Appalled by lack of information!

[#1]

I can not believe the conversation I have just had with customer services, I have been with PlusNet for about 12 years on the same contract and used to enjoy good speeds for my area, download 4.5mbs upload 1.2mbs. For about a year I have had problematic speeds and for the last 6 months have struggled to achieve 1mbs sometimes only getting 0.25 mbs, I have contacted customer services on numerous occasions and have had fault tickets raised, 6 weeks ago PlusNet arranged for BT to come to my premises and check things out! The engineers report was that everything was performing as well as could be expected and could not understand my low speed. Today final straw, my speed was as poor as ever, so I contacted BT and ran some of their tests which involved me switching temporarily to BT's broadband from plusnet for a speed test, amazing back to my original 4.5mbs, the final report was a problem with plusnet, so I again contacted Plusnet service center and was told, 'Yes I can see the issue, your speed is being capped by us' !!! where was this information a year ago, before I bought 5 different routers to try and identify the issue, the solution .... ' I can change your arrangement with us to a No contract deal that will give better speeds and it will cost me £2.00 less per month and if I decide to take an annual contract it will be another £2.00 off per month. So there it is PlusNet were capping my speeds to below 1mbs when I was paying for 8mbs and giving my bandwidth to other customers who are paying less?? They even made BT come to my premises involving me taking a days holiday from work, when they knew what and where the problem was. So after 12 years of being a loyal customer PlusNet thanks for nothing, I shall now be looking for a new provider that values my custom and provides the service that I pay for, and I shall also recommend to my referals that they do the same. And as a final note my speed has now improved with the new package, which was changed within an hour of my telephone chat with customer services and I am seeing 2.5mbs download speed which is still only about half of what I had 1 year ago, this is progress.

[#2]

Hi there.
I'm sorry to hear about the issues you've had with your speed.
You weren't being capped deliberately by ourselves but our profile hadn't updated to match the BT profile. This was the cause of the slow speeds before you called in however the only other time you reported a fault to ourselves in the last 12 months was in October. I understand where you are coming from and that this has caused issues but if it isn't reported to us then there isn't much we can do to investigate.
Your connection is currently offline from what I can see. Can you try running another speedtest to see if the speeds are still low?

[#3]

Matthew,
Is the profile update issue a very recent matter or does it explain the user's (apparent) long history of slower speeds PRIOR TO the recent package change?
I understand that there can be delays from BT to PlusNet in updating profile settings, but such delays are rarely more than a few days.  Is it possible that what has happened here is that (due to changes of BTOR in exchange equipment) this user has now been able to upgrade from their inferior legacy services to more modern 21CN services?  As a consequence of which they are now able to enjoy faster speeds at a lower cost.
Kevin

[#4]

Hi Kevin.
The OP's on 21cn since 2012 and only once in that time has the profile dropped below 2mbps which was October.
It was 2.6 when the OP posted however that increased to 4.2 this morning. When they turn the router back on they should see a increase.

[#5]

Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your response, my router is currently turned on, I never turn it off, unless there is a power cut! I reported my slow speed back in January, don't know why you have not got a record? Why was the solution to this problem not pointed out in October? If it was just a case of settings why have I had to change my account to get any imrpovement? Thank you for the price reduction:-) I sent you a screen grab showing my speeds at 0.25 mb and 0.76mb I can resend them to you or post them here, my latest speed test shows 2.5mb, which if it stays at that I would be over the moon with, but as mentioned is still not where I was a year ago, I do not consider myself as a heavy user, the main purpose of my broadband is so that I can work from home on Fridays, and save me a 200 mile commute, for me to do this I require a remote desktop to my place of work, which lately I have been unable to achieve because of my slow download speed.
Thanks
Adam

[#6]

Hi Adam,
There are a whole range of issues which impact synch speed and data speed.  What is not clear in your statements and questions is if you are referring to DATA speed as reported by the speed tester or LINE SYNCH speed as reported by the modem.
Matthew has indicated that the line PROFILE (which is always 88.2% of the synch speed) has not dropped below 2Mbps until October this year.  Whereas that is not as good as the 4.5Mbps you used to get, it is nowhere near the very low speeds you cited in the first post.  The thing is that few people have any idea what their speed is normally until the have an issue and set about monitoring things.  Actual DATA test SPEEDS can then be even lower than the line profile due to exchange congestion or high error rates at the time of testing.  To be accurate DATA SPEED TESTS should always be done over a wired network when the network is not being used by anything else.  In certain circumstances, the wifi network can be the slowest part of the link.
You have not provided any of the metrics requested in the speed issues tread, therefore it is only possible to postulate what has happened to your service.  The speeds you report are indicative of you being on a long line - possibly rural, probably having aluminium in the line (rather than copper) which is the worse of all worlds!  Such BTOR circuits are highly susceptible to problems from poor joints in damp / wet weather.  I have suffered from lines in similar conditions - reasonably OK in summer and then slow and problematic in Autumn.  It is possible that the BTOR DLM has slugged your line and not released its "grip" when line conditions have improved.  The package change could have reset the DLM / line in general and at the moment your line is behaving well.  You need to keep an eye on this as line issues rarely go away without intervention.
If you'd care to post all of the information requested in the speed issues thread, I'll take a look at the figures and check them against expectations.
Is the phone line quiet>  Dial 17070 option 2 and check it frequently.  If there is noise, report a noisy line fault to your phone provider.
Is the router plugged into the master socket?

