Plusnet FTTC 60Mbps cap removed

Hi all,

I'm trying to work out if my connection should be faster than it currently is.

I'm on Plusnet's up to 76Mbps. Their own estimates put me between 70-80Mbps. And the current line speed is 78Mbps.

I have had a 60Mbps cap on my line, since when and why I don't know. That was removed yesterday.

Before the cap I was getting about 59Mbps. With the cap off today, it's one or two Mbps faster. The Plusnet Hub One reports downstream 61.74Mbps over ethernet. Upload is 19.99Mbps.

I've used speedtest.net and the BT Wholesale speedtest. Both report back pretty much the same. If anything, slower.

Could it be that having that cap on has made my profile stuck? Or do you think over a few days/weeks/months it could automatically increase in speed?

I don't know much about this so wanted to try and understand it more before another support call to Plusnet.

Many thanks,

Justy

I am looking forward to the answers to your post as I have heard about 40MBs and 55Mbs caps but not 60.

I actually get about 55, but I am assured this is down to line quality and nothing can be done.

I expect you will need to publish all your router statistics like noise margins and attenuation for anyone to give you a definitive answer.

Thanks, Philip.

Unfortunately, the Plusnet Hub One offers no other stats apart from Downstream and Upstream.

I've been reading a bit more about DLM, and maybe, just maybe, over a number days or weeks, the speed might increase as it realises my line isn't faulting.

Plusnet definitely said I was capped at 60. That it was an automatic cap, not done by them.

What does te BT checker at: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome say for your line?

Can you run a couple of speedtest here on the TBB site and link to te results.

A screen shot of Task Manager in Network mode showing the downloads can also show what is happening.


As with PP, I have never heard of a 60Mbps cap - unless you have been "banded" due to noise or other issues.

What does this Plusnet page give for your Current line speed?

If you also run the BT Wholesale Performance Test, (ignore the red instructions, just say you've done them), then don't bother with the initial results page - scroll down it and click the Further diagnostics.

What does that give for your downstream IP Profile?

I expect the IP Profile to be either 0.9679 or 0.9669 of your connection speed, with the Current line speed 0.02 below the IP profile.

If current line speed is reported as 78 Mbps by a modem/router on the line then there is no DLM capping going on at all.

Next step being what is the IP Profile BT Wholesale has against your line, and the chance that PlusNet have an old slower copy in their system.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

What does this Plusnet page give for your Current line speed?

If you also run the BT Wholesale Performance Test, (ignore the red instructions, just say you've done them), then don't bother with the initial results page - scroll down it and click the Further diagnostics.

I get
"1. Best Effort Test:

Download Speed : 0.13 Mbps


Your speed test has completed and the results are shown above, however during the test an error occurred while trying to retrieve additional details regarding your service. As a result we are unable to determine if the speed you received during the test is acceptable for your service. Please re-run the test if you require this additional information."

Th line is an ADSL (not ADSL2,,) connected to a market 1 exchange.
There was a line fault which was the original cause of the problem, but this was fixed yesterday. The router is connected at 7616kbps and the Plusnet page shows a speed of 7.15Mb.

How do I get this problem fixed? I have called Plusnet twice already.

Hi,

I was finally able to do the further diagnostics, by clearing my browser cache. I might add that this test is via Powerline adapters. Can't be bothered taking my Mac downstairs and using the ethernet cable.

Test results are below. I might add that I found a previous test result when I was on the 40 down 20 up Plusnet package. Which, just simply showed my fastest speed would be 40 down, 20 up.


. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
56.76 Mbps

0 Mbps 59.6 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 56.76 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 47.68 Mbps-59.6 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 59.6 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
16.68 Mbps

0 Mbps 20 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 16.68Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 20 Mbps


We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly.
If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.

Please visit the FAQ if you are unable to understand the test results.

It would be best if you started your own thread Michael. Multiple people in a thread like this can get very confusing. The OP nearly got a very strange reply from me after comparing the reply to me with the reply to MrSaffron. Until I spotted the hijack.

I did change the title to make the hijack obvious! Your post was quite useful to me as I have now got Plusnet to fix the problem using the results from your BT wholesale link.

There is nothing like being clear about a problem for getting it fixed.

Good night

The Plusnet Hub one can display a lot more information.

