contention

I've posted before about my slow speeds, but I've just noticed that my exchange (Sheffield Cutlers) is rated 'red' for contention with an ETA fix date of 11th May (i.e. in the past). The results from ADSLguide speed test last night were;
Speed Down 72.89 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 368.41 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )
and the results from the BT speed test was;
IP profile for your line is - 4000 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 5024 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 146 kbps
Is contention enough to account for these slow speeds? By my simplistic calculations a worst case scenario is 8Mbps divided by 50 people = 160kbps, which is not that far from the BT speed test result, but it seems an unlikely scenario.

Hi there,

If you want to PM me your username or a ticket number from your account I'll happily have a look from our side to see if there is any reason for this.

Thanks Chris, I've sent you a PM.

I've had a quick look over your account and can't see anything that would be causing this. Are the low speeds only at night or do you get them all the time?

Download speeds vary between about 300kbps best case and way slower than dialup worst case, but it doesn't necessarily seem to have much to do with time of day. Download speeds were OK until DSLmax and have never been right since, upload speeds are good. I would suspect noise or interference on the line, but SNR margin is good. My local exchange is unbundled and there was talk of migration, which I guess may help(?), but that seems to have gone quiet now.

Sems very similar to my problems at present, speeds vary between almost line speed and utterly pathetic.

Ive tested numerous pieces of equipment, different PC's and the problem still persists. No loss of synch, no massive reduction in SNR, just very slow throughput half the time.

As I cannot guarantee that I will be available for an entire slot of an engineer visit -8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, then the concensus from Plusnet at the minute is "tough", and Ill just have to live with the fault.

Maybe if I were on the dole or did not have a 9-5 job with an hour commute I could arrange to meet the engineer.

The whole process is a joke.

I hope you get yours sorted soon, and you dont find yourself in the same black hole as I do now.

Im convinced mine is a fault at the exchange, because a Line fault would almost certainly result in noisy line or SNR issues resulting in slower sunch.

As such, the solution for me will be to move to an LLU provider and get my line the hell out of BT's dslam which is almost certainly the cause of the problem.

You can't take a morning or afternoon off to sort out your problem?

At some point in the future may be, but current months are busy. We are currently stacked up in the office and it is important that all directors are here whilst we expand.

So at the moment, no, I cant.

The other half can be there from 4pm if we make a note of it in advance, but short of that there is nothing I can do to get someone there for an entire 5 hour slot.

Clearly Im not being flexible enough to help resolve THEIR broken service.

Given testings so far it points to an error at the exchange, but can BT start there? No.

Ill simply move to an LLU provider to be rid of the BT DSALM, as soon as the right provider enables our exchange (hopefully next month).

Though as other people at other exchanges are reporting almost the exact same symptoms, Im still not fully convinced that this isnt just a config error either within PN or BT's ellacoys in the RIN.

Last time I was suffering similar errors they dissapeared immediatley when I connected to another providers network. At the moment however I certainly have nothing to lose by moving to another provider just to test this theory again, as at present Im paying for an internet connection that I may or may not be able to use depending whether the fault is occuring.

Still slow...

Speed Down 114.16 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 367.56 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )

Anyone know if Plusnet have completely stopped migrating people over to Tiscali LLU? My exchange is unbundled and I can't help thinking it would be worth a go (it could hardly make things worse could it)

Have you done a sweep for spyware and virus's ?

Also you may find something in the back ground is taking up your bandwidth ?

From what you have said you are connected at a decent speed but getting very poor actual speeds. I would get onto Plusnet again as your speed is way below what it should be.