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Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

AdrianRoberts
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎21-09-2015

Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Hi,
I am happy to say that I have an FTTC connection as of a couple of weeks ago and during the day it is great: around 55-60 down and 15-18 up. My problem is that after around 5 or 6 pm, the down speed often drops to 5 or 6 mbps and sometimes as low as 2 or even less.  Cry That doesn't really make the things fibre is good for (streaming, downloading TV catch-up, etc.) viable.
Is this something that could be considered "normal"? It's seem likely to be something to do with contention, but as I live in a small rural village and we have a brand new cabinet, tsuch huge speed drops don't seem right.
Is there anything that can be checked, or anything I can do to find the cause and (hopefully) a solition?
Adrian
P.S. these speeds are via ethernet connection to the Hub One router.
24 REPLIES 24
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

The FTTC in your cabinet will not be connected to your village exchange but to a 'head exchange' which is probably in a nearby town and it' will almost certainly be that which is overloaded.
Run a BT diagnostic speed test when it is going slow and make sure you don't run another when it is going fast so that the last test BT see is below the acceptable speed.
Then raise a speed fault at http://faults.plus.net
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
AdrianRoberts
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎21-09-2015

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

OK, thanks for that.
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

I've also noticed how slow my FTTC connection gets at peak times during the evening.
It often drops to around 3Mbps which is no better than we got, at that time, with adsl.( We have 40/2 and get 36Mbps in morning)
As we are about 350 metres from cabinet I've put it down to demand.
We watch a lot of " on demand" services using Roku HDMI Stick and overall our viewing hasn't been seriously affected.
Does, however, make adverts seem a joke.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Have you raised a fault?
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
Andrue
Pro
Posts: 775
Thanks: 90
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎12-01-2015

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Try running the Thinkbroadband test. See if there's a disparity between single and multithreaded download tests.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Have raised a fault so will see what happens  Cool
A 90% variation is rather extreme - 36Mbps to below 4Mbps
Connection seems perfectly stable.
Plusnet Hub One is plugged straight into master socket
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=145613165216728692890
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

We need to see the tbb speed test when it's running slow please.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Andrue
Pro
Posts: 775
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Registered: ‎12-01-2015

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Well it's not the single threaded issue so probably just boring ol' congestion somewhere. Given we don't have many complaints here I'd assume it's fairly local to you. Your exchange most likely. I can't see it being the cabinet links back to the exchange as they are new (and anyway BT can easily upgrade them) but I can believe that BT failed to upgrade the exchange backhaul. Where is your nearest town?
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

If you haven't already done so, you need to run a BT diagnostic speed test when it is running slow.
If you are asked to run another test only run it when you know it is slow otherwise they'll take a test run in the morning at normal speed as it's fixed and BT will close the fault!
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Even slower  Cry
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=145617209231971580464
LU7 2TX on Leighton Buzzard, Beds ( nearby code)
Speed even slower than I got with adsl during evenings
Only things I have currently connected is this laptop and my mobile phone.
So much for super fast fibre  Angry
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Are you using a wired or wireless connection to the router?
If it's wireless you need to test wired to rule out local interference with the Wifi.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Not possible at present but problem exists on 2.4 and 5Ghz
Just added this to ticket
Your service was found to be performing poorly.
Please raise a fault with your service provider, stating that the BT Performance Tester tool indicates poor service throughput performance after the third test.
Download speedachieved during the test was - 1.85 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 20 Mbps-38.67 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 38.67 Mbps

Andrue
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Registered: ‎12-01-2015

Re: Is this normal / acceptable, or a problem that can be fixed?

Quote from: nadger
Not possible at present but problem exists on 2.4 and 5Ghz
Then it may not be possible for anyone to progress this further. Wifi is simply not reliable enough at any frequency for people to take connection performance issues seriously.
Why is it not possible? All you need is an Ethernet cable to connect your laptop to the router.