Unstable FTTP / Broadband Speeds Below Guaranteed Minimum

[#1]

I’m experiencing serious issues with my broadband. I’m on a plan that advertises up to 900 Mbps, with a minimum guaranteed speed of 500 Mbps, but during peak times, I consistently get well below this.

I’m based in Birmingham and using a third-party router running PFsense 2.8.1 with if_pppoe instead of mpd5 with no traffic shaping implemented. My connection had been stable for months, but during maintenance on the evening of 11th / early hours of 12th September (Ref: PW1756817200), I lost internet for about an hour with a red light on the ONT. Since then, speeds remain poor despite power-cycling the ONT and testing directly with the Plusnet Hub 2, thus removing my third-party router from the equation. Reaching out to Plusnet Support the next morning, they have said the following:

"There is a major outage in the area, which might be causing intermittent issues for your service. Openreach are replacing a card at the exchange, which is being power cycled".

Openreach also worked on the pole I’m connected to earlier this week, which didn’t look like standard maintenance or customer connection, so this may be related. I have let it settle, but still getting poor performance. My Thinkbroadband graph shows a substantial increase in latency spikes. 

Graph

I am not receiving my guaranteed minimum speed, which is unacceptable. The connection I am getting has had a significant spike in latency during peak hours (early evenings). Has anyone else experienced this after recent maintenance in their area? Any advice on escalating this to get it resolved would be appreciated, as I have been told the following by Plusnet support on Friday:

"No issues detected on the line. In your case, as these speed issues only occur at a specific time of the day, it indicates a possible internal issue."

Thanks.

[#2]

Issue is happening today. Checked my firewall and no traffic from any of my devices that would explain the loss of speed. Latency is increased as well.

Can someone help please?

[#3]

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@fjama1 wrote: ... during maintenance on the evening of 11th / early hours of 12th September (Ref: PW1756817200) ...

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It looks like PW1756817200 completed as you said -

but are you in for potentially a ten hour outage on Wednesday and Thursday ? (possibly fixing your current issue)

[#4]

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@fjama1 wrote:

I’m ... using a third-party router running PFsense 2.8.1 with if_pppoe instead of mpd5

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I tried if_pppoe (instead of mpd5) when I first upgraded from v2.7.2 to v2.8.0,  but had so many WAN problems that I had to give up, reverting to mpd5 was instantly rock solid stable.  I haven't retried if_pppoe since upgrading to v2.8.1 (with all System_Patches applied), but might give it another chance when I complete my next (almost complete) N150 4xi226 fanless router in the coming few days.

@fjama1  -  I'm wondering whether it is worth you, reverting to mpd5 to see whether that helps with your WAN issues ?

.

[#5]

As shown above, I monitor download speeds, and it has dipped again last night and now. I have checked to see if link saturation is causing the loss of speed, but the link was barely being used (under 10mbps), and an ad-hoc speed test performed after my automated speed test alerted me showed very similar results.

normal usage before speedtest

The image above shows very low usage, clearly showing that my devices/firewall isn't the issue causing the slow speeds.

The image below shows the speed test result, below the minimum guaranteed speed as stated in my contract during the same period over the last couple of days.

Firewall usage during the speed test is shown below

There is upcoming maintenance, so hopefully it fixes it. If not, I will revert to mpd5 and see if it makes any difference. I am running a fanless n100 i226 router, which should be plenty for a 1 Gbit connection without any traffic shaping/traffic inspection/IDS/IPS or running heavy packages (like ntopng).

I would like someone from Plusnet to investigate this further. 

[#6]

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@fjama1 wrote:

I would like someone from Plusnet to investigate this further. 

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Perhaps staff -  @Marsh ,  @Windings , or @lahbrannan1  could take a look ?

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[#7]

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@outcast wrote:

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@fjama1 wrote: ... during maintenance on the evening of 11th / early hours of 12th September (Ref: PW1756817200) ...

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It looks like PW1756817200 completed as you said -

but are you in for potentially a ten hour outage on Wednesday and Thursday ? (possibly fixing your current issue)

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I never know why, but the images uploaded to Plusnet forums always seem to break. @outcast, I understand what you are trying to show, and I hope the upcoming maintenance fixes the issue. My previous post details my investigation, which clearly shows there is a problem.

I totally get this isn't a leased line, with bandwidth and fibre dedicated to me (from the exchange). GPON has its limitations (as it's a shared medium), but I cannot see with a 32:1 split (often 30:1 with two kept as spares) how thirty customers can hammer download to such an extent that issues like this arise. I have had no problem for six months. I expect a 100-300mbps drop off, as running speed tests does introduce variance. But this is not right. It is now worse at just over 100mbps download. 

[#8]

Hi,

Can someone look into this urgently, please?

[#9]

I’m really disappointed that this hasn’t been escalated.

In the Welcome Letter I received, Plusnet clearly stated:

"At peak times, we estimate that you'll get the following speeds on your line:
Download: 900 - 1000Mbps
Upload: 104 - 115Mbps
Minimum Guaranteed Speed: 500Mbps

I am not even receiving the minimum guaranteed speed of 500 Mbps during peak times. I’ve tested everything within my home (wiring, devices, internal setup) to make sure the problem isn’t on my side. The issue only began after maintenance work was carried out in my area, which strongly points to this being an external fault.

At the moment, Plusnet are not honouring the minimum speeds they’ve promised in writing. This needs to be taken seriously and escalated properly, as I’m not getting the service I was guaranteed.

Can someone please investigate this urgently?

[#10]

@fjama1 

Have you contacted support recently?

You would need to connect your Hub two for this issue to be further investigated as support would need a know configuration to perform tests. Is this possible?

[#11]

Hi,

I have connected the Plusnet Hub 2 and tested via my laptop wired in. Same Issue. I have video of the Plusnet broadband admin page and doing the speed test.

This is clearly an issue not internal to my property.

[#12]

I have requested this is looked at, hopefully some traction tomorrow.

[#13]

Apologies, forgot to mention I have now escalated this to Plusnet complaints with the evidence I have collected (including the video). I would hold fire rather than waste your time (or anyone else's). Rather go through the complaints process.

[#14]

Once the complaints procedure has been invoked the superuser escalation and plusnet forum staff involvement is negated.

For completeness can you update the thread once you have a resolution? Helps others knowledge base.

I have suspended my request.

[#15]

@fjama1 

Hi!

Sorry that you've been experiencing these issues.

I know I am coming in late here into the conversation, the complaint escalated is sat with a member of our Advocates team.

They work weekdays 8-6 excluding Friday.

Once they are back in they will look into your complaint and attempt to contact you to help you with the issues.

There should also be a number in the ticket detail you can call to reach them, should you need anything sooner.

Thanks,

Lex