Erratic performance on BT line

We are in a holiday let in Dorset and the BT line shows very erratic performance. According to the stats from the BT hub, it is a VDSL connection and the line will support a full 80/20 package although the package in use is 40/20 (presumably the let owners have worked out that the cheaper package will meet the needs of their guests).

The connection sporadically becomes very sluggish. Running the Ookla speed test app while connected either by ethernet or wifi the line will return something like 38/9 speeds with pings of 15ms or so then five minutes later return something like 4 download/5 upload and pings into the high hundreds of ms. I've manually changed the receiving server in the Ookla app with no difference in the results. Disconnecting the router (either re-boot or just removing and replacing the phone wire) restores things to full speed but within minutes it is often back to the sluggish performance. I obviously don't want to do that too often for fear of offending DLM.

Is this more likely to be something caused by the local network in the property or something outside the property in the BT network?

What if the owner has stratgically placed cameras that are uploading images?

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

We are in a holiday let in Dorset and the BT line shows very erratic performance. According to the stats from the BT hub, it is a VDSL connection and the line will support a full 80/20 package although the package in use is 40/20 (presumably the let owners have worked out that the cheaper package will meet the needs of their guests).

The connection sporadically becomes very sluggish. Running the Ookla speed test app while connected either by ethernet or wifi the line will return something like 38/9 speeds with pings of 15ms or so then five minutes later return something like 4 download/5 upload and pings into the high hundreds of ms. I've manually changed the receiving server in the Ookla app with no difference in the results. Disconnecting the router (either re-boot or just removing and replacing the phone wire) restores things to full speed but within minutes it is often back to the sluggish performance. I obviously don't want to do that too often for fear of offending DLM.

Is this more likely to be something caused by the local network in the property or something outside the property in the BT network?

You're posting in a forum regarding troubleshooting a line that doesn't belong to you while on holiday.

In reply to a post by XGS_Is_On:

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

We are in a holiday let in Dorset and the BT line shows very erratic performance. According to the stats from the BT hub, it is a VDSL connection and the line will support a full 80/20 package although the package in use is 40/20 (presumably the let owners have worked out that the cheaper package will meet the needs of their guests).

The connection sporadically becomes very sluggish. Running the Ookla speed test app while connected either by ethernet or wifi the line will return something like 38/9 speeds with pings of 15ms or so then five minutes later return something like 4 download/5 upload and pings into the high hundreds of ms. I've manually changed the receiving server in the Ookla app with no difference in the results. Disconnecting the router (either re-boot or just removing and replacing the phone wire) restores things to full speed but within minutes it is often back to the sluggish performance. I obviously don't want to do that too often for fear of offending DLM.

Is this more likely to be something caused by the local network in the property or something outside the property in the BT network?

You're posting in a forum regarding troubleshooting a line that doesn't belong to you while on holiday.

To try and assist the let owner by forestalling any future complaints when there is a houseful of people all trying to stream stuff at the same time. The owner is probably not aware that the line is behaving erratically and is probably not as technically aware as the users of this forum so it will probably be helpful if the collective knowledge and expertise available in this Forum can pass on some indication about whether it is the owner's problem or can be laid at the door of BT.

In reply to a post by MHC:

What if the owner has stratgically placed cameras that are uploading images?

Now that is something that hadn't occurred to me. Time to start ferreting about.

www.holidaymaker_porn.com/dorset/

BT generally have no issues with capacity or slow downs, I've never had one on VDSL or FTTP.

Any slow downs, would be the line quality/dslam issue

In reply to a post by MHC:

www.holidaymaker_porn.com/dorset/

i wish . . .

As a viewer or a contributor?

Too much to get the sync speed out of the router? If the line speed stays at 40/10 and performance turns dire I'd be looking at the ISP.

Is the speedtest on wired? or wireless? if it's on wireless how many other SSIDs are there visible?

How sure are you that this connection serves only the house that you are staying in?

logging into the router and seeing how many connected devices there are would answer that.

In reply to a post by jpm:

How sure are you that this connection serves only the house that you are staying in?

Owner also has the property next door served by the same WiFi from the router. That property is empty this week.

In reply to a post by mbames:

logging into the router and seeing how many connected devices there are would answer that.

A Hive controller in Port 1 and then split between the 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi networks 1 smart TV which is resident and 2 x laptop and 2 x mobile phone which are ours.

In reply to a post by hunnymonster:

Too much to get the sync speed out of the router? If the line speed stays at 40/10 and performance turns dire I'd be looking at the ISP.

Is the speedtest on wired? or wireless? if it's on wireless how many other SSIDs are there visible?

As per first post in topic identical results whether by WiFi or ethernet.

Home router showing with 5-bars on the WiFi scale. Three* other SSIDs, all with 2 or 1 bars on the 5-bar scale with only one of those on the same 2.4GHz channel.

*Further research identified one as a Mercedes-Benz hotspot. The car has now moved away.

Edited by GonePostal (Mon 19-Jun-23 16:17:58)

Doesn’t necessarily mean that no-one else is using the WiFi.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by jpm:

How sure are you that this connection serves only the house that you are staying in?

Owner also has the property next door served by the same WiFi from the router. That property is empty this week.

But there may be equipment in there, security cameras for instance, which may well still be using it.

I’d say, you’re on holiday, go enjoy yourself. Not really your problem. Fret not

It's also possible that the owner is using their holiday let as an offsite backup location for a NAS, which might be locked in a cupboard somewhere. There's simply not enough information to be working with here.

The suggestion to enjoy your holiday is a good one.

Edited by jpm (Mon 19-Jun-23 22:02:26)

In reply to a post by jpm:

It's also possible that the owner is using their holiday let as an offsite backup location for a NAS, which might be locked in a cupboard somewhere. There's simply not enough information to be working with here.

The suggestion to enjoy your holiday is a good one.

Thanks to all who have responded. Obviously no simple or easy fix so let's close things down while I follow the sage advice.