Banding

[#1]

Good morning,

Could someone please explain something to me (as simply as possible please)?  Few months ago, at my request, Plusnet lifted the banding (at 29999) on my line and my connection rate went up close to the attainable rate (37-38k) for several weeks.  Connection rate then dropped to 32399 on 23/10 and I contacted Plusnet who told me it hadn't been banded again and my line was satisfactory.  It's now been back at 29999 since 31/10.  What I don't understand is, when the banding was originally lifted, the connection rate wasn't stuck at a certain speed but fluctuated against the attainable rate.  So, if I'm not banded, why is it seemingly stuck exactly at 29999 (for a week now)?  Router stats this morning below.

Thanks,

Stuart

 

[#2]

Hi there, 

Line tests don't indicate that you're being banded in the same way as previously but your experience seems to point towards that being the case still. 

Before I take any action I'm conferring with a colleague so please bear with me and I'll get back to you ASAP advising what we can do for you. 

[#3]

Good afternoon.  Just wondering if any progress?  Am still static at 29999

Thanks,

Stuart

[#4]

Hi @Junkman,

I've taken a look into this one and raised a further response via a ticket which can be viewed on your account, here.

[#5]

Thank you.  Any chance you could tell me what you think the fault may be as I've spoken to Plusnet about it once or twice to be told there's nothing wrong?  Just so I'm educated if it happens again. 

[#6]

Thanks for getting back to us Stuart,

Unfortunately line tests aren't showing any causes for the problem apart from that your line is banded for one reason or another, so we're arranging for a remote DLM reset to remove that banding/artificial speed restriction.

I'd expect this to go through on Tuesday and you to see improved speeds by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest depending on if there are any delays with submitting the DLM resets (These are submitted in bulk)

Let us know how it goes. 

[#7]

Hello again,

Thanks very much for this.  I have been away this week but my monitoring software tells me there was possibly a DLM reset at 0345 on 13/11, an outage not caused by me from about 1150-1200 on 14/11 and possibly another DLM reset at 0300 15/11.  Router stats at 1700 on 15/11 show attainable rate 0f 38910kbps and a connected rate of 38833; download speed at the same time c. 33Mbps (up from c. 25Mbps when I first posted).

So all sorted I thought - and of course hoped it would stay that way.  BUT I then experienced a large increase in latency coupled with packet loss then loss of connection just before 1800 on 15/11.  Again not from my end and was a brief outage, but concerns me that the exchange may still have some sort of issue.  Settled down again thereafter and router stats still look good, so a watching brief I think.

Thanks again and will get back to you if the banding problem recurs.

Stuart

[#8]

Hi Stuart, thanks for getting back to us.

I'm happy to see your speeds have improved. 

Our tests aren't showing any causes for the high latency you've had, but feel free to let us know if it continues to be an issue or you experience any further other issues and we'll be happy to help.

[#9]

Good morning,

Have of course been keeping an eye on this and, unfortunately, it's happened again.  An adjustment at 0415 on 24/11 capped me again at 32399 and now one at 0400 today has taken this down to 29999 once again.  Screenshot of router stats at 0800 today is attached showing SNR of 8.9 and an attainable rate of 37697kbps.  Appreciate your advice please.

Thanks, Stuart

[#10]

Hi @Junkman, I am sorry that you're having issues again.

A colleague has checked your up to date profile and can see that it is at 32.4 however, as you're in sync at 28.7mb this doesn't look to be causing the issue.

Can you please get connected to your test socket and if there is no improvement we will maybe need to look at booking an engineer. If when in the test socket the sync speed increases to 32.4 then we can look to get this unbanded for you.

Let us know how you get on.

[#11]

Sorry Lauren but we've been here before and it is some sort of banding issue.  Time before last I had the test socket question and the "well your line is syncing at less than that so there's no issue" and the problem was not resolved.  But here's a screenshot of my router stats on 18/11, and it's obvious that my line can sync and be stable at that speed as it did so for almost 2 weeks after the last reset.  The last reset which resulted in that correct sync speed was carried out without the usual test socket trial first.  So it isn't my socket it is something upstream of that.  Could you please check with your colleague Gandalf as to what he concluded last time rather than just giving me the standard response?  Thanks, Stuart

[#12]

Hello @Junkman,

I completely understand you've been through this process before, however, we do need to go ahead with the steps Lauren mentioned.

Please get back to us once this has been done and we can go from there.

Thanks.

[#13]

Thanks Mads - my point was that this error has previously been corrected without the test socket bit.  But I have done as you ask and connected my router directly to the test socket.  Attached is a screenshot of my router stats after doing this.  As you can see there is no change - the connection still appears to be banded at 29999kbps. 

Also, I don't know if this is useful info or not, but this happened last night whilst the connection was most definitely idle.  A sharp increase in latency beginning at 0345 and ending with what I think may be a DLM reset at about 0515.  Please see the image from a monitoring program attached as the next post.  I have seen this a few times before in the early hours in recent months.

Await your response,

Stuart

[#14]

Latency image as per previous post

[#15]

Thanks for getting back to us @Junkman

According to our suppliers systems the banding changed yesterday to "Downstream: 0.128M-30M with Retransmission (High). Upstream: 0.128M-10M with Retransmission (Low)" but before then the profile was as per my colleagues response above.

Due to the profile now having changed I've sent this off to the relevant team for the line to be reset but this can take 48 to 72 working hours to go through.

If you haven't seen an increase by Monday let us know.