Peak time congestion?

I've been having an issue with my FTTC connection slowing at peak times (evenings around 6pm - 10pm)

During the day the connection is fine e.g. https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15816019757...

However it goes from 35Mbps to around 5MBps (HTTPx1) / 14Mbps (HTTPx6) in the evenings
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15815392265...

I've got a few BQM results as well
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

The line itself seems stable router connects at 39998/9997. Also tried different router with no difference.

Plusnet claim there is no issue their side, sent out an OpenReach engineer today who tested the line and everything came back fine.

Does this look like Plusnet congestion?

Edited by mackayd (Thu 13-Feb-20 19:31:56)

In reply to a post by mackayd:

Does this look like Plusnet congestion?

I guess it does, but it's not a problem I have, my speeds only dropping by the tiniest amount during peak hours.
Graph of January by time

Edited by kasg (Fri 14-Feb-20 09:40:43)

In reply to a post by mackayd:

However it goes from 35Mbps to around 5MBps (HTTPx1) / 14Mbps (HTTPx6) in the evenings
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15815392265...

That is an absolute textbook example of what the tbb speed test looks like on a line suffering from congestion.

I imagne it's something that happens to a lot of people although they are unaware of it. I was complaining about the same situation last year but tbh it didn't actually have any 'real world' effect. I know, being an inveterate speed tester myself, that it does play on your mind though .

I'm now getting very consistent results, like this one I've just done, no matter the time of day and the fact my PC is on wi-fi.

Thanks. Now just to get PN to confirm the issue is on their side

If you�ve not got this sorted yet, create a thread on the Plusnet Community Forums here: https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/bd-p/F... and I�m sure someone will be happy to look into this for you further.

I've got a ticket open with Plusnet but they're claiming that it will local issue on the Openreach hardware. They say that they've checked the reports of the local network with no issues found.

They have said I can leave without penalty. Looks like I'll be looking for a new ISP

No issues with PN as far as I know.

Mine BQM: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

PN are saying it must be a local Open Reach issue but are unable to resolve

In reply to a post by mackayd:

PN are saying it must be a local Open Reach issue but are unable to resolve

Surely that Openreach job to put it right as that's what you are paying for your service!

You would think so but PN are saying they can't see the issue from the local network reports.

Try PM him named Gandalf (PN Staff) in PN community as he is best person with technical side.

Back when I was on PN it was common to go through bad patches. It was a great service for perhaps a year then there'd be a couple of months of issues then eventually great service would resume. I left because it became harder to find a competent and willing member of staff to look into the problem (is Bob Pullen still around?). The worst case was the infamous 'single threaded download debacle of 2014' I think. I must have kept pushing that for nearly three months and in the end it just sort of cleared up by itself with no one at PN claiming to know why.

Thankfully I moved to IDNet who have fewer problems and you can usually get them to take faults seriously within a couple of days and expect them to fixed within a week or so.

Tonight it was down from 35 Mbps to under 2 (HTTP x1) https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15822293547...

This was tested using a single PC connected to the router by ethernet. I'm not holding out hope of them being to find the issue (which must be localised) so looks like it will be a migration to another isp.

mackayd have you checked there's nothing in the background running on your network at those times ?

For example a Windows update, if it was me I'd disable all Wifi connections if you have any and install Wireshark, just to check your internal network is quiet.

That is a massive drop in speed, I'd be surprised if Plusnet was that bad, so I would expect the problem to be something either on your internal network, connection to the cab or in the exchange.

If it was something at his end it's 99% certain it wouldn't be time of day dependant and definitely not every day.

Edited by jelv (Fri 21-Feb-20 17:30:41)

Definitely not something on my network causing it. Tested using different devices one at a time and also my router can report the current bandwidth usage of each connected device.

Found out today, from a local Facebook community group, that other people are experiencing the same issue across a number of ISPs (including LLU TT & Sky). Think this must now point to an issue at the local fibre cab.

Edited by mackayd (Fri 21-Feb-20 17:46:11)