Speed issues

[#1]

Thank you for your thoughts. There isn’t obviously such a thing, no. There could, of course, be problems with wires behind the walls but not in front of them. 

[#2]

Thank you. Well that sounds like it would be something ato look forward to!  In the history of this house over the last 10 years  I have had Broadband service from BT, Virgin and Talk Talk. The WiFi has never been really good but I have always got by with it. I’ve never really understood what it should be like. The phone line has never been great either. It is regularly crackly and has always been like that. Don’t know if that has anything to do with it. 

[#3]

So it sounds as if you are saying you have to send an engineer to check if the problem is on my property first and then if it is I have to pay your engineer for that visit even though you aren’t actually going to do anything about it and then i’ll have to pay another engineer to fix the problem. So potentially I’ll pay your engineer for doing nothing at all. That sounds unfair. Why wouldn’t you check if the problem is your side of the boundary first. If you can’t find any problems there then I can book an engineer to fix my side and that way I avoid having to pay one of your engineers to do nothing.

[#4]

Have you tried a line test for noise Lisa? Dial 17070 and select, I think, option 2. If it is noisy bring this to the attention of the OR engineer. He/she will hopefully then check for themself.

A noisy line was the cause of a fault I had earlier this year. The 4th OR engineer who visited tested the line and found no faults, as did the three previous, but then listened to the crackling and troubleshooted at and from the cabinet to the master socket. It was an external cable which he replaced.

To be fair, regarding the first three and in spite of them not finding any external faults, one blamed my Hub One, there were no charges.

[#5]

Hi @Lisa3, thanks for your post.

As @Jubby mentions, the reason we go through so many checks with you prior to raising a fault is to minimise the risk of you being charged for an engineer visit and to eliminate the possibility of the fault being in your home.

Providing all of the checks and troubleshooting we sent over have been completed you should have no charge added to the account.

Please let us know if you need anything else.

[#6]

Ok, so the engineer has visited, identified the master socket by running tests on each socket in the house and installed a new faceplate and maybe fiddled with some cabling, which he says should have fixed the problem. I will be resentful if I have to pay for this as I understand BT send out an engineer to new fibre optic customers as a matter of course if you are switching to fibre optic. But Plusnet just hoped I had the correct faceplate and test socket thingy and cabling already.

this is what BT say happens if you are switching to fibre optic.

‘On the day, the engineer will phone to say they're about to switch your line to the fibre network at your BT street cabinet. Your phone won't work for about ten minutes while this is being done. After this, they'll come to your home and disconnect your BT Hub (if you've already got one). They'll then install a new faceplate on your master phone socket, run any new cabling and connect your BT Hub.’

[#7]

I have just checked the synch speed and also run another speed checker and the speeds are exactly the same as they were before the engineer visited, found the master socket, attended to the bridge tap, fitted the new socket cap and moved the router to be in the master socket. It doesnt appear to have made any difference. My synch speed is still 27. The download speed is still 37 and the up load is 9?

[#8]

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

From reviewing your account those speeds are fine for the product your on.

Can you advise if you're still having problems with the speeds?

[#9]

Well those speeds I have given you are the same speeds I have had all along. My tenants have complained about them and independently you sent me a message to say the speeds I was receiving were slower than I was promised. I don't know what to expect as I am not good with numbers and don't know what to expect. It seems a little better than the ordinary (non fibre) I had before. Though not startlingly better I must say. You at plus net then told me that I had a problem and that it was a Bridge Tap problem and so we started with all the testing of the sockets etc. Then the engineer came today and sorted out the Bridge Tap. But actually it has made no difference whatsoever to the speeds I am getting. Now you tell me the speeds we had in the first place were fine anyway. What a palava! 

[#10]

Hi @Lisa3, thanks for your post.

On reviewing the previous posts on this thread, I can see that you initially reported download speeds of 24.2mbps.

We then investigated the line with you completing all of the home checks we'd asked of you before we detected the Bridge Tap on your network. As the Bridge Tap could've been causing your issues, we felt that an engineer visit was going to be the best course of action in order to investigate further and hopefully resolve the issues.

You're now reporting that your download speed is exactly the same as you initially reported, although you report it as 37mbps with and upload of 9mbps, which is exactly what we would expect to see on your 40/10 package.

As we're seeing the higher speeds on our end, it does seem as though an issue has been resolved for you, although I'm unsure as to where the 27mbps sync speed is coming from (as we're showing you in sync at 39.9mbps).

Are you connecting via a wired Ethernet connection, or over wireless? With no other applications running in the background can you please run a speed test for us via a wired connection and send us the results over for our review?

The reason we're asking you to complete this quick test is so that we can get an idea of what speeds you're seeing your end, as it's starting to get a little confusing, what with all the different speeds we're discussing.

Please let us know how you get on.

[#11]

Dear OskarPapa/Owen P 

Thank you for your message. I will address your points below. 

• On reviewing the previous posts on this thread, I can see that you initially reported download speeds of 24.2mbps. 
  The 24.2mbs came from you at plus net. On 6 November you sent me an email telling me my speeds were not at the guaranteed level of 34mbps. This is an extract from the email you sent me. My lodgers were also dissatisfied, telling me the speeds were very up and down. 

  Estimated line speed: 56Mbps to 79Mbps

  This shows the normally available speeds your line is capable of. You may have chosen to buy a product which runs at slower speeds.

