Netflix streaming issue

[#1]

Hi there, this issue seems to be worse than ever. When watching something on netflix its takes around 3-5 minutes before whatever im watching streams in 1080. Ive contacted netflix and assured its at plusnets side, I've also tried my kit elsewhere and works fine. Also something while in the middle of watching something the streaming has dropped to 320p, is there anyway plusnet could stop throttling my connection at the start of programs as its very annoying.

[#2]

Sorry to hear you're having problems streaming.

We don't throttle your speed. Testing your line is showing your router in sync at a decent speed...

Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	54.9 Mbps
Upstream Speed	10.0 Mbps

Are you using a wireless or wired connection?

Anoush

[#3]

Hi there, its using wireless, the router is about 2 meters away. Its not a wireless issue as no matter the program after around 3-5 mins its running fine. Its the start of every single program. I cant stream 4K content from youtube fine on the same tv, its as if something is going on with netflix, I did contact them and they advised it was your isp who was doing this to the stream.

[#4]

Sorry to hear that.

Wireless signal can be affected by multiple factors.

Any chance of trying a wired connection so that we can determine if the issue lies with the WiFi or something else?

Anoush

[#5]

Hi there, I tried with a network cable and it made no difference. I work in IT so pretty clued up. To be honest im not 100% where the issue lies. Amazon seems to be better, takes a bit of time but nowhere near what netflix does. I've seen netflix run at under 480p and cannot understand why, seems to take an age to get up to speed and reach 1080p sometimes it doesnt and I just stop watching. Only think I can say is that its def not a wireless issue. Its either an issue with the netflix app or traffic management from plusnet which i know you guys will say is not.

[#6]

We've removed traffic management from our currently sold products so that's not the reason for this. When you're experiencing these issues what kind of speeds are you getting on speedtests? -Chris

[#7]

Hi Tolmie (and Plusnet),

I've started to notice buffering issues to, I first saw the issue Sunday 2nd July 2017.  I'm based in Bristol, where are you?  My Plusnet internet was working perfectly back March this year with no dropped packets and very few latency issues but since three weeks ago I noticed buffering issues, 02/07/17, the latency can be anywhere from 20msec to 750msec and some network packet loss.  What date did your issues start?  

I suggest you go onto www.thinkbroadband.com and choose Tools -> Broadband Quality Monitoring and setup a graph.  Below is my graph hopefully it has displayed ok on this forum if not I've also attached as a picture, as you can see there is lots of yellow and a bit of red which isn't what I was getting back in March 2017, so not good.  I also had a dig around the internet and came across this news article (ISPReview.co.uk) on June 30th about Plusnet changing it's traffic management on 28 & 29 June 2017 which coincides with the date I noticed the issues soon started, coincidence maybe or maybe not, only Plusnet will know.  

I'm sure Plusnet engineers are genuinely trying make their network perform better but for some reason my network connection has decreased in performance over the last couple of mouths and would hope Plusnet engineers are keen to get these issues resolved for us both and get the broadband back to what it was.  Over to you Tolmie and Plusnet?

[#8]

Testing your line isn't showing any issues.

Are you using a wired or wireless connection? And, what are your speed test results like?

Cheers

[#9]

Hi Gandalf,

Thanks for coming back to me.  

I don't think you are understanding what the thinkbroadband graph is showing you, the thinkbroadband website does explain but I will try and help.  The Thinkbroadband tool sends a ping (a tiny packet of data) out from their own website to my router every few minutes and records the time to reply in the graph.  So a ping is all happening on the internet side of the router.  Not the house side as your questions imply.

Your questions:

1) Whether I use a wired or wireless connection only applies on the none internet side of the router, plus it isn't my computer sending out the ping as it is coming from an industry recognised quality website on the internet.  

2) Your other question about speed, I'm not saying there is an issue with speed, the issue is with network latency.  So when for instance streaming a video say for instance on Youtube the video player will request the next packet of video data from the Youtube server the requests are sometimes getting delayed anything up to 750mseconds or occasionally lost and therefore the video momentarily freezes.  So hence why I setup the thinkbroadband graph as it measures how bad the delays are which is shown by all the yellow you can see on the graph.  When working correctly the yellow should be as you see between the hours of 2am and 4am mainly a flat yellow line with a spike once in a while and that was how my Plusnet line used to be back in March and 24 hours a day.

On the face of it looks like Tolmie has the same issue, network latency issue which is why his Netflix isn't streaming well.

As this is quite a technical issue you might want to consider escalating this ticket to a specialist in network latency issues.

Kind regards,

Alex

[#10]

The ping graph isn't showing any major issues.

If the minimum latency was high I'd be worries but the maximum and average will be higher due to the connection being used as the router will prioritise passing traffic rather then ping requests .

Have you tried just watching Netflix with nothing running in the background?

[#11]

Hi Matthew (and the Team Leader),

Thanks for coming back to me.

