Upgraded to Fibre 2 weeks ago - suffering from drop connections and below guaranteed speeds

[#1]

Hi there,

I was upgraded to fibre (fibre to cabinet) on 15 August and since then have been getting resets several times a day. It seems like random times and random reconnection speeds. I left it for 10 days as instructed in your help guides but it is still ongoing. 3 days ago I connected it directly to the engineers socket and it's still happening. I have a Hub One. The hub flashes orange for about a minute, then constant orange with broadband light red and then blue, sometimes doing this twice before going blue. I have have no noticeably crackly line.

I should have a guaranteed minimum speed of 38mb/s. My speed is usually in the mid to high 20's. Upload speed has dropped in the last few days to 5-6 from 8. I have looked at the event log to identify down times but I don't know what the rest of it means!

I switched it off and on again a few days ago to see if that helped - it didn't!

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.

[#2]

Welcome to the Forum @j-d-b

Plusnet people are usually in the Forum; if they are, they may well pick this up. If they don't, or if you want to move things along, report as a fault.

To report a fault, run though the checks at https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/connection-troubleshooting/ and report a fault at https://www.plus.net/apps/kbdfaults It takes a bit of your time but costs you nothing, and makes Plusnet aware of your issue. They have to look at it, and the report gets the issue into the queue for action.

There have been problems with the BT speed test (I'm not sure whether they are resolved) but try it with Internet Explorer. If there are problems, report speeds from an alternative speed test such as at speedtest.net.

Please let us know how you get on.

[#3]

Hi @j-d-b, welcome to the forums

Testing the line shows the speed is in sync lower than we would expect at 28.7mbps, although the testing hasn't highlighted what may be causing this. 

I think @BrightonRock has covered everything , but so long as you have gone through all the checks and are connected to your test socket, please raise the fault on the link @BrightonRock provided and let us know once you have done this so we can pick it up. 

[#4]

Thank you both for your replies.

Lauren, I have sent the fault report over.

[#5]

Hi @j-d-b,

Thank you very much for raising this as a fault.

I've re-tested your line and the test still isn't picking up the cause of this issue but I can see that your line is still in sync at 28.7mbps, which is lower than we'd expect

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	BBEUXXXXXXXX

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	28.7 Mbps
Upstream Speed	5.7 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	563.5
Upstream Rate Assessment	Low
Downstream Rate Assessment	Low
Interference Pattern	Not Detected
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream Traffic Detected
Technology	VDSL
Profile Name	0.128M-30M Downstream, Retransmission High - 0.128M-6M Upstream, Retransmission High
Time Stamp	2018-08-28T09:00:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	30.0 Mbps	30.0 Mbps	30.0 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	6.0 Mbps	6.0 Mbps	6.0 Mbps
Up Time	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec
Retrains	0.0	0.0	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	2018-08-28T18:36:47Z	2018-08-28T18:51:47Z
Ingress Code Violation	0	0
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

Your connection log shows that it was dropping frequently up until yesterday when it stabilised.

The drops are showing as "user request" which suggests that it may be the router itself that's causing the problem. I've ordered a new one for you to try and it'll be with you within 3-5 working days. Please let us know if you still experience any problems with your connection once you have the new router.

[#6]

Hi Plusnet Help Team,

I have received and connected the new router you have sent. It has reconnected at exactly the same speed as the old one. Is there anything you have to do at your end?

Also it hasn't dropped a connection (with the old router) for 3 or 4 days now so at the moment it's just the slower than expected speeds.

[#7]

Hello @j-d-b,

Thanks for getting back to us. I have tested your line and can see that due to the drops in connection it has caused the DLM to restrict the speed to 30Mbps.

I have sent a request to have this removed, however as it is a trail it can take up to 5 days. However if this does not work we may need to send an engineer I'm afraid.

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	30.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed	9.5 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Target Fix Time
Fault Report Advised	N
Estimated Line Length In Metres	558.7
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Low
Interference Pattern	Not Detected
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream Traffic Detected
Technology	VDSL
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Not Detected
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Profile Name	0.128M-30M Downstream, Retransmission High - 0.128M-6M Upstream, Retransmission High
Time Stamp	2018-08-28T09:00:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	29.9 Mbps	30.0 Mbps	29.9 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	6.0 Mbps	9.9 Mbps	9.1 Mbps
Up Time	642.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	899.0 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	2018-09-01T14:37:10Z	2018-09-01T14:52:10Z
Ingress Code Violation	0	0
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

[#8]

The GEA test that was performed earlier shows that your line speed is capped at 30Mbps sync due to the line being banded.

Profile Name

0.128M-30M Downstream, Retransmission High - 0.128M-6M Upstream, Retransmission High

When a line is banded it means that the digital line management software in the cabinet has limited your speed to stabilize your connection.

You also have Retransmission high (also known as G.INP) on both upstream and downstream connections, this is another feature of digital line mangement that is used to stabilise noisy lines. It achieves this by retransmitting the data that has been corrupted by the noise. 

It would be interesting to see a screen shot of the connection stats for your line to see what the data rate, maximum data rate, noise margin and line attenuation are.

If the maximum data rate is higher than 30000 then the issue was a faulty router and digital line management is now constraining your linespeed. If this is the case, then it can take a long time for banding to be automatically removed from your line. However, an Openreach engineer can remove banding by resetting the connection. I also believe that it is now possible for Plusnet to be able to remotely reset a connection although one of the staff  on here would need to confirm that.

If the maximum data rate is less than 30000 then it is likely that it is the line condition, rather than the router,  which is slowing you down and that the line has stabilized due digital line management applying banding and re-transmission. 

You can access the connection stats by logging onto the router http://192.168.1.254 and selecting troubleshooting, followed by helpdesk.

If you have a phone handset connected to your landline it is also worth doing a quiet line test. This should be performed on  a wired phone plugged into the master socket. Dial 17070 on the handset and select option 2, if you hear crackling, buzzing, popping or humming then raise a voice fault with Plusnet.

[#9]

I've just read @SammyMs post and I can see that they have requested a DLM reset for you. Your maximum data rate will give you an indication of what speed you will get once DLM has been reset. 

[#10]

Thank you for your replies.

Maximum data rate is showing as 68498. I'm only paying for standard fibre and should have a guaranteed minimum of 38000. 

I have done several silent line tests over the last couple of weeks and all seem fine.

[#11]

That looks good, when the DLM reset goes through your line speed should increase to the max for the product you're on, this is 39999 for  Plusnet Fibre Unlimited. If the speed doesn't increase after 5 days, I'd try rebooting the router.

[#12]

Let us know how your speeds look by the end of next week.

If they're still banded at 30mbps we'd likely need to arrange an engineer visit to further investigate.

[#13]

Hi,

Downloads now a consistent 38mbs and uploads now 9.5mbs. It's been stable for 3 days now, no resets! Hopefully problem solved.

Thank you for all your replies and help.

[#14]

Hi @j-d-b,

Thanks very much for letting us know, I'm pleased to hear that your connection is now stable and that the speeds are within the estimates.

Please don't hesitate to get back in touch if you experience any further problems with your connection or if there's anything else that you'd like to discuss.