Getting 21Mbps on a 66Mbps line. Should I take an 18M renewal?!

[#1]

My contract is 'up to 66 Mbps'. My Draytek 2866 today reports:
Mode=17A States=SHOWTIME UpSpeed=14996000 DownSpeed=52617000 SNR=6 Atten=17
...but https://speedtest.btwholesale.com says:

Timestamp Sunday 17 March 2024 | 15:34:6. Ping 17 Ms. Download 21.02 Mbps. Upload 15.69 Mbps

Unable to see my 'profile' as the BTOR extended test reports, "Your speed test has completed and the results are shown above, however during the test an error occurred while trying to retrieve additional details regarding your service. "
It has been giving the same error message for over a week.

Strangely, my March bill appeared today and has inexplicably jumped by £13.31 (discount reduced).

I'm 2 weeks short of the drop-dead end of my contract and deciding whether to take a renewal.

You're not making it attractive!

[#2]

@markv 

I think the bill increase is partially due to some or all of the next period being an out of contract price.

Unless you are getting a full fibre service changing ISP probably won't improve the speed.

As a first test, I would save the configuration then factory reset your Draytek and set it up from scratch. If that doesn't improve matters you can then reload the old config.

52Mb/s down speed and 15Mb/s up should do better than your 21 Mb/s down.

Was something using the connection? Windows update as an example. 

[#3]

@markv 

Did you perform the BT wholesale speed test using a wired or wireless connection, wired is preferred, I'd also suggest using speedtest.net as an alternative as the BT wholesale speedtest can get things wrong.

A good starting point is to share this information as a screen shot; 

BT Broadband Availability Checker (obscuring your phone number), where a landline phone is no longer supplied or known use the address version BT Broadband Address Availability (obscuring your address)

This will provide details of what you line can provide, make sure you include the narrative as well. 

[#4]

Test was by wired. In fact I had disabled WiFi connections and unplugged all other wired connections to the router (except my Pi-hole DNS!).

Screenshots attached.

What I'd failed to mention is I quizzed my next door neighbour, who is with BT directly. His speeds are 72 down/20 up (I have a screenshot from him to confirm this). Our line-lengths are obviously near-identical.

Re current unexpected bill-bump... It covers to March 17, and my contract doesn't end until April 8, so I didn't expect and post-contract increases in this one.

[#5]

No wifi connections and no other wired connections at the times of the test.

Repeated whilst checking running processes, and no WU.

Nothing has changed on my router since I was getting ~ 55Mbps real-world downloads. Or indeed anytime this year.

I have LANs, VLANs, VPN's, all sorts, so a full reset & rebuild is a several-hour job. Chances it would make any difference...?

I can see a Helpdesk would throw that at me, to tick a single box, but the 2+ hours of my time, when I'm 99% certain it wont change anything, are unattractive.

Thanks,

Mark

[#6]

Have you reported the issue to plusnet? Your speed tests look to me below your MGS (minimum guaranteed speed )

I would follow the fault reporting steps detailed here https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/ 

If the fault bot does not work use https://faults.plus.net

HTH

[#7]

I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but the second line of the first post says:

"Mode=17A States=SHOWTIME UpSpeed=14996000 DownSpeed=52617000 SNR=6 Atten=17"

Does this mean that the router is syncing OK at 52.6Mbps, but only through putting 21Mbps?

[#8]

> Does this mean that the router is syncing at 52.6Mbps, but only through putting 21Mbps?

Yes.

In fact it's slightly worse than that(!) as the router diagnostics tell me:

Actual Rate	52617	Kbps	14996	Kbps
Attainable Rate	59813	Kbps	18366	Kbps

[#9]

> Have you reported the issue to plusnet? Your speed tests look to me below your MGS (minimum guaranteed speed )

@Dan_the_Van  Noyt yet, only just discovered it. And I'm not sure I have a MGS.

My renewal notice requires me to tick a box saying I'm accepting the extension without a MGS. The 'More info...' link tells me that customers onboard since BEFORE 2017 (that's me) don't have any MGS.

Unclear if my current contract (2 weeks to run) has an MGS or not.

[#10]

@markv do you have a static IP by any chance ?

[#11]

@MisterW 

That' s a thought about the static IP.

I note the Ookla speedtest is indicating high latency for download speed, which won't be helpful.

The router is syncing within the bands the BT Availability checker shows

[#12]

---

@markv wrote:

Test was by wired. In fact I had disabled WiFi connections and unplugged all other wired connections to the router (except my Pi-hole DNS!).

---

Have you tried without the Pi-hole? Better still have you got a Plusnet hub that you can substitute for your kit? All the evidence suggests that 50Mbps+ is arriving at your property.

[#13]

@Baldrick1 

Have you tried without the Pi-hole? 

Not sure how this will help as the Pi-Hole is a DNS server, assuming it is implemented as the one I use, it just sits on the network serving DNS requests. No data passes through it.

[#14]

@Dan_the_Van 

I have no idea if it would make any difference I have read of similar problems being solved with a hub factory reset..

It just seems easy and logical to remove all additional bells and whistles and if possible return to the Plusnet basic configuration before assuming that this is a network problem.

[#15]

@markv 

There are some basic steps required to help identify where the issue could be, do you have a plusnet supplied Hub or alternative DSL router you can test with as this help identify if the issue is with your setup/equipment or something else