Terrible speed this evening. congestion or...?

I've had Plusnet 80/20 FTTC for about 3 weeks now and so far it has been brilliant, but this evening has just been shockingly bad.

Speeds dropped off a cliff and no most sites time out before opening. I cannot get TBB speedtest or speedtest.net to load right now, but earlier I was seeing 0.03 down 0.02 up

I have reset my own Linksys EA6900 router and the ECI Openreach modem but no joy, just them same rubbish speeds.

Occasionally I get bursts of useable internet, but 90% of the evening has been a total write off.

Is this issue likely to be related to a fault on my line or overall congestion on PN/OR networks? I have been unable to get line stats from the ECI modem, so if anyone knows how to do that I'd be very appreciative


UPDATE: Download speeds have returned to normal, but upload apears capped at 2mps: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4376904468

BT Wholesale test matches this result, however, it has my line profiles set as 77.43mbps down and 20mbps up. I'm hitting the down just fine but upload nowhere near the profile

Edited by connormill (Thu 21-May-15 22:36:46)

There's no easy way to get statistics from the ECI modem. I believe there is no known unlock other than one that requires access to the serial port pins on the circuit board. Gaining access to the circuit board requires opening the case, which involves drilling it.

If you want an unlocked modem, pick up a HG612 from eBay. You should look for one with 3B on the back and a white power supply. Don't pay more than £25 and certainly don't pay much extra for an unlocked one, as the unlock is very straightforward. You should use the B030SP08 firmware to unlock it.

In reply to a post by David_W:

There's no easy way to get statistics from the ECI modem. I believe there is no known unlock other than one that requires access to the serial port pins on the circuit board. Gaining access to the circuit board requires opening the case, which involves drilling it.

I suspected as much, having read a few forums on the subject.

When the OR engineer pulled it out I was a little annoyed, but he did say it was to match the ECI cab I'm connected to

For the record, here is the BTW Speed Results: http://imgur.com/gallery/Nj72h93/new

(When will this board allow embedding images!?)

Just to make sure you know your issue will more than likely be tied to congestion issues at Plusnet and not to the modem itself

Edited by mlmclaren (Thu 21-May-15 22:47:34)

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Just to make sure you know your issue will more than likely be tied to congestion issues at Plusnet and not to the modem itself

That was my original diagnoses, however I am starting to doubt myself.
I am starting to suspect my issues are in 2 areas.

1: Wireless interference/poor performance.

I am seeing about 30mbps throughput difference between two sides of a fairly small room (about 8m apart)
The MacBook I am typing from now can see 34 nearby AP's. I am connected to the 5GHz band, which helps but I suspect it's not enough.

2: Plusnet congestion.

I *think* the 2mbps capped upload speed (which has now cured itself and i am seeing 17mbps) is linked to congestion in the PN system.
I can tolerate congestion. I'd be ok with my 74/17 speeds to drop to 30/5 during busy times. But no connectivity at all, and speed tests below 1mbps is not acceptible

Ahh yes the joys of WiFI.... Try and stay on 5Ghz if possible the higher channels 100+ (hardware dependant)

Well my Plusnet connection has seen more upload struggles than download I must confirm, this evening my pings have gone crazy... though currently it looks like a congested/faulty link to Plusnets gateway more than a congested gateway itself.

If you wish to delv into this deeper next time then try an ethernet ASAP!

Unfortunately you would be better banging your head against a wall than trying to complain about poor speeds whilst using wifi...

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

If you wish to delv into this deeper next time then try an ethernet ASAP!

When i was having the issues, I had one WIN7 PC on ehternet and a MacBook on 5GHz WiFi. the results were as a near as makes no difference, so that's why I originally ruled out WiFi, until I started moving about the house.

My issues of WiFi congestion have been ongoing for a long time. I am considering getting a 3 Pack of the Ubiquiti Unifi ceiling mounted Access Points and deploying them all over the house so I can blanket the place in 5GHZ goodness.
Either it'll work and I'll live happily ever after or it wont and I'll have thrown ~£150 at nothing.

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Well my Plusnet connection has seen more upload struggles than download I must confirm, this evening my pings have gone crazy... though currently it looks like a congested/faulty link to Plusnets gateway more than a congested gateway itself.

So, I'm not the only one having an issue with PN this evening.

Don't take it the wrong way, but I'm glad you're having connection problems. It's nice to know it's not just me!

In reply to a post by connormill:

The MacBook I am typing from now can see 34 nearby AP's. I am connected to the 5GHz band, which helps but I suspect it's not enough.

I don't know your Linksys router, but on some routers you can turn a band off if you don't need it- might be worth turning 2.4GHz off if you can (and nothing else is using it).

Might not make any difference (probably won't) but worth a try.

In reply to a post by billford:

I don't know your Linksys router, but on some routers you can turn a band off if you don't need it- might be worth turning 2.4GHz off if you can (and nothing else is using it).

Might not make any difference (probably won't) but worth a try.

