Zen Fibre Broadband very slow in evenings

For about two months, after 5.30pm my Zen broadband slows right down, often to less than 5Mbps. I am on the 38Mbps service. After exactly midnight, it returns to the normal flat 38Mpbs I see on speedtests during the daytime.

I have replaced everything at my end, all cables, and have just installed a new modem/router - and the problem is still the same. I have also done 'silent line' tests to check for noise on the line, and it is perfectly clear. Also I have plugged the router direct to the test socket on the master phone socket.

This has been extremely annoying and am pretty much unable to watch any video between 6pm and midnight. Zen's support have been fairly responsive but have not offered any explanation or solution other than blaming something at my end, even after I have repeatedly told them I have eliminated everything.

I have been with Zen a year now - and for the first 10 months it was perfectly fine with no peak time slowdown at all. Nothing in my house or computer set up has changed since then.

Does this indicate that Zen are speed limiting / traffic shaping at peak times? Has anyone else had this?

This is what a test I did just now looks like. The download is up and down all over the place, extremely slow, while the upload is flat at the normal 9 Mbps.
Speedtest 30/4/2017 18:35

Regards,
Peter

I just want to clarify that all tests are done on a wired connection! And I have used multiple speedtesters but mainly the TBB and BT ones.

I also forgot to mention that I am also getting frequent disconnections. For example, on 26th April, my Zen internet disconnected at 18:45, 18:55, 19:08, 19:16, 19:55, 20:14, 20:18, 20:21, 20:28, 20:29 and 21:10.

Thanks.

Edited by deleted (Sun 30-Apr-17 19:25:02)

In reply to a post by NetBear:

I also forgot to mention that I am also getting frequent disconnections.

Are you getting the disconnections even when connected to the test socket? If so, this indicates a line fault outside your property which Zen are responsible for getting fixed. I would make this very clear to them and if they still try to push the blame onto you, then I would vote with my feet and leave them. Migrating to an ISP such as AAISP or Xilo/Uno would probably be your best bet, especially AAISP who are known for getting line issues fixed which other ISPs wash their hands of.

In the meantime it would be a good idea to try a different router, just to rule out hardware issues.

I am on a faster connection but I have been unhappy with the service recently they told me they could see my broadband had been offline for 3 days....... that was not true, how can they say I had no broadband for 3 days when I did? I had poor speeds over that time and I have not been happy now with it for 3 weeks. I did a serious of tests using the master socket and was told they thought I have a faulty router so went out and purchased a new one... considerable cost and it is no better, speeds are ok but not what they once were. My concern here is they say I has no internet for 3 days and if thats the case what did they do about it? No telephone call or anything to say they would be looking into it. What is wrong with the equipment they use to say I had no internet for 3 days when I did, how does that fill you with confidence?

On the plus side I have dealt with some very nice people in technical support and nothing is ever too much trouble. I am impressed with the people but the product I am currently using is not what it once was.
Wired connection into the master socket.... speeds are currently good but later tonight they will be slower and why does my internet keep disconnecting and the router say internet disconnected and DSL link down.

Edited by deleted (Mon 01-May-17 11:28:21)

Hi, yes the symptoms were all the same when connected to the master socket/test socket. The connections in this socket are all solid and it's the latest type faceplate. I have replaced the Zen-supplied Zyxel modem with a new Netgear D6400-100UKS and it is still the same. All cables have been replaced and modem/router put in different positions in case of interference. It looks just exactly like very severe traffic shaping, which Zen have strongly denied ever applying to their connections for many years!

The street cabinet is only about 6 houses from me - I can see it from my window!

Oh yes I will be leaving Zen very shortly if I don't get an explanation or at least a fault investigation from BT/Openreach.

I had not heard of AAISP, thanks for the recommendation.

Peter

That sounds like the issue I'm getting. Let me know if it gets fixed!

Peter

If you still don't get anywhere via Zen's phone support then send a pm to Zen staff member 'jongreen84' on these forums, he should be able to get to the bottom of this.

Good luck

It it getting worse every day!

Speedtests 1st May 2017 (png)

The image shows exactly what I am having to put up with from Zen internet every evening. It's just a joke now.

Can anyone from ZEN please comment on this??

Thanks
Peter

I'm not from Zen but they are my ISP. A friend who has them at his office (also FTTC) has not mentioned any issues to me either.

I'm not seeing these slowdowns or disconnections you're getting. My connection is as good as it has ever been... Which I know doesn't really help you, but its clearly not something affecting everyone. I have never seen evidence on my line of anything being shaped.

Speedtest from this evening.

When you get a disconnection, is it the modem/router dropping sync or is it only the PPP session (does the DSL light go off?).

Are you able to get your line stats from the router?

What does the Zen customer portal say for your current line technology? This can be be found under My Services -> Broadband & SDSL -> Line Data (Just above the three tables). This will say whether you're on BT or Zen backhaul.

Firstly are you connected to Zen's own backhaul or BT WBMC?
You can easily find out within your account within the Zen portal
or by browsing to the following web site http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
After the basic speed test completes (speed tester isn't that accurate) you should see two click boxes "Re-run test", or "Further diagnostics"
Select the second option and it will ask you to input your landline number, "Telephone Number of the broadband circuit:" enter your number
and run it , if you are on BTW wbmc backhaul then it should display a graph including your IP profile, if your throughput is below 40mbps on an 80/20 service it will trigger the option to run further tests, AKA TAP3 test I don't know personally what the threshold is for the 40/10 service but i would guess at something like less than 20 Mbps, if the second part of the test won't run, then you are probably using Zen's own network for backhaul

If you moved provider same address ordered same Openreach product ie 40/10 service the problem of peak time congestion would likely follow you as the SVlan would probably not be changed if using BT wbmc data transit, but if you are on zen's own, then it's very unlikely it would follow you( unless your new provider uses zen's wholesale for backhaul

Also, an engineer visit from BTOR will not fix the issues if congestion, but will likely result in a fee which zen will likely pass on to you
To get this sorted it's a case of pestering zen's support to sort it out
if it's a BTW issue then get them to pester BTW to change the svlan or another HOT part of their often overloaded network provide the TAP3 test results speed test results on their own speed tester http://speedtest.zen.co.uk/

Edited by tommy45 (Mon 01-May-17 22:02:05)

Peter - please read my thread 'i just want iplayer'.

