Replaced noisy Plusnet router, lost speed.

[#1]

Hi,

I have been using the supplied Plusnet router and my line had been stable for 33 days before resetting, I have slowly gone down from 70 to 68Mbps and after the latest drop I was at 67Mbps. However on my PC which is wired gigabit I was only ever getting 55Mbps as my top speed with no other devices connected.

As the above issue was going on I was also getting complaints about a noise in the lounge where the router is located, it’s intermittent but annoying for people when watching Netflix etc. Well it’s the router and I can see that it has been mentioned before multiple times on the forums and has come back as within tolerances. It sounds like a hard drive spinning and that’s what I thought it was for a decent amount of time. 

I have now plugged in my Draytek Vigor 130 modem > Netgear R7800, so the noise has gone but according to BT Wholesale I am now connected at 64Mbps which seems to be around 3Mbps slower. I also have my original BT Openreach modem, is there a modem that is better suited to an ECI cabinet? 

[#2]

@Yorkshirelion 

BT used two makes of modem One made by ECI and the other Huawei. You could try it to see if it's any better. A bit back I did some playing and my old Huawei modem synchronised to my local Huawei fibre cabinet slower than a more modern BT Smarthub 6.

Do not confuse the synch speed with actual throughput the download speed will always be lower. In terms of synch speed I have lost 9Mbps over the last few years. This I put down to the increase in the number of neighbours taking up broadband plus the increased use of streaming services. These all increase crosstalk and slow connections.

Have you checked that you are getting the best speed possible with your wired test by using the test socket? You access this by taking the front off the BT master socket, you may need to remove two screws first. Having taken the front plate off plug  a filter into the test socket located in the back and repeat the speed test.

There is no connection between noisy routers and speed.

[#3]

Hi @Yorkshirelion,

As @Baldrick1 has suggested there isn't a direct correlation between your speed and the amount of noise that the router is making. The Hub One router we supply can be quite noisy during usage, though this is to be expected and won't negatively affect your experience.

Coincidentally, I have tested your line today and your speeds are on the verge of the lower end of the estimated speeds. I would recommend setting your router up within the test socket and testing the speeds from your end of things via an Ethernet cable to see if there's been any improvement. For reference, we have a guide on how to set the router up within the test socket here.

[#4]

Thank you both for the replies, I may have explained it poorly but I did realise that the noise issue wasn’t affecting my speed, it’s more annoying that anything as it’s very noticeable. 

I will try the test socket tomorrow but I don’t run extensions and the socket is pretty new so I’m not expecting any gains. 

I am currently using my original BT Openreach modem;

Draytek Vigor 130 - 64.21Mbps

BT Openreach modem - 64.04Mbps

I will try the Plusnet router, then the test socket tomorrow, I’m not sure what my maximum linespeed is with the Openreach modem as I cannot see the line stats. 

[#5]

@Yorkshirelion 

Which BT modem do you have? If you're lucky its a Huawei HG612, which can be unlocked see. https://kitz.co.uk/routers/hg612unlock.htm This will give you full access to all your stats. 

If you get better performance from your noisy Hub One I suggest that you go onto EBay and get a BT Smarthub 6. They are going for less than £20 these days, under £10 if you're lucky. These are a step up from the Hub One, which is an old Home Hub 5a with tweeked software. The performance of the Smarthub is better and they are silent. Setting instructions are here  https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-the-BT-Smarthub-6-on-a-Plusnet-Account/m-p/1587673#M85...

[#6]

Hi again,

The test socket didn’t have any impact,

Plusnet router without test socket - Data Rate 20000 / 67385 Maximum 21692 / 67505

Plusnet router with test socket - Data Rate 20000 / 67492 Maximum 21172 / 67673

My current solution was to put my Netgear R7800 into AP mode and turn off the wireless, after testing the Plusnet router isn’t making any noise now the WiFi is off. 

In doing so I have now lost speed however as the DLM must have kicked in due to the disconnects, I have included a picture of my current stats. I think that I will leave it this way now, the line sync will slowly degrade over time as that is what happens for some reason, usually every time it resyncs after a period of time I lose 1-2Mbps for some reason.

[#7]

@Yorkshirelion 

Your SNR is quite high considering that you are obviously fairly close to your fibre cabinet. Unless you are synching at the full 80 Mbps or more (which you're not) it should ideally be closer to 3dB

If the SNR doesn't improve, never mind get worse, it could be worth doing a quiet line test. Just plug a standard wired phone in, dial 17070 then select option 2.

If there's any background noise report a phone, not broadband fault.

[#8]

@Baldrick1 Thanks again for the reply, I am on a ECI cabinet so I’m not sure they go down as low as 3dB but I could be wrong, they don’t have g.inp either. I am pretty close to the cabinet like you say. 

I have no noise coming through the phone when I try the quiet line test. 

[#9]

Just out of interest how long will it take before the DLM releases my line back to the best it can be? Will it have to be stable for a certain amount of days. I’m not going to disconnect now I have finished testing. 

[#10]

It will certainly have to remain stable for a while before it takes any action. How long for this automatic process to kick in is variable. It's best to just leave it be with no supply or connection interruptions.