Line Att 40dBs broadband 8128 (20CN) 7616 (21CN) 5600 today

I've raised this as a customer support query too - I'd like someone to reset my line speed to the 8128 profile - before the 21CN move I was getting 8128 line speed and downloads of (top) 790KB/s-810KB/s

I'm on Plusnet PRO and since being forcibly moved onto the 21CN I've seen:
- Drops in line rate (as title)*
- Drop in real speed by about 150-300KB/s
- Video pauses/time outs every 3 seconds (notably not affecting IPlayer as much, although BBC HD always seems to be unusable).
- High latency causing other dropouts, e.g. VPN, browser images not loading, occasional pages not loading (I understand this is a bug affecting everyone on the 21CN that has now been going on over a month)!
- Occasional bad gateway connections with speeds of < 1.5Mbps (according to the Plusnet speed test) usually of an evening.

* admittedly line speed profile drops may be part my fault as due to the latency browser/video timeouts I've been rebooting the router to change to known good Plusnet gateways with no latency.

Please can someone get this sorted asap! Should Plusnet require further evidence or logs I am happy to provide them through the Plusnet customer support portal.

Many thanks,

Benjamin (brownb2)

Edited by brownb2 (Wed 20-Jan-10 23:19:11)

What router are you using and does it have latest firmware?

I had a similar problem with my DG834G V2 when I upgraded to ADSL2+, my 8128 sync dropped to around 7 meg. I flashed the latest firmware onto the router and hey presto, 15 Meg downstream consistently.

I have that router and the V2.10.22 firmware (the firmware just before the advertising/trend micro version - it does have ADSL 2 support, although there are improvements in the next version up). The funny thing is that I've been using this fine until the 21CN switch over. My Plusnet email told me I would remain on "up to 8Mbps speeds" how did you manage to swindle the higher speed? Which firmware are you using btw?

I updated the firmware to V3.01.31 (the latest) and now have a line attenuation of 37dB and a download of 6080, not 8128 but getting better.

Thanks for the advice btw!

Edited by brownb2 (Wed 20-Jan-10 23:56:35)

The latest firmware for DG834G V2 is 3.0.38.

I was on a very old ADSLMax package (8Mbps tops) and saw that my exchange could handle ADSL2+ so upgraded to Plusnet Pro (up to 20Mbps) via the portal - everything else was automatic. After the upgrade went through my line speed dropped so I upgraded the firmware. It took a few days for the line speed to creep up to where it is now (15227 kbps down, 1085 up) and the IP profile to catch up, but my last 3 TBB speed tests came in at 11.8Mbps which I'm happy with.

I didn't see the .38 version (I used the links on the right of the netgear DG834 homepage - that'll teach me not to actually drill down from the device....). I've updated attenuation is now 36dBs, no speed change.

Hmmm still at 6080Kbps today (no response to my support ticket update either ) ... has anybody else seen these problems?

Can you post your full line stats?

If your DS SNR is 9db or higher then that would explain the lower sync rate as BT have decided your line quality is bad and increased the min SNR it will use to determine your sync rate.

In reply to a post by brownb2:

I've raised this as a customer support query too - I'd like someone to reset my line speed to the 8128 profile - before the 21CN move I was getting 8128 line speed and downloads of (top) 790KB/s-810KB/s

This may be the case but your line is dropping out a hell of a lot. I can only go back four or five days before your move to 21CN completed but it seemed to be doing the same thing in the days leading up to it too.

Resetting your target SNR isn't going to help if your line is losing sync when it drops out. On the contrary, it's likely to make things worse.

Worth mentioning that moving you to 21CN will have involved your circuit being rejumpered from a DSLAM to an MSAN at the exchange. It's not outside the realms of possibility for this to be a contributing factor to your problem.

I'm on Plusnet PRO and since being forcibly moved onto the 21CN I've seen:
- Drops in line rate (as title)*

This shouldn't really have happened.

- Drop in real speed by about 150-300KB/s

Guessing from more recent comments that this has dropped further?

- Video pauses/time outs every 3 seconds (notably not affecting IPlayer as much, although BBC HD always seems to be unusable).

It's possible that this could be related to the latency problems acknowledged on our Service Status feed.

- High latency causing other dropouts, e.g. VPN, browser images not loading, occasional pages not loading (I understand this is a bug affecting everyone on the 21CN that has now been going on over a month)!

Yes, there are latency problems but it shouldn't be having too severe an effect on things. We're upping the bandwidth on the 21CN platform again today so it will be interesting to see if that improves the situation at all (if it does then it's almost certainly related to the latency issues).

- Occasional bad gateway connections with speeds of < 1.5Mbps (according to the Plusnet speed test) usually of an evening.

No idea what you mean by a 'bad gateway connection' but it's worth reminding you that 21CN customer can only connect to one of two gateways - pcl-ag04 and thn-ag02. Having said that, you'll be able to connect to pcl-ag02 by the end of today too.

* admittedly line speed profile drops may be part my fault as due to the latency browser/video timeouts I've been rebooting the router to change to known good Plusnet gateways with no latency.

There's not a great deal of point in doing this. As mentioned above, there's only a limited number of gateways you can connect to anyway.

Please can someone get this sorted asap! Should Plusnet require further evidence or logs I am happy to provide them through the Plusnet customer support portal.

Can I suggest you open a fault ticket at http://faults.plus.net ?

In reply to a post by bpullen:

This may be the case but your line is dropping out a hell of a lot. I can only go back four or five days before your move to 21CN completed but it seemed to be doing the same thing in the days leading up to it too.

Resetting your target SNR isn't going to help if your line is losing sync when it drops out. On the contrary, it's likely to make things worse.

Worth mentioning that moving you to 21CN will have involved your circuit being rejumpered from a DSLAM to an MSAN at the exchange. It's not outside the realms of possibility for this to be a contributing factor to your problem.

The line has been dropping out of an evening as the router was in the bedroom and I didn't want the wireless on overnight - I understand that this would lower my line profile now which is why I'd like it reset (as I'll no longer be switching this off). The router would usually not be switched back on until after 6pm the following day.

- Drop in real speed by about 150-300KB/s
Guessing from more recent comments that this has dropped further?

No further - It was at ~800KB/s on 20CN now it seems to be ~500KB/s-600KB/s limt for most downloads.

- Video pauses/time outs every 3 seconds (notably not affecting IPlayer as much, although BBC HD always seems to be unusable).
It's possible that this could be related to the latency problems acknowledged on our Service Status feed.

Yes I now understand the problem this is causing for ISPs on the BT network - hopefully now they're starting 40Mbps they'll get this ironed out....

- Occasional bad gateway connections with speeds of < 1.5Mbps (according to the Plusnet speed test) usually of an evening.
No idea what you mean by a 'bad gateway connection' but it's worth reminding you that 21CN customer can only connect to one of two gateways - pcl-ag04 and thn-ag02. Having said that, you'll be able to connect to pcl-ag02 by the end of today too.

I provided a trace route from one machine here to Plusnet early on in the support call - I can provide historic->current speed tests from the mybroadbandspeed speed test site showing 1.5Mbps on one particular day (this has occurred a few times at random), and usually around 4.5MBps every other day - I'll attach this to the support call later. This is what I was referring to with a "bad gateway" - combined with extremely high latency changing the gateway to ag04 did seem to fix it.

Can I suggest you open a fault ticket at http://faults.plus.net ?

I'll look to do that this evening unless there is something you can do in the mean time (I'm at work atm)?

Thanks,

Benjamin