Upload speed slow

Newbie!
Bt Broadband, BT Homehub 3, Imac

For years my broadband speeds have consistently been about -
download 4 Mbps, upload 0.35 Mbps. Adequate for my purposes.
On Sat 28 Nov the upload speed dropped to 0.03 Mbps causing streaming
(Curzon Home Cinema, BFI etc) to quit.
Spoke to BT help(?) line and was told that they had checked my connection
and no fault found and that anyway my download speed was good, they do not guarantee upload speeds and they could do nothing.
Any ideas?

Is the 0.03 Mbps the conection speed from the router? Or a speed test result?

If from the router, restarting that might help, plus have you checked whether the telephone still works? And also tested the connection again in the test socket.

Bad upload can often be the result of a bad filter or no microfilter

any noise on the phone line?
else:
turn it all off for 10 mins and then try again. (yes I know it is just the turn it off and on again advice, but 90+% it works!)

In reply to a post by ggremlin:

any noise on the phone line?
else:
turn it all off for 10 mins and then try again. (yes I know it is just the turn it off and on again advice, but 90+% it works!)

Also helps if you login onto the HomeHub and click on disconnect first and then wait for a few mins, and then turn it off for 5 to 10 mins.
That way it wouldn't get detected as an issue when it tries to talk to the HomeHub and think its a issue on the line, resulting in a speed reduction.

Paul

Prompted as a reminder by BBC News this morning, it's that wonderful time of the year when people start putting up Xmas lights - you haven't put yours up yet have you?

In reply to a post by ian72:

Prompted as a reminder by BBC News this morning, it's that wonderful time of the year when people start putting up Xmas lights - you haven't put yours up yet have you?

Could also be a cheap Switch Mode Power Supply, or a cheapo deluxe Ethernet over mains adaptors at fault.

Paul

Thanks for the reply.
Connection speeds from thinkbroadband speed test.
Have changed microfilter and restarted to no effect.

Agreed, it's just that one thing that changes this time a year in most homes is the putting up of the lights - if that coincides then a good place to start.

TBB speed test is not the connection speeds but the throughput. The connection speed could be very different and you need to get it directly from the router (if your router gives the stats - which the HH3 does).

Edited by ian72 (Tue 01-Dec-15 10:13:34)

Thanks for the reply.
No noise on line. Restarted with no effect.

Thanks for the reply.
Followed your advice to no effect.

Thanks for the reply.
No Xmas lights and the power supply is the standard BT item.

In reply to a post by ajbeer:

Thanks for the reply.
No Xmas lights and the power supply is the standard BT item.

I was referring to the normal power supplies that you get in products now days.
Some are very cheaply made and do cause noise.

Paul

Thanks for the reply.
Where do I find connection speeds from HH3 router? Have tried the 'Check Connectivity' button - reply is 'Your Hub appears to be correctly connected...'
The 'Download PC Desktop Help' button produces 'Safari can't open the page..."

In reply to a post by ajbeer:

Thanks for the reply.
Where do I find connection speeds from HH3 router? Have tried the 'Check Connectivity' button - reply is 'Your Hub appears to be correctly connected...'
The 'Download PC Desktop Help' button produces 'Safari can't open the page..."

Not sure with the HH3, but our HH4 you can see some connection info even though BT has limited this info so much, but I go to Troubleshooting->Event Log and view WAN you should see something like the following:

06:48:08, 01 Dec. ( 111.190000) DSL noise margin: 5.90 dB upstream, 6.00 dB downstream
06:48:06, 01 Dec. ( 109.870000) DSL line rate: 1099 Kbps upstream, 6453 Kbps downstream

Yep, I rebooted this morning due to a dodgy slow speed down to all this wind and rain we had.

But I am sure the HH3 has more information on the Troubleshooting->Helpdesk page.

Paul

Not just the OPs own lights - those of neighbours too who may have covered the house and garden with lights and even the BT pole or cabinet!

In reply to a post by MHC:

Not just the OPs own lights - those of neighbours too who may have covered the house and garden with lights and even the BT pole or cabinet!

Love the BT Pole part, I have seen our pole like that once a long time ago, looked nice though

Granted it wasn't there long 2 days I recall, maybe they was told to take it down

Paul

This thread might give some help to finding the stats (assuming the interface hasn't changed since then).

I also have had issues the past few days. Wednesday and Thursday last week connection kept dropping every 5 mins, and sometimes took 15 mins to reconnect.

Call BT Sunday evening and after lots of pushing they confirmed that there was an error on the line.

Just had second line call me and go through it all again.

These are the line stats I have just taken from the logs from the HH4

13:19:55, 01 Dec. (104.750000) DSL noise margin: 27.30 dB upstream, 6.00 dB downstream
13:19:54, 01 Dec. (103.630000) DSL line rate: 444 Kbps upstream, 16906 Kbps downstream

I think the upstream dB is too high, which is causing my upload speed to drop. is this correct? the higher the dB the slower the connection?

