Annual Christmas Holiday speed drop

Last two weeks the download speed has approximately halved, this service malfunction occurred last year.

See SamKnows download speed chart

Digitus Extractus Plusnet and Openreach

What a faecal network that fails when a little bit of extra load is placed on it.

In reply to a post by DRW:

What a faecal network that fails when a little bit of extra load is placed on it.

Hmm, might be more local to you, perhaps your exchange in trouble. OR the cold weather has upset the wires in your street.

Not seeing it here - mine has this variability all year.

http://www.redsplace.co.uk/file/sn-dec2017.png

my stats:

Uptime:                 	32 days 23 hours 1 min 5 sec
			
				Downstream	Upstream
Line attenuation (dB):  	21.1		0.0
Signal attenuation (dB):	Not monitored		
Connection speed (kbps):	57821		9173
SNR margin (dB):        	6.3		6.5
Power (dBm):            	12.7		6.3
Interleave depth:       	8		1
INP:                    	47.00		0
G.INP:                  	Enabled		Not enabled

Edited by jchamier (Fri 30-Dec-16 14:42:39)

Has your sync rate changed or are you still syncing at the same level but getting lower speed tests?

If your sync rate has dropped then it could be the plethora of Xmas tree lights whose cheap transformers are pumping out interference on the same frequencies that ADSL uses. If the sync rate hasn't changed then it could be additional load on the network but that would normally resolve in non-peak times so what do the daily graphs look like? Is it that speed all through day and night or does it run fine until a certain point and then drop off?

Edited by ian72 (Fri 30-Dec-16 14:33:54)

Per my automated speed tests, I too have noticed slowdowns over the Christmas period, and I'm not even with PlusNet - IDNet, using Zen's backhaul.

I think if ISPs run their infrastructure warm, squeezing every available bit of bandwidth out of it to save money, these kinds of slowdowns are to be expected. I've only noticed this issue since moving to IDNet from Zen, so in my view, they've already demonstrated they are not the fastest ISP available (even though they market themselves otherwise). On the flip side, they are a little bit cheaper than Zen, so I can tolerate this (mostly).

But yeah, a speed drop of half is bit OTT, in my opinion. Then again, it might not be, given the price you're paying?

In reply to a post by DRW:

Last two weeks the download speed has approximately halved, this service malfunction occurred last year.

I wonder if you're rebooted anything. I've seen Samknows boxes stop recording randomly.

Also if you have a separate FTTC modem & router, reboot both. You might prefer to do this first thing in the morning, than now. (usually better sync).

IDNet use Zen backhaul?

Yes.

I suggest you reboot (power off/on) your Samknows box. This has happened to me a couple of times (the symptoms look identical) and the fault has been with the Samknows box and this has cured it. I have had no speed drop over the Christmas period.

Edited by kasg (Fri 30-Dec-16 17:49:48)

In reply to a post by DRW:

Last two weeks the download speed has approximately halved, this service malfunction occurred last year.

See SamKnows download speed chart

Digitus Extractus Plusnet and Openreach

What a faecal network that fails when a little bit of extra load is placed on it.

I don't believe anything to do with Plusnet network over the xmas period. I am getting 74Meg download over xmas period.

Must be your exchange congestion!

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Must be your exchange congestion!

Or, as I said, the Samknows box. I would put money on it.

I have spent the morning running the full BT Performance Tests and they confirmed the very slow download speed. At one point it registered as 0, I had changed the router id so that I could run the third level of tests directly to the BT Servers.

I then went through the Plusnet broadband performance checklist and it suggested I connect the computer directly to the router and ran the speed test. Download speed was 69mbs - so looking good.

I then connected the computer to the Samknows box and retested the speed - still 69mbs - so good.
So far I have not cycled the Samknows box.

Do ethernet plugs and sockets get corroded and so reduce the signal quality

Does BT / Openreach have a process where if a series of Level 3 speed tests (ie the one where you connect to the BT server) do not give a reasonable result are automated checking and fixing processes enabled to restore performance without a "man" having to be involved.

I will hold the Samknows power cycle for another time.

Thanks for your comments.

In reply to a post by DRW:

I then connected the computer to the Samknows box and retested the speed - still 69mbs - so good.
So far I have not cycled the Samknows box.

Maybe removing the Samknows box from the circuit for a while had the same effect as restarting it would have. I still think it's the most likely culprit.

In reply to a post by DRW:

Do ethernet plugs and sockets get corroded and so reduce the signal quality

Not if they're indoors I shouldn't think, it's never happened to me.

Hi

In reply to a post by DRW:

Do ethernet plugs and sockets get corroded and so reduce the signal quality

If the connection is a little suspect, or some interference or even a dodgy driver on the PC, I've seen a network connection drop to 10Mbps, which would become a bottleneck of course. Usually the switch or network card indicates the speed with a coloured LED, often Green for fast >= 100 Mbps and Orange for 10Mbps, and the OS should give an option to see the status of the network connection.

Disconnection and reconnecting will often cause a wiping of the connections and/or renegotiate the speed back to the fastest supported.

