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Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

Brackley
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎29-05-2016

Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

New customer.

Joined 9 days ago and was happily getting 35mbps on a 38mbps tariff. I was previously getting 37.5 from BT as our house is practically on top of the junction box. Plusnet joining email said I should get between 41 and 41 and was currently getting 39.

Yesterday I noticed things slowing down and started to run some speed tests. Speed had dropped to around 20 but at around 5pm when Sheff Wed kicked off at Wembley it plummeted to 4 and even 0.7 at one point. Stayed down for the duration of the game. Lo and behold after the game it went back up to 35.

Today the exact same thing , getting around 35 until Barnsley kick off at Wembley and whoosh down to 5. Stayed down for the duration and once again at full time back up to 35.

Is this deliberate Plusnet?

If this is Plusnet policy then it is no good for me when I want to watch football over internet and can't get anywhere near the advertised speed when a match is being played.

What are my rights?  Is there a cooling off period in which I can return to BT who might be more expensive but at present appear to infinitely more reliable.

 

12 REPLIES 12
Andrue
Pro
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

First off, it's unlikely to be anything that Plusnet are doing. They aren't that kind of ISP and have plenty of capacity in their network. Bottlenecks if/when they occur are usually in the local loop and the responsibility of BT Wholesale. They usually get addressed pretty quickly and in any case will affect you almost regardless of which ISP you are with.

 

So the correct way to proceed with this is to assume that it's a fault. So first off are you accessing the internet using a wired or wireless connection? Secondly what results do you get with this speed test. About now is a great time to test as we're entering peak time on the busiest evening of the week on a long weekend. It would also be useful if you ran the official BT test (although personally I don't find it very accurate and it doesn't do the single thread v. multi-thread test that the TBB one does).

Brackley
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎29-05-2016

Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

Thanks Andrue.

That's the two speed test sites I've been using. I phoned yesterday to complain and have done a few BT tests which Plusnet engineers can see. I'm currently waiting on them getting back to me. I've got around 30 or so tests at various times saved on a profile on the thinkbroadband site. These results seem to have 3 averages. One group results in 34 ish when things are fine , another around 20 ish for whatever reason and the aforementioned 4 ish when the football is on. I do live in South Yorkshire so you may be right in a localised issue but is a drop from 34 to 4 normal or an acceptable drop in terms of what the provider promises.

I've just run another test on the thinkbroadband site ( 6pm Sunday night) and it returns 34.67 so nothing untoward there. 

I'm using a wireless connection to the router and all I did to install the Plusnet router was to unplug the BT router and using the same cables connect the Plusnet router so everything is completely the same other than the router itself.

I can accept that being wireless will explain the drop from the possible 41 down to 34 but not the drop to 4.

(memo to self: must run a speed test with the laptop wired to the router)

Andrue
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?


@Brackley wrote:

Thanks Andrue.

I can accept that being wireless will explain the drop from the possible 41 down to 34 but not the drop to 4.

(memo to self: must run a speed test with the laptop wired to the router)


That does sound pretty extreme. I suppose if you were surrounded by football fans all watching via wireless that might cause a big drop with all the interference but I agree that it's unlikely. For more clarity can you explain how you determined that the speed had dropped to 4Mb/s while the football was on? I'm assuming that you experienced some kind of picture issue that led you to test the connection speed. Did you pause the football when you ran that test?

I hope I'm not stating the obvious but if you run a speed test while streaming video you will get a worse result reported. However what might not be so obvious is that if you merely pause the game a set top box will continue to stream to the hard disk (if it has one) in the background. Mind you even then at 34Mb/s I would expect your speed test to be well over 20Mb/s with the video stream running.

It'll be interesting to see what other replies you get. Ultimately getting out of a bad deal within the cooling off period is your choice but it'd be good to ensure that it isn't a fault otherwise it might follow you to your next ISP leaving you no better off and wasting time. Do your TBB tests run both thread versions? There was an issue around this time last year (several months in fact) where some users (including me occasionally) noticed that the single threaded test returned very poor results. I think this was fixed late last year but even PN couldn't absolutely confirm that.

 

And nice username by the way. I live in Brackley Cheesy

Anoush
Aspiring Hero
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Registered: ‎22-08-2015

Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

Hello there. Not at the office at the moment, so I can't see your account, but I'd recommend testing via a wired connection to see if you experience the same speed drops. If you don't then to fix a wifi issue, you can change the wireless channel in the router settings page. Routers choose channels automatically, so it may be that the channel your plusnet router has chosen is clashing with those of other available wifi networks nearby.

