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Beating my head against the wall

FIXED
BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@Gandalf 

Nice one Gandalf - the re-test on the BT Wholesale tester is:-

Ping 13ms

Down/up is 9.28/59.52Mbps

Can/t get the 'Additional Diagnostic' this time around for some reason - it just hangs. I'll try it with a different browser.

Gandalf
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@BobR1 

Excellent! Looking a lot better now. Thumbs_Up

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@Gandalf 

OK have noted all that.

Got the additional diagnostics [attached] on a different browser - they look fine. The only curiosity from the earlier test is a Ping speed of 36ms versus 13ms. 

 

RealAleMadrid
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@BobR1  In my opinion the engineer didn't really do anything apart from changing the faceplate which they seem to on any visit for no particular reason, usually because they don't know what's wrong and it's easy to do.

Of course changing the faceplate would require the modem/router to be disconnected hence causing a resync when reconnected, I would say that is why the SNRM fell to a lower level, but not the correct level for some reason. It should be around 4dB if the line profile is as stated by Gandalf. A look at your current modem stats would be interesting. 

By the way I have quite recently used a Zxyel 8924-B10A myself, it is a very good device and is currently on my spares shelf. I don't believe any more recent (and expensive) router would perform any better.

BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@RealAleMadrid 

Hello again - at the very least the faceplate change ensures there is no problem with the filters.

Whatever the problem was it is clear that it couldn't be solved by simply dropping and re-connecting the router. I tried that very early in the sequence of events when I took it out for nearly an hour. 

BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@Gandalf 

HI Gandalf, I noticed this morning that the DLM had obviously intervened overnight as indicated by the 'modem uptime' being some 6 hours longer than the 'DSL uptime' being reported by DSLstats this morning. I therefore ran the BTW speedtest again to see what had changed [attached].

In summary, the comparison for the downstream stats between the 15Oct second BTW test and this morning's test is:-

Download speed achieved     59.91            versus 56.88     [A not disastrous decline]

Acceptable range of speed     40-67.43      versus 40-59.4

IP profile                                  67.43           versus 59.4

Given the higher profile yesterday wasn't generating errors that would be a cause for concern after the router re-boot I'm wondering about that IP profile reduction. 

 

 

 

Gandalf
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

Hi Bob,

 

@BobR1 wrote:

Got the additional diagnostics [attached] on a different browser - they look fine. The only curiosity from the earlier test is a Ping speed of 36ms versus 13ms. 

Latency can vary a lot as when you run a speed test, it's the response time between your device and the server that runs the test at the other end. Anything under 60ms I'd generally say is OK although obviously if you play online games you'd be wanting as low as possible <10ms. Try running a speed test Here to compare.

 

@RealAleMadrid wrote:

In my opinion the engineer didn't really do anything apart from changing the faceplate which they seem to on any visit for no particular reason, usually because they don't know what's wrong and it's easy to do.

The engineer also carried out a full DLM reset. 

 

@BobR1 wrote:

HI Gandalf, I noticed this morning that the DLM had obviously intervened overnight as indicated by the 'modem uptime' being some 6 hours longer than the 'DSL uptime' being reported by DSLstats this morning. I therefore ran the BTW speedtest again to see what had changed [attached].

In summary, the comparison for the downstream stats between the 15Oct second BTW test and this morning's test is:-

Download speed achieved     59.91            versus 56.88     [A not disastrous decline]

Acceptable range of speed     40-67.43      versus 40-59.4

IP profile                                  67.43           versus 59.4

Given the higher profile yesterday wasn't generating errors that would be a cause for concern after the router re-boot I'm wondering about that IP profile reduction. 

The IP profile dropping would be a symptom of your router sync'ing at a lower speed to the cabinet. This should be somewhere between 90 to 96% of the sync speed, and with high retransmission enabled it'd be towards the lower end. 

The full profile is still "Downstream: 0.128M-80M4dB with Retransmission (High). Upstream: 0.128M-20M with no error protection" even after the full DLM reset but it's good to see the SNRM's gone down. 

I'd keep an eye on things and let us know if you notice further issues or developments. Smiley

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

@Gandalf 

Good morning and thanks for those comprehensive notes. As it happens I ran a BTW speedtest earlier today and I attach the results.

I'm not going to fret about day-to-day minor changes in the speed of the connection now that we have got it back to more sensible numbers.

Gandalf
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

No problem @BobR1 that makes sense.

Cheers

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

And yet things still do NOT look right.

When I signed up for the 80/20 package from Plusnet I, of course, did NOT expect to get anything like those speeds.

What I DID expect is that my connection would run at the best speed consistent with stability i.e. a balance would be struck and, as I understand it, that is what OR's DLM is designed to do.

Having been a Plusnet customer for quite a while now I am well aware what my connection is capable of and am wondering why it is not being achieved.

After a period of several days a few weeks ago when there were brief interrupts, none caused by my modem/router, I see that the downstream connection is now being throttled by a consistently higher SNRM [currently 7.8dB]. In the past something between 5.2 to 5.5dB was more like it. The connection was stable at that level and provided higher downstream speeds.

Currently it seems to me that the SNRM is being manipulated to provide, at least from this user's point of view, a sub-optimal downstream speed and I don't like it.

I'm attaching two BTW speedtest outputs. The first is from last October when we seemed to have got things straightened out and the other is this morning - note the differences!

BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

Don't know why the first test isn't showing but I attach it here

Anoush
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

Hi Bob,

There’s no benefit for us to ‘manipulate’ your SNRM to lower your speed, plus that isn’t even possible. I appreciate the frustration, but we’ve already established your speeds are within the supplier expectations for your line, so unless one of our tests shows an issue, there’s little we can do in the way of further investigation.

Are you experiencing any real world problems with your broadband service due to the ~4mbps lower download speed between now and October?

If you’re just curious and seeing what you can do to get the most out of your connection, that’s fine though and feel free to post as other people on our community, may that be my colleagues or the good folk who roam around here may be able to offer you further advice or guidance. Smiley

I’ve asked the mods to merge your other thread Here with this one if possible as you have two topics going on the same subject, which may cause a little bit of confusion. It’s always good to keep everything in one place, otherwise what’s been discussed already may be missed. 

This is my personal Community Forum account to help out around these parts while I'm at home. If I'm posting from the 1st March 2020, this means I'm off-duty with no access to internal systems.
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BobR1
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

Anoush, I did NOT suggest that PlusNet was manipulating the SNRM because I am aware that OR has most of the 'levers' for that in the 'black box' otherwise known as the DLM!

I will refrain from any comment about the very conservative "supplier expectations" argument.

The problem I have is that I expect value for money from anything I buy and my perception is I am not getting that - there are too many unexplained ups and downs in the performance of my connection.

Apropos the other thread, I apologise for that. I was trying to do about half a dozen things at a time this morning and forgot about it. I have no problem with the merge you have requested.

Anoush
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Re: Beating my head against the wall

No problem Bob, and apologies for the confusion there. Sad

I do appreciate what you’ve said, but as long as you can do what you want to do on the Internet and you’re happy with the price you’ve agreed, I’d say that’s a win. Smiley

I also do get though wanting the most out of your connection. It’s not always possible to achieve the same speed or have your line in 100% perfect shape with no background noise (as long as there’s no audible noise on your landline phone) due to the infrastructure. 

However if there’s an issue like your connection drops, your speeds below where we’d expect, our tests show some sort of issue, then I agree I’d like to see a little further investigation to get the bottom of the issue. 

This is my personal Community Forum account to help out around these parts while I'm at home. If I'm posting from the 1st March 2020, this means I'm off-duty with no access to internal systems.
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