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Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

alextyman
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-10-2018

Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Hi,

 

I've been with PlusNet for about a month since I moved into my new house, and I'm experiencing slow download speeds and I was wondering if anyone has any advice to try and resolve it. I have raised this with PlusNet which included an engineer visit, but no real improvements. Below I have added all (hopefully) the relevant information and a timeline of events which might help with diagnosis.

  • Speed Estimate: 34 - 48Mbps
  • Minimum Guaranteed Speed: 31.1Mbps
  • Current Speed: 19 - 22Mbps (tested via speedtest.net) all devices below read within this range
    • 3 x Mobile Phones (wifi)
    • 2 x Laptops (one wifi, one wifi and wired)
    • PS4 (wired)
  • Current Hub One Down/Upstream: 44.29/7.744Mbps
  • Hub One seems to disconnect once a day while I'm asleep (wether that relevant or not!)

Here is my timeline of events:

  1. 17/09: Connected to PlusNet, speeds around 33Mbps. I check periodically and the speed is stable.
  2. 28/09: Email from PlusNet saying my speed is low at 22.8Mbps. I check and confirm this.
  3. 04/10: I check the speed up until this date and it stays low and contact PlusNet. We run through all the tests and they determine that the issue isn't within my property, a support request is raised.
  4. 11/10: BT engineer booked.
  5. 15/10: BT engineer arrives:
    1. He tests the line from the test socket and his device shows around 22Mbps.
    2. He resets something remotely (think he said fibre board?!) and his device shows 45Mbps+, but the connection through the Hub One is still around 22Mbps.
    3. He claims the issue is down to the extension cable I'm using (internal to the walls), even though the Hub One was connected via the test socket?! The extension wasn't a part of the equation then!
    4. He changes the box (and location as it was inconvenient, so the cable was extended outside my house and fed into my living room where the new box was installed). 
    5. His device shows 45Mbps+ again, I plug in the Hub One and it reads the same (Advanced Setting > Broadband > Connection), however I do a quick test on my laptop and that reads 20Mbps still!!! He says that is probably down to wifi and it will be better with wired. I know wifi is slower, but not that much slower. He leaves.
    6. I do a full set of speed tests again with the devices as described above and none of the tests break 23Mbps.

So now I'm not sure what the issue is. It almost seems like the issue is between devices and the Hub One regardless of connection or location. However I'm not sure if the Down/Upstream that the Hub One reports is directly relatable to speedtest results.

Any ideas or solutions will be greatly received.

Any questions please let me know.

Thanks very much.

21 REPLIES 21
Terranova667
Pro
Posts: 1,511
Thanks: 125
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

HI and welcome to the forums,  It may be that the profile on plusnets side isn't set correctly preventing the line from getting the full speed that the Hub-one is displaying, if you go here    https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed 

enter your account name and password and see what it says under current line speed it should be matching what the Hub-one is saying ie around the 44Mb mark if it's lower then one of the Plusnet forum staff can adjust it for you and a quick disconnect- reconnect of the connection should get you where it should be,

if that fails then something else would have to be looked into to see what's up.  

alextyman
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-10-2018

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Thanks for the information Terranova,

I followed the link last night and it was saying about 21Mbps, however I checked this morning and it reads 42.1Mbps so I checked it with speedtest.net, which reported about 40Mbps. So it looks like it is going alright at the moment, I'll keep an eye on it though!

 

Thanks

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Sorry to hear you're experiencing speed problems.

It looks like the issue was resolved by the work the engineer did, which based on what you've said it looks like it was because the engineer performed a DLM reset to reset the settings on the line as your line was banded at "0.128M-25M Downstream, Retransmission High - 0.128M-20M Upstream, Retransmission Low" before the engineer visit.

 

It then took some time for our systems to update to reflect the new improved line speed, so this would've been restricting your speeds until it updated as you've got a static IP address(Long story short, due to the way connections with static IPs route across our network, speeds can be restricted by the speed profile on the account itself if set too low).

 

While things seem to be OK now, our tests are showing a capacity issue at the exchange which will usually cause speed issues at peak times. Additional infrastructure is estimated to be added by the 26th October.

I've got our suppliers to move your circuit over to a part of the exchange which isn't so overutilised. This move should complete within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Let us know how it goes or if you experience any further issues.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
alextyman
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-10-2018

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Hi again,

 

Everything seemed to be fixed shortly after the last post and was until Monday. I just checked speedtest again today (after a rather crackly Skype call) and found that my speed had drop from ~40Mbps back down to ~26Mbps.