 

(Could also try unsyncing the 5 Ghz network from the 2.4 Ghz, and renaming the SSID of the 5 Ghz network, so you'll be able to connect to a possibly more reliable wifi network).

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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ScottStorey
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

That's not how WiFi works Anoush.

Renaming the SSID will achieve nothing. The vast majority of devices will auto select 5GHz over 2.4GHz. Auto channel selection works on selecting the least congested channel. The old technicolors were shocking for automatically doing that, the newer hub one is alright.

As Andrue has said it is extremely unlikely to be a Plusnet network issue, there is plenty of capacity and the way the traffic prioritisation works it would prioritise things like streaming, local congestion makes perfect sense with the matches that were on around that time.

It's also possible that there is an actual connection fault and you've only noticed it as the football was on and you were watching it.

It's worth trying it on a wired connection over this weekend to see what happens and see if you get the same issue just to rule out the wireless but from what you have said so far I'd say that is pretty unlikely.
Brackley
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎29-05-2016

Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

I didn't realise pausing would still stream but I did know I had to close down everything to get a true reading so I closed down completely everything including  the website I was watching from , so yes , nothing was running when I did the checks.

Your answer would appear to confirm my thoughts that such a drop in speed would not be normal even with heavy traffic.

 

Oh..... I lived in Brackley for about 3 years back in 2005 when I was working in Banbury, hence the name.

Anoush
Aspiring Hero
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?


@ScottStorey wrote:

Renaming the SSID will achieve nothing.

Renaming the 5 Ghz SSID will enable it to be selected as an available network.

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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npr
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

Which BT router do you have?

THe HH5A is the same as the PN one but if it's the HH5B then it may be worth using that in place of the PN one.

Are you saying you didn't have this issue when using BT?  Shocked

Plusnet are in the process of moving customers to their new network, from all account that's much the same as the BT network you previously used.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Plusnet-Feedback/Plusnet-New-Network/td-p/1300536

If you post the result from the gateway checker someone will be able to tell you which network you're on.

http://usertools.plus.net/@gateway/

If you're still on the old network, then next time you have the problem it may be worth changing your gateway to see if that improves things.

Using the disconnect / connect button in the routers GUI should change gateways, don't reboot -- do that too often and it may cause the DLM to reduce the sync speed.

 

 

Andrue
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?


@Brackley wrote:

Oh..... I lived in Brackley for about 3 years back in 2005 when I was working in Banbury, hence the name.


And left such a nice impression on you. Awwww Smiley

Brackley
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎29-05-2016

Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

BT router is HH4a.

Did I have this issue with BT? Good question. 

An odd time I did get a bad link which I put down to a dodgy site rather than BT's fault so maybe.

Any checks I did do with BT gave around 37 as a speed but as I have recently moved from BT I'm a bit sensitive to speeds at the moment hence the more regular checks.

My real question is would it be considered "normal" to experience such a drop in speed without good reason.

The last three checks on the attachment were done with wifi off and connected by cable direct from router to PC.

As you can see, no real difference.

 

SpendLessTime
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Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

My real question is would it be considered "normal" to experience such a drop in speed without good reason.

No, is the simple answer. 

 

The hard bit is finding the cause.

 

You could try going back to the Home Hub 4 , instructions to set up given here https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Use-a-BT-Hub-2-3-4-or-5-on-a-Plusnet-connection/m-p/11...

 

At least then you can take the Plusnet hardware out of the equation.

 

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
Brackley
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎29-05-2016

Re: Is this deliberate Plusnet ?

Uopdate:

Plusnet done some tests and now want to send in an engineer.

Credit where credit's due, I've been impressed with the customer services and the way I've been kept informed.

 

Point worth noting for others if your'e asked to do 3 BT speedchecks and forward them to Plusnet.

I was told they can only see the last one that is sent so my test showing 4mbps on Sunday has been superceded by the 31mbps last night. If you "grab" a low speedcheck then don't do any more. I do have the thinkbroadband checks saved showing the fluctuations so I can at least back up my figures.

 

Fingers crossed now they don't find fault in my equipment or it's a £50 charge.