Hot VP

I've been with Zen Internet for about a month now having moved from Tiscali (who's speeds were fine - 5 to 6 meg all the time, but don't get me started on their customer service), and from the outset have been suffering with particularly slow speeds during what I perceive as peak times - 6 to 11.00pm. Commonly as low as 0.7meg. Following several weeks of dialogue with Zen, and doing the various checks at home (BT speedtester, ping tests, tracerts, checking no-one is piggybacking my connection etc) the problem, I am informed by Zen is that my VP is 'hot', and that...

"The VP for this circuit has been checked and has been found to have breached a trigger threshold instigating congestion relief. A regrade is scheduled, however there are delays published preventing this work"

For background, I'm synching at 8128/448, my SNR Margin is around 7db, attenuation down is 34db, and my excahnge is Sherwood (EMSHRWO).

My question is, is this something fairly minor that gets rectified quickly, or a more lengthy process. Zen are non commital on timescales, presumably due to BT being the same.

I guess I may shift to Be or similar LLU if it's going to be ages.

I also note that my exchange is due for 21CN by 31 March 2011. Will BT put off any ADSL Max upgrades as this is taking place soon?

Last one, how long does it normally take from the exchange being 21CN enabled to actually getting this at home.

Many thanks
Speedy(not)gonzalez

Hmmm.

Also try this one. It needs the phone number so I can't.

It might be worth setting up a thinkbroadband Broadband Quality Monitor.

I'd ignore both of those.. they are often very wrong.

There have been some notable issues with 20C/IPStream VPs the last week or two and i've heard things from VPs being downgraded accidentally to no more capacity going in - who knows.

I know a few other ISPs have seen similar issues with similar speeds, that we've observed on a few lines.

Matt

Thanks guys. I've used the exchange check tools which always turn up a 'green', so I'm not sure what the remedy is; sit tight and wait?, or shift to LLU (would that help with speeds?)? or wait for 21CN - if that is operational concurrent with the exchange being enabled?

As a side note: my main criteria is a robust and speedy connection with low ping's for online PS3ing.

If you switch to BE Unlimited you would get 10-12Mbps with no BT problems as it's LLU.

And get £40/£35 cashback through TopCashBack/Quidco.

Thanks, I've put one more request in for now to Zen requesting clarification on how long it will take BT to sort things out. Hopefully they've got some leverage and are able to lean on them.

Hope that works and Zen come through.

Failing that it'll likely be Be....especially with the cashback.

Take courage.

Although Zen is one of the better ISPs, Be is better than them anyway purely because BT is far less involved.

Do you ever have trouble with the BT IP Profile or the noise margin? Noise margin is fixed on Be unless you request a change, and there is no IP Profile.

Not really had any issues to date with the IP profile BT's software set. Once the 10 day training concluded mine was set at 7150, and hasn't changed since although I've not checked in the last week. Similarly, the SNR margin has been pretty steady around the 6 to 8 mark (although generally nearer 6db) since moving to Zen.

The probems have all been with throughput, which can vary by 3 or 4meg from one minute to the next presumably due to contention/congestion.

I agree Zen aren't bad, they answer emails within 24hrs usually, their customer portal is fine and online setup guides useful. To be honest, if BT's infrastructure is struggling capacity wise - as it appears to be in my case - I'm surprised they don't look at giving customers another option and offering LLU rented from one of the others.

IP Profile is not set, it simply appeared fixed because you are probably on a very stable line that always syncs at 8128