Slow Speed after renewing Oct 2020

[#1]

folks,

I've been with plusnet for a few years, simply because I just needed a no-frills fast connection. I was paying £18.99 (Fibre extra) for 2 years which ended this month Oct 2020.  Now paying £25 for 24 months...

I was getting between 53mbps to 60mbps downloads. 

Downstream:	42.05 Mbps
Upstream:	18.08 Mbps

I renewed (fibre extra) and I am now getting below 40mbps (This is below my guaranteed speed). The router never syncs above 42mbps. Tech support did the "troubleshooting" and it waiting for another team to take a look. I refused to take responsibility of the £65 charge for an engineer call out just in case it's not on their end.

I've got plenty of Speedtest.com result history showing speeds above 55mbps. I did the https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ and the additional diagnostics said something about IP Profiling 40mbps. When I rerun the test i no longer get full results.

Any ideas?

[#2]

Managed to get the test results:

Advance Test
Download Test
Download speed achieved during the test was 39.18 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 40 - 40.7 Mbps
IP Profile for your line is 40.7 Mbps
39.18 Mbps
40.7 Mbps
Upload Test
Upload speed achieved during the test was 16.82 Mbps
IP Profile for your line is 20 Mbps
16.82 Mbps
20 Mbps

---

Any ideas on why I am getting low speeds compared to before? I feel like I am no longer on the upto 70mbps profile.

[#3]

@sahimmiah 

An upstream profile of 20Mbps confirms that you are on the 80/20 service so either your line is banded, there is a fault on the line or it's a problem that's your responsibility.

What tests have you completed? For example have you done a quiet line test and a wired speed test when connected to the test socket?

These tests should show pretty conclusively whether the fault is your responsibility

If a Plusnet staffer comes along maybe they will do a GEA test to see if the line is banded.

At the end of the day unless you accept the £65 caveat you are unlikely to get Openreach to look at the fault.

[#4]

What is the Downstream noise margin reported by your hub?  (Perhaps it is significantly higher than the normal 6dB figure)

If you are using microfilter, have you tried your hub directly connected to the hidden engineer's test socket within the BT master socket with a new microfilter?

[#5]

Hello,

1. I've reset the router to factory
2. Tested using the test socket
3. Master socket just has the microfilter to the router
4. Put a new microfilter today
5. PC is connected via ethernet and is the primary device

Not sure how to view SNR on this plusnet router. Any tips on how to view this?

Lastly, before Oct, I was getting way above 50-60mbps, don't discount this. Nothing has changed in the house.

--

. Product name: Plusnet Hub
2. Serial number: +081441*****
3. Firmware version: Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.263 Last updated Unknown
4. Board version: Plusnet Hub One
5. DSL uptime: 0 days, 04:56:29
6. Data rate: 17994 / 42051
7. Maximum data rate: 18014 / 68637
8. Noise margin: 6.4 / 13.0
9. Line attenuation: 22.0 / 17.5
10. Signal attenuation: 21.5 / 17.5
11. Data sent/received: 309.1 MB / 4.3 GB
12. Broadband username: ****
13. 2.4 GHz Wireless network/SSID: ***
14. 2.4 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))
15. 2.4 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
16. 2.4 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
17. 5 GHz Wireless network/SSID: ***
18. 5 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 a/n/ac (up to 1300 Mb/s))
19. 5 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
20. 5 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
21. Firewall: Default
22. MAC Address: 10:06:****
23. Modulation: G.993.2 Annex B
24. Software variant: AA
25. Boot loader: 1.0.0

[#6]

---

@sahimmiah wrote:

6. Data rate: 17994 / 42051
7. Maximum data rate: 18014 / 68637
8. Noise margin: 6.4 / 13.0

---

The noise margin, 13.0 dB, is high, that may be why your Data rate has dropped to 42 mbps. 

fwiw, looks like noisy line, and DLM has applied high noise margin which results in reduction in speeds to compensate for the noise.

Were there any telephone extension cables attached to the lower half of the face plate, when you removed it to use the engineer's test socket?

[#7]

Hi

FWIW, my noise margin is as below but I get over 70,000 data rate although less than 79904!

Or maybe I don't understand noise margin

6. Data rate:	19999 / 79904
7. Maximum data rate:	30620 / 105697
8. Noise margin:	15.2 / 13.1
9. Line attenuation:	6.5 / 6.1
10. Signal attenuation:	6.6 / 6.1

[#8]

@daveplus 

6. Data rate:

19999 / 79904

Your situation is different with regards to your 13.1dB noise margin.  Your VDSL line is already synched at maximum permitted for FTTC service.  ie. 80 mbps.   ie. Openreach in UK don't offer FTTC faster than 80 mbps.

Speed tests over ethernet are usually around 10% less than reported 'Data Rate' btw.

Log into your Plusnet account and check 'Current Speed' reported in the 'Broadband tab'.  

[#9]

@bill888 

Yes Current Line Speed (Download): 75.4Mbps

Cheers

[#10]

For those who are interested..

Plusnet couldn't fix it, they had to book a BT engineer and got me to consent to paying a fee if no fault was found.

The engineer didn't find any issues with the line but told me he was able to get the speeds close to 70mbps.

6. Data rate:	17517 / 68580
7. Maximum data rate:	17517 / 68449
8. Noise margin:	5.7 / 5.9
9. Line attenuation:	22.0 / 17.4
10. Signal attenuation:	21.9 / 17.4

Vs before the engineer 

6. Data rate: 17994 / 42051 (THIS DROPPED TO 3818)
7. Maximum data rate: 18014 / 68637
8. Noise margin: 6.4 / 13.0
9. Line attenuation: 22.0 / 17.5
10. Signal attenuation: 21.5 / 17.5

This was below my guaranteed speed. Now it's fixed! It will be interesting to see if plusnet bill me....