Download speed suddenly poor

[#1]

Hi there,

I have been enjoying my FTTP service without many issues, however, today it seems that my download speed has taken a hit.

I seem to be getting around 20Mbps instead of the usual 80.

https://www.speedtest.net/result/8768302044

This is testing on a wired connection to the router. My phone appears to get similar results via wifi.

Tried rebooting the router but this didnt appear to help

Could someone please take a look into this?

[#2]

I have seen this happen before, something in PlusNet's systems switches you back to an old ADSL2+ speed profile. Have look at this thread   https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-To-The-Premises-trial/Slow-download-speed/td-p/1549696 

You will need one of the staff on the FTTP forum board to sort it. Don't bother with phoning customer support they will not know what to do and probably make things much worse.😁

[#3]

Hi @FakeJake, thanks for your post.

We're sorry to hear of your slower than expected speeds.

I've had a look at the connection profiles and nothing looks out of place, with the profiles set at 79.1Mbps and 80mbps respectively.

As you're already using Ethernet connections, can you please set the connection into the test socket and re-test?

This rules out internal wiring, face plates and extension sockets as being the cause. How to locate the test socket and set your connection into it can be found here.

Please let us know how you get on with it.
 

[#4]

@OskarPapa  The Op is on the FTTP service your advice is not relevant, he has no master socket or test socket for the broadband. The problem is definitely a product profile issue, have you looked at the post I linked to above. Maybe @Gandalf can help here.

[#5]

@RealAleMadrid Sorry about that, I've given him a heads up

@FakeJake We're not seeing any issues our side though, the speed profile on your account hasn't actually changed since 9th August 2017. Are you still seeing speed problems after the weekend?

[#6]

Hi there

Yes the speeds are still slow, although I can just about manage a 30mbps download speed now.

Obviously I can't test via the test socket as I have no copper phone line service of any kind.

The speeds have been poor since the fibre line went down on Saturday. The red LOS light was showing on the modem for about an hour. I'm not sure if this is relevant but I've only ever seen this happen once before, which was caused by a fibre break which was repaired by an army of openreach vans. Were there any engineering works in my area?

[#7]

Hi Jake

It’s difficult to see retrospectively if there were any engineering works carried out in the area. 

If you’re able to try a different router first just to cover as many bases as we can do and if your speeds are still poor, I’d report a fault to us at http://faults.plus.net so we can arrange an engineer to investigate further. 

There’s limited remote diagnostics we can do on fibre and even more limited on FTTP without involving an engineer. Our tests generally show if the service is either working or broken.

Let us know if you report a fault and we’ll get it picked up for you as soon as we can, or if you need any further assistance.

[#8]

Thanks for your patience @FakeJake

If you're unable to try another router it may be worth making a direct connection to the ONT through your PC if you're able to do this.

I've included instructions on how to do this below if you are able to

Windows:

1. Plug the Ethernet cable in to the ONT and the PC
2. Ensure the LAN1 light comes on
3. Create a dial-up PPPoE connection as below:
4. Go to Control Panel -> Network Connections
5. Create a new connection
6. Connect to the Internet
7. Set up my Connection Manually
Connect using a broadband connection that requires a username and password (PPPoE) ISP Name ? Plusnet
8. Enter the broadband username (yourusername@plusdsl.net) and your PN password)
9. Finish and click connect then you should be able to get online.

Mac:

*    From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences
*    From the View menu, choose Network
*    Choose Built-in Ethernet from the Show pop-up menu
*    Click the PPPoE tab
*    Select the checkbox for Connect using PPPoE
*    Enter the Broadband Username and Password
*    Click PPPoE options and tick the Connect automatically when needed checkbox
*    Click Apply Now

Let us know how you get on

[#9]

Ok, so I've tested the following:

Old small plusnet router:

Wired speedtest ok, but poor upload

Plusnet "one" router:

Speedtests are ok both wired and wireless

My router:

Speedtests now fine on ethernet (they werent before) but still slow wifi

I've factory reset my router and made sure I was testing on the same wifi channels etc. I even went back to the plusnet one router to test again...

I can only conclude that the cause is my Netgear R6400v2 router. Either its developed a hardware fault or a recent firmware update has degraded the wifi performance on it.

I am genuinely sorry for wasting your time with this, but I honestly didn't think my newish premium router would be the cause!

Thanks for all of your help once again.

[#10]

Thanks for getting back to us @FakeJake

Glad to hear that you've got to the bottom of the matter.

Hopefully, it's an issue Netgear are aware of and can fix soon

[#11]

I'm back!

So, things just get weirder and weirder.

Netgear finally decided to replace the router, so that all good.

I decided to dive into the deep end and get a Mikrotik wired router and an asus WiFi access point.

Mikrotik routers are sort of budget enterprise grade - they'll do whatever you want them to but they're a pain to set up.

I managed to get an internet connection easily enough, but had really low upload speeds and packet loss.

I've solved this by changing the MAC address on the router to the same as my Plusnet One router.

I wasn't aware that Plusnet were fussy about MAC addresses?!

Since I made that change, the upload speed is fine, but I now have the same issue with download speed that I had with the Netgear router. Wired speeds seem OK but wifi speeds are poor.

So you may think that the issue is local to me - wifi interference or something. But you'd be wrong. I get full speed over wifi locally. I can even revert to the default MAC address and get full download speeds back, but very poor upload speed.

I'm completely perplexed. I can only assume my connection is being throttled in some odd way.

Anyone have any ideas?

[#12]

Hi Jake. This is certainly odd as there's nothing our side which would be limiting your throughput with a third party router. Assuming your download and upload speeds are fine using the Hub One, does either your Mikrotik router or Asus access point have any Quality of Service(QoS) settings enabled which may be causing this?

[#13]

So I was going to do some further testing this weekend, but at some point this week, all speeds returned to normal without me doing anything.

I hate problems that solve themselves almost as much as problems that can't be solved!

[#14]

That's a strange one, Jake.

I mean, I'm obviously pleased that your speeds are back to normal, but I appreciate why it's frustrating.

Can you let us know if this reoccurs?

Thanks

Dave