Another Plusnet unhappiness thread

I know Plusnet aren't the worst ISP out there by any means but their support leaves a lot to be desired.

When I joined them over a month ago there was already a phone line and when I tried to connect a week after the connection date deadline they sent me I got nothing. After an evening of trying I gave up and contacted them the next day using the internet at work. I got a reply very quickly, in all fairness, along the lines of "Sorry, something went wrong with our suppliers, it wasn't switched on".

Now, a month later, it went down last night for the whole evening. It was working this morning and I attempted to register a problem with their online broadband support tool. I filled in all the details and submitted them three times and every time the tool failed with a message "Something went wrong please try again later". I called them and got an automated reply "The average wait time is 30 mins". I just tried the tool a fourth time and the page says "Not working".

I sent off a complaint today via their pretty hard to find complaint form so lets see what happens.

I don't really understand line stats so can anyone check my logs for me?

Update Counter : 21166
Modulation : G.Dmt
Annex Mode : Annex A/L
Line State : up
Lan Tx : 515730
Lan Rx : 304109
ADSL Tx : 212061
ADSL Rx : 185207
CRC Down : 0
CRC Up : 0
FEC Down : 0
FEC Up : 0
HEC Down : 0
HEC Up : 0
SNR Up : 24.0
SNR Down : 20.0
Line Attenuation Up : 9.0
Line Attenuation Down : 11.5
Data Rate Up : 448
Data Rate Down : 7616

The distance to my local exchange is 350 feet, yes feet. I have standard ADSL with Plusnet and according to OOkla speed test the down speed is 6.36 Mbps and the up speed 0.38 Mbps.

Could you tell us the exchange please ? You are on ADSL "up to 8Mbps" and I just want to check that is correct for starters.

Sorry RoberoS, I should have been more specific. Great to see you're still a regular here. I couldn't see what package I was on so I didn't post it but I found it, I'm on the Unlimited package which is advertised as up to 17mb.

I received an email from Plusnet when I first joined saying the estimated download speed is 7mb. I'm a bit confused then why my speed is so low given my proximity to the exchange.

My exchange name is Science Park and the code is EASCI according to Sam Knows.

I found another great site you must know called http://usertools.plus.net/. It says there was an outage last night at my exchange but Plusnet have nothing on their own site saying there was any disruption from what I can see.

So at least that explains what the disruption to service was but I'd be grateful to you for looking at my logs.

Cheers.

In reply to a post by edwinbradford:

I received an email from Plusnet when I first joined saying the estimated download speed is 7mb. I'm a bit confused then why my speed is so low given my proximity to the exchange.

That's cos BTW don't have ADSL2+ equipment at your exchange so you're limited to 8 meg, ie non 21CN exchange. You could always move to Tesco (gulp) or TalkTalk (double gulp) to get speeds >20meg as they have ADSL2+ gear. Or perhaps fibre if your cab has been upgraded?

Edited by deleted (Sun 07-Dec-14 14:47:28)

Logs? What logs?

I don't see where your exchange is mentioned in the Usertools, in particular the BT Major Service Outages.

Have you moved since you were on vivaciti? Your options for high speed there look to be them or xilo/uno using TalkTalk Business Wholesale, or perhaps C & W Wholesale. Alternatively TalkTalk itself or Tesco, as baby_frogmella said, or the Post Office. I'd look at vivaciti and uno/xilo unless you fell out with either previously.

Then there may be FTTC as baby_frogmella said. Have you checked your phone number for that? Quite a lot more expensive though.

Okay thanks, now I get it. The advertised speed is not just dependent on your distance from the nearest exchange but also *which* exchange. I had no idea that was the case until now. Thanks for explaining it. Next time I choose an ISP I'll check it.

How did you know that Tesco are ADSL2 enabled at my exchange? Is there a site where I can see which ISPs are 21CN capable and which aren't? Sorry if I don't have that quite correct but I think you know what I mean.

Several of us just happen to know some of the ISPs who sell/resell TalkTalk Wholesale and C & W. Vivaciti and xilo/uno you know, Post Office is a mishmash of TalkTalk Wholesale connection and two other companies handling the admin and support, Tesco is C & W.

"21CN" is in fact a specifically BT Wholesale label for ADSL2+, now referred to as WBC/WBMC, and an IP based phone system that so far as I know bit the dust years ago. Unless that's what is used for FTTP phones where they aren't on old copper.

I was very happy when I was with Vivaciti a few years back but I swapped to Plusnet when I relocated. Maybe I'll go back to them when my one year contract with Plusnet expires. I guess it's hard to balance cost with good customer service.

Do you know if problem yesterday was with line exchange, or access to plusnet ISP.
There should be time up in stats.
Your attenuation of 11.5 down and 9.0 Up and snr of 20 down,need looking at. Maybe RobertoS could comment.

In reply to a post by flippery:

Do you know if problem yesterday was with line exchange, or access to plusnet ISP.
There should be time up in stats.
Your attenuation of 11.5 down and 9.0 Up and snr of 20 down,need looking at. Maybe RobertoS could comment.

Nothing wrong with the SNR. It is high as he is close to the exchange and already obtaining the maximum possible speed.