I have connected a brand new HH3 into the test socket in the phone socket, and get very similar results. This would indicate it is not hardware issues or my internal wiring.

No I have no Christmas lights up

The earliest BT can get an engineer out to investigate is Monday 7th December. But they want access to inside the house. I have told them I wont be around and the engineer can investigate from outside. They were not very happy about that, but agreed in the end!

But Just wanted advise on the above dB please. That "27.30 dB upstream" is too high to slow the connection down?

Thanks

Simon

We need to know which BT product you are on before we can comment on the upstream speed and noise margin.

I'm on ADSL2+ Unlimited

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

We need to know which BT product you are on before we can comment on the upstream speed and noise margin.

That seems like ADSL2 possibly 2+ and the upstream seems like it is capped, maybe by loads of errors, strange thing is the downstream isn't affected.

On our BT package (unlimited) our downstream is 6.0dB and upstream has always been 5.90dB.

So that seems to point to possibly getting noise 138KHz or lower, so possibly a noisy switch mode power supply.

Paul

Hunted through the log file and found this when it was all OK

00:39:55, 27 Nov. (374.630000) DSL noise margin: 5.90 dB upstream, 3.10 dB downstream
00:39:54, 27 Nov. (373.620000) DSL line rate: 1157 Kbps upstream, 18733 Kbps downstream

Do you mean the power brick for the Home Hub?

I tried a HH3 in the test socket to discount hardware and internal wiring, and got same results

So think the issue is external, but just wanted advise on my upstream dB is that was too high and what would course it externally

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

We need to know which BT product you are on before we can comment on the upstream speed and noise margin.

That seems like ADSL2 possibly 2+ and the upstream seems like it is capped, maybe by loads of errors, strange thing is the downstream isn't affected.

On our BT package (unlimited) our downstream is 6.0dB and upstream has always been 5.90dB.

So that seems to point to possibly getting noise 138KHz or lower, so possibly a noisy switch mode power supply.

Paul

In reply to a post by Simon888:

Hunted through the log file and found this when it was all OK

00:39:55, 27 Nov. (374.630000) DSL noise margin: 5.90 dB upstream, 3.10 dB downstream
00:39:54, 27 Nov. (373.620000) DSL line rate: 1157 Kbps upstream, 18733 Kbps downstream

The upstream seems more like it, but the downstream is a bit low and may cause issues when you get noise on the line, which BT normally set this to 6.0dB for the downstream noise margin.

Paul

In reply to a post by Simon888:

Do you mean the power brick for the Home Hub?

I tried a HH3 in the test socket to discount hardware and internal wiring, and got same results

So think the issue is external, but just wanted advise on my upstream dB is that was too high and what would course it externally

I was referring to a switch mode power supply in general they can run at 138KHz and where the upstream goes up-to 138KHz I am assuming its a switch mode power supply issues, it could be in a TV, PC, Mains Adapter etc, and it could be internal or external to the property.

Paul

All depends on the attenuation which we don't know and WBC ADSL2+ will use 3dB margins on stable lines

My reading is that a burst of course caused (source unknown - people are guessing at a switch mode PSU with no evidence) the modem to resync and this noise was still present when resyncing hence the lower sync on the upload which used the standard 6dB target margin, then subsequently the noise went away and thus there was lots of spare noise margin again.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

All depends on the attenuation which we don't know and WBC ADSL2+ will use 3dB margins on stable lines

My reading is that a burst of course caused (source unknown - people are guessing at a switch mode PSU with no evidence) the modem to resync and this noise was still present when resyncing hence the lower sync on the upload which used the standard 6dB target margin, then subsequently the noise went away and thus there was lots of spare noise margin again.

yeah, I was just assuming its a switch mode power supply due to a lot of them seem to use around 138KHz as their switching frequency, but no, there is no proof this is the case.

As for the 3dB, I was told its normally 6dB and that you can ask for it to be reset if needed, I know I asked BT to reset ours to 3dB which worked fine for ages, well until we had a massive thunder storm that caused so many issues on our line I just asked for it to be set back to 6dB.

And yeah the noise could be gone, no harm in them phoning BT asking for the SNR to be reset back to 6dB.

Paul

At 10.20 this morning, ADSL disconnected.... AGAIN!

Had a look in the log file at the line stats, and WOW the dB is back down. Not to where it was, but much lower

10:20:58, 02 Dec. (79346.020000) DSL noise margin: 8.90 dB upstream, 6.00 dB downstream
10:20:57, 02 Dec. (79345.110000) DSL line rate: 1073 Kbps upstream, 17190 Kbps downstream

Did a quick speed test and YAY all seems to be back to normal.

Maybe BT have had several people moan about speed and done a bit of research and found it happened on a certain date in a certain cabinet, and someone has tinkered.

YAY

I will be monitoring carefully over the next day or so, and if all OK I will cancel the BT Engineer visit for Monday