Suspected stuck profile.

[#1]

Hi, I am suspecting that our line has become banded, a GEA test should confirm or not. The evidence as follows:

About two weeks ago the line developed a fault with noise on the line. The fault location was detected but required a new piece of line to be laid (underground), so a delay to fixing the fault. During the delay the line deteriorated until it completely broke. Our modem struggled to keep a connection up while the line deteriorated, I think the banding may have been placed during this time.
The line has now been fixed since last Friday (9th July) but the DLM has not made any change to the line characteristics even though the number of erred seconds per day (on the downstream) is averaging less than one.

Also another problem is with the Plusnet speed profile, it’s not been updated in a long time and is way off the BT IP profile. Anyone with a fixed IP ends up being stuck with this because it is not keeping up to date, as was promised when Plusnet introduced this in the first place.

Thank you for taking your time to read my post to the end.

[#2]

Hi @RPMozley

Thanks for your post. I'm sorry to see the issues you've had with your line. Looking at the history, things don't look too good as our tests were showing a line problem going back from the 30th June to the 11th July.

I can see your router's currently in sync at 31mbps and you're on a profile with no banding: "Downstream: 0.128M-40M with Retransmission (Low). Upstream: 0.128M-10M with no error protection"

I've updated the 'current line speed' (known as the connection profile internally) on your account to reflect this. If you can either reboot your router, or do a disconnect/reconnect from within your router's interface to drop PPP, you should see a higher download throughput afterwards on a speed test.

While I can see you've had higher speeds in the past, towards the 40mbps mark, you're unfortunately within Openreach's expectations for your line of between 27.4mbps to 42.7mbps shown Here, so there's not much more we can do to boost your speeds up further, but hopefully with time your speeds will recover by themselves.

Just to check though and I'm sure you've covered this but have you tried plugging your router into the test socket explained Here making sure there's no extension cabling between the telephone socket and your router to rule out any internal wiring from having an impact on your speed?

I'm also attaching below a copy of our testing I've just ran:

GEA Test Detail

Circuit ID: N/A Service ID: [redacted] Test Outcome Pass Test Outcome Code GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000 Description GEA service test completed and no fault found . Main Fault Location OK Sync Status In Sync Downstream Speed 31.1 Mbps Upstream Speed 7.0 Mbps Appointment Required N Fault Target Fix Time   Fault Report Advised N Estimated Line Length In Metres 983.8 Upstream Rate Assessment Very Good Downstream Rate Assessment Reasonable Interference Pattern Regular Interference Observed Daily Service Impact No Impact Observed Interference Duration Longest Occurrence ;00:00to23:45 Interference Location Customer Premise Interference Observed In Days 7 Home Wiring Problem Not Detected Downstream Policing Discard Rate 0.0 Customer Traffic Level Upstream and Downstream traffic detected Technology VDSL DP Type External Current 15Min Bin Retrains 0 Last 15Min Bin Retrains 0 NTE Power Status PowerOn Voice Line Test Result Pass Bridge Tap   Radio Frequency Ingress Not Detected Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise Not Detected Cross Talk Not Detected Profile Name 0.128M-40M Downstream, Retransmission High - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Retransmission Low Time Stamp 2021-07-02T19:45:00 Parameters MIN MAX AVG Down Stream Line Rate 30.5 Mbps 31.1 Mbps 30.7 Mbps Up Stream Line Rate 6.8 Mbps 6.9 Mbps 6.9 Mbps Up Time 2.0 Sec 900.0 Sec 884.2 Sec Retrains 0.0 1.0 0.0 Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance Parameters Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins) Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins) Start Time Stamp 2021-07-15T18:11:44Z 2021-07-15T18:26:44Z Ingress Code Violation 7 5 Egress Code Violation 0 0 Errored Seconds 0 0 Severely Errored Seconds 0 0 Unavailable Seconds 0 0

Here's also some advanced testing from a system called RRT (click to enlarge)

[#3]

Many thanks @Gandalf for the test info you have provided.
I noticed problems starting at around the 24th of June with an increase in error seconds with the modem, thought at first maybe caused by thunderstorms in the area around the time but the ES persisted. Checked the quiet line test and heard intermittent cracking and buzzing. Reported the problem to our telecom company on the following Monday (not open during weekends). Line got worse after being checked two times.
It is strange that the fault was still detected until the 11th, as line was fixed on the 9th as I stated earlier. Peculiar.

Anyway, I’m hoping the DLM will move at some point, seeing as it isn’t as I suspected ’banded’ in the data, and ES remains almost nonexistent (downstream).

Oh, last thing, yes modem is connected to master socket, it’s one of the newer split broadband / phone connection boxes (NTE5 I think).

[#4]

Thanks for getting back to me @RPMozley 

No problem, sounds like a pretty bad thunderstorm!

A line issue was actually only detected until the 5th, but a low line rate from the 6th to the 10th which gradually recovered to ‘acceptable levels’ by the 11th.

Fingers crossed with time your speed will increase more and more. Let us know how it goes.

[#5]

I will be keeping an eye on it every day and will post back if any changes occur.

Thank you for all the help you have given, although it hasn’t made much of a difference it has been informative and I know that’s all you can do at the moment.

[#6]

No problem @RPMozley

Feel free to post back on here for further assistance in the future.

[#7]

Small update, since Monday this week the DLM appears to have made a change to our line profile. I believe interleaving depth on the downstream was reduced to 4 (from 8 if I recall correctly) and the SNR margin was reduced to 5 dB as the target level.

ES even after this change is still almost nonexistent (downstream), so still hoping for more changes by the DLM to come. More updates to follow if/when that happens.

[#8]

Cheers for the update @RPMozley

I'm glad to see your speed's going in the upwards direction.  ‌

Keep us posted with how it goes. 

[#9]

Over a month now and still no changes made by the DLM line management system. Currently, over 26 days the total number of ES is only 9 for the downstream. Maybe that’s as far as the DLM goes with the settings it can change.

Anyway my main reason for posting, @ any Plusnet staff, could you please set our Plusnet speed profile/current line speed to the value of 32.4 Mbps inline with the BT IP profile. Thanks.

[#10]

Hello @RPMozley

Thanks a lot for reaching out again. Unfortunately we're unable to do this, and can only ask our suppliers to reset the line to the maximum profile speed.

[#11]

Sorry @adam945 but you have the wrong information there. This is the Plusnet speed profile we are talking about, the one set by Plusnet itself. Granted it only affects a small number of us customers on a fixed IP address but I thought there was supposed to be some understanding of it given out to Plusnet staff.

[#12]

Sorry for the confusion @RPMozley I'm confident Adam is already aware of this, I think he may had just misread your post. 

I've prodded our profile up now to 32.4mbps. You'd just need to reboot your router for this change to take effect.

Let us know if there's anything else you'd need help with.

[#13]

My thanks @Gandalf , I hope you are correct in thinking that it was a misreading incident.

I have dropped and started a new PPP session, I think that is sufficient rather than a whole reboot. Unnecessary reboots should of course be kept at a minimum, I’m sure you know.