From the routers home page click Troubleshooting then Helpdesk, don't post any sensitive info such as your broadband username.

Changing the title isn't obvious when reading in flat mode. I was also thrown off-track by your hijack.

I was similarly confused

So the BT Wholesale profile is in line with the speed test results.

So question now is what exactly is saying you have a 78 Mbps connection speed?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

So question now is what exactly is saying you have a 78 Mbps connection speed?

Isn't that the plusnet profile they use for QOS?

Well I never...thanks for showing me that.

Here it is:

1. Product name: Plusnet Hub
2. Serial number: xxx
3. Firmware version: Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.226 Last updated 01/10/16
4. Board version: Plusnet Hub One
5. DSL uptime: 0 days, 15:18:57
6. Data rate: 20000 / 61574
7. Maximum data rate: 20273 / 62036
8. Noise margin: 6.0 / 6.1
9. Line attenuation: 9.9 / 11.7
10. Signal attenuation: 9.8 / 11.7
11. Data sent/received: 98.3 MB / 760.0 MB
12. Broadband username: xxx
13. 2.4 GHz Wireless network/SSID: xxx
14. 2.4 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))
15. 2.4 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
16. 2.4 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
17. 5 GHz Wireless network/SSID: xxx
18. 5 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 a/n/ac (up to 1300 Mb/s))
19. 5 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
20. 5 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
21. Firewall: Default
22. MAC Address: xxx
23. Modulation: G.993.2 Annex B
24. Software variant: AA
25. Boot loader: 1.0.0

It might be, it might not so be good to find out exactly rather than the second guess

So what makes you think you should be able to get 78 Mbps? i.e. you posted saying current line speed 78 Mbps earlier?

IP Profile and speed tests are in line with the data rate 61574 and no sign of capping since max data rate is only marginally higher.

Simply from a Plusnet page on my account that shows speed estimate abd current line apeed. That's the only thing that made me wonder if I could faster.

But, if all the stats point toward me topping out at 61Mbps, that's fine. I'll stick with that.

Thanks to everyone and your good self for the help and insight. Puts my mind at rest.

The Current line speed is supposed to adjust automatically to just below the IP Profile, but the auto adjustment occasionally fails. Have you checked it recently as I requested earlier? The 78 sounds like a default setting when first put on to 80/20.

When you were on 40/20, which isn't an Openreach product, it was probably set to 40.

When you moved off 40/20, is that supposed to have been to 55/10, or have you chosen to upgrade to 80/20? There have been a few screwed up changes to 55/10. I'm wondering if you have been "lucky" in getting above the 55/10.

Hi,

This is from the BT Wholesale Speedtest, further diagnostics:

. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
56.76 Mbps

0 Mbps 59.6 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 56.76 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 47.68 Mbps-59.6 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 59.6 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
16.68 Mbps

0 Mbps 20 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 16.68Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 20 Mbps


We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly.
If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.




This is from the Plusnet page:

Telephone number:
xxx
Phone exchange:
xxx
Estimated line speed:
80Mb (This may vary between 70.4Mb and 80Mb) - Checked on 2016-09-23 14:42:24
Current line speed:
78 Mb

Forgot to say that I was on their up to 76Mbps product. They put me down to up to 40Mbps (I didn't ask for that). Then they put me up again to up to 76Mbps a couple weeks ago. Found out two/three days ago they'd capped the line at 60Mbps. That's now been taken off.

In reply to a post by Justyn:

Found out two/three days ago they'd capped the line at 60Mbps. That's now been taken off.

That's surely the current line speed setting they use for QOS, it's expected to be set just below your sync speed of 61574 kbps as it was.

If it is now above your current sync speed, all that will do is mess up the quality of service (QOS) system for you.

What do you get for your line using http://www.dslchecker.bt.com ?

It looks as if the Plusnet Current line speed has been fixed at 78Mbps for historic reasons where confusion clearly existed. That fixing of settings should not be necessary.

I suggest you ask them to release it back to the auto-system. As BatBoy says, doing that is likely to improve your overall experience when using your line heavily. In particular when streaming.

Rather than discussing it with frontline support, many of whom are fairly new so seem not to fully understand how this esoteric part of their system works so could wrongly have fixed it, you might do best by getting in touch with one of the Community Forum reps either in those forums or in PM there.

