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Congestion or something else?

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Caerefail
Rising Star
Posts: 109
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Congestion or something else?

Hi All,

Upgraded to FTTC in December (40/10 package), cab is literally across the road from the house. Router stats below:

1. Product name: BT Business Hub
2. Serial number:  
3. Firmware version: Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.252 (Type A) Last updated 27/11/17
4. Board version: BT Hub 5A
5. Broadband connection: Connected
6. Mobile connection: Not connected
7. Connection uptime : 3 days, 19:46:05
8. Data rate: 9999 / 39950
9. Maximum data rate: 31551 / 106640
10. Noise margin: 22.6 / 25.3
11. Line attenuation: 6.5 / 7.6
12. Signal attenuation: 6.8 / 7.6
13. Data sent/received: 1.8 GB / 12.3 GB
14. Broadband username:  
15. Public Wi-fi: No
16. Static IP: Disabled
17. 2.4 GHz Wireless network/SSID:  
18. 2.4 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))
19. 2.4 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
20. 2.4 GHz Wireless channel: 6
21. 5 GHz Wireless network/SSID:  
22. 5 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 a/n/ac (up to 1300 Mb/s))
23. 5 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
24. 5 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
25. Firewall: Default
26. MAC Address:  
27. Modulation: G.993.2 Annex B
28. Software variant: AA
29. Boot loader: 1.0.0

 

Now, because of past problems with ADSL (long line, in the country etc.) I am in the habit of monitoring the connection. All has been fine until recently but in the last couple of weeks I've started to notice a slowdown in speed in the evening, particularly between 8pm and 10pm. The attached graph from my SamKnows whitebox illustrates this perfectly. Some evenings the slowdown is enough to make streaming of TV buffer. Now, being new to fibre, is this to be expected as more people in the village switch to fibre or is it symptomatic of a problem in the exchange or further afield? Any advice gratefully received.

Ooops, forgot to add, TV is streamed from computer connected by cat5 cable to router.

17 REPLIES 17
MauriceC
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Re: Congestion or something else?

@MatthewWheeler  Can you add this case to the ongoing investigation into evening slowdown please.

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MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎01-01-2012

Re: Congestion or something else?

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

I can see your exchange was having capacity issues back on the 4th but we've been advised this is now sorted.

Are you still seeing issues>

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 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
Caerefail
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

Thanks for the response @MatthewWheeler. Yes, the dip in speed still seems to be happening, I've attached the Sam Knows graphs for the last 7 days. Most of the time it isn't a problem but sometimes the speed must drop low enough that it causes buffering when we are streaming a programme. Even so, after years of 4Mb ADSL, it's still a lot faster (although I did get an 8Mb download speed testing one evening!)

Is this something that is expected or is it symptomatic of a wider issue? We see OR engineers at the cab and groundhole which feeds it nearly every day Sad, although this could be just because everyone in the village is switching to FTTC Grin

Edited to add additional chart.

MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Congestion or something else?

The drops in speeds aren't that high if I'm honest compared to others that I've seen.

Was anything else running at the time your SamKnows boxes are logging data?

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 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
Caerefail
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

I appreciate that most of the drops aren't too bad, just wanted to know if this is what I should expect. As I've indicated in my earlier posts, up until 10pm we could be streaming TV but after 10pm, nothing else will be using the line (unless Windows is doing updates!)  However, I can say categorically that nothing else was running on Saturday 3rd, when the graph shows really bad speed fluctuations,as I was the only person in the house and for a change was watching terrestrial TV using Freesat.

Really I was just wondering why it had got so much worse.

 

MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Congestion or something else?

I can see the 3rd showed as bad according to our suppliers data but it has been fine since.

Drops in 2 to 3mbps aren't to be unexpected especially if there are things downloading in the background that you're not aware of such as Windows Updates for example.

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 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
Caerefail
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

OK, I'll carry on monitoring, but some of these drops are much larger than 2-3 Mbps Wink

I've attached the graph for the last two nights - last night was ok, although still showing a slight dip but the dip the previous night was a good 7 Mb. 

OR were in the cab and groundhole again yesterday Roll_eyes

Anyway, speeds on average are fine, will keep an eye on things and update this post if necessary. It was useful to find out that indeed there was some congestion - I will wait to see if it is really sorted.

Caerefail
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

SamKnows graph of download yesterday. The speed dropped significantly last night, and we were not streaming TV or doing anything else on our network after 8pm. 

2-3 Mb drop is acceptable, but obviously there is congestion somewhere that is affecting download speed when it drops by nearly 10Mb - you can tell it was a Friday night with bad weather!!

@MatthewWheeler - is this level of drop acceptable and is it what we should be expecting? If so, I can't say that I'm very impressed. We only got FTTC in the village last November and it's beginning to look very much as if OR failed to cater for the level of take up - or is the problem elsewhere in the network or with PlusNet themselves?

Caerefail
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

Yet another graph Roll_eyes

Looking at this, it looks like something happened around January 22nd 2018 that tipped the system over the edge - or else someone has messed something up!

Caerefail
Rising Star
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Re: Congestion or something else?

@MatthewWheeler Yet another graph Roll_eyes (sorry!)

If OR are supposed to have fixed the congestion on the 3rd February, it doesn't look very good! 

Caerefail
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

Final update for the moment. As the graph shows, there is still a drop in download speed between 8 and 10 pm every evening but at 4 Mb ish, this is well liveable. Hopefully it will stay as it's been over the last week Wink

Caerefail
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Registered: ‎07-09-2015

Re: Congestion or something else?

Latest update; after just over a week of no real peak time drop in speed, in the last week I've started to see some big drops again around 8 to 10 pm, last night it dropped by 10Mb - and we weren't using the computers at all Sad

@MatthewWheeler, @Gandalf I know these drops aren't major compared with the problems that some people have, but should we really be seeing this? The cab became active in our village November last year, is only about 40m from the house and can't have that many subscribers as there are only 40 properties in the village with a similar number of outlying farms. Does the problem lie further away in the main exchange? 

 

LaurenB
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Congestion or something else?

Hi there @Caerefail

 

Testing the line suggests that there is again high VLAN utilization in the exchange.

 

I have raised this to our suppliers and we will let you know once we know more.

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 Lauren Barry
 Plusnet Help Team
Arabdeen
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Re: Congestion or something else?

That’s around the date that our evening slowdown started - Jan 22nd.