New plusnet Fibre Extra. No where near the suggested speeds :(

[#1]

Hi all,

I'm new here and stumbled upon this forum. Wondering if anyone can help.

Moved into a new house, signed up for plusnet fibre extra. Was advised i should be able to get 68 - 72Mbps, but so far a little over a week into the connection going live i am only ever seeing 32 -34 mbps down.  Logged onto the router page and can see its only syncing at 37 which i thought was odd. Could this indicate a banding issue?.

Connection type:

Fibre Broadband (VDSL)

Downstream sync speed:

37.844 Mbps

Upstream sync speed:

14.719 Mbps

Tried my laptop via ethernet direct to the router with much the same results. Also did the openreach speedtest from the router page, i never seem to get past 34Mbps no matter which way i test.

I dont know very much about this banding thing other than i've read that could an issue from similar posts on here. Unsure how to check this myself though.

I should also note that when the service went live it wasnt initially syncing. I got on the phone the support who raised it with openreach. An engineer went to the box and txt me that he found an issue which he resolved and then it was working from that point. Its one reason why i'm wondering about the banding, maybe they made a mistake and have me restricted?.

Just looking for some help and pointers for anything else i can try short of calling support again.

Thanks in advance, seems a good little community going on here from what i can see

Bill

[#2]

@bluxton Welcome to the forums. From the information you have supplied it certainly appears there is a problem, although it is a bit of a jump to immediately suspect banding.

As support staff are a little thin on the ground and slow to respond, if you can follow and supply the infomation requested below, maybe other Community members be able to help:

For Community members to be able to help, information from these two sites, as screenshots, posted as pictures within the topic, not as attachments:-

BT Broadband(obscuring your phone number) and BTW Performance Tester - Over a wired (ethernet) connection if at all possible, please report the 'ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS', and sight of the broadband connection status from your Hub (with the 'Username' obscured) would be a good starting point.

For the Hub One -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Troubleshooting > Helpdesk

For the Hub Two -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Advanced Settings > Technical Log > Information

It may also be a good idea to report the results of a Quiet Line Test - dial 17070 option 2 from a (preferably corded) phone. After the confirmation of your phone number, there should be total silence apart from the regular 'Quiet Line Test' announcement. Any other noise - report a PHONE fault first.

I

[#3]

Thanks John , i will do the other tests you suggest tomorrow. Very helpful!

Bill

[#4]

OK Bill -I'll keep my eyes out for them.

[#5]

Hi, ive found some time to do more tests as below.

Did the phone line test, it was silent no noise.

BT Broadband checker:

BTW Performance tester:

Technical log:

It was easier for me to do this from my tablet, but i also went and did a speed test from my windows laptop by ethernet with the same results. Still never seem to break the 34Mbps barrier. By comparison i just tethered my tablet to my mobile which is on three 4g unlimited and that returned a download speed of 96.3Mbps. That actually surprised me! Lol.

Something certainly doesnt seem right with my plusnet speed though, so i hope i can get that where its meant to be or at least above 60 which i think was the guaranteed minimum. 

Regards

Bill

[#6]

Thanks for those screenshots , Bill. Something certainly isn't correct - you are on Fibre Extra (80/20) according to (a) what you say and (b) the BT Broadband checker, but for some strange reason, you downstream speed is way below what it should be - actually below the Handback Threshold.

Just out of interest, could you run the speedtest again, but this time, run the 'Additional Diagnostic' and post back.

I note from the Hub technical log that your uptime is very short - unless you are intentionally unplugging/switching off the Hub, that is a fairly clear indication that you are losing DSL sync, which need Openreach investigation - please run : https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/broadband/ and let us know the outcome - it should suggest  and instigate the OR investigation.

[#7]

Hi @bluxton,

I'm really sorry to see your speeds are slow. I've tested your line today and the tests aren't showing the cause for this so we may need to arrange an engineer visit to investigate further, but first would you be able to try plugging your router into what's known as the test socket explained Here? Should rule out any internal wiring. Let me know how it goes. 

[#8]

Hi Gandalf,

Ive just disconnected the face plate from the openreach master socket and tested in the test socket. Sadly the results are much the same, still cant seem to get past 34Mbps

Anything else i can try please?. Kind of feel like ive tried everything i can try though. Gandalf, are you able to see if its a banding issue with your tools at all please?.