In reply to a post by Justyn:

Well I never...thanks for showing me that.

6. Data rate: 20000 / 61574
7. Maximum data rate: 20273 / 62036
8. Noise margin: 6.0 / 6.1
9. Line attenuation: 9.9 / 11.7
10. Signal attenuation: 9.8 / 11.7

Hmmm, your line attenuation is very close to mine yet I get quite a lot faster

6. Data rate: 19999 / 79903
7. Maximum data rate: 31792 / 97592
8. Noise margin: 15.0 / 10.8
9. Line attenuation: 11.7 / 11.7
10. Signal attenuation: 11.6 / 11.7

Have tried connecting to the test socket to see if that gives higher speeds?

Thanks, Roberto. How do I term it to the tech staff? "Would you kindly set the such and such back to auto-system."

Here are my TBB results (again, through Powerline adaptors).

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14762...


I can test via the master socket test socket tonight or tomorrow.

Can you supply the estimate given by the BT DSL checker at www.dslchecker.bt.com please?

The result will give 2 ranges, VDSL Range A (Clean) and VDSL Range B (impacted)

Can you please supply both ranges.

Edited by deleted (Wed 12-Oct-16 14:47:01)

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 70.4 20 20
VDSL Range B (Impacted) 80 52.5 20 16

If the speed doesn't increase in the test socket then you can request an engineer visit.

Have just gotten off a lengthy call to Plusnet.

The guy was very helpful, knowledgable and willing to help.

His tests showed:

Profile set at 96.2%
Maximum line speed 76.9Mbps
Line testing at 61.6Mbps
Not banded

I explained the layout of the master socket, which is wired off of an original one in a kitchen cupboard. The hope was to circumvent that 5 metres of internal cabling by using the test socket in the kitchen cupboard.

But it doesn't have one. All the important wires are gel crimped together (the faceplate is redundant) to another cable running behind the cupboards. Into a small junction box, with another cable off that under the floor to the new master socket.

Showed him a picture of the one in the cupboard, he spoke with someone else and and we're having a BT engineer come sort it tomorrow! (because there should be a test socket where the drop line comes into the house).

I shall report back at some point tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

In reply to a post by Justyn:

I explained the layout of the master socket, which is wired off of an original one in a kitchen cupboard. The hope was to circumvent that 5 metres of internal cabling by using the test socket in the kitchen cupboard.

But it doesn't have one. All the important wires are gel crimped together (the faceplate is redundant) to another cable running behind the cupboards. Into a small junction box, with another cable off that under the floor to the new master socket.

Showed him a picture of the one in the cupboard, he spoke with someone else and and we're having a BT engineer come sort it tomorrow! (because there should be a test socket where the drop line comes into the house).

I shall report back at some point tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Knowledgeable maybe but wrong.

There does not have to be a test socket where the drop wire enters the house. The test socket is at the master. You, or a previous resident had the master moved from the cupboard to the present location and there is a test socket there. There is nothing wrong with that.

Are you prepared for the bill you may get?

That's what I reckon the engineer will be saying tomorrow. I certainly won't be paying the £65 as I was repeatedly told it's a BT issue, not mine.

There is nothing in that set up that is a BT issue. It sounds fine and was probably routed that way at the house owners request.

Edited by MHC (Wed 12-Oct-16 17:35:22)

Can you explain why the sync speed is so far below the estimate?

That is not the point I am questioning. The advice given was wrong.

It's surely down to the poor internal wiring

What is poor about the wiring? Gel crimps and standard junction boxes - nothing poor about that. The routing may be
but given that there is a redundant master, I would guess that either BT were asked to move the master or it was an illicit move.

If there is a high noise level n the house, that is not BTs fault.

Probably a bridge tap.

Where? And if it is between the old master location and the new, which the OP suggests there is nothing, it would almost certainly be illicit and not BT installed.

It's described here

In reply to a post by Justyn:

I explained the layout of the master socket, which is wired off of an original one in a kitchen cupboard. The hope was to circumvent that 5 metres of internal cabling by using the test socket in the kitchen cupboard.

But it doesn't have one. All the important wires are gel crimped together (the faceplate is redundant) to another cable running behind the cupboards. Into a small junction box, with another cable off that under the floor to the new master socket.

And where?