While I agree with you it isn't a major network issue, we can still use the internet, as I pointed out earlier, and so did Tolmie, that the Plusnet internet connection isn't performing as well as it did, in my case in March, it is having some impact on our experience of using your service.

I'm slightly pleased with your response as we are making some progress, on the upside we all now recognise the issue I'm drawing you attention to is long network latency and what it is.  However on the downside Plusnet come across as uninterested in customer feedback that we are trying to tell you the performance of our internet connections has been degraded in the last few months.  Something nice like 'thank you for taking time to bring to our attention and we were aware/ not aware'.

Let's start with your responses, "The ping graph isn't showing any major issues."  the graph is showing long latency times over 100 milliseconds at different times of the day, over 100 milliseconds latency is what Virgin customers are complaining to  BBC Watchdog about at the moment and the Virgin representative said it was not acceptable and want to improve it.

Unlike Virgin your comment suggests you and Plusnet are not interested in improving it.

Your next statement "If the minimum latency was high I'd be worries but the maximum and average will be higher due to the connection being used as the router will prioritise passing traffic rather then ping requests ."  Have you got any evidence to back up this claim, the router is so busy that the pings are being delayed because my router is busy dealing with other data.  I know the answer is no because if you had you will see some pings that are getting the long latency and when the router is idle.  As we both know when trying to solve IT problems we can only work on specific facts and my comments I have tried to give your team specific facts where I can to help.  So to reinforce the point the router is not busy here is a tracert:

If the router was overloaded with work as you state then it wouldn't be responding to 192.168.1.1 in 1-2 milliseconds in the scenario you explained.

To help you I found the router Plusnet kindly supplied, Hub One, which is a very good ISP router still wasn't fast enough so I purchased a Netgear D7000, I did ask Plusnet if I could purchase a faster router but I was told they didn't have one any quicker than the Hub One.

The statement "Have you tried just watching Netflix with nothing running in the background?" I don't have Netflix I saw the buffering issue when watching Channel4.  My household has three other professional people using the Plusnet internet including one gamer and we have all noticed the internet isn't performing as well as it used to in March.

FAO The Team Leader,

We have now identified the issue we are raising is long network latency I don't understand why a standard set of procedures would step in and then followed with your team.  I'm sure you have many customers complaining of latency issues and many without substance.  The first thing I would expect Plusnet to do is supply me with the Service Level Agreement on latency issues, and the Ofcom rules on this subject or at a minimum offer it.  I can then digest this and if I still think I have a case then I will get back to you.  If I feel I do then the next step would be to confirm my statement that the issue is on the internet side of the router, in otherwords is the issue within your jurisdiction.  Now Gandalf said he checked my internet line but the impression I got was the testing took less than thirty minutes of which this type of issue takes days to monitor before any conclusion can be made, I'm surprised this isn't all automated and taking your engineer just a few minutes to setup and run.  After say ten days of monitoring the program analyses the results and decides whether it meets the SLA and a person needs to investigate further or not, and produces a report.  A copy of the report is then sent to the customer and what action will be taken on the matter even if it is none and the reasons, and the other options I have. 

Plusnet, like most customers Tolmie and myself have taken time out of our day to point out an issue to Plusnet, I and I'm sure Tolmie would prefer to be doing something else, our time is unpaid while we read, investigate and write these responses and get you the information, as where you and your team are being paid while you read and reply, and these are all opportunities for Plusnet to learn and improve rather than waiting for the problems to blow up in the press as what has happened to Virgin with Watchdog or referred to Ofcom, don't be like other ISPs please be better and set new industry standards.  

So please can someone supply me with the SLA for Plusnet and Ofcom guidelines over long latency issues and a clearly defined structured process on dealing with this type of issue?

Many thanks, kind regards,

Alex Padgett

[#12]

Hi Alex,

As Matthew's previously advised, the ping graph isn't showing any issues. Whether you're using a WiFi connection, or you're hardwired to the router using an ethernet cable is quite important?

EDIT: I've discussed this with our network team. To investigate further, we need a wireshark of your connection. I've raised this ticket on to your account with steps that explain how to do that.

Let us know once you've done that.

[#13]

@MrAlex

Out of curiosity what speed are you synced at?

Just for comparing your graph to what I see post QOS switch off. With a 67/20 sync my spikes don't make it above 80ms. If I didn't do upstream QOS my self, albeit depending on modem, I could get bigger spikes from uploads.

[#14]

Hi Legume,

The package I'm on is the Plusnet 40/10, unfortunately I'm too far from the street cabinet to be any faster.  The Hub One router syncs around 38-34 and 8-7 upload.  The Netgear router syncs 36-32.5 and 8.5-7.5 upload. The time of year seems to impact the sync so warmer the weather the lower the sync.  

Cheers.

[#15]

Hi, @MrAlex your graph looks like that because your upload appears to be maxing.  This will mean any upstream replies may be delayed causing latency spikes.  I'm going to get some clarification on your account because it looks like a previous recontract action has not put you on the correct account type meaning your upload is slower than it should be.   We'll be in touch.