When you say "reconnecting the router" do you mean the Home Hub or the Huawei modem?
If you're just rebooting the Home Hub (and that fixes the problem) I can't see your problem is related to the line itself, BT throttling, IP address or anything else (other than a dodgy Home Hub, or it slowing your connection if too many sessions - e.g. bit-torrent - are open).
In any case I can't envisage an ISP throttling system that purposely throttles your speed back, starting several days after allocation of an IP address, then releasing the throttle when you reconnect and are given a new IP. That kind of throttling action (especially for Infinity products) would eventually result in almost every single Infinity customer being throttled (because most of us never see reconnects unless we instigate them - simply because VDSL2, over very short lines, is so stable - for example; before the 80/20 upgrade I once kept s solid connection, and IP address for 11 weeks and saw no sign of throttling).
These speed drops are something new (only noticed in the last few weeks).
It can't be just a coincidence that they started at pretty much the same time as BT rolled out their 80/20 product.
It's clear, to me, we are experiencing throttling (presumably because BT didn't forward plan and get enough additional backbone, or exchange back-haul, leading up to the 80/20 roll-out).
I'm sure there are a number of BT fans out there who will go to great lengths to insist this isn't happening (quotes like "it isn't happening to me, so therefore there's no problem" are sure to appear).
As the slow speeds aren't affecting all of us, but there are enough of us affected (most of us connecting at full 80/20) to suggest something is going on.
It could be on an exchange by exchange basis (indicating certain exchanges are running out of back-haul). It could even be down to individual cabinets.
But sure as eggs is eggs, whenever peak time starts speeds drop.
My speeds plummeted after around 5pm today. At
4:31pm I was getting 74Mbps from the Manchester Xilo server for Speedtest.net - at 5:03pm (only 32 minutes later) I got
this.
Ever since 5pm my speeds (to the same test server) have been all over the place (7 minutes after the 5:03pm test I got 56Mbps, then 9 minutes later I got 36Mbps).
I'm now (at 9pm) getting 16Mbps download.
At all times I can max out my line with multi-thread downloads (indicating line speed/profile is not being affected and the low speed is a throttle per download thread).
You'll note the ping is constant (at 10ms) - I've rarely seen anything else to the Manchester server, so it's clear we're not suffering from congestion (which normally affects pings quite badly).
It's throttling; pure & simple (to stop the network from becoming congested).
Now the BT fan-boys slated Entanet (some time back) when they operated a similar system (variable throttling to protect pings and prevent network overload - what I'm seeing now is an almost exact copy of the effects of Entanet's variable throttling/management system).
In actual fact; I quite like the idea of this type of throttling if (and ONLY IF) it's a temporary measure, to protect pings (high pings badly affect gaming, streaming, etc.) whilst an ISP waits to upgrade their network.
My worry is BT will continue with this system!
I will deliberately keep my current IP and I won't reboot the HH3 or the modem and I'll put money on my speedtest results going right back up after peak time ends.
As for rebooting; it's quite possible a modem reboot (resulting in a change of IP) may fool BT's throttling system (for a while), but I wouldn't recommend repeated modem reboots (or resyncs) especially for those of you connecting below maximum sync - you all remember how flaky BT's DLM is with ADSL. What's to say repeated resyncs on FTTC isn't going to result in BT's DLM punishing you for having an unstable line?
Ade
vDSL2 FTTC Infinity with BT
DL Sync 80Mbps
UL Sync 20Mbps
Edited by adebov (Fri 04-May-12 20:59:53)