DLM and Fibre problem - little help please

[#1]

No problem @DocDelete Initially the connection profile dropped on your account to 21mbps for some reason when your upgrade to fibre extra went through on the 14th August and Matt then fixed that on the 20th August.

It then dropped again on the 1st October with no visible causes for this unfortunately, although I'd suspect it may have been part of the above issue and the profile change was queued up in a backend system and went through then.

Hopefully that's the end of it now and you don't get this issue again, but feel free to let us know if you do have any further issues. Apologies for the inconvenience we've caused.

[#2]

Me again @Gandalf - broadband throughput has dropped to below 1Mbps for the last 30 minutes. Am monitoring. A router restart hasn't helped. Top value noted <5Mbps. Lowest value 0.35Mbps. Biased towards sub 1Mbps for most of the time. Ping is a massive 123ms, it's normally around 12ms.

Connection still says 75Mbps.

Are there any maintenance issues?

[#3]

Hi @DocDelete,

Everything looks spot on with the GEA - While no profile is showing on the GEA it's correctly set at 80/20 we've checked. 

I can see earlier you noted you have an automated programme that intermittently tests the line from a wired connection, I wonder if this is able to output into a graph format that you'd be able to share?

[#4]

Thanks @JOLO - yeah, it was stupidly slow last night. Right now I'm showing the usual tea-time slowdown but today it's not just a dip, we're talking 50%.

I've just set up the auto tester (again) and will run out over the next 48 hours.

[#5]

No worries @DocDelete, let us know once you have it generated. 

[#6]

Hi @JOLO 

Here are some screengrabs of the data. I didn't move quickly enough to capture the data that shows the sub 1mbps problem.

Pic 01 shows the tail end of that, as things started to recover (slowly).

Pic 02 shows a typical day, with patchy performance throughout, kicking off at 5am - hardly peak traffic time? This also shows a nasty but typical slowdown in the evening.

Pic 03 shows the spread over a few days.

The kind of variance shown is similar to that experienced some months ago, and it got worse. The final fix was shifting me to a less warm VLAN.

Thoughts please!

[#7]

Hi DocDelete, the best thing to do if speeds continue to drop below the MGALS estimates would be to raise a fault with us at http://faults.plus.net as that would likely mean that we'd need to look at our options avaialbe with Openreach engineer intervention. 

[#8]

Hi @adamwalker @JOLO @Gandalf @MatthewWheeler 

The level for my line appears to be 50.9Mbps, and I've seen plenty of speeds lower than that - BUT! Over what time period? Does a sporadic drop to 2Mbps for, say, 30 minutes, qualify?

And, this is what my account page says - why 'not available'?

Your broadband service
Product: Unlimited Fibre Extra
Estimated Download Range: Not available
Estimated Upload Range: Not available
Minimum Guaranteed Speed: 50.9Mbps
Current Line Speed (Download): 71Mbps

[#9]

Hi @DocDelete As a general guide, the threshold for an intermittent connection is 3 drops in 24 hours or 6 drops in 72 hours. I've checked the S-VLAN data and there's no congestion or over-utilisation which may cause this.

While I remember diagnostics not showing an issue with this almost two years ago until we pushed for a S-VLAN move based on suspicions which turned out to be correct, the diagnostics tool has since been for want of a better word, fixed.

If you're not seeing a throughput of around 70mbps on an ethernet connection with no other devices using the broadband at the time of running the test, I think it'd be worth raising a fault so we can arrange an engineer to investigate further.

I've had a look into your account and to be honest I can't explain why there's no speed estimate showing there, however as this is drawn straight from the BT Broadband Availability Checker, or at least should be (Might not be in real-time when it does show), I'd recommend checking your estimates Here.

Let us know how it goes.

[#10]

Thanks @Gandalf - attached a PDF of the result. I'm not sure anything new is gleaned from this.

Moderators Note: Personal information removed from attachment.

[#11]

Thanks for getting back to us @DocDelete 

It shows the expectations of your line, if your download speeds are consistently lower than this on an ethernet connection, I’d say that it needs a fault raising for further investigation. 

[#12]

Well, all I can do in that case is set my laptop to burn electricity constantly for a couple of weeks over Christmas, to see if I can catch proof of these drops as a regular occurence. I have a sinking feeling that whatever brown-outs I experience they will fall short of the complaint threshold.

[#13]

Hi @DocDelete

Just to comment briefly specifically and only on the usage of an automated software tool such as those used in this instance, and others like them, as an interested party:

Whatever may apparently be detected in such a manner that appears to indicate a sporadic drop in throughput is at best probably only inconclusive as there can be numerous factors involved beyond what Plusnet are responsible for. Such testing is therefore in and of itself likely inherently flawed.

There is a solution however. If you would like to lend some support towards getting something resolved, I have started a specific topic here.

[#14]

Yes @JJM well ,whatever the flaws inherent in using an unauthorised third party utility that connects to an arbitrary IP, it's better than nothing.

I'm also at pains to emphasise that the complaint does not originate with the use of the monitoring software. Far from it, the complaint arises from perceived and obvious connections issues /while in actual use/. Typically, but not limited to, slow website page renders (akin to dial-up speeds) and unreliable streaming of media (standard definition, nothing fancy). It's only after experiencing evenings like this that I then fire up the monitoring software to put shape to the poor reliability.

But to be clear, when I was on a hot VLAN it was much worse, but I'm now far more aware of trying to nip these problems in the bud.

Latterly, the main problem with my line has been the repeated error with my account profile - and that's nothing to do with a connection issue.