Plusnet engineer visit

Hi guys, i've had plusnet broadband since moving in to my flat in september ad have been experiencing slow speeds since day one. Obviously i was advised for the first few weeks that the line was 'settling' but things didn't improve.
Initial speed estimates were 5.5meg. I was getting a sync speed of 3meg and an actual connection speed of 0.15meg download 0.01meg upload.
I've phoned them countless times, emailed them to provide them with additional information such as capturing packet data with Wireshark. I think i've gone above and beyond what could be reasonably expected of me and can't help but feel that most people would have given up by this stage which is what they were intending for me to do.
Now i'm waiting for them to sort out a problem with their fault logging system so that they can organise an engineer to visit. They have told me that 'should the problem be found to be in the internal wiring that i would be liable to pay £60.
So are they just going to send round an engineer who will then blame the internal wiring charging £60, then we'll have to get someone to fix the internal wiring, then prove that the fault remains, try and open a new fault ticket and get the £60 back?

What do you think?
I think paying for line rental and broadband for a narrowband speed line has been too expensive already and that i'm being put in a situation where i feel i'm having to make a gamble on an ISP who have already repeatedly proved themselves dubious.

Could i cancel my broadband now claiming it not to be fit for purpose? Or are they going to refuse as i've not exhausted all of their options by accepting an engineers visit?

Thanks!

Does your main incomi9ng phone socket have a test socket? If so, then plug the router in there. If you can leave it in there and see if things improve. This isolates it from your own internal wiring and ensures that if BT come out it cannot be an issue with that as it isn't connected.

Provided you have tested the board band at the NTE5 test socket with a new filter and you router and all other wiring has been disconnected their is no reason why you would get any charge..

The estimate might have been wrong, and that wouldn't be PN's fault. The BT databases that give this are often wildly out.

Please can you see if you can find and post your line/router stats. See here for help. Once we have those, we know for definite what your line should be capable of.

A second set of stats, using the test socket as already suggested, would be great for comparison and the comparison could give a clue to the cause of the problem. The test socket is on the wall at the back in this pic.

Pasting the results of a BT Performance Test down as far as the end of the upload figures would also be a help.

General Information
NTE Status: NTE Power Status: PowerOn Bypass Status:

Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 23.1 52.5
SNR Margin: 25 6
Errored Seconds: 0 1
HEC Errors: 0
Cell Count: 898403 6314844
Speed: 440 3347

Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS): 576 Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS): 576
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds): 43121 Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds): 86400
Indicative Line Quality: G Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds): 445




Detailed Records
Attribute: UpStream-BE
DownStream-BE UpStream-BE DownStream-BE
TAP ID: TAP-1
TAP-1 TAP-3 TAP-3
Test ID: 1323902458 1323902406 1323902891 1323902845
Start Date/Time: 14-12-2011 22:40:10 14-12-2011 22:39:25 14-12-2011 22:47:27 14-12-2011 22:46:36
Policy ID: WBC WBC WBC WBC
Profile Rate: 440 2952 440 2952
Test File Size: 93440 904912 84680 877416
File Transfer Average Throughput/Session: 19.290225982666015625 211.4248809814453125 20.3651676177978515625 217.0755767822265625

Well the connection speeds are down/up 3347/440kbps, which is in line with the estimate, and the IP Profile of 2952kbps is correct for the downstream 3347kbps. Which socket did you use to take those stats?

Are you testing speeds wired or wireless?

The 3347kbps downstream is however quite low for the 52.5dB attenuation. I would expect 4-5Mbps, tending towards the high end in most cases. As your downstream noise margin is currently 6dB it would be useful to know the stats taken immediately after a reconnection, as the noise margin changes over time and the reading at connection time is critical to the connection speed you get. See the above requests re the test socket.

I haven't really analysed the stuff below the Link information, other than picking up the IP Profile. Where does all that stuff come from, as I haven't seen that format before?

In particular though the MSR and FTR, if they are the BT Wholesale figures, point to a severe problem during your initial 10-day training. Was that the case?

It would be useful if you posted the ticket number because I'm sure one of the helpful Plusnet reps here would then pick it up and try to assist.

Edited by kasg (Thu 05-Jan-12 12:27:10)

That info i posted comes from what plusnet see when i use the BT speed tester.
Tests were performed using a linksys router connected via ethernet and plugged into the test socket behind the face plate. The tests were performed on the only device connected to the network and have been repeated using another router borrowed from a friend. Computers used to perform the test have varied along with their operating systems. Between all the tests 5 PCs / laptops have been used running XP, VISTA, 7, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora.

Plusnet claim my line speed profile was set to low so they raised it.
They claimed it was set low due to errors on the line, so they turned on interleveing, waited for the line to stabilise for a few days and reset the speed profile.
The sync speed has remained unchanged and still vastly exceeds the actual received speed by about 20 times.

I know i'm quite far from the exchange, which is a pain as i live right in the middle of a city. The buildings down the road have fibre, but virgin say they won't be installing it here. The info from sam knows says this:
up to 2Mbps via ADSL
4Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max
5.5Mbps or greater via ADSL2+

With regards to the SNR i think that was immediately after reconnection. The third test of the BT speed tester requires that you change your DSL login details to some generic ones so that they can access more information, this of course means that the router will have just been reconnected.

Lots of bases been covered then - I'd still like to see a bang up-to-date BT speed test though. Just because I haven't seen one in a way.

What does the PN Line Rate say?

Is the router connected to the socket using a short ADSL cable, or is there an extension cable to reach it? So:-

1) Router >> ADSL cable >> filter >> socket, or
2) Router >> ADSL cable >> filter >> extension cable >> socket.