The wires gel crimped together, the connected cable goes to a junction box and the wire from that to the new master. What is weong with that ?

there shouldn't be a junction box before the master. I'm amazed you didn't know that.

Don't bite.

To Batboy you have been posting in a similar vein later, i.e. appearing to post in a short abrupt manner that is designed to get people to post back in an escalating manner, time to chill and be less combative in the attitude that appears to be conveyed within an increasing number of your posts.

Not really, take this thread for example.

It turns out the sync speed is 25% down, no question there is something wrong as the attenuation is fine for the estimate. Plusnet have accepted responsibility and there is little doubt that a charge will not be made to the OP. This should be an easy one for the OR engineer to fix. As far as I can see it's all good news.

But I accept your comments and will try and blend in.

In cases where masters have been moved a junction box is not uncommon, as its a lot easier than running a new drop wire all the way from the DP.

In cases where the junction box is one pair in, and 2 or more pairs out their is a clear problem.

Engineer has been and gone. Good news and bad news.

No problems with internal wiring.
Found wideband noise was 38db.
Put my line on a new card at the DSLAM.
Wideband noise now -40s to -50s.
Connection speed now at 71 Mbps ish.

However, I had one single speedtest reach 70 Mbps, but any further test since then is back to 56 Mbps. I'm plugged into the master socket with ethernet to my iMac.

I'm now suspecting it's my ageing iMac (24" early 2008) that's the bottleneck. It has 1000BaseT ethernet. Can't check with my iPhone 5 because the wi-fi only goes up to about 40 Mbps. Can't find anyone I know with a computer to test my line.

Plusnet Hub One reports this:

1. Product name: Plusnet Hub
2. Serial number: xxx
3. Firmware version: Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.226 Last updated 01/10/16
4. Board version: Plusnet Hub One
5. DSL uptime: 0 days, 00:20:37
6. Data rate: 20000 / 72643
7. Maximum data rate: 23939 / 72704
8. Noise margin: 6.8 / 6.0
9. Line attenuation: 10.1 / 11.6
10. Signal attenuation: 10.0 / 11.7
11. Data sent/received: 398.1 MB / 2.2 GB
12. Broadband username: [email protected]
13. 2.4 GHz Wireless network/SSID: xxx
14. 2.4 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))
15. 2.4 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
16. 2.4 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
17. 5 GHz Wireless network/SSID: xxx
18. 5 GHz Wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 a/n/ac (up to 1300 Mb/s))
19. 5 GHz Wireless security: WPA2
20. 5 GHz Wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)
21. Firewall: Default
22. MAC Address: 90:4d:4a:3e:0b:84
23. Modulation: G.993.2 Annex B
24. Software variant: AA
25. Boot loader: 1.0.0

To force your iphone to use 5GHz you'll either have to change the SSID on 5GHZ for example by adding 5 to name or by turning off the 2.4GHz wireless

You can do these in the advanced settings on your Hub One using the first option which is wireless.

Edited by deleted (Thu 13-Oct-16 11:51:35)

Over Ethernet should be no problems with the Mac and those sorts of speeds.

Also odd that iPhone only goes to 40 Mbps - the router has 5GHz band and iPhone 5 does so should go faster.

Its back to seeing if the IP Profile recorded by BT Wholesale and the mirror copy at PlusNet reflect the data rate the modem has.

I think another call to Plusnet is on the cards.

Took BadBoy's advice to get iPhone to do 5Ghz. Downloads faster but still only around 57 Mbps.

So there's definitely something happening.

The engineer showed me his machine thing, clearly showing a 71 Mbps connection. The Plusnet Hub also says that. So something's not letting it give me all that speed.

iMac also reporting about 57 Mbps over wi-fi.

Are you using this site's speedtester to er, test the speed?

Finally sorted.

Plusnet needed to change the banding to match the higher speed.

The engineer said before he left, Oh, it's Plusnet, sometimes you have to call them to blah blah (can't remember what he said). We talked about it that there wasn't a cap in place, etc.

But perhaps with the engineer doing his work, it's now apparent there was a mismatch that finally showed up.

Anyway, I used bt.wholesale speedtest. 68 Mbps down now.

And here's the result from TBB:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14763...

Thanks to everyone for their continued help. It's certainly allowed me to take an inkling and have it proven there was indeed something wrong.