Plusnet ADSL Performance drop

Hello

We are on ADSL2 with Plusnet and in the past couple of months have noticed a drop in performance of our internet connection. We used to get 9-10Mbps reliably whereas now we're getting far less than that - single thread downloads run at about 70-120kB/s which is roughly 0.7-1Mbps.

Browsing feels sluggish and streaming doesn't work properly either.
The BT Wholesale speed test site shows 6-8Mbps, but that's more or less the only site that works this fast.
Tellingly, if I start multiple downloads to the same file, each one runs on average around 90Kbps without slowing the others down, until I get to about 10 or 11 downloads which maxes out the connection.

They have sent 4 openreach engineers out and none of them have managed to find any significant problem. They've also increased the SNR and turned on interleaving, neither of which have made much difference.

Now they're basically saying that there's not much else they can do and are trying to encourage me to upgrade to fibre at a discount.

Has anyone ever encountered this before and have any suggestions as to what can be done about it please?
In case anyone wants to read the whole boring story, see my thread on plusnet community.

My speed test result

Thanks in advance for any advice

Edited by ec5779 (Wed 05-Jun-19 21:51:30)

Sounds awfully like an issue in PlusNet's network and nothing to do with your line. It is possible it is your router or the device you are using to do the speed tests so if you are able to test with different components that should rule out anything local.

Now they're basically saying that there's not much else they can do and are trying to encourage me to upgrade to fibre at a discount.

I'd go for fibre. Many people including myself from last November are getting PN fibre for the price of ADSL2. You'll have to give them a call and explain your problem. Good luck.

Although if the problem is with PlusNet themselves then moving to fibre may or may not resolve the problem.

Can you run a speedtest here and report back:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest

We need the shared URL from the speedtest, not just typing the results by pressing on results page after the test runs and copying the URL:
e.g https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15600760617...

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 09-Jun-19 11:29:04)

There's one in his original post!

In reply to a post by ec5779:

My speed test result

In reply to a post by ian72:

Sounds awfully like an issue in PlusNet's network and nothing to do with your line. It is possible it is your router or the device you are using to do the speed tests so if you are able to test with different components that should rule out anything local.

Thanks.
I've already tried with three different routers, two computers, one mobile phone, many many repeated tests some of which were done using ethernet cable and WiFi disabled on the router just to rule interference from other devices, two different microfilters and an NTE5 filtered faceplate...

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

I'd go for fibre. Many people including myself from last November are getting PN fibre for the price of ADSL2.

Thanks. I'm concerned that if the problem is something to do with Plusnet's backhaul, Fibre may not help. But I guess it's possible that Fibre has a different backhaul or priority in the backhaul in which case I would expect it to be better.
But for me its a moot point. At the moment I have a very good deal on ADSL2 and although they offered me a significant discount off their normal Fibre price, it still worked out more expensive overall. I'm not keen to pay extra for an upgraded service I don't really need.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Although if the problem is with PlusNet themselves then moving to fibre may or may not resolve the problem.

Yup. I am concerned about this.

In reply to a post by jelv:

There's one in his original post!

Yup, thanks for this. And thanks also for your input on my thread on the Plusnet forum. I read your "Why I left plusnet" thread, certainly makes for interesting reading and something to think about!

Meanwhile, browsing is feeling slightly less laggy this evening, so I ran the speed test again: new results. Interesting that the x6 speed has increased slightly but the normal x1 test is more or less the same.

Thanks all

In reply to a post by ec5779:

Thanks.
I've already tried with three different routers, two computers, one mobile phone, many many repeated tests some of which were done using ethernet cable and WiFi disabled on the router just to rule interference from other devices, two different microfilters and an NTE5 filtered faceplate...

The thing to do is look at the router and find the sync speed with the exchange. Then and only then compare this to the speed test and only if the speed test is done with a wired connection to the router.

If the two are close (the speed test will always be a bit below the sync speed) then you have a problem with the line. If the two are wildly different then you might have a problem with backhaul.

However just about any router provided by any ISP is a piece of junk only fit for the bin IMHO. So unless you are testing on something decent it could just as easily be the router which is likely not had any security updates in years and could easily be a compromised and part of a botnet which is why the speed tests are rubbish. What router(s) have you used?

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

The thing to do is look at the router and find the sync speed with the exchange

Router is currently syncing around 8Mbps. So the two are wildly different, especially in single-threaded/single-connection mode where we're getting an average of 0.7Mbps.

The three routers are:
Technicolour TG582n
Plusnet Hub Zero (Sagem F@ST2504n)
Plusnet Hub One

The Hub One seems to provide a very slight improvement but there's not much difference between the three routers in terms of performance.
The Hub One was sent out new very recently after I raised a fault with plusnet about the speed, so surely it can't have had malware on it from day 1?

In reply to a post by ec5779:

Router is currently syncing around 8Mbps. So the two are wildly different, especially in single-threaded/single-connection mode where we're getting an average of 0.7Mbps.

The three routers are:
Technicolour TG582n
Plusnet Hub Zero (Sagem F@ST2504n)
Plusnet Hub One

The Hub One seems to provide a very slight improvement but there's not much difference between the three routers in terms of performance.
The Hub One was sent out new very recently after I raised a fault with plusnet about the speed, so surely it can't have had malware on it from day 1?

All the PlusNet routers are junk and I speak as a long time PlusNet user. It is quite possible that it could be compromised immediately. It's not like they ever get updates so it will be on whatever was loaded when it was manufactured.

I would look to put one of them in bridge mode hook up to a PC and enable the PPPoA session directly on that then do the speed test.

There is also a possibility that the IP address (if you have a static one) is being pounded by hackers which can result in horrible throughput. However this is difficult to spot on the junk that ISP's send out.