In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

The BT engineer will only see the BT side of things, he can not see what the Plusnet profile is set to. To find where the problem is you really need to check the PN profile, and if that's correct then use an unlocked HG612 modem to monitor the line 24/7, which is easy to do, and you could pick one up ebay fairly cheaply. Also you won't know if the PN is correct unless you know the BT profile, which can find out via the BT speedtest.

I pay less than £30 a month including line rental from PN with unlimited usage, PN were a pain at the time because they were very slow updating their packages, but when they did it was a fantastic package at a great price. My upload speed is around 10Mbps, which is great, but my cloud backup services never runs quicker than about 3Mbps. Also with downloads, even though I have about 40Mbps at my disposal, a lot of downloads don't run anywhere near that, and it's nothing to do with PN.

If you need help with monitoring the line or any of this, then start a new thread, as this is all rather off topic.

BT engineer said the line was fine it was running at the speed which it should be. I was not there at the time. but my mate said he had some equipment and used that and the BT bloke said all was fine. The sync speed was as high as it was going to get, in the high 70's.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Don't forget that if high-speed uploading is being done, either deliberately or unrealised from someone's historic P2P downloads which are feeding external seeds, the downloads can grind almost to a halt, as the upstream is flooded and can't send the ACKs.

And if those are happening over the wireless link, that is clobbered as another effect even if the connection upload itself is coping.

Also his current product sounds like the speed-capped one - which I agree shouldn't affect BT speed tests but could affect normal running.

Nothing else was running when we done the checks, I even connected his laptop direct to the modem as it is the faster machine apart from the one in the basement which is never connected to the net. Still the same.

i agree with you, for some reason Plusnet is capping the speed, sometimes his uploads have been faster than his downloads.

Plusnet offer two fibre packages with phone, the cheaper one have lower upload speeds and download speeds.

since my mates uploads are fine and is up around 17-18Mbps, I take it that plusnet have stuck him on the higher package, but it is his downloads that is naff.
a few weeks back he was lucky to get 10Mbps, I get more than that.

It have now gone up to around between 25 and 40 if he is lucky. He have given up now, because it is working faster than what he had with ADSL, but I must admit, I would not.

Maybe plusnet don't like it because he did not have their phone service.


I don't know, we have all this extra speed and there is so much more to go wrong, when I went from 1Mb to what ever my line would give me, ADSL max or something like that? My poor little router would not hold the sync, i know it was cheap, but it did well on a fixed speed. it also worked well and still do work well at a mates place who is a bit closer to the exchange then me.

Then when BT changed to ADSL2+, that caused problems. Iam coming to the conclusion that BT have no idea what they are doing and just muddle through, how they keep the network going I have no idea.

I hope that if they do use this vectoring, they don't muck up peoples broadband like they did when they changed from ADSL to ADSL2+

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Nothing else was running when we done the checks, I even connected his laptop direct to the modem as it is the faster machine apart from the one in the basement which is never connected to the net. Still the same.

Speedtests only tell you that something is wrong somewhere, but not where - it could range from a browser plugin, the browser itself, the PC operating system (like windows), the network card, cable to the router, router, modem, sync speed, BT IP profile, Plusnet IP profile, Plusnet traffic management, Plusnet's edge routers, the IP exchange, the speedtester's ISP, the speedtester hardware. And many more things.

The short story is that you don't know who to blame, except, if you believe the BT engineer, it isn't the sync speed.

What is the downstream IP profile value that BT hold? Does Plusnet's value match?

If he's on the cheaper product, it would show there, rather than in the traffic management side of things. The traffic management is set to line speed for most things on either package, so we need to know what the line speed is.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Speedtests only tell you that something is wrong somewhere, but not where - it could range from a browser plugin, the browser itself, the PC operating system (like windows), the network card, cable to the router, router, modem, sync speed, BT IP profile, Plusnet IP profile, Plusnet traffic management, Plusnet's edge routers, the IP exchange, the speedtester's ISP, the speedtester hardware. And many more things.

The short story is that you don't know who to blame, except, if you believe the BT engineer, it isn't the sync speed.

I know it is not my mates fault, as i have said before, we changed computers over, we went direct from the modem to different machines, i tried my laptop, which have Linux on, not windows, no difference.

I don't just try one speed test, I try different ones ffrom different sites.

Well, you saying that the Bt engineer may have lied, really give me faith in Bt, which I have very little as it is.


What is the downstream IP profile value that BT hold? Does Plusnet's value match?

I have no idea at the moment, i have not been there for a couple of weeks.

If he's on the cheaper product, it would show there, rather than in the traffic management side of things. The traffic management is set to line speed for most things on either package, so we need to know what the line speed is.

I am pretty sure people don't read stuff on here.

HE IS NOT ON THE CHEAPER PACKAGE. He is one what at the time was their top broadband package, but it have now been replaced with unlimited, while his is not unlimited.
The only thing he did not go for was the phone package as his phone is with Bt and he did not want to move it, due to some offers he have got, which he don't use that is another story.


anyway, next weekend I will pop up there and see if things are any better, but I doubt it, i don't have time this weekend and next week I am working everyday.


The thing is, he is not the only person I know of who is having problems with FTTC, which makes me think that I am better away from it to be honest and made the right choice. I admit, I did start to wonder if I did or not, but i am pretty certain I have.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I don't just try one speed test, I try different ones ffrom different sites.

Good to have tried the variety of ways to connect & test. But once you have had one or two bad results, you need to organise the tests to isolate the bad point. Just blindly runnign speed tests alone doesn't prove anything extra.

Well, you saying that the Bt engineer may have lied, really give me faith in Bt, which I have very little as it is.

Actually, I was implying that the speed could have changed since the engineer was present, rather than him lying.

If your mate is suffering severe line problems, and speeds get limited artificially, or because DLM has intervened, then this could indeed be the problem now, even if it wasn't present at the time the engineer was there.

Likewise the engineer could be right, but the problem is more that you have a lack of belief in him - and that does seem to be a bit of the problem.

What is the downstream IP profile value that BT hold? Does Plusnet's value match?

I have no idea at the moment, i have not been there for a couple of weeks.

How about the past values then? These are the key numbers that tell us whether the line has a problem, or if there is an artificial limit being placed.

If he's on the cheaper product, it would show there, ...

I am pretty sure people don't read stuff on here.

HE IS NOT ON THE CHEAPER PACKAGE.

I'm pretty sure I've read stuff on here properly. The entire point of my post was to show that your problem is NOT being on the cheaper product - because the sync speed would be limited to 40, and the engineer couldn't then report 70+.

I was trying to re-iterate that the line speed is the important thing to know, and (as they are consequential values) the IP profile values held by both BT and Plusnet.

Those are the things to discover as the first step after a duff speedtest. That is, unless he's using an unlocked modem you can interrogate directly.