IP Profile Question

My connection speeds are higher than my Ip Profile. Not complaining but confused! Spoke to support who said my IP profile was better than BT recommended. Any expert comment?!


"Download speedachieved during the test was - 7538 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 2000-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :8867 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 443 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7150 Kbps"

Meldrew

You've been moved to a 21CN/WBC/WBMC/IPSC connection, and for a long time there has been a problem of this kind with that and the BT speed test. It used to be reported frequently on these forums, then died away, and has re-surfaced in the last few weeks.

It looks as though it was fixed, and someone has broken it again .

In your case, it's almost as though the IP Profile has simply been ignored. What does your Plusnet Control Panel show as the Current line rate?

I agree that figures seem to be all over the place.

My Thomson TG585v8 shows 9046 kbps

BT tester profile 8000 kbps

PN profile 7150 kbps

Ofcom/SamKnows download shows consistent 7850 kbps.

Overall it doesn't really matter to me but might worry some.

I keep seeing references to the Plusnet Control Panel but however hard I try I cannot actually find it!

Meldrew

In reply to a post by meldrew:

I keep seeing references to the Plusnet Control Panel but however hard I try I cannot actually find it!

Meldrew

It's well hidden!

https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer...

More generically - this is where I start https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=myconnection

Estimated line speed:
2.0Mb (This may vary between 1Mb and 3.5Mb) - Checked on 2011-01-05 10:06:54
Current line speed:
8 Mb

Additionally ( BT HH2):
Noise margin (Down/Up) 5.3 dB / 22.7 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 38.0 dB / 18.8 dB
and I am 1.3 kms from the exchange


Thanks, Kevin!

Meldrew

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

More generically - this is where I start https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=myconnection

But you then have to know to click "High Speed Broadband" which is far from obvious!

In reply to a post by meldrew:

Estimated line speed:
2.0Mb (This may vary between 1Mb and 3.5Mb) - Checked on 2011-01-05 10:06:54
Current line speed:
8 Mb

Additionally ( BT HH2):
Noise margin (Down/Up) 5.3 dB / 22.7 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 38.0 dB / 18.8 dB
and I am 1.3 kms from the exchange

I don't know what's with these "maximum" speeds lately - mine has taken a dive from 2.5 to 1Mb in the last couple of weeks, with no effect on my actual speed of around 3Mb. My current attenuation (ADSL 2+) is 61dB, was around 54dB on ADSL Max.

Incidentally, Plusnet's copy of the profile no longer seems to be limiting my connection speed. My IP Profile went up from 2.5Mb to 3Mb a couple of days ago whereas the Plusnet copy still says 2.5Mb but my download speed has increased from around 2.3-2.4Mb to 2.8-2.9Mb

In reply to a post by kasg:

Incidentally, Plusnet's copy of the profile no longer seems to be limiting my connection speed. My IP Profile went up from 2.5Mb to 3Mb a couple of days ago whereas the Plusnet copy still says 2.5Mb but my download speed has increased from around 2.3-2.4Mb to 2.8-2.9Mb

I wonder if it doesn't work on MSILs? Just on Centrals. That's quite possible. Something to look out for.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by kasg:

Incidentally, Plusnet's copy of the profile no longer seems to be limiting my connection speed. My IP Profile went up from 2.5Mb to 3Mb a couple of days ago whereas the Plusnet copy still says 2.5Mb but my download speed has increased from around 2.3-2.4Mb to 2.8-2.9Mb

I wonder if it doesn't work on MSILs? Just on Centrals. That's quite possible. Something to look out for.

And now, after a couple of days and a router restart (I unplugged it to move something) it is limiting me. IP profile 3000 but Plusnet copy stuck at 2.5Mb and speeds have dropped to around 2.4Mb. I've got an IP address starting 46.208, which I've never seen before.

I've had a few IP's starting 46.208.x.x My profile is 4.5, but earlier this week, after an unintentional router restart I was getting downloads of 5723 kbps (715kB/s). This continued until the router stopped routing on Thursday, when I re-booted it, I dropped back to just over 4200 kbps, which is correct for a 4.5 IP (router sync is 6656, but profile always sticks at 4.5 for some reason).

Andrew

There is no way your profile should stick, either the BT one that is the controlling one, or the Plusnet copy that should always reflect it fairly soon after it changes.

