on Saturday morning, too 😉
Acassim
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,075
Registered: ‎11-06-2007

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hi again luthergravy,
It is totally up to you but if you don't have any luck with the new router or the speeds increasing over the next few days then be sure to try the tests and get back in touch with us  Wink
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hello again,
Everything crossed here, my DSL connection has now been in place uninterrupted for 31 hours and counting... so I'm hopeful that the new router and filter have possibly maybe perhaps done the job.
I've still got download speeds of 0.2mb though - any idea how long before I might see those rise? And how fast will they go back to normal?
Cheers.
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Spoke too soon Sad  Master socket it is...
luthergravy
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎20-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hello again,
After changing router and microfilter, I had a day and a half without any line drops. Then the line seemed to drop out once, so I swapped to the test socket and have been on that for 2 days without drops. My suspicion is possibly the filter was the issue, but anyway, it seems like my line is much more stable than it was. But my line speed is still at or below 0.2mb - it's really just about unusable and sometimes I think the line has dropped but actually it's just a page struggling to load or failing to respond in time because of the connection speed. I've seen people post that line speeds should start to go back up one the line is more stable; any idea how long this takes or whether there is any way to speed things up, because it's excruciating at the moment!  I did raise a ticket through the MAAF website last week but haven't heard anything back from that so far.
Thanks for any suggestions.
JTaylor
Grafter
Posts: 93
Registered: ‎18-08-2014

Re: Very slow broadband and signal dropping - any ideas?

Hey luthergravy
Thanks for waiting for us. Hope you had a good bank holiday!
I can see that as of today we've got a fault raised for you. All your progress regarding this will be on ticket 203185478 .