Regards

Phil

No change here, still getting full speed almost every time I test. I've had one instance of a really bad result (as per the ongoing network issues) but an immediate retest and it was fine. Looks like you have some kind of local issue. Exchange congestion or perhaps interference from Christmas lights.

THe performance is still OK

It looks as if I should do a weekly/monthly switch off of the Router and Samkknows box.

After all I do a daily power down of the Sky+ so that it gets a nice fresh startup.

In reply to a post by DRW:

After all I do a daily power down of the Sky+ so that it gets a nice fresh startup.

Heh, mine (now a Sky Q) is on a timer that cuts power overnight (and during the weekday). That daily reboot has saved me from several bugs over the years (and appears to have done so with the Sky Q at the moment, lol). It's also probably saved a fair amount of money in electricity as well. Sky boxes have always been shamefully wasteful.

Edited by Andrue (Sun 01-Jan-17 13:58:02)

In reply to a post by DRW:

THe performance is still OK

It looks as if I should do a weekly/monthly switch off of the Router and Samkknows box.

I don't see the Samknows box going wrong in this way (the slowdown). If mine is going to fail, it just stops running tests, but allows the line to run at full speed (80/20). That's on plusnet too.

My samknows box is the one based on the TP-Link WDR3600. A power-cycle fixes it.

I do get a different indication from the samknows tests though. If you display either the "hourly" or "raw test data" variants, you can see how each test ends. Almost all of my tests are either 72.5Mbps or 68.5Mbps, so the graph looks weird...

https://s29.postimg.org/k146sgyo7/Sam_Knows_Speed_Ra...

Anyone see similar results?

I have also never had a samknows box slow down in the way described, I have had occasionally where it will stop collecting stats (usually after internet downtime) which a reboot resolves but thats it.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I have also never had a samknows box slow down in the way described, I have had occasionally where it will stop collecting stats (usually after internet downtime) which a reboot resolves but thats it.

I've seen this - and I've got the Cisco/Linksys one.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I have also never had a samknows box slow down in the way described

Mine has done exactly that, twice, roughly a halving of download speed. That's why I made the suggestion, I wasn't just making it up. On both occasions I noticed after a week or two and a reboot of the Samknows box instantly cured it.

Edited by kasg (Sun 01-Jan-17 20:29:44)

Do SamKnows people monitor these forums?
If their box can cause slowdowns then they are reporting incorrect data

I think that I should write to them and alert them to this thread.

In reply to a post by DRW:

I think that I should write to them and alert them to this thread.

Please do, I should have alerted them to it myself, on the first occasion it happened I initially went to Plusnet support, before I worked out what had happened and they said they would note it for future reference (whether they did, and whether this information has ever been referenced, is another matter).

Edited by kasg (Tue 03-Jan-17 20:56:21)

Ofcom may be even more interested, as it is data they rely on for important reports. If the data is unreliable, and not necessarily just for Plusnet, "ahem!"

I have written to SamKNows about the issue and linked them to this thread.

Many thanks.

I also have the SamKnows TP-Link box; and have never apparently encountered such problems - but this may be due to it being powered down each night.

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

but this may be due to it being powered down each night.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the object of it?

In reply to a post by DRW:

THe performance is still OK

It looks as if I should do a weekly/monthly switch off of the Router and Samkknows box.

After all I do a daily power down of the Sky+ so that it gets a nice fresh startup.

If you need to do a daily power down of the Sky+, I think it's time you got the box swapped out. In my 10+ years with Sky TV I never rebooted either of my 2 boxes and there was never any periods of slowness. I did however change boxes around once every 3 years (negotiated new boxes for free as part of recontracting with retentions).

As for rebooting the router and/or the samknows box weekly, you certainly should not need to do that. If this is caused by the samknows box they need to resolve that.

Self rebooting regularly is just a band aid, it does not resolve the underlying issue.

Agreed that it does remove those night-time hours; but a combination of awkward to get 24 hour mains on to it; and I suspect that most problems/slow-downs occur during the "16 day-light" hours as well as having very few problems of that nature fortunately, I think that the practice does not distort the results to any great degree.

Re Sky box reboot - I started doing a time clock switch off for 15 minutes of the Sky box when they were very unreliable. I continue to do it so that if I am away from home and the box freezes then I will get timed recording being made after the power down - so I will only lose one days recordings and not 5 weeks of recordings if I did not have the power down.

We also use Talk Talk Business for back-haul. And Vodafone, BT Wholesale, Virgin Media and Gigaclear - whoever provides the best coverage for an area.

It was thanks to our interconnect with TTB that enabled us to get so many ex-Fast/Firenet customers reconnected so quickly last month.

Sounds good. I know I never had any problems with my FTTC when with you .

blimey cor me i thought you are gone, left idnet many years ago!

Edited by adslmax (Sun 08-Jan-17 16:55:13)

As mentioned above, I wrote to Samknows describing the slowdown and they suggested they send me a new box which is a changed design and should therefore be better.

I have just received the new replacement SanKnows White box, it is a new design, no WiFI type aerial and have installed it in the network.

I will now have to wait until Christmas to see if I still suffer from the slow down.