It does of course take up to five days to rise after a lower one is triggered, and 4500 >> 5500 I would expect to take at least three days, possibly four.

When the system is working right there is a way with some routers to force an over-night rise, but in both these cases if what you say is correct then the system is not working right.

The Plusnet copy of my profile remained stuck at 2.5Mb so I raised a ticket today to get it fixed, which was done very efficiently, I got a callback only 15 minutes after submitting the ticket and it was rectified promptly, I just hope it doesn't stick again after my upgrade to fibre on Thursday! I must say I have been very impressed by Plusnet support in recent weeks, I have had two calls regarding the progress of my FTTC order, both on bank holidays.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by kasg:

Incidentally, Plusnet's copy of the profile no longer seems to be limiting my connection speed. My IP Profile went up from 2.5Mb to 3Mb a couple of days ago whereas the Plusnet copy still says 2.5Mb but my download speed has increased from around 2.3-2.4Mb to 2.8-2.9Mb

I wonder if it doesn't work on MSILs? Just on Centrals. That's quite possible. Something to look out for.

Unlikely TBH as the limiting is controlled by our edge routers and they're common across both networks. Having said that, there aren't any Plusnet customers being routed across Centrals any more.

In reply to a post by bpullen:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by kasg:

Incidentally, Plusnet's copy of the profile no longer seems to be limiting my connection speed. My IP Profile went up from 2.5Mb to 3Mb a couple of days ago whereas the Plusnet copy still says 2.5Mb but my download speed has increased from around 2.3-2.4Mb to 2.8-2.9Mb

I wonder if it doesn't work on MSILs? Just on Centrals. That's quite possible. Something to look out for.

Unlikely TBH as the limiting is controlled by our edge routers and they're common across both networks. Having said that, there aren't any Plusnet customers being routed across Centrals any more.

What I have found on two occasions now is that changes to Plusnet's profile don't seem to affect the speeds immediately, or maybe the other way round, an increase in sync speed is not limited by the Plusnet profile immediately.

Not sure why that would be Kevin. We've just tested a few of the profiles at this side on an external DSL circuit and the changes all took effect immediately

In reply to a post by bpullen:

Not sure why that would be Kevin. We've just tested a few of the profiles at this side on an external DSL circuit and the changes all took effect immediately

Well, even my experience with the new FTTC installation this morning (other thread) proves it, immediately after installation I was getting 39Mb despite the Plusnet profile being set to 3Mb. It didn't start limiting my speed to 3Mb for at least half an hour.

Likely the software on your MSAN has borked. A lot of upgrade work is happening as of late, and I too have noticed increased speds above IPprofile level

It's odd Bob. However I am sure on the last couple of weeks I have seen 3-4 cases of speeds above the Plusnet "Current line speed", though below the (BT) IP Profile as expected.

It isn't the profile changes that are the issue, it is the speed being above what is shown in the user's control panel.

Yes, I've seen other reports of the same as well.

After your post I raised a ticket for my 'stuck' profile of 4.5 (BT profile reported at 5872, router sync at 6656, PN Member Centre at 4.5). As per your (excellent) experience, one of the PN Support Team picked up the ticket very quickly and confirmed my PN Profile was indeed 'stuck' and re-set it to 5.5 where it should be (PN profiles go in steps of 500 and can't be higher than the BT profile, hence being slightly below the 5872 figure reported by speedtester.bt.com). Now getting a lovely 5162 download, exactly as I used to always get with NewNet before moving to PN a few months back.

So, a big thanks to the PN Support Team for sorting out the problem so quickly - thanks guys and girls, much appreciated.

Andrew

That looks like you were also seeing the frequent screwed-up IP Profile reporting on WBC.

The BT IP profiles at that level also go in 500kbps steps. See this page. There is no such profile as 5872kbps.

5500kbps is the correct profile for your sync, so that is fine .

I believe there is some sort of DLM trial going on that may mean some users see other speeds for their IP Profile.

In reply to a post by jelv:

I believe there is some sort of DLM trial going on that may mean some users see other speeds for their IP Profile.

Yep, aka 'bRAS Quantification'. I think it's being applied to around 40% of our circuits at present.

In reply to a post by bpullen:

In reply to a post by jelv:

I believe there is some sort of DLM trial going on that may mean some users see other speeds for their IP Profile.

