IP Profile Reduced After Power Cuts

Yesterday, I experienced a series of power cuts which caused my router to turn off quite a few times. I suspect that DLM has seen this as line instability, because my downstream IP profile has been reduced from 75Mbps to 55Mbps. Although not exactly slow, I want my full speed back because that's what I'm paying for, I might as well be on Infinity 1 with these speeds.

I've tried restarting my router (HH5 Type A) to see if it syncs at a higher speed, but it remains at 55Mbps. I've also had an online chat session with BT Tech Support who were useless. Basically the first guy tried to tell me that I was on a package called "BT Infinity 2 55Mbps" which I am pretty sure doesn't exist, he said this because I recently renewed my contract for Infinity 2 at a reduced rate so he was trying to place the blame on the Customer Options team for putting me on a lower package. If I look at my BT account though, it clearly states that I'm on an "up to 76Mbps" package.

When I got through to the guy's supervisor I kept asking for him to reset my profile and eventually he agreed to do it. I don't know if he actually did it or just said it to fob me off, I asked for an email confirmation but never got one. He also told me to reset my Home Hub to factory settings in 24 hours, which makes me think he's talking a load of rubbish because I don't see how that has any bearing on the issue at hand.

Basically I'm looking for some advice, do I just leave my router on to make sure the line stays stable and DLM will sort it out, or do I need to take action? If DLM will sort itself out, how long is that likely to take?

You pay for a connection not speed.

You're likely on a banded profile.

A few weeks of constant connection should see the banding removed providing your line is stable.

BT, nor any other ISP can reset the profile for FTTC, only Openreach and only when an engineer requests it. Do not reset or reboot your router.

It is possible the DLM has applied banding to the line. Normally, given stability for a few weeks it will relent.

AIUI on FTTC the ISP has no power to remove banding. It is either automatic as I said, or an engineer can request a reset, but only after correcting a fault. I don't think they can trigger an IP Profile change either. It is possible the supervisor was thinking of ADSLx. Assuming you weren't just transferred to another first line support person to shut you up.

So I think you just have to wait until the system gives you the speed back. In the meantime I would do as the supervisor recommends just to see what happens. There is quite a possibility that the day to day version of the firmware has been corrupted during the power cuts. A factory reset would fix that.

After that, if there is no improvement, leave it well alone. The time it takes for DLM to remove banding I believe depends on how often it has had to apply it, but that is a hazy recollection of something I read quickly on kitz.co.uk website, which is the place to look for a good explanation of it.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 12-Jun-16 11:21:55)

Basically I'm looking for some advice, do I just leave my router on to make sure the line stays stable and DLM will sort it out, or do I need to take action? If DLM will sort itself out, how long is that likely to take?

Yes, leave your router alone , there is nothing you can do , DLM will do the job , it could take up to 3 weeks.


Invest in a small UPS for your modem/router and you can avoid these interruptions .

In reply to a post by lee111s:

You pay for a connection not speed.

What I'm getting at is that I pay more for the Infinity 2 package for a reason, and I might as well be on the cheaper Infinity 1 package if my speed is circa 50Mbps.

Thank you for the advice everyone, I'll perform the factory reset of the router later as the BT advisor suggested then I'll leave well alone and hope for the best.

There's nothing wrong with your connection though. DLM has taken action on what it believes to be a dropping connection.


I wouldn't reset the router. I'd leave it as stable as possible to get DLM the best opportunity to release the banding.

Routers can get completely messed up by power cuts, and only a factory reset sorts it out. One rest won't worry DLM, and better done sooner rather than later in case that is the problem.

DLM won't start sorting things out if that is where the trouble lies.

In reply to a post by lee111s:

There's nothing wrong with your connection though. DLM has taken action on what it believes to be a dropping connection.


I wouldn't reset the router. I'd leave it as stable as possible to get DLM the best opportunity to release the banding.

Nothing wrong with my connection? I'd argue that my IP profile being the wrong one for my line qualifies as something wrong with the connection.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Routers can get completely messed up by power cuts, and only a factory reset sorts it out. One rest won't worry DLM, and better done sooner rather than later in case that is the problem.

DLM won't start sorting things out if that is where the trouble lies.

I might try giving the Hub a factory reset if that's the case.

One question, when the IP profile goes back up, or back to what it should be, would the router need restarting or would it automatically sync at the higher rate?

Ah!

You aren't confused yet, but there is potential to be.

The IP Profile applies to BT Wholesale based lines and is determined by the connection speed, not the other way round. The reason I suggest a factory reset of the HH is that very occasionally routers can get screwed up as I said, causing them not to be able to sync at the normal speed. This is why I say just one go at it.

If this is the cause, your sync will immediately be right and the IP Profile reflect that.

There is another Profile set by Openreach for the line, which includes amongst its settings a permissible sync range. Plus there is "banding". The two have a similar effect on your maximum sync speed.

Banding is what Lee and Adrian are (I think) referring to, and is probably what has been applied by the DLM. It does that in extreme circumstances, and given stability for quite a long time as they say it will remove it. At which point it Shoukd automatically re-sync the line.

Basically I agree with what they say, except I want to rule out the router being in a mess. The one reset will not delay DLM recovering its proper state whether it is banding or some other setting slowing you down.

For more info on banding browse or search on kitz.co.uk

Performed a factory reset on the router, no change. Just got to wait now I guess.

Yep, unfortunately .

Has it come back at exactly the same IP Profile? To the same decimal?

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 14-Jun-16 15:40:47)

Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the exact IP profile, but it's still around 55Mbps, 50Mbps throughput

Annoyed that BT lied to me the other day about resetting the profile, I didn't know it couldn't be done remotely at the time.

UPDATE: Just spoke to BT customer options, apparently the guy who put my retention deal through wrongly put me on a 'service line' restricted at 55Mbps. The person who I spoke to has put an order through to get the restriction removed and I can see the order in my account. Nothing to do with DLM after all, just human error!

Edited by deleted (Fri 17-Jun-16 20:35:08)

So the people you spoke to before your opening post just hadn't a clue what they were doing .

With luck you will get upgraded again in 2-3 days. Maybe even overnight. I think it varies with ISP order handling efficiency.

Good luck, and let us know .

All sorted, router re-synced at full speed this morning

thinkbroadband speed test

Speedtest.net

testmy.net

That's better. A pity it took so long.

my line took around 2 weeks to become stable, back to the same figures again, after a similar outage... Same VDSL2 but different ISP provider.