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Will Plusnet save the day?....

Ferox
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2008

Will Plusnet save the day?....

I'm jumping ship from Nildram (Tiscali).
I am currently on 8Mb ADSL (with a line capable of 4Mb) and, since Nildram carried out an "upgrade" to its service on 20th Mar 08, am only getting dial-up speeds.  At the time of writing this, I'm thundering along at... wait for it: 3.2 Kb/s.  They moved from PPPOE to PPPOA and nothing's worked right since. Sad
I was initially asked to run some tests in order to find out if my slow speeds are a result of the ADSL network on the BT side. I carried out the ping and tracert results as requested.
I can get speeds of 3.5Mb/s - between 1am and 7am but that's absolutely useless to me of course.  I've accused them of throttling my service and I'm waiting to hear back from then on that.
This problem has existed since the changeover to PPPOA and BT 'engineering works' on 20th March and I've been without BB since then.
I've been phoning Nildram on a daily basis asking what they're doing and in 15 days, all they've done is reset my profile twice.  Hence why I'm currently changing over to Plusnet as I hear they provide an excellent product and even better support.
Apparently, here lies the problem but they refuse to acknowledge it is a problem.
Will Plusnet be able to fix this and give me a stable broadband connection once more or will I have the same grief?  Sad


19 REPLIES 19
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

First, the physical connection to the exchange will be exactly the same regardless of ISP being used as that part is controlled and maintained by BT.
Are you on IPstream or LLU?
If IPstream, can you run a BT Speedtest and post the results. This will show your profile which could affect data throughput speeds.
Make sure you are running the latest firmware for your router as earlier versions have problems with detecting SNR (Noise Margin). With your router showing only 1dB for DS noise margin it looks like your line may be noisy and subject to dropping out frequently (that assumes its not the router showing bad stats).
Your high DS sync rate compared to your DS line attenuation suggest you must have a good SNR (noise margin) on the line as I have exactly the same line attenuation and can only get 2000Kbs.
Finally, any speed related investigations will have to wait until you have migrated in as PN can't do anything until they are your ISP.
Ferox
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Quote from: Peter
Are you on IPstream or LLU?

Not sure?
Quote
Make sure you are running the latest firmware

Yes.  dg834gv3_10Jan07_vista_3_3.zip.  Had no problem with BB before they (BT?) "worked" on the line...
Quote
Finally, any speed related investigations will have to wait until you have migrated in as PN can't do anything until they are your ISP.

Understood - I just hope, as an ISP, Plusnet will actually do something.  Changing my profile twice in 16 days is hardly what I'd call proactive!  Roll_eyes
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Given that you can achieve the faster speeds overnight, this looks more like they are throttling your connection during the day than an actual line problem. This should go away once you have migrated, but if not, PN will try and resolve it.
Ferox
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Thanks Peter
It's just gone 9am and my connection's gone from 3.8Mb/s down to 240Kb/s having been high-speed since 1am last night.  Looking forward to the move.
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

This sounds horribly similar to my experience with Tiscali.
I was a happy 2Mb customer and upgraded to 8Mb last November.
All seemed fine for a few days then it just got worse and worse; peak times were typically 200Kb or less whereas at "dead of night" I could get almost 8Mb.
Well, to cut a long story short, after 3 months of banging my head against the Tiscali "stupid wall" I left, joining PlusNet in February. It was so bad that I escalted my problems to the ISPA and Tiscali agreed eventually to pay me some (nominal) compensation, part of which I've had and some is due soon.
Apart from a slight slowdown a week or so ago (major outage well reported) it's been faultless at PlusNet. My peak throughput is very slightly less than the best I could get with Tiscali - maybe something to do with the way the management works (but it DOES work) but at peak times I still get typically 60% to 70% which is fine - I'm on BBYW2.
penfold
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 2,280
Thanks: 25
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

I have had the same horrible experience with tiscali, they have to be one of the if not the worst ISP out there. I suspect as other do, that they are throtting you, as you cant just have good speeds at night then just get poor speeds during the day, can really see how that could happen. Since moving to PlusNet, apart from the LLU fiasco I had to endure before being moved back to IPStream, things have been faultless.  With regards to your 1dB noise margin, and your highish sync, netgear routers have a habit of misreporting the SNR, I had a DG834G and it was always reporting a rediculous number such as 265537466 as the SNR, with means its a negative value, and this was forcing resyncs. Since moving to a speedtouch 585v6 I have had rock solid connections ( max time up so far 60days).  On the other hand, netgear routers are very good at holding onto dodgy lines, but I suspect the 1dB is a misreport.
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Just looking back here it's possible that the Nildram/Tiscali upgrade was to put you onto their LLU network; they've been rolling this out to save costs but not telling customers what's really going on. If that's the case you'll probably need to be switched back to BT in order to move to PlusNet and there MAY be a charge associated with that.
To avoid any unpleasant surprise I suggest you check that out ASAP - a call to PlusNet should be able to clarify as they can, I think, tell who "owns" your line.
Ferox
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Looking at my status page, it says 'there's a problem'...  Sad
Thing is, Nildram didn't notify me of anything to do with the changeover.  They didn't even tell me that my pop3 mailbox login and password were changing, nor - get this - that I had to change from PPPOE to PPPOA.  Unbelievable.
So, do you think the 'problem' on my status page is that it's not a BT line?
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

You'll have to ask PlusNet.  Roll_eyes
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Hi there,
It shouldn't matter if you're on an LLU line or not, provided the supplier you're leaving supports LLU MAC codes. As far as I understand it the migration in happens the same way and costs the same regardless which platform you're coming from - LLU or BT.
As such if they've issued you with a valid MAC there should be no problems.
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

That's good, I didn't want to be scaremongering, though I did say "MAY" and to check  :).
The situations I've heard of that were difficult were those where the phone line was migrated away from BT as well.
dbames
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Wouldn't the upstream rate of 448 signify IPstream rather than LLU?
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

Quote from: HPsauce
Just looking back here it's possible that the Nildram/Tiscali upgrade was to put you onto their LLU network

Not with upstream speeds of 448Kbps.  I'd reckon it's more likely to be Datastream.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Will Plusnet save the day?....

In addition to that, there should be no problem (if they feel like it) to generate a MAC Code and I reckon your speed awill be considerably better Smiley