  Current line speed: 24.2Mbps

  This is a measure of the actual line speed you are now receiving based on the product you have taken.

  Minimum guaranteed access line speed: 34Mbps

  This is the minimum speed you should expect to achieve on your line.

 When I checked the synchspeed myself, independently, using the plusnet help guidelines links you recommended on this site, see below

("If you signed up to us, changed your package or moved home after 30th May 2017 you can check your Minimum Guaranteed Access Line Speed by logging into Member Centre and checking your Broadband connection settings.")

 it did not say my speed was at24.2mbps as you had told me, but instead at 27mpbs. So on the 11 November i then also used another independent speedchecker app on my ipad and this told me the download speed was 37 and the upload 9.20 the ping was 8 and the jitter was 0.73. I took a screen grab of this information which I still have and I told you at plus net and and my tenants. You at plus net then told me I had a bridge tap issue and my tenants continued to complain that the speeds were slow and very up and down. I had never, myself, had too much of an issue. But  thought perhaps I had lower standards.

We then investigated the line with you completing all of the home checks we'd asked of you before we detected the Bridge Tap on your network. As the Bridge Tap could've been causing your issues, we felt that an engineer visit was going to be the best course of action in order to investigate further and hopefully resolve the issues. You're now reporting that your download speed is exactly the same as you initially reported, although you report it as 37mbpswith and upload of 9mbps, which is exactly what we would expect to see on your 40/10 package. As we're seeing the higher speeds on our end, it does seem as though an issue has been resolved for you, although I'm unsure as to where the 27mbps sync speed is coming from (as we're showing you in sync at 39.9mbps).

It was you at plus net who told me I had a bridge tap issue and asked me to undertake some tests which I did. When I didn't have a test socket you sent your engineer yesterday who identified the master socket and plugged the router into it and changed the cap and fiddled with the wiring. When he left I ran tests again. According to my tests on the speed checker app the download speed was now 37mpbs and the upload 9mbps which is what it had been on the 11 November. i.e No change. I then also checked the synch speed using the links to it on this website again and this was also still reading 27mpbs although I suspect this info could be out of date? 

 Are you connecting via a wired Ethernet connection, or over wireless? With no other applications running in the background can you please run a speed test for us via a wired connection and send us the results over for our review? The reason we're asking you to complete this quick test is so that we can get an idea of what speeds you're seeing your end, as it's starting to get a little confusing, what with all the different speeds we're discussing.

It is very difficult for me to connect via ethernet as I only have a desk top pc and it is located at some distance from the master socket. Also it is an imac which historically does not seem to want to connect via the ethernet cable. Possibly the reason for this is over sensitive firewalls but I don't know for sure. When my tenants are available I could ask them to connect via ethernet using one of their laptops if really necessary.

I agree it has been and continues to be very confusing. 

Best wishes 
Lisa

[#12]

FYI:This is the information I have copied an pasted now from your website about my synchspeed. https://www.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed But I can't work out what date it was checked on. Probably it isn't up to date?

"Estimated line speed:40Mb (This may vary between 56Mb and 79Mb) - Checked on 2018-10-02 16:11:09Current line speed:27.2 Mb"

 Please see above for the 'Estimate line speed'. We have also included a speed range, as the speed of your service can vary due to the nature of broadband.

If we're unable to provide a line check, we give you the option of continuing without a speed estimate, in which case you'd see the Speed Estimate as "Opted out".

[#13 · Accepted solution]

When we tested your line on the 7th November, your sync rate was 26.8mbps which would've given you a profile of approx 24.2mbps. However, on the 8th November your sync rate was at 40mbps when we next tested it.

(The fact that the profile was showing at 27.2mbps up until yesterday is just a delay in it updating)

It looks like we arranged the engineer on the back of the bridge tap, which was still showing.

Apologies that it seems that things haven't improved your side following that being rectified. The bridge tap may just have been a red herring. 

As the next step, I think it's a good idea to ask your tenants to try a wired connection if possible, or at least try the steps Here which may improve the WiFi signal.

[#14]

Thanks for your message. Someone from PlusNet phoned me yesterday and I think we agreed the problem was resolved. Your  colleague suggested that both the information sent to me by email suggesting my speeds were not as good as they were meant to be and also the information on the profile (as you point out) had been out of date and in fact the speeds have been adequate all along. I don’t really know what the tenants have been expecting but I’ll talk to them again and see how they are getting on. As I say, I have always found the speeds adequate. But then, I am used to non fibre and lots of buffering. Anything is better than that. If the tenants do continue to have problems we can try wifi extension sockets etc or they can manage with what we’ve got. The Bridge Tap issue might have been a red herring as you say although the adviser on the phone seemed to think that over time having a Bridge Tap might cause the service to be unpleasantly unstable and maybe that is what was causing the tenants’ woe. If we continue to have difficulties I we shall make the effort to connect using the Ethernet cable. Thanks to everyone for your help. Lisa

[#15]

No problem. Fingers crossed that fixing the bridge tap has helped things and this hasn't been all for nothing.

That said, I also agree that while the bridge tap may or may not have been the cause of the problems your tenants are experiencing, it can still cause issues and based on that I think it was the right move to get that resolved.

Feel free to post back and let us know how they get on or if you need any further assistance.

Thanks,

Anoush