Thanks

Bill

[#9]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for giving that a go.

There's no banding as the profile is already at the max "Downstream: 0.128M-80M with Interleaving (Low). Upstream: 0.128M-20M with InterleavingOn" which means that your hub can sync anywhere up to 80mbps with no restrictions. 

Are you happy for me to arrange an engineer visit with you? If so when could you be available? The engineers work weekdays (and occasionally Saturday's) 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm.

Cheers

[#10]

Hi Gandalf,

Week day 1pm to 6pm or any time on Sat would be fine thanks.

Ive also just got an email from Plusnet confirming the below at the end of my 14 day period.

Estimated peak time speeds:

Download: 65 - 72Mb Upload: 17 - 18Mb

These are the speeds your line is capable of at peak times.

Current line speed: 78Mb

This is a measure of the actual line speed you are now receiving based on the product you have taken.

Minimum Guaranteed Speed: 60Mb

This is the minimum speed you should expect to achieve on your line.

Cant seem to get past 34Mps from any of my testing. Tried various devices since testing.  Tablet on wifi, phone on wifi, laptop by ethernet (All one at a time with nothing else connected). I currently have it plugged into the test socket. Phone line appears clear, couldnt hear any noise on the test either.

Thanks for your help with this Gandalf, and also to john.

Bill

[#11]

Hi Bill,

Thanks again for the testing. I've arranged for engineer to visit you tomorrow afternoon 1pm to 6pm.

Let us know how it goes.

[#12]

Just a quick update, the engineer attended as planned, he was a nice friendly chap very helpful.

He first did some testing in the house and concluded all was ok that side. Although he did replace the  openreach face plate for reasons unknown. It looks much better so i presume it was just a new version of it compared to what we had.

He then went out to do some tests on the box outside the house and then the cabinet. Think he repaced a cable in the cabinet and declared it was fixed.

Ever since we have been getting a very consistant 60Mbps when testing at all different times of the day.. big improvement over the 34 were had been getting, but i am slightly puzzled why it wont go higher. At the moment i'm putting it down to distance from the cabinet but really not sure.

Gandalf, how is it now looking your end please, is there any resrtiction in place?.  If thats really all we can get then i am happy with that, but it does bother me a bit knowing our estimated speed should be between 65 and 72.  But as its over the gauranteed speed just about i am certainly not going to argue about it :). Its more of a curiosity really.

Kind regards

Bill

[#13]

Hi Bill, cheers for the run down, I'm glad that the engineer had managed to improve your speeds significantly. 

I've tested your line and the tests aren't showing any issues or restrictions so I'm not sure why it's not going higher. 

As your speed is below the estimates, I could arrange another engineer with you to take a closer look, if you'd like. 

Also I don't know if you're aware but Full Fibre (FTTP) is available so if you upgrade you can get a speed anywhere up to 900mbps which would be a massive step up and more reliable too as it wouldn't use the copper line. 

I can arrange for one of my colleagues to call you back if you'd like to hear about what prices we can offer you?

[#14]

Your sync speed will depend on lots of factors, the quality of the filter affecting it too. 

Another issue is whether 60 or 65Mbps really matters? Probably not, if you carefully think about it. So, if you do a calculation, a 1GB file will download within 133s at 60Mbps, and 125s at 65Mbps; the difference is 8s. A lot? I don't think so, especially that you'll have already waited 2 min. 21s. 

This is similar to people driving at 50 vs. 70 MPH and how quickly they think they will get to their destination, but they don't think about other benefits at driving at 50 like fuel saving and better for the envio, not to mention less wear and tear. So, if you're driving short distances (say 10/15 miles), the time saving at 70MPH is 5 min. A lot? I don't think so.

15 miles at 50MPH = 18 min

15 miles at 70MPH = 13 min  

[#15]

Thanks for the input, i had also already decided this was perfectly fine. I'm pretty sure its prob just distance from the box but i'm perfectly happy with 60Mbps. Good jump from the 34 i started with. 

Thanks also to Gandalf for sorting me out the engineer. I may look into full fibre at a future date but right now i'm happy with the good reliable speed i'm getting.

Regards,

Bill