FTTP Performance / Zen Internet

After years of struggling with broadband from a local WISP, OpenReach finally pulled their finger out and we got FTTP installed last week with Zen. Ignoring the shockingly bad customer service and install process we were finally there.

However I've been really disappointed with the performance of the connection and its actually worse than my WISP service for latency and jitter.

What should I expect from a 150/30 FTTP service? At the moment getting 90/30'ish but with latency's of around 35/40ms.

Don't get me wrong, not shocking but without the copper for the ISP to blame I was hoping for better.

Are you testing with a wired connection - where in the country are you as latency increases the further you are from London typically. I live in London and get 2-3ms ping to bbc.co.uk and get the full 330/30 from my Cerberus FTTPoD connection.

PING bbc.co.uk (151.101.128.81): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: icmp_seq=0 ttl=61 time=2.653 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: icmp_seq=1 ttl=61 time=2.769 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: icmp_seq=2 ttl=61 time=2.706 ms

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.653/2.709/2.769/0.047 ms

Edited by brookheather (Mon 13-May-19 22:20:32)

Yes testing on wired GbE.

I'm in Lincoln so really not that far. Getting about 40ms to BBC.

I get around 5ms from Birmingham on FTTP via BT.

Pinging bbc.co.uk [151.101.64.81] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 151.101.64.81: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Reply from 151.101.64.81: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=57
Reply from 151.101.64.81: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Reply from 151.101.64.81: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 151.101.64.81:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 5ms, Maximum = 6ms, Average = 5ms

Trace route:

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [151.101.192.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ubnt [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 6 ms 7 ms 7 ms 31.55.187.180
5 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms core2-hu0-8-0-5.southbank.ukcore.bt.net [195.99.127.186]
6 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms peer7-et-3-1-5.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.236]
7 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms peer5-te0-9-0-32.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [195.99.126.81]
8 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms 151.101.192.81

Trace complete.

Edited by max360 (Mon 13-May-19 23:13:14)

Something sounds wrong

What are Zen saying about the speeds? And got a link to a speed test result e.g. from https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest

They are saying its normal and are not interested at all.

Their service really has been shocking. I would love to leave if I could find a way.

Post deleted by dan_miles86

Need to see the speed test - Zen use different backhaul providers at different exchanges so it may be they one on yours is performing badly and swapping things around may help.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15573354328... this is someone on the 330 Mbps FTTP service

So they can work well, just needs to get to someone who will realise that speeds you are getting seem slow.

Thanks, that's really helpful. That was what I was hoping for!

Who is your provider if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks, thats going to be the trick.

TBH the speed doesn't bother me too much, the latency and jitter does. Seem to be getting quite a few dropped packets too.

I've set up a BQM now as well so will see what that looks like tomorrow. A red spike aleady isnt looking promising!

Great to hear from others to know it doesn't seem right though. Gives me confidence to put more pressure on them.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

C:\Users\milesd2>tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [151.101.64.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.50.1
2 20 ms 20 ms 85 ms vt1.cor1.lond2.ptn.zen.net.uk [51.148.72.23]
3 31 ms 37 ms 30 ms ae-17.agg3.lond2.ptn.zen.net.uk [51.148.73.32]
4 20 ms * 20 ms 195.66.225.91
5 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms 151.101.64.81

Trace complete.