Speed issues, again!

Have had less than 500Kbps download all day today. Normally get about 6.5Mbps. Have re-booted router twice, with no effect. Indian helpdesk useless as ever and could not help. I attach my stats below. Can anybody here interpret these? What could cause this sudden drop in speed?

Line Mode: G.DMT
Line State: Show Time
Latency Type: Fast
Line Up Time: 00:00:47:12
Line Coding: Trellis On
Line Up Count: 2

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 8128 Kbps 448 Kbps
Noise Margin 8.4 dB 20.0 dB
Line Attenuation 32.0 dB 17.0 dB
Output Power 19.8 dBm 12.3 dBm

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Jul-09 13:48:27)

Your line looks fine. Can you run the BT speedtest to obtain your services IP profile?

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Your DSL connection rate: 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 443 kbps

If you wish to discuss these results please contact your ISP.

If you are experiencing problems with specific applications, servers or websites please contact your ISP for assistance.

Your test has completed please close this window to exit the performance tester.

For some reason you have had a very low sync recently.

See this table and the explanations above and below it for how the system works.

You should very soon get a profile rise. This happens transparently and you don't need to do anything.

Had a call from BT. Said that they fixed the fault on the line and that everything was fine again. I said thanks. Back at the computer now and nothing has been fixed. Speed is still about 470Kbps. Back to the unhelpful people in India I guess. I can't wait until my contract is over and I can leave these Clowns!

The helpful people in India have suggested that they can get an engineer to my home in 48 hours. Why would I need an engineer at my home when the problem is obviously at the exchange? And why would I need to wait 48 hours? When I ask how I can make a complaint about BT, the kind people in India are telling me that I have already reached the "highest level of helpdesk". Great.

As far as they are concerned the line is fine, and they are correct. They have probably never heard of the DLM (Dynamic Line Management) that is controlling it.

You are just giving yourself aggro for no benefit. I have pointed you to the explanation of what is happening. There isn't a problem, and the cause is not at the exchange, it is somewhere deep in BT's systems.

BT have always refused to make a manual adjustment in these circumstances. Their position is that "the automatic system is doing its job, so tough".

Edit - if you are getting this happening repeatedly then you need to look for the cause of the low syncs that cause the low profile. That is a different thing altogether from complaining about the speed due to a low profile.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 14-Jul-09 18:45:16)

I am not sure I understand what you mean. I normally get a solid 6.5Mbps (until they throttle iPlayer and uTube in the evening). I have no idea why, as you suggest, it should be ok for my line to suddenly only synch at 500Kbps, and that for some reason this should be "normal". It clearly is not and until it is fixed (it still is not), I consider this to be a fault that needs to be investigated and fixed by an Opereach engineer.

I would be interested to hear whether other people have experienced the same thing and whether it is specicific IPStream?

One thing has become very obvious to me, is that BT Retail can't do anything about it (and I guess because of equivalence, that is how it should be and that's ok).

Your sync speed is 8128. That will get a profile of 7150 in a few hours, probably overnight. Speeds will return to 6.5Mbps.

You clearly haven't followed the link I gave you to the table and explanation.

And yes, the profile system is specific to BT IPStream and now WBC. What exchange are you on? On O2/Be, Sky/UKOnline, a C&W reseller such as Vivaciti (LLU Unlimited), and TalkTalk you would immediately have had full speed back when you got the 8128 sync.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 14-Jul-09 19:01:37)

Thanks. I have read your link, and especially:

"A simple rule applies, if your line sync speed drops to a lower value the download speeds will adjust immediately, but download speeds will only rise if the line sync speed remains stable for between 75 minutes and five days. Larger changes in sync will mean it is more likely the maximum possible speed will increase the same day."

But I have no intention of potentially waiting 5 days for the speed to return to normal and so I am complaining about it, even if it seems futile. Especially because it seems limited to BT customers.