Speed drop any thoughts?

My internet speed has dropped, not by a lot but enough to make a difference for our families home use. I was with BT fibre and then a year ago moved to Plusnet fibre. As I'm a long way from the cabinet speeds with BT then Plusnet approx 10.5 down to 1.1 up. Then just a few days ago speed has dropped to 8.2 down to 0.67 up. It is noticeable with multiple users. Can anyone give me pointers to investigating the issue. I have been unable to access line stats apparently I am locked out of them by Plusnet??

Your drop in speed is quite possibly due to increased crosstalk as other subscribers connected to the same cabinet and in the same cable bundle as your line take up FTTC.

A question that may be relevant, may not be - you have the Openreach modem now, did you have that with BT as well or did your HomeHub have a built-in one?

Please can you run the BT Wholesale Performance Test, (ignore all the red instructions for now), and continue to the Further diagnostics at the bottom of the initial results page. Please copy and paste the contents of the two text boxes of results. We don't need the graphics.

Then go to your Plusnet Member Centre >> Connection details >> High Speed Broadband, and tell us the Current line speed.

Thanks for the help.

To answer your questions, I have had the Openreach (Huawei) modem separate since going to BT FTTC. The only thing that changed when I went to Plusnet was my hub was changed to a technicolor, the Openreach modem remains insitu. There was no real increase or decrease in speed in switching. Speeds have been constant now for two years with BT then Plusnet. Just a sudden drop over the last few days. Almost back to my old ADSL speeds.

The BT wholesale tests are posted below.

Download speed achieved during the test was - 8.27 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 20 Mbps-10.46 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 10.46 Mbps


Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.67Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10 Mbps

Sorry you also asked for this info from Plusnet site.


Estimated line speed:
There's no speed estimate currently held on your account.
Current line speed:
10.4 Mb

The downstream IP Profile and Plusnet Current line speed look fine, so the 8.27Mbps speed test looks odd. I would expect crosstalk to have lowered those two profile figures. (The upstream profile is meaningless, it just means you are on the 40/10 product).

Were you able to see stats on Infinity? Basically they are in Openreach modem and that is what is locked down. Sky and maybe BT do pass them through to the router themselves. Plusnet don't.

As you have a Huawei modem it is possible to unlock it very easily, enabling you to get full stats and there are also a couple of programs available to monitor them continuously and provide graphs. If you are happy to flash an updated firmware to the modem then you could do that. Many people get another HG612 off eBay and flash that so they don't risk their working one.

I think getting another modem to trial on is a good idea in case something goes wrong. Where do I access the update? And how ultimately will it benifit my problem?

The stats, particularly the excellent graphs that make them easier to understand, show up many things about the line conditions that might help diagnose the problem.

It could of course be simple exchange congestion. The thinkbroadband speed test gives a useful graph that often shows up congestion issues. A link is provided for you to let us see the result.

If you PM Bald_Eagle1 he should be able to point you to the latest hacked firmware and the best version of the graphs to use. I'm a bit out of touch with it. I see new versions announced in the Fibre forum here but I'm happy with just looking at the stats from the initial version that I have.

Ok, I was looking to buy an extra router on ebay but kept getting piped on price. I have decided to bite the bullet and just flash my current HG612. I've printed off the instructions and have the update ready (Thanks Bald-Eagle1). However before I go can I clarify a couple of things.

1) The instructions state to connect my PC to LAN2. Currently this has a sticker over it stating "not in use". I assume I just remove this sticker and use the LAN2 connection?

2) Do I keep LAN1 line currently connected to my Plusnet Techiclolor router in place or remove it for the flash?

3) Do I keep the DSL line from my HG612 to BT faceplate in place or disconnect it for the Flash?

In reply to a post by Speedchaser:

1) The instructions state to connect my PC to LAN2. Currently this has a sticker over it stating "not in use". I assume I just remove this sticker and use the LAN2 connection?

Correct.

In reply to a post by Speedchaser:

2) Do I keep LAN1 line currently connected to my Plusnet Techiclolor router in place or remove it for the flash?

Shouldn't matter.

In reply to a post by Speedchaser:

3) Do I keep the DSL line from my HG612 to BT faceplate in place or disconnect it for the Flash?

Shouldn't matter.

I've avoided broadband Hari Kari and flashed my HG612 without any difficulty. However I have no idea how/where to access my line stats. Could someone please help me in this regard. Also do I need to have my PC attached to LAN2 as during the flash to access the information?

I have LAN 1 connected to the router WAN port as usual, and LAN 2 connected to a normal router LAN port. I have reverted the HG612 to 192.168.1.1 as my router is 192.168.1.254. Making sure that the allocatable DHCP range excludes both of course.

That lets you see the GUI via your browser, on 192.168.1.1. The full stats require telnet just as they did on ADSLx, so to get those you need your telnet client enabled in Internet Options.

Instructions, if the username and password are still admin :-

telnet 192.168.1.1
admin
admin
sh
xdslcmd info --stats

Note that is two hyphens.
Also useful is

xdslcmd info --pbParams

The upper case P matters.

Similar to --stats is --show but I haven't a clue what the difference is.

Edit - that way wired or wireless links to the router work.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 23-Sep-14 16:49:39)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Similar to --stats is --show but I haven't a clue what the difference is.

As I remember the old adslctl the diff is --show doesn't show all those tables of stats over certain time periods at the bottom. Or it may be v.v.

Thanks .

Just checked and that does appear to be the case.