no real difference, they both extremely long for a consumer contract.

The speedtest on DSL Zone isn't working at the moment, giving all sorts f crazy results including wrong isp's

Try this speedtest, and see how it compares; www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk

I don't think iplayer shouldn't caused any noticable throttling by Plusnet, as it's classed as streaming. Also, maybe you could try dis/re-connecting your broadband connection to see if that helps, as the your first few hops seem to show some lag with-in the Plusnet network.

Have already disconnected a few times in the last few weeks, though. I even bought a new Netgear router in case the 'old' Netgear was causing problems. It's made no difference! Until March 2009, my speeds were mainly good. I've used the BB Max tester in the past and regularly got 6.9Mb.

BB Max (Thursday evening)
Download Speed: 3473 kbps (434.1 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 378 kbps (47.3 KB/sec )
Download Speed: 3681 kbps (460.1 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 378 kbps (47.3 KB/sec )
Download Speed: 2761 kbps (345.1 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 381 kbps (47.6 KB/sec )
Download Speed: 2641 kbps (330.1 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 354 kbps (44.3 KB/sec )
Download Speed: 2869 kbps (358.6 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 377 kbps (47.1 KB/sec )

{Midnight}
Download Speed: 5163 kbps (645.4 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 373 kbps (46.6 KB/sec )

[Friday morning 2:00am]
Download Speed: 6525 kbps (816.1 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 355 kbps (44.4 KB/sec )

Sometimes during the night the speed drops to under 4Mb, but mainly it's not too bad.

I'm guessing BT contention (even though my exchange is showing as green) - and possibly some congestion on Plusnet's network? It's almost like throttling is going on, even though my current plan is advertised as unthrottled at all times ^ Traffic shaping should be made illegal, anyway. I don't agree with it at all.

Still some lagging going on. Will reboot during daylight hours.

I would guess it's BT contention too, as I get a bit of that at times, with an exchange which seems to be showing red quite often. But then my connection speed is usually only between 4.5 to 5.5Mb/s, so I can't test at your speeds.

Traffic shaping should be made illegal, anyway. I don't agree with it at all.

I have been with Plusnet (broadband & phone) since late 2007

That does beg the question, why are you still with Plusnet.

In reply to a post by dieselglider:

I would guess it's BT contention too, as I get a bit of that at times, with an exchange which seems to be showing red quite often. But then my connection speed is usually only between 4.5 to 5.5Mb/s, so I can't test at your speeds.

Exchange congestion is one thing. Backhaul and BT Colossus backbone are a different thing altogether.

I very much doubt there is congestion on those. Particularly Colossus. All BT Wholsale ISPs would be getting the same degradation, and they aren't.

Purely Plusnet capacity in my opinion.

Purely Plusnet capacity in my opinion.

Maybe, but I haven't been getting speedtest results as low as ggater, which is why I suspected exchange contention more.

I suppose if ggater did the BT speedtest, that would confirm one or t'other.

Btw, on the Plusnet forum 'Ask the boss' thread, it was confirmed that Plusnet would keep capacity growth well in hand with customer growth, so that's that then.

The account is under my dad's name. He's elderly and severely disabled with osteoarthritis. I help to care for him as he has falls.

Anyway, he knows that I'm unhappy with the service from Plusnet and he wants to change the broadband and phone package to Talk Talk. I'm very wary as there have been horror stories about Talk Talk.

Timing out when doing traces and pings on Talk Talk *Alarm bells go off* All 4 packets were lost during the ping test.

Tracing route to portal.plus.net [212.159.8.2]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 21 ms 23 ms 20 ms lo0.plusnet.thn-ag1.plus.net [195.166.128.101]
3 33 ms 221 ms 212 ms vl703.thn-gw1.plus.net [84.92.4.241]
4 26 ms 25 ms 22 ms ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
5 131 ms 237 ms 225 ms gi0-2-32.ptc-gw1.plus.net [195.166.129.10]
6 29 ms 33 ms 33 ms pos1-0.pih-cr1.plus.net [195.166.129.250]
7 28 ms 32 ms 30 ms vlan8.pih-gw4.plus.net [212.159.0.30]
8 33 ms 32 ms 33 ms if25.pih-lb04.plus.net [212.159.0.18]
9 33 ms 32 ms 31 ms portal.plus.net [212.159.8.2]

Trace complete.

Off to reboot router...

Edited by deleted (Fri 31-Jul-09 20:51:53)

Still bad lag. First hop still times out, plus over 500ms on a couple of the hops.

Not even 3:00 in the afternoon and speed test 3.5Mb. It's a mystery as my connection used to be rock solid and very fast. Anyway, I'll leave it at that.

Edited by deleted (Fri 31-Jul-09 20:55:36)