totally useless 80 meg fibre speeds

[#1]

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@Gregg wrote:

I can't see how it can be so difficult to supply a stable connection these days.

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You might not be able to, but others with a better understanding of how DSL works might be. What do people expect when trying to use possibly decades old telephone wiring to supply high bandwidths that the wiring was not designed for. The work I do isn't even vaguely IT related.

[#2]

yes there are issues with my wiring, no idea why plus.net will not sort this problem without the chance of incurring an engineers fee, this wiring has been like this since 1988, i ordered fibre on the 8th sept and had to wait for it to be installed before i could diagnose any problems, therefore i should of got a new line to the closest cabinet possible, easy fix. then i could update the wiring to knock off 20 metres of unwanted copper from my master socket.

offering 80 meg when they know you will struggle to get 45 is in my eyes a total rip off by plus.net its not bloody hard to say from day one that you will not get speeds that support the 80/20 so stick with the 40/2 because we do not own the infrastructure we are a reseller with no access to anything usefull at our end.

[#3]

By "installed", that means connecting your existing telephone line at the existing PCP cabinet to its Fibre cabinet. They already installed a big bunch of cables between those cabinets when they built that Fibre cabinet, so the only work that needs to be done is in the PCP cabinet.

They're not going to bother installing a new phone line between any cabinet and your home, not if there's already a phone line connected to somewhere.

If Plusnet really quote the top end of the A range as your estimated speed, that's daft and will only set unrealistic high expectations.

Openreach own the infrastructure, and everyone you can buy FTTC broadband from is a reseller.

[#4]

Right it is my lack of knowledge that prevents me from understanding how they incapable of setting up stable connections. All I ever hear is excuses. Apparently having wireless on my home network is the reason that they can't get a stable connection. I am sure you have heard that one before?

I didn't ask them to try and squeeze 70mbit out of a 100 year old copper line. I would much rather have FTTP, unfortunately they are dragging the knuckles and making excuses on that deployment as well.

The wiring does support 80/20 because I have had already managed to squeeze that bandwidth out of the line. So don't try and defend their networking issues by making excuses.

If you understand DSL so well, maybe you should get a job at open reach, they could clearly do with the help.

[#5]

todays stats are as follows

http://www.kjay.co.uk/2016/10/03/4th-day-not-a-lot/

with most other isp`s i have had over the last 30 years everyone of them were able to do their job properly by interfacing with the exchange and being able to tweak your connection and offer a new line if it was needed and all other problems had been tested. plus.net is a reseller and gets the run around by BT because they take bt`s customers and offer higher expectations on what they actually can offer.

i guess someone will ring me from plus.net one day as long as i keep my blog updated and then they will fix my broadband and try to help me get the speeds promised when i signed up.

i will not lose my temper until after the openreach engineers visit, especially if i end up paying for the damn visit. and i have told customer service that i will be cancelling and not paying a penny more until i am happy with their service and speeds. 

got cut off my customer unservice yesterday after an hr on the phone luckily i recorded my calls to them.

[#6]

I moved house in 25th June. I am now entering the 4th month with constant disconnects and slow speed.

My current speed test, at least it is not disconnecting every 30 mins today.

I have already had two engineer visits, one outside and one inside. After the first visit i was getting full speed for about 1 month until it stopped working again.

Now I have to ask work for another work from home day for another engineer visit.

Spoke to plusnet last night, got through fairly quickly, was surprised. Guy said he can't do anything and he has no idea why it is not working. All he can do is book another engineer. Amazing stuff.

If it is not fixed by 21st october and it messes up my Battlefield 1 weekend, I will seriously lose it.

[#7]

Just like last week. come monday morning, I reboot my open reach modem and I sync at 60mbit then it is fine all week until Friday when it starts disconnecting.

Is this because at weekends it is more busy and there is no enough bandwidth available so the line just dies?

[#8]

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@Gregg wrote:

Right it is my lack of knowledge that prevents me from understanding how they incapable of setting up stable connections. All I ever hear is excuses.

If you don't understand the technology how do you know they are just excuses? Surely the fact you don't understand it implies that it's a complicated and difficult thing. It seems like you are proud of your ignorance and think the people who aren't ignorant are somehow at fault 

Apparently having wireless on my home network is the reason that they can't get a stable connection. I am sure you have heard that one before?

