Poor speeds Post Office broadband

Hello not sure if this the correct place to post this, I thought of putting this in the P.O. BB section but its deader than a banker's conscience.

The problem is this: broadband speeds after being reasonable for years have really taken a tumble over the last couple of months, along with frequent drop outs, disconnections, etc.

Router is a lousy ZyXEL P660RT1v3

SNR Margin: Downstream 6.5 Upstream 25.0 db
Line Attenuation: Downstream 45.5 Upstream 27.0 db
Data Rate: Downstream 6400 Upstream 448 kbps
Modulation: G.DMT
Annex Mode: ANNEX_A

but speedtest results show only 2.29 kbps on a good day, it's been up to 4.xx kbps in the past.

Any ideas whats going on? I'm assuming DLM has something to do with it as it's a resold BT product, I'm on Sky LLU myself so am unfamiliar with DLM. The exchange was upgraded to 21CN WBC in november, not sure if thats a coincidence or not.

(I should point out it's my mothers phone line, I'm trying to help her out. I've told her she should call the P.O. and get them to call out an OR engineer, but she's terrified of the £150 call out charge if the fault is her end, she's a pensioner so this kind of bill is unaffordable, so any help that it's not a fault her side of the house would be immensely helpful)

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-Feb-13 22:42:09)

DLM would mean the data rates would be lower, on the up to 8 Mbps that Post Office supply 6.4 Meg from 45.5dB attenuation is pretty good.

What is the IP profile you can get from www.speedtester.bt.com ? If that is low then it suggests your connection is dropping and wandering around, but if in the 5000 to 6000 Kbps range then ADSL line is fine and the issue is more likely to be congestion as in the money Post Office pay to BT Wholesale who run the network is not enough to avoid congestion sometimes.

If the SNR margin stays in the 5dB to 6dB range and data rate stats at 6000 to 6400 then almost no chance the issue is the line and no worries of a fee but also no point in sending an openreach engineer out.

Many thanks for the reply. I've just done the test and it states:

BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test

Broadband Speed Test Results

Download Speed (Mbps): 1.95

Upload Speed (Mbps): 0.39

Ping latency: 39.50

So I'm guessing thats not good. Any ideas why would it be "dropping and wandering around"?

Thanks

Was there an IP profile stated?

No... thats all it stated...

so any ideas anyone? Is there a fault on the line? Is it worth calling out BT?

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-Feb-13 23:47:03)

To see the IP Profile figure which is the important bit you need to follow links to http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ and say yes and let the java app run

Then when complete click the further diagnostics button and with luck it will run

As I said if the noise margin is a steady figure and the modem data rate is steady then most likely not a problem with the line

Ah further diagnostics... gotcha

I'm getting a...

"Test Error

The Performance Tester is currently unable to run a speed test for your broadband connection. Please try again shortly, however if this problem persists, raise the issue with your service provider"

Guess I'll try again tomorrow...

See my recent posts as what you are experiencing is exactly what happened to me. Ny problem was resolved by the action described.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/4207867-sud...

I don't know what it is like now but last year I needed an SNR reset a couple of times as we had an electrical problem in the house that was causing the router to drop out and re-sync on a regular basis. The script in the call centre didn't seem to be configured to offer this as an option, but once the operator realised that this is all you were asking for, he/she was able to initiate it from their console and I got a new re-training period started within a few minutes of the call each time.

Ok I finally managed to get a result from the BT speedtester, it states the IP profile is 2.0 Mbps

it also states DSL connection rate - 6.4 down 0.45 up

I take it the IP profile is quite low and my connection is "dropping and wandering around".... does that mean I need to call an engineer?

http://i46.tinypic.com/33a3xn9.jpg

thanks for the replies

P.S. router SNR is now 7.5, otherwise stats remain unchanged.

Edited by deleted (Sun 10-Feb-13 13:56:54)