I do have that option. Annoyingly, however, a couple of devices I have are still 2.4 only.

And 2.4 is basically unusable here, the trouble is one of the devices is a phone with 16 months to go before it can be upgraded.

I've set up a BQM too, that illustrates huge variation on the ping times also.

Ping times have been something I've not been too impressed with since moving to FTTC, always 25ms+, usually 40+

Ignore the huge chunk of red, I had the router configured to drop pings from WAN

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/062aaeef874...

In reply to a post by connormill:

Annoyingly, however, a couple of devices I have are still 2.4 only.

Same here- a couple of Airplay speakers and a Kindle. But 2.4GHz isn't too bad around here.

I tend to agree with the other posters- Plusnet is the most likely culprit.

Many Many Many Many... are having issues with Plusnet recently... wel last few months actually...

When you're running tests on wifi in different locations it might not be the wifi could just mean you're hitting the server at different load times if you understand my meaning....

Your BQM looks similar to mine and many others though my baseline ping (green) is a lot lover but then my line to the cabinet is pretty good and also having the compatible hardware for G.INP removes around 15ms

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Many Many Many Many... are having issues with Plusnet recently... wel last few months actually...

When you're running tests on wifi in different locations it might not be the wifi could just mean you're hitting the server at different load times if you understand my meaning....

Your BQM looks similar to mine and many others though my baseline ping (green) is a lot lover but then my line to the cabinet is pretty good and also having the compatible hardware for G.INP removes around 15ms

G.INP is something I've been looking up.

Do you think if I move from my current ECI modem to a HG612 with G.INP I'd see an improvement in ping times?

(tempted to do it regardless of G.INP just for the line stats)

Well if you're on FTTC for the long haul you could consider getting an all in one modem router that supports G.INP...

It currently looks the best option... specially as some [censored] out there are now wanting around £50 for the compatible modems on ebay due to the sudden demand... obvious reasons.

All in one is out of the question without some cabling changes.

At present the ECI modem is right next to the master socket. a Cat5 runs inside the wall from there about 15m to the Linksys router, which has sever devices and a NAS connected to it

I suppose I could do an all in one at the master socket and put a secondary switch in where the linksys is now, but I quite like having my WAN and LAN handled separate.

Fair enough, I thought this as soon as I posted the last comments...

Thats fair enough then... If you van get a HG612 modem on ebay for £25 or less then go for it but if higher it's not worth it and just hold up until Openreach rollout a fix which looks to be getting closer if not actually ready!

do a tbb speedtest, that shows a graph so we can then see if its flatlining (unlikely congestion) or wavy bursting higher than 2mbps but only average at 2mbps (possible congestion).

If the upload speed doesnt recover outside of peak hours then I think its some kind of config issue somewhere.

In reply to a post by connormill:

For the record, here is the BTW Speed Results: http://imgur.com/gallery/Nj72h93/new

(When will this board allow embedding images!?)

Much easier for you and us if you just copy and paste the contents of the two text boxes of results. We don't need the graphics.

I have used the 5GHz band of my ASUS router with two different laptops and my iPad Air. The first laptop needed the ASUS USB dongle, the current one has an ac card.

I found the 5GHz a mess in all three cases, both on speed tests and normal usage. YouTube for instance would buffer continuously.

I now use the 2.4GHz again and all is perfect.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 22-May-15 00:56:27)

In reply to a post by connormill:

Do you think if I move from my current ECI modem to a HG612 with G.INP I'd see an improvement in ping times?

(tempted to do it regardless of G.INP just for the line stats)

Don't know about ping times, but is your cabinet Huawei or ECI? Only Huawei cabinets have G.INP.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Don't know about ping times, but is your cabinet Huawei or ECI? Only Huawei cabinets have G.INP.

xdslcmd info --vendor

Look at "ChipSet Vendor Id". With the kit that Openreach uses, my understanding is that BDCM is Huawei, and IFTN is ECI.


There are people who can give a more definitive guidance from the bandplans produced by xdslcmd info --pbParams (the capital letter is important), but I'm not one of them.


I believe Openreach eventually plan to roll out G.INP to the ECI cabinets, but hardware limitations mean G.INP will only work in one direction. The Broadcom chipsets used in the Huawei line cards and HG612 modems support bidirectional G.INP.

In reply to a post by connormill:

In reply to a post by billford:

I don't know your Linksys router, but on some routers you can turn a band off if you don't need it- might be worth turning 2.4GHz off if you can (and nothing else is using it).

Might not make any difference (probably won't) but worth a try.

I do have that option. Annoyingly, however, a couple of devices I have are still 2.4 only.

And 2.4 is basically unusable here, the trouble is one of the devices is a phone with 16 months to go before it can be upgraded.

Suburban area here, fairly built up but we have major wifi issues and I tried almost everything! 2.4Ghz was no good at all, tried loads of 5Ghz channels, same result. I finally went for a 5Ghz channel in the 100s and it's now been stable for weeks. The wifi consistently works at my full sync speed which is 60Mb.