I suspect you  misheard or misunderstood. What they probably said was that the wifi signal generated by your router was suffering interference with your neighbours. That actually has nothing to do with your connection. Sadly a lot of people who don't understand broadband get confused by this. You can have the fastest internet connection on the planet but if you are using wifi to connect your equipment and live in the middle of a large block of flats you're not going to have a very good experience.

The problem here lies between your equipment and the router. Think of it like living on a housing estate connected directly to a motorway...by a single track lane. No matter how good the motorway you're always going to struggle to get anywhere because of that lane.

[#9]

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Spoke to plusnet last night, got through fairly quickly, was surprised. Guy said he can't do anything and he has no idea why it is not working. All he can do is book another engineer. Amazing stuff.

He's right and this time it's not a technical issue. It's a political one. The line and equipment are owned by a division of BT called 'openreach'. Plusnet is a separate division of BT. Ofcom (the official government agency) insists that both companies operate as if they were completely separate. All PN can do is notify openreach of a fault and wait for them to fix it. In the same way that if you want a pizza all you can do is call your local delivery shop and place an order. PN can no more fix your line than you can barge in and make your own pizza.

If it is not fixed by 21st october and it messes up my Battlefield 1 weekend, I will seriously lose it.

Oh dear. Unfortunately this is the way broadband works in the UK. Unless you're a VM or KCom customer you can never talk directly to the company responsible for fixing line faults. There's little to no point getting worked up over it and often no point getting annoyed with your ISP. Aside from the occasional glitch all PN can do it place a request with BT. After that they have to wait.

The only difference between that and you ordering a pizza is that you might have more than one pizza shop to call. PN don't even have that luxury. There is only one 'pizza delivery shop' in town as far as they are concerned.

I have already had two engineer visits, one outside and one inside. After the first visit i was getting full speed for about 1 month until it stopped working again.

Very irritating. Unfortunately yelling at PN won't help. All they can do is commiserate with you and raise yet another fault with openreach. Even changing ISP is unlikely to help you. There is one ISP - AAISP - who seem a bit more proactive and forceful with openreach but even they are limited in what they can do.

Is this because at weekends it is more busy and there is no enough bandwidth available so the line just dies?

No. bandwidth availability does not affect the connection itself. In the same way that the M25 is always geographically the same shape. Lack of bandwidth can slow things down but won't cause disconnections. In any case PN seem pretty good at managing bandwidth so I doubt there's an issue there.

[#10]

If Plusnet really quote the top end of the A range as your estimated speed, that's daft and will only set unrealistic high expectations.

For the record, we offer the low figure of a clean line as the estimate. OP related example:

Current sync rates:

Downstream Speed 43.5 Mbps

Upstream Speed 6.1 Mbps

Speeds offered on original sign up email that OP can see here:

"About your Plusnet account
==========================
- The estimated broadband speed range for your line is between 40.4Mb and 55Mb
- This estimate is based on data provided by our supplier. Your actual speed will vary but should be within the estimated range - https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/broadband-speed-estimates/"

I have to be honest and say that we've never successfully changed the cabinet that a customer is routed through. We have requested it through complaints on all levels in past, but it's not a feasible resolution. Apologies for this.

Matty

[#11]

thanks matty, but do you not see that being on the wrong box for my fibre is impacting performance, i lived 300 mtrs away from here and got dsl at 21 meg down and fibre at 43 meg down just by being on the correct cabinet. it seems like i will have to downgrade and just pay for the 40 meg, but the point is i could of stayed with BT and not paid the leaving fee if i had known this

[#12]

I do see that it's impacting you, yes. It is a bit nonsensical from our perspective, however we have always been straight with the speeds that you would have been provisioned on.

[#13]

Re Andrue:
Thanks for your condescending reply, it has been amazing, i would read it again.

