Who has control of broadband speeds?

[#1]

Having sufferred for sometime with abysmal speeds rarely going over 0.2 mbs I did a BT Wholesale Test. The result this morning was 0.12mb. A limit of 0.25 mb was indicated. The following comment was appended:-
"We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly.If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance. "
I assume from this comment that my server Plusnet is in control and the promised 2.4 to 3.5 mbs has been pruned down to the 0.25mb indicated bt the BT test.
I reported my problem(s) back in mid-June and since then have sufferred common issues, low speeds, drop-outs, noisy telephone, loss of phone service. An attending Outreach engineer was not happy with my router being situated some 15 feet away from my Master box, suggesting this was a cause of my problems. Since his visit over a month ago my router is directly connected to my master box. The result, consistant lower speeds, consistant telephone noise and a five day loss of telephone (the latter being a loose connection on the exchange side).
Who does have control over the service that I pay for?

[#2]

If you have noise on the line you will have to raise a fault with plusnet and they will probably book a engineer to come out to you. Your contract is with plusnet and they will have to liaise with BT openreach about a noisy line. Have you tried connecting into the Test socket on the master box? Also post your line stats if you can.

[#3]

Hi Agarland,
Welcome to the forums.
You have completely misconstrued the statement.  BTOR control the SYNCH speed of your internet connection.  In respect of ADSL the days of fixed rate speeds (with the exception of problematic lines) are long gone.  Your speed is governed by the characteristics of the BTOR owned and managed circuit between your home and your local exchange... PlusNet considerations come much further down the solution stack.
When a modem synchs up with the exchange, it will go as fast as line conditions allows it to go whilst remaining within operational parameters set by BTOR's equipment in the exchange.  If your line has been performing badly, those operational parameters could be quite stringent in an attempt to keep your connection stable.
After a synch rate has been established, BTOR equipment informs PN's systems of the maximum data transfer rate your line will support.  So whilst it could be the case that PN's systems are "being slow" it will only be because BTOR's equipment has told PN's systems to run slow in respect of your line.
Were those speed tests run over WiFi or a wired connection to the router?  If wifi then the issue could be that the wifi bands in your location are congested.
Can you please post your full router stats - these will give some indication of where the problem might be.

[#4]

Quote from: agarland

Since his visit over a month ago my router is directly connected to my master box.

I hope that you have an ADSL filter between your master socket and router / telephone? 

[#5]

Quote from: agarland

An attending Outreach engineer was not happy with my router being situated some 15 feet away from my Master box, suggesting this was a cause of my problems.

15 foot is not overly far if the right cable has been used.  Was this in an extension socket or on a long modem wire?  If this was via a long flat 'cheap' phone extension cable, then it was indeed highly undesirable.
If there are other phones, they too should be connected via filters.

[#6]

I'm connected to the test point at my master box, ADSL filter and short cable as supplied by PN. BT telephone alongside. Using Wi-Fi to laptop - the idea of my main PC being used in my entrance hall just beneath my master box is objectional.

[#7]

Quote from: Townman

Can you please post your full router stats - these will give some indication of where the problem might be.

[#8]

Not sure what you mean by "full" but here's what I managed to glean.

[#9]

What happen to PN staff? No reply to this thread for 3 days!
Very poor change over in PN staffs.

[#10]

Morning agarland,
Apologies for not having a response to this thread from a Plusnet representative over the last 3 days.
I have taken a look over your account and have noted that you have this matter raised as a fault which is still in process and ongoing. It appears that the broadband speed issues you're currently seeing are part of the phone fault we still have open which is flagged with our supplier. It seems this was passed back to us today to explain that work had been carried out to fix the noisy line, can you confirm if this is the case?
If not, I'll get this passed back to them for further diagnostics and probably another engineer visit.

[#11]

Thanks Adam C,
Line still noisy; also jumped off line when I did a quiet line test.
I'm still connected to the master socket by the way.

[#12]

Quote from: agarland

Not sure what you mean by "full" but here's what I managed to glean.

Hi,
We'll need to visit this frequently... you see the blue "DSL..." text, if you click that you get another screen with a little more information.  On that screen click "details" on the right hand side and you'll get a screen full of numbers.  This is what we need.  Don't bother with screen shots, just highlight the text and "copy and paste" from the bowser window to a forum post.
HTH,
Kevin

...yes CRT has been thin on the ground this month.  Peak holiday season etc.!

[#13]

Thanks Kevin
Link Information
   

Uptime: 0 days, 0:17:17

DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.1

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 608 / 160

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 4.89 / 14.70

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.6 / 13.1

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 31.0 / 49.0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 11.0 / 13.4

System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----

Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 89 / -

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 10 / -

Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / -

Loss of Link (Remote): -

Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 108 / -

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 4 / 0

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0

HEC Errors (Up/Down): - / 0

[#14]

Thanks for providing the details there agarland,
I've not investigated this fault with the supplier and they have taken it back for some additional testing, we should know soon if they can perform a remote fix or if they will need to despatch another engineer to address the problem.
As soon as we have some more information back from them we'll be in touch to let you know how we proceed. Apologies for the continuation of this problem, I would hope we can get this resolved for you soon.

[#15]

Quote from: Adam

I've not investigated this fault with the supplier and they have taken it back for some additional testing, we should know soon if they can perform a remote fix or if they will need to despatch another engineer to address the problem.

Adam,
You are not alone this morning in typos totally inverting the intended message... guess if the suppliers are looking at actions you MUST have investigated the fault.
Is 21CN available for this subscriber?

Agarland,
These stats are abysmal!  So can we just do a few of the usual self help steps please?  Adam has not indicated if a fault has actually been located, so these tests are useful to eliminate your installation.
1. Have you got dial tone on the line?
2. Is the phone line quiet?  Dial 17070 option 2 using a corded phone plugged into the master socket - if it is noisy, Adam needs to know this ASAP please.
3. Is the router in the master socket or an extension?  If an extension, can you please try the router in the test socket behind the master socket face plate and repost the stats.  This test eliminates the possibility of your extension wiring causing problems.
4. If the stats are similar, can you try a new filter?  If this makes no difference, then it is unlikely to be an internal issue.
Kevin