My Hub had been connected for about 1.5 days continuously at that point (which seems to be pretty good), but then disconnected for a few seconds. I thought there might have been some maintenance on it or something so I tried speedtest again, still ~26Mbps.

Is there anything that can be done as my line can obviously take 40Mbps, but now it's only running at about 2/3 of that, which again is below the minimum guaranteed rate of 31.1Mbps.

Thanks very much

adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
Fixes: 221
Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Hi there, I've just tested your line and everything looks OK. Can I just check if the test you ran was using the machine that's connected to the router with a cable? 

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
Terranova667
Pro
Posts: 1,511
Thanks: 125
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

As Gandalf mentioned a hot Vlan as the cause previously maybe that's still the issue

alextyman
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-10-2018

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

I tried a wired connection a little while ago which reported much better speeds ~37Mbps, then I tried wifi which was the same. I should really have tried wifi first to see if the issue was there, but I didn't Embarrassed

I'll keep an eye on the speeds and see if there are any other slowdowns for extended periods of time.

 

Thanks for the help and information.

(p.s. Terranova, is a 'hot Vlan' (Virtual LAN?!) the static IP routing issue?)

Terranova667
Pro
Posts: 1,511
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Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Hi a hot Vlan is where capacity at the exchange is very high and slows connections down at certain times of the day mostly during peek hours as more uses start to use their connections and devices.

Gandalf mentioned in his post he requested that your connection be moved to a Vlan that was wasn't as full not sure if that did happen or not and if it did maybe this one has gotten full also, wont know for sure unless plusnet check for it. 

 

 

JOLO
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,149
Fixes: 77
Registered: ‎06-08-2018

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

@alextyman

 

I've had a look at the VLAN analysis for you and all looks fine. It was moved to the new VLAN late last week but there is still work being completed on the wider infrastructure in the area that has a completion date of tomorrow 26th October.  

 

alextyman
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-10-2018

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Hi again,

My connection has been pretty good for the past few weeks, downloads have been in the high 30Mbps, but then I noticed it slowing down a bit last week.


I've checked my connection speed again today and I noticed that my download was slow again (about 27Mbps), so I checked the hub and that was reading 33.48 Mbps which has dropped significantly from the mid 40Mbps over the last few weeks. The only other difference that I have noticed is that the hub was connected for a significantly longer period of time since it's last disconnect (over 4 days when it used to never reach 2 days without a disconnect) however I have been away so there hasn't been any use on the connection over the weekend. I also reset it a few minutes ago see if that would sort the issue, but it didn't.

So it looks like the original fixes were temporary and my connection is lower than the minimum guaranteed figure again.

Any more suggestions?

Thanks

MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 8,896
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Registered: ‎01-01-2012

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Sorry to hear your speeds have dropped.

It looks like DLM has applied a cap to your sync speeds however according to our tests your routers currently syncing at 33.4 Mbps.

We may need to look at arranging another engineer visit

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
alextyman
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-10-2018

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Hi,

Just another update; the speeds seems to be still at the very low 30Mbps.

As you mentioned the DLM (I'm not sure what this stands for!) seems to have got the lower cap applied to it again. From what I gather from the previous posts, this is what the engineer reset when he came over, however he did this remotely, so is this something that you could arrange to have done again? Do you have any idea why is has been applied again?

Sorry, but I'm not sure what the issue is beyond something at BT's end really.

Thanks again

Terranova667
Pro
Posts: 1,511
Thanks: 125
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

DLM is "digital line management" it's a automated system within the fibre cab that monitors your line if it feels that to many errors are impacting it that causes instability it will make a choice what to do about it in your case cap the speed at a lower rate so there are not as many errors being made.

The only way to stop it being applied would be for an enginner to spot and fix the issue that is causing the line to produce too many errors, As for a DLM reset that can only happen by an Enginner after they have fixed a fault so you would need to get one booked, hopefully they will find the cause and fix it for you.

 

 

RichardB
Seasoned Champion
Posts: 1,038
Thanks: 385
Fixes: 39
Registered: ‎19-11-2008

Re: Slow download speeds from Hub One to devices

Pedant mode on:

Small correction.

DLM = Dynamic Line Management.

See https://kitz.co.uk/adsl/DLM.htm

pedant mode offSmiley