Yep, aka 'bRAS Quantification'. I think it's being applied to around 40% of our circuits at present.

First hit on Google for "bRAS Quantification":

http://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-volumetric-quantific...

I'm none the wiser!

HI kasg

I've posted a brief explanation here.

Jojo

Thanks for that link Jojo.

Interestingly the profile in the poster's stats is 88.2% of the sync. Which looks as though it is being calculated to exclude the approximate ATM overhead rather than banding as in the past.

Or perhaps it is a low estimate of the ATM + TCP/IP overhead, which would make sense.

Would I be right in guessing that this trialling system doesn't necessarily auto-update the Plusnet copy? It looks a bit that way. Also that these incremental settings aren't yet possible in the Plusnet system?

There is no such profile as 5872kbps.

Well, that's what the output of speedtester.bt.com said . I suspect my line is/was running under 'bRAS Quantification'. This is a change to the way BT assign IP profiles and is currrently applied to about about 40% of the ADSL2+ MSANs.

bRAS quantification will assign the proilfe a lot closer to the sync speed than at present and the profile will be applied instantly after a sync event, so no more waiting 72 hours for the DLM to pick up the new sync speed. As it's a trial, I suspect that's why the PlusNet IP Profile wasn't keeping in sync.

As you say, 5.5 is 'correct' for my line, and a speed I'm more than happy with. Putting my telephone number into the BT checker gives an estimate of just 2Mb, so the fact I was getting 4.5 was over a 100% improvement anyway, to get a steady 5.5 is great .

Fibre comes to the cabinet at the end of my road in September, the green box is less than 300m from my house, so at that point the debate between 4.5 and 5.5 becomes something of a non-issue .

Andrew

I am not sure the ADSL2 is valid as am getting the funny results as well and I am on ADSL1 on 21CN so I suspect it is the MSAN whether you are on ADSL2 or not

In reply to a post by jpilson:

HI kasg

I've posted a brief explanation here.

Jojo

Thanks Jo - that sounds like excellent news (thought I'd posted this earlier but must ave forgotten to press the button!)

While I'm on an ADSL2 line, I actually force my router to connect ADSL (G.DTM), as I find I get a sync that's around 6300-6600, whereas if I let if go to ADSL2 (i.e. Auto - Multi-mode), then I only sync at around 5900 (and it takes the router much longer to connect at boot-up). Given that situation, I take the better, quicker, more stable, sync of ADSL over ADSL2.

Andrew

In reply to a post by atsw:

While I'm on an ADSL2 line, I actually force my router to connect ADSL (G.DTM), as I find I get a sync that's around 6300-6600, whereas if I let if go to ADSL2 (i.e. Auto - Multi-mode), then I only sync at around 5900 (and it takes the router much longer to connect at boot-up). Given that situation, I take the better, quicker, more stable, sync of ADSL over ADSL2.

Andrew

Everyone here keeps saying ADSL2, which is incorrect. They all mean ADSL2+, G.992.5. ADSL2 uses the same frequencies as ADSL Max, tops out at 12Mbps, and is not a standard Plusnet not BT Wholesale product option. (Though it can be provided as a special when necessary, by a similar tweak at the DSLAM/MSAN end as you apply to your router).

In your particular case, you will almost certainly find ADSL2, G.992.3, is what you need to force, as the protocol is more efficient than G.DMT, G.992.1, so should give (slightly) higher sync at this level than either G.DMT or ADSL2+.

A far more dramatic effect is likely if you remove the ring/bell wire from your master socket if you haven't already done so, see this page, and/or stop using a phone extension cable, also mentioned in that Troubleshooting section. If you get an improvement with those actions you may then find ADSL2+ is the best option.

A far more dramatic effect is likely if you remove the ring/bell wire from your master socket if you haven't already done so, see this page, and/or stop using a phone extension cable, also mentioned in that Troubleshooting section. If you get an improvement with those actions you may then find ADSL2+ is the best option.

Yes, did all those things many years ago, when I first got Broadband. No ring wire, no phone extension cables, and router connected directly to master socket, which has the special BT/Openreach faceplate. As you say, all these things are known to have a dramatic (positive) effect on connection speed and stability.

Andrew

Note what I said about trying ADSL2 though . I presume I am right you were one of those talking about ADSL2 but meaning ADSL2+?

Yep

Andrew