Throttling speeds?

[#1]

Hey All,

I've been a Plusnet customer for a couple of years and on the 80/20 FTTC package. Over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a reduced service speed. Speedtest.net and fast.com are showing a max of 50-55 Mbps, whereas I use to get the full 80 Mbps speeds on the line. Upload is fine and testing at 20Mbps

I use a Draytek 130 modem, which gives the line stats. It's showing I'm syncing to the cabinet at 80/20. I pulled out the old Plusnet One router from when I joined (never used), and that gives me the same 50 ish Mbps download speed and the advanced stats show as syncing at 80/20.

I've started to monitor the connection and graph the utilization of my connection, and that is showing the connection is maxing out at just over 55Mbps. It's a flat line, so hitting some sort of limit.

Do Plusnet throttle speeds?

[#2]

@skygnome Plusnet do not 'throttle' speeds - I suspect you have a network problem somewhere. Which modem/router do you have installed at the moment, and can you post the router stats - the ones from the Hub One are easier to understand, if possible.

[#3]

Just connected up the Plusnet Hub to get the stats. When I tested with the Plusnet hub, I only had one device connected via a ethernet cable to rule out any wireless issues.

[#4]

Thanks for that, @skygnome . I'm not a FTTC expert, so some of my comments may not be 100% accurate, but I'll make the observations nonetheless.

Your data rate looks OK, given the reported attenuation, but the reported MAX data rate is suspicious - if you are on 80/20, both those figures are, AFAIK, wrong.

The noise margins in both directions point to  potential errors - they are both much higher than I would expect.

[#5]

Stats look fine to me, max rates are just calculated by the modem and can be stupidly high if the line is interleaved so more or less meaningless. It's the actual sync speeds that matter, if you have sync speeds that high and high SNRM values it doesn't get better than that. High SNRM is good not a sign of errors.

[#6]

OK, @RealAleMadrid - there seems to be a difference of opinion re SNR values - I certainly notice a reduction in speed (throughput) when my values in that field increase, but I'm still on ADSL with a target of 6dB, although it is double that atm and I know my actual speeds from speed tests are adversely affected.

In your opinion then, what is causing the OPs issue?

[#7]

@jab1 increased snr is only a problem if you're not synching at the maximum speed. If the line is capable of higher speeds than the product allows then the snr will be higher i.e there is 'headroom '.

@skygnome what does your plusnet member centre say for 'current line speed' and do you either have a static ip or the plusnet firewall turned on ?

The ip profile from a Bt wholesale speed test would also be useful

[#8]

@MisterW Thanks - think I've been told that before 😉 - must remember.

[#9]

@MisterW the Plusnet member centre is showing "Current Line Speed (Download): 57.4Mbps"

BT Wholesale speed test has my profile listed at 77.34 Mbps.

I'm on a business line with a block of public IP addresses. Plusnet firewall is turned off.

I talked to support yesterday evening. The basic outcome of that call was the link is "testing" at 80 Mbps and they couldn't see an issue on the line. If there is a problem, apparently it's at my end. I pushed back on that as the testing I did before the call should have ruled out any issues on my end.

1. Connecting directly to the Draytek and establishing a PPPoE connection to a single computer
2. Setting up the original Plusnet Hub and connecting a single computer via ethernet.

It was left for me to use the BT wholesale test of the next 72 hours to record the link speeds I'm getting. As the link appears to be syncing at its normal speed, I was wondering if there was some sort of speed restriction on the line or at the cab. I tested this morning at 7 AM and that result was 51.43 Mbps. It makes no sense to me as it's the same speed during peak and off-peak.

[#10 · Accepted solution]

@skygnome 

"Current Line Speed (Download): 57.4Mbps"

that's the problem! It's a plusnet line profile, it SHOULD follow the BTw profile but sometimes it gets stuck. Yours will be limiting the downstream throughput to 57Mbps.  Problem is that it doesnt affect 95% of lines so many of the CSC staff aren't aware of it. It ONLY affects accounts with Static IP's or using the firewall, as those options route traffic differently to normal dynamic IP's.

I'm on a business line with a block of public IP addresses

Those must be static

You could either try ringing the CSC again and trying to get them to reset your 'PlusNet' profile' (Current line speed) or wait for a more knowledgeable member of staff to spot this. Note that you need to reset the connection once it has ben changed, to pick up the new value.

[#11]

Thanks @MisterW 

Just called support again and asked them to check the Plusnet profile. Must have had one of the more knowledgeable members of support as he knew what I was talking about and fixed it while I was on the phone.

[#12]

Good result!. I know that the team who monitor these forums are aware of the issue and have been trying to ensure that the CSC staff are trained to be aware of the problem. Sounds like its working...