I understand the technology in that it is VDSL and not fiber as advertised. Personally I think based on my networking experience, if trained, I could be an open reach engineer. I initially wanted to go in to fiber industry, splicing fiber, but ended up doing system admin work in the legal sector. It is very easy to excuse poor service through obsecurity. No one put Open reach engineers has the access and tools to configure the fiber so it is not like customers are ever going to be able to get that knowledge. Just because a customer doesn't undrestand how to set up the service, doesn't mean the service provider can get away with poor service. End of day it is a connection from a-b with different points a long the way. I highly doubt the open reach engineer that came around, who didn't find a fault the first time, is going to find a fault the second time. Surely then, this might point towards a problem somewhere else other than my line? especially as there are many reports of peopel experiencing exactly the same issues? Do we all have internal networking issues?

I never misheard or misunderstood. Do I or do I not get asked every time I speak to plusnet if I am on wireless or rj45 and if i am in the test socket? I have actually been forced to agree to be charged £65 for the open reach visit if I want my internet to be fixed. What a great service. I now state from the start, I am in the test socket and I ahve a rj45 cat7 cable and my entire network is gigabit.

I am open to the possibility it is my router, however, before I moved house my router was working for 3 years on 80/20 without any problems. The only difference is now I have an ADSL filter because the first time I had BT isntalled they updated the socket so that I didnt have to use a filter. I have confirmed that my current socket requires a filter. Great, so that is my home network cross off the list as a possible cause. However, I should definitely be able to use my wireless without having line instability issues.

I know very well who owns what. I just like to make a point of how useless the plus net support it as actually resolving these sorts of issues. The guy sounded so fed up and I am not suprised. I would hate to work for an ISP because the customers usually hate them.

I have no desire to speak to open reach directly. I pay plusnet for the service, so it should be there job to provide. I am not getting worked up at this stage, I think I have been quite patient these past 3 months. I only raised my voice on the phone when they asked me for the 1000th time if i am in the test socket. However having internet issues on last week of annual leave and nearly every weekend since, is starting to [-Censored-] me off. If I have network issues on the weekend of the 21st, I will start to get angry, because I feel I am wasting my time and money and I am sure many people can related to being annoyed with their ISP. To be honest, if it continues on like this I will probably move house because of it.

[#14]

@Gregg

So where is your problem then? Is it with your modem's connection over your phone line, or is that fine and the problem must be elsewhere?

[#15]

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@Gregg wrote:

I understand the technology in that it is VDSL and not fiber as advertised.

Good, but I didn't imply otherwise. I didn't even mention the difference.

Do we all have internal networking issues?

A lot of people do, yes. But again I never mentioned anything about your internal networking issues. I just explained what I thought the person who told you that meant.

 Do I or do I not get asked every time I speak to plusnet if I am on wireless or rj45 and if i am in the test socket?

I have no idea.

I have actually been forced to agree to be charged £65 for the open reach visit if I want my internet to be fixed.

Yes, that too is standard across the industry. Has been for many years. PN are just passing on the openreach charges. Although strictly speaking you should only have to pay it if openreach find the fault to be within your property or with your equipment. Openreach have been known to try it on though.

What a great service. I now state from the start, I am in the test socket and I ahve a rj45 cat7 cable and my entire network is gigabit.

Good.

I am open to the possibility it is my router, however, before I moved house my router was working for 3 years on 80/20 without any problems.

I did have a network hub once that became a bit unstable for six months before it finally expired. But I think it's fairly unlikely.

Great, so that is my home network cross off the list as a possible cause.

Sorta. If every piece of telephony equipment has a filter. A filtered faceplate would still be worth getting and they are cheap enough and easy to fit.

However, I should definitely be able to use my wireless without having line instability issues

Agreed.

I know very well who owns what. I just like to make a point of how useless the plus net support it as actually resolving these sorts of issues.

And I'm just pointing out that it's not PN's fault.

The guy sounded so fed up and I am not suprised. I would hate to work for an ISP because the customers usually hate them.

I have no desire to speak to open reach directly. I pay plusnet for the service, so it should be there job to provide.

Which they are trying to do. But openreach control the communications and Ofcom enforce it all. PN are almost as powerless as you and I.

Unfortunately your communications here on this forum seem somewhat confused and antagonistic. As you imply PN staff already have a hard enough job trying to placate customers while trying to get openreach to fix problems properly and on time. You're not going to encourage them to go the extra mile if they have to wade through convoluted explanations and criticisms of them. Politeness and understanding is more likely to get them on your side and fighting your corner.