painfully slow internet

[#1]

I have tried to use the plusnet speed tester but it wouldn't work because my internet is to slow.
I've been with plusnet for 6 years and haven't had any problems until a few month ago when the internet speed dropped to such a low level it made opening simple wikipedia pages a agonizing experiance.
The package we are currently on(and have been on for 6 years) gives us a allowance of 2gbs at the start of every month. Once you used up the 2gb allowance the internet speed would drop slightly but would still be usable. This was fine for us since we don't  use the internet to watch videos.
Now however once the 2gbs has been used up ( usually within 4 days) the internet drops to such a speed it is all most unusable.
I phoned up and they tried interleaving and resetting the frequency on the line  but to no avail.It got to the point where they said they couldn't see anything wrong on their end and that we should get a person to come and check the line.
However we didn't choose to do this because I know there isn't anything wrong with our line.
In total I must have tried to phone 6 times and was allways led to believe it was a technical fault.
After trying every thing possible I phone up and asked to be put through to a technical advisor.
He said there was nothing wrong with the line  and that the reason we were getting such a slow speed was because they had recently implimented a retriction on old contracts.He said that they had forgotten to put the restriction on the old contracts and even accused us of getting "free internet". None of the previous people I talked to seemed to be aware of this and I certainly wasn't informed of these restrictions made to my internet connection.
The plusnet software that we have installed frequently alerts us to problems with internet, browser and emails. Is this really the case? what can you do about it?
"We don't keep our customers in the dark, or make things complicated. We talk fairly and clearly in plain English, giving all the details. If we've messed up, we'll be honest and explain what we're doing to fix things, rather than trying to hide stuff."- Plusnet

[#2]

As I understand it once you exceed your limit then the speeds drop to 256kbps up and down
Have you considered moving to Essentials 10GB limit or Unlimited
A question - what are you doing to download 2GB in 4 days if you don't watch videos
I assume that you are on BBYW option 1 which costs £9.99 per month
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/bbyw_archive.shtml
If you are on a Market 2 or 3 exchange you can get unlimited for that

[#3]

Hi, I checked with the plusnet support and they told me we were using under 10gb a month ( around 7gb). I am aware that when you exceed the limit the speed drops but for the last six years this hasn't been a problem. however now this isn' the case as stated in the post.
Have finally managed to run a speed test and got the following results:
Download speed
0.715 mb/s
0.182 mb/s
upload speed
0.194 mb/s
0.172 mb/s
I'm not the well informed technically in this area but i can only presume this is slow, any insight into this would be appreciated.At the moment it can take up 5 mins to load up a page or it doesn't load up at all and i recieve a message from the plusnet software/ browser.The speed is concistantly slow.
We have concidered changing our package and might have to in the end but I feel we have been conciously manipulated to leave our old internet package.
I may watch the occasional youtube clip while we have the allowance but apart from that its just normal internet browsing.

[#4]

Let us get back to basics
Can you post the stats from your router as explained here http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,96155.0.html
This link may take you straight there http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/dsl/dt/?ce=1&be=0&l0=1&l1=0
We need speeds, attenuation and noise margin

[#5]

Hi, hopefully this is the correct information. Thanks for the help.
uptime: 0 days, 2:36:07
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.3
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 440 / 1.454
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 8,32 / 44,59
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12,6 / 0,0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 37,4 / 66,0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 11,6 / 3,0
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 84 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 783 / 1.110.528
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 7 / 138
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 4 / 337

[#6]

So I assume the higher value speed tests you quoted above were before you exceeded your limit and the lower ones were after you had which sounds about right
Basically if your usage per month is less than 10GB and you can check it here https://portal.plus.net/view_my_broadband_usage/index.php?&strAction=PERIOD#history_three_month then changing to essentials with a 10GB limit - assuming that you are in a Market 2 or 3 area and that you have your phone with Plusnet - a total no brainer as you would increase your allowance from 2GB to 10GB and save money into the bargain
You can check your exchange type here http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

[#7]

Hi jim, im not in a market 2 or 3 area. plus net has quoted me a price of £13 pounds to upgrade to the essentials package, more than what I am paying at the moment.Also the essential package is currently being marketed to new customers at under half the price so  I feel they are taking the p*ss to be quite honest. Even though i could move to anouther package this doesn't help since I am stuck with this package for at least a month because I have allready paid for it.
what I want to know is why my internet connection has suddenly dropped to below usable levels. we have have constantly used around the same amount of GB's per month over six years.Only in the past two months has this been a problem. 

[#8]

As they explained in your first post

Quote

He said there was nothing wrong with the line  and that the reason we were getting such a slow speed was because they had recently implimented a retriction on old contracts.He said that they had forgotten to put the restriction on the old contract

If you can go to here http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search and see if there are any non BT LLU suppliers at your exchange
If there are then you will have more ammunition and if there aren't then the only real option is BT http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband/packages
Once you have that information you can phone the Customer Retentions Team  as below and ask for your MAC - they should then hopefully offer you a deal to stay
Residential cancellations
    0845 140 6002
    0330 123 9197
Monday to Friday: 9.00am - 8.00pm (Except Bank Holidays)
Saturday: 9.00am - 5.30pm

[#9]

Hi, thanks jim.Yes unfortunately my only options are either bt or plusnet.I will be trying to get a better deal closer to when my contract ends for the month.
Can you confirm the fact they have put restrictions on older contracts or give me any information that might suggest this is the case?

[#10]

From the link I posted earlier http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/bbyw_archive.shtml

Quote

If you've chosen to fix your cost: Your broadband speed will be restricted to 256kb/s at all times, until the end of the billing month. Access to binary Usenet, peer-to-peer and external FTP will be blocked. You can increase your fixed cost (adding more usage) to lift these restrictions, or you can wait until the end of your billing month

[#11]

Like I said in my original post I have been on the same package for 6 years and have had no problems with it up untill around two months ago.up untill 2 months ago once i used up my 2gbs allowance the internet ran marginally slower. now however when i use up my 2gbs allowance there is a significant differance in speed.
I can only presume then that this restriction has been recently implimented?
when i talked to the plusnet technical advisor he said they had been looking at all the old contracts.He said they had forgot to put the restrictions in place and rudely accused me of getting free internet.
In any case I have sent them a complaint.
If anyone reading this has had similar issues it would be good to know ?

[#12]

Hi there,
I've checked over your account and can see that it's currently on a restricted profile due to the usage being over your 2GB allowance. While your account is restricted your speeds will be set to 256kbps until your new billing month begins.
This should have been the case previously too, although I can't confirm whether your account was restricted when you went over the 2GB usage allowance,but it is certainly being implemented now.
Looking at your usage history it may be worth looking at one of our newer packages.