In reply to a post by summat:

When you get a disconnection, is it the modem/router dropping sync or is it only the PPP session (does the DSL light go off?).

Are you able to get your line stats from the router?

What does the Zen customer portal say for your current line technology? This can be be found under My Services -> Broadband & SDSL -> Line Data (Just above the three tables). This will say whether you're on BT or Zen backhaul.

Hi, when it disconnects the Internet LED goes red. Usually it reconnects in about a minute. Sometimes there is no internet at all, while the LED's are all green.

I don't know how to get line stats.

On the Zen line data page it says "Your current line technology is GEA FTTC" - ??

Still getting the same problem every evening - for several weeks now, completely unable to watch any video. Very disappointed with Zen for being so slow to get onto this.

Peter

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Firstly are you connected to Zen's own backhaul or BT WBMC?

Hi, the Further Diagnostics option on the BT speedtest page always gives the message "The Performance Tester is currently unable to run a speed test for your broadband connection. Please try again shortly, however if this problem persists, raise the issue with your service provider."

Zen are telling me they are investigating but am still getting sub-5Mbps speeds from 6pm to about 11.30pm every evening - for several weeks now. I have replaced my modem which cost over £100 which made no difference. Zen refuse to even lend me a replacement - which is pretty disgraceful service if you ask me.

Peter

In reply to a post by ijustwantiplayer:

Peter - please read my thread 'i just want iplayer'.

Hi ijustwant...

Thanks for that - sounds like you are getting a similar issue. Where are you, if you don't mind me asking? I am in Hastings, East Sussex

Peter

Hi,

Really sorry to hear this. Please PM me your username and I'll take a look and make sure we're progressing this as best we can.

Thanks,

Jon

NetBear - Thanks for your PM, I couldn't reply as you're set to not receive PMs. I'll take a look into things once I'm back in the office tomorrow, and get back to you.

Cheers,

Jon

In reply to a post by jongreen84:

NetBear - Thanks for your PM, I couldn't reply as you're set to not receive PMs. I'll take a look into things once I'm back in the office tomorrow, and get back to you.

Cheers,

Jon

Thank you -, will check my PM settings re replying!

FYI this is my current speed test result. TBB Speedtest (PNG)

Outside of peak times I get a flat ~35Mbps most of the time, making it look very much like my service is being subject to severe throttling. Not what I am paying around £45/month for anyway.

Thanks

Peter

Edited by deleted (Wed 10-May-17 21:31:55)

Wow, I'm not happy with that! I'll be in touch tomorrow.

Jon

In reply to a post by jongreen84:

Wow, I'm not happy with that! I'll be in touch tomorrow.

Jon

Thanks. Speed test result at the moment....


Peter

Hi Peter,

I've just been notified that the config change for your exchange has been completed. How are things looking now?

Jon

Interestingly we get exactly the same problem in the evenings on Zen! - line is an adsl2+ with max synch of 4mb, yet becomes near on unuseable in the evenings, to the extent that I switch on my Vodafone phone & activate it's hotspot to use for wifi!!
Strangely, if I try the Zen speedtest, it is slow to start then suddenly speeds up & te internet works ok for a while before reverting to it's usual unuseable evening format - by contrast logging on at say 4-5am there is no problem..
Conclusion I came to was inadequate bandwidth provision, and like the other poster feel I am not getting what I'm paying for from Zen (we don't play online games or anything just want steady consistent internet access, in so far as a 4mb line can be described as quick!)

Hi,

Sorry to hear you're having issues. Your symptoms don't sound exactly the same as the common issue we're working on, so it might be something you need to go through our support teams with. PM me your username however and I'll take a quick look, and check everything over from a core/backhaul perspective.

Cheers,

Jon

In reply to a post by jongreen84:

I've just been notified that the config change for your exchange has been completed. How are things looking now?

Jon

Hello Jon,
This says it all :


Wow! Around 9pm was usually the worst time, so this is a considerable improvement. A good test was to watch video on twitch, which was impossible before, I'd only get a couple of seconds of video at a time. Seems ok now.

However, having looked back in my diary I see that this problem started in early March, and I am still very disappointed with Zen. I actually had things all lined up to switch to a new provider next week, so I hope this fix is lasting!

I would be very interested to know what exactly the issue was?

Thanks again for your kind assistance.
Regards,
Peter

Thanks Jon - just PM'ing you - unfortunately got side-tracked due to much more serious problems with our office fibre (we had moved office phone lines and internet to you) which are unresolved (despite a simple method of resolution being available which your Tech Support dept refuse to follow), and astonishingly I have just been told that you do not have a Customer Services/Complaints Manager/Director!!!
Can post fuller details if it helps, or perhaps PM?

Hi,

As per my PM, unfortunately your issue is not one the same one identified in the other threads on here, so our Tech Support teams are best placed to resolve this one.

As I also mentioned in my PM, I'm happy to try and track someone down for you who can assist, so feel free to PM me details of that too.

Jon

Thanks Jon - yes a senior Tech Support advisor has been in touch now & has set out a roadmap to resolving the issue