Huge drops in speed during the day

I usually get 6 Mbps but the speed drops drastically (randomly for 20% of the time to about 1 Mbps) from 11 am to the following 2 am. Between 6 pm and midnight it drops randomly to as low as 0.4 Mbps, and stays below 2 Mbps for 2 hours 9.30-11.30 pm!

This is after I moved house recently into Ludlow, BT exchange "Ludlow, WNLUD". 0.86 Km from exchange (line-length). BT line, ISP is Plus.net on an "up to 20 Mb service". BT and Plus said I could expect 6 Mbps. BT Wholesale checker: "should get up to 2 Mbps. Also supports an estimated ADSL Max of 7 Mbps, (6 to 8 typical)." Thompson Speedtouch 510 V6. Connection to router is via an extension to the BT NTE5 with faceplate Master socket (with a "T" in a circle on front.) At my last house (up to 5 weeks ago, in the depths of the country and at the end of a long BT line) I got a rock-steady 1.5 Mbps 24/7/365.

A friend in Ludlow about the same distance from the exchange suffers no such drops.

The drops in speed look to me (a non-techie) like contention as people get on line at the above times, but my service surely cannot be called broadband with such drops. (Stats below):

Uptime: 0 days, 4:22:16
Modulation: G.992.1 Annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 8,128
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [KB/KB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 14.0 / 20.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 27.0 / 9.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / µ
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 14 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 18
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 9

What can I do please?

Thanks. Stevekir

plusnet BB Max, SpeedTouch 510 v6 Ethernet Router. Mac G5 OS X 10.5.8

In reply to a post by lachlan:

Modulation: G.992.1 Annex A

For starters you are on an ADSL1 "up to 8 Meg" service! You could get 20 Meg on an ADSL2+ service.

only way to get higher speed is on LLU. This exchange is not 21cn enabled so plusnet wont be able to provide higher then you have.

I do think its contention, not much you can do as you maxing the possible line rate you can get with BT. Only other option you have is TalkTalk LLU

Edited by deleted (Wed 27-Apr-11 21:44:26)

My exchange is 21CN enabled and I do get higher speeds on ADSL2+, but that wasn't the OP's enquiry.

was talking to the OP, sorry if we got confused!

Noise ... is one possibility

Attenuation looks about right for the line, and you have noise margin to spare - but was that at a time when the connection speed was good?

Download a copy of RouterStats Lite - at the bottom of http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm v6.9 is the newest.

Then run it for 24 hours with 1 minute updates and 3000 points to monitor the sync speed and SNR - either interpret the results yourself, or host the images on photobucket (or similar) and link to that.

Thanks. That sound good. Unfortunately it is not for the Mac. I will download the stats manually as often as I can when the line is running slowly.

Borrow a Windows based laptop?

I neglected to reply about the final result re. my problem. About 6 weeks after I reported my problem (huge drops in broadband download speed after moving to my present house) the speed rose to at least 5.5 Mbps, and many times (eg., at less busy times) 6 Mbps and sometimes 7. I don't know why, but I am happy.

However, Plus (my ISP) has just emailad that my service will, in about 5 weeks, be enabled at 21CN, no extra charge, giving "up to 20 Mbps" and it looks like I will not have to do anything to my Thompson 510 v6 router. Heaven!

As I don't do much downloading of huge files (except after 12:00 midnight when I am not download-capped and in bed), my present speed has been tolerable, although sometimes annoying when eg., scrolling PDF maps on viamichelin.co.uk, and even when visiting many sites. But, "up to 20 Mbps" will be very welcome.

I have a friend still on dial-up at about 35 Kbps and thinks himself lucky. !!!