Frustrated! Extremely low download speed since activation

Hi All
Wonder if some experts could shed any light on what the problem might be.
Just moved into a property (upper floor maisonette), put in a broadband order with ISP nearly a month ago. First I was told I needed an engineer visit booked 2 weeks later; I called to confirm the day before the visit and then I was told actually no engineer needed to visit , that the BT line socket at the flat was already 'live'. So wasted time. Anyway the router arrived and 5 days afterwards was the activation date (Monday just gone). Initially it didn't connect at all, they said it might be the router, so had to wait for another router to be sent - it transpired that I was not supposed to use the microfilter on the BT openreach dual socket boxes, because the microfilter is already inbuilt. Again more time wasted.

Since connection, my speed has not been greater than 0.25mbps (max speed possible I was advised was approx 7Mbps). I called their support team - first they said there was some kind of 'limiter' on the line that had to be remotely lifted and would take at least 4 hours to function after that - the speed went further down to 0.15mbps. Virtually unusable. The ping rates are completely normal and there are no dropped connections. I called again, and this time they said they weren't sure, but they would try some 'interleaving' which could take at least a further 24 hours to have an effect and upto 5 days. The speed has now dropped to below <0.1mbps.

I have lost confidence in their technical support team and have now been without broadband for a month. I am worried that they are continuing on this course of trial and error and may take a very long time to get to the bottom of it.

Questions:
- what do the technical experts think may be the problem here?
- do they simply need to get an engineer out to diagnose and sort the problem?
- is this an ISP issue, or even if I decide to go with a different ISP now, I could have the same problem?

Thanks in advance!

Does the telephone work?

Does this dual socket Openreach box have two sockets next to each other, or is the broadband one above the telephone one?

It might help if we knew which ISP.

Can you get the router line stats and post them for us to mull over > http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

(Edit > Just re read the post regarding the type of master socket, not an NTE5 )

Edited by Apprentice (Fri 11-Jul-14 18:28:44)

?
It almost certainly is an NTE5. There may even be an NTE5A, (i.e.with a VDSL interstitial filter), but probably a simple OR filtered faceplate.

That's why I'm asking for the socket layout . Then we know how to tell him to get to the test socket.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 11-Jul-14 19:03:26)

Yep I thought it was an NTE5 but the OP's wording of two sockets with an inbuilt micro filter confused me on the second reading, easily done on an early Friday evening before having some malt

http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/master-socket-...

Thanks for the replies...

Yes it is an openreach BT dual socket (ADSL v10) with two ports side by side, one for the router on the left and the phone socket on the right...phone line working completely fine

Isp is plusnet

I went to get stats:

Uptime: 0 days, 2:31:55

DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.3

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 888 / 288

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 23.11 / 69.54

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.4 / 0.0

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.3 / 38.5

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 13.9 / 44.6

System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----

Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 35 / 0

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 4 / 0

Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Link (Remote): -

Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 43 / 0

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0

HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0

Also, as per request of technical support, I also took the faceplate off to plug directly into the master socket via a microfilter, but this didnt make any difference either....

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 13.9 / 44.6

This is the problem. It should not be this high, and would normally only be this high after DLM intervention following a period of instability.

Ask them to reset the SNR margin.

It's been banded to 288kbps.The high margin is a result of that.

Thanks for the responses

They said they had lifted this banding remotely on Wednesday and said it would take at least 4 hours to take effect....and then no change, so phoned again on Thursday, saying they had lifted the banding, reset the line and still no improvement, so they would try interleaving, whatever that is....
Anyway, is this something that can be sorted remotely or does an engineer need to come out....

Quite how banding is set or removed I don't know, but it certainly doesn't need an engineer visit to the premises.

That said, until the cause of it is found and removed, which may need a visit, there may not be much point I'm afraid.

Edit - It doesn't look as though Interleaving is on. FEC's zero after 2 hours or so is unlikely. Fast Path always has zero FECs.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 11-Jul-14 23:15:08)

Update:
- BT engineer sent round, he wasnt sure why he was attending; he said you should expect low speeds in first 10 days or so. I said certainly not <0.25mbps! He replaced the BT socket with another version, with the router and phone line sockets on top of each other, but said he didnt expect this to change anything
- he was correct, it didnt change anything. Phoned cust services and told them about router stats and what this forum advised. He agreed (finally) that the unbanding and line reset didnt actually take place on Thurs when they said it should have, and not sure why they havent picked that up. Advised that a special BT team in swansea would need to do reset and unbanding because connection still less than 10 days old. So I would need to wait till Monday (today)
- this morning, got email saying line reset was being done
- this evening, speed is still very slow but now 0.38mbps instead of <0.25mbps

Not really sure what is going on ,or how it can be solved....simple question - if I change to a different provider now, would it be the same problem or is this ISP specific?

The reset may be overnight, but that's a straw-clutch.

Is the master socket definitely the first place the line gets to after reaching the building? By that I mean there isn't a junction box feeding extensions before it, or the line come into a basement/hallway cupboard and the this socket fed from there? I quite expect straight-through junction boxes from heavy duty external to normal house phone wiring.

Whether it would change with an ISP change I don't know. If the line has been reset, then almost certainly not. Though a move to LLU would if the line card at the exchange is faulty.

Another thought.

This forum may not be visited by the Plusnet Reps. They do visit a few here but maybe not this one. Have you posted in the Plusnet Community forum? They are there several times a day, and are grades and capability far above the front line phone and ticket staff.