Kevin

[#7]

Hello Townman, thanks for your response, you are correct in my rural location, someway up a big welsh mountain, 1.5 miles from the exchange at Llanberris. My line is reasonable good and quiet and has been extensively tested by BT. The modem / router  is connected directly to the master socket, an openreach mk3 with built in filter, there are no phone extensions or even phones connected just the router which is a draytek vigor 2820n, which is my router of choice, extensively at work. Bt replaced my incoming cable from pole to house, when i complained in january, and sent test results to plusnet in October showing that the line could be close to 6mb, unfortunately I did not get a copy of these results. My speed tests were performed using lan and not wlan. I am not there currently so i am unable to do any other tests tonight.
Adam

[#8]

Hi Adam,
Ah if not up, then near the bigest Welsh mountain - beautiful area!
If BTOR say your line can do 6Mbps, then one has to assume that is SYNCH speed.  The IP profile will not be better than 88.2% of that, thereafter, how much DATA speed you can get out of it is dependant on the error rate of the link to the exchange.  It will be less than the IP profile.
Synch speed is entirely in the gift of BTOR - it is (as I suspect you know) down to the physical characteristics of the line and the ability of your router to work well with the BTOR exchange equipment.  Some work better with particular exchange equipment than do others.  In respect of the IP profile which inform PlusNet's systems how fast they can send data to you, they need to keep instep with BTOR's systems and BTOR need to keep their systems in step BTw.  Sometimes this process fails.
The limiting factor after that is how busy is your local exchange?  Not a question which I expect you to answer, but I trust that you'll recognise that source of poor speed is rarely in PlusNet's control.
I say rarely as there have been instances where in the past (due to at the time restrictive data in BT Wholesale's systems) users have been provisioned on "up to 1M or 2M" products because that is all that was being offered.  More recent line / exchange improvements could mean that something different is now available.  However given your reported history I would not believe that to be the case.
If the BTOR claims about what you line can achieve are correct, then one would expect to see your line attenuation reported by the modem to be less than 48dB.  Have a look here - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php - and see what the BT database has to say about your line.  Then when you are able, lets have sight of your actual stats and we can take the discussion from there.  I might even drive over and have a look myself - its hardly an hour away.  
Kevin

[#9]

I hope to be home tomorrow to do some tests and and try some different router settings, looking at 'Google' there appears to be some issues with the Vigor 2820N and PlusNet, which is a shame if I have to change it because it is the only wifi I have found that can penetrate my 1m thick stone walls!( why it should be any different, I set all of my routers to the same power where settable and to the same channel and country), My Original router was a Dg384N which is getting tired now and was the router that achieved my 4.5mb speeds on. Just for interest I have attached a couple of images showing my speed & line test results from last week.
Thanks
Adam

[#10]

Quote from: awhitehouse

...................................and sent test results to plusnet in October showing that the line could be close to 6mb, unfortunately I did not get a copy of these results.

Have a look through Closed questions/tickets in case it's there somewhere. HTH.

[#11]

Unfortunately it was the Bt engineer, that sent the results to PlusNet as part of their call out, so I was only shown them and didn't get a hard copy.

[#12]

Quote from: awhitehouse

... looking at 'Google' there appears to be some issues with the Vigor 2820N and PlusNet, ...

Hi Adam,
Can you post a link to that please?  It is a strange statement as it refers to the ISP and not specific BTOR equipment.  The role of the modem is to establish, manage and maintain the xDSL link to the exchange.  It is possible that a user coming from or going to a LLU provider such as Talk Talk or Sky has had problems when with PlusNet who use BT's WBC products, which use different exchange equipment to that used for LLU.  Problems with router / exchange chipset issues on some lines is not unheard of but issues with a specific ISP is not familiar to me.
There is some possibility that this could refer to a specific service trial for example IP v6 over which there have been various issues with both routers and PlusNet servers.
WiFi: It is not just the power levels but also the aerial configuration and technology type.  Some just blast out the signal, other "examine" the environment and "shape" the signal - I don't understand the details...!  
There are though a number of ways of skinning the WiFi cat.  In conjunction with home plugs, you could extend your network over the mains power and use some of your old kit as additional WiFi access points, but that is something for another day.
That line test (to me) looks really bad.  The status is RED which means the DLM is adjusting the speed DOWNWARD for stability and the MTBE (DS) is just 2 seconds.  For me this confirms that the speed variability is unlikely to have been related to the PN product you were on.  The product change will have put the line back into training mode and I fear that it is working its way back down again.  Lets see the stats and we can then take an informed view.
Kevin

[#13]

I can not find the link I was looking at earlier (don't keep history), just a few people having issues with settings for PlusNet because they handle the ip differently to BT ? and I perhaps need to change my firmware for one that suits slower lines, I think I put the latest one in without checking suitability.
Wifi:-  I know I can repeat, bridge or over power etc; I have it all,, but the Vigor does it on its own, I have never before had wifi in every corner :D, I already 'beam' my wifi to my other house 2 miles across a valley, I was doing this with matched Yagi's, but the wifi congestion has grown so much in the village in between it was blocking my signal, so I have a couple of CP-Link 510's now on 5ghz, which are doing the job for now.
Adam