Download speed has halved recently

[#1]

Till a few days ago I used to get 40 to 45 download speed on my desktop connected by an ethernet cable, and 35 over wifi. In the past couple of days it has reduced to between 20 and 25 by ethernet. The upload speed which used to be about 6 is now between 7 to 8, higher than before!

Obviously what concerns me is the great reduction in the download speed. I have also tested on my laptop by wifi. It used to give about 40, but now is down to the 20's.

I have tried to make sure that no other device like TV, Sky or tablets/phones were downloading at the time of my tests.

Any adive would be appreciated. Thanks.

Zahid.

[#2]

@zahidaziz1 No doubt one of the Help Team will be along soon, but in the meantime, in case other Community members can help:-

For Community members to be able to help, information from these two sites:-

BT Broadband(obscuring your phone number) and BTW Performance Tester - Over a wired (ethernet) connection please report the 'Additional Diagnostics', and sight of the Help Desk tab would be a start.

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 you phone number, there should be total silence apart from the regular 'Quiet Line Test' announcement. Any other noise - report a PHONE fault first.

[#3]

The Quiet Line Test worked fine.

I am attaching the results of the BT Broadband test and the BTW Performance Tester while connected over ethernet.

The Performance Tester says that the acceptable range of speeds for my connection is 18 to 26 Mbps! But my Plusnet plan guarantees a minimum of 40 Mbps and till a few days ago I was getting this.

Zahid.

[#4]

Cheers for that, Zahid. Could you post your Hubs Help Desk tab, obscuring any personal data? Looks like you may have a problem. Have you checked your phone line for noise?

[#5]

The phone line is working fine with no other noise on it.

I am attaching the Hub help Desk.

[#6]

Thanks for confirming the phone line is OK. From your Help Desk page, I have two observations (1) you appear to have had a DSL drop 18 hours or so ago (2) the D/S noise margin looks a little high - but may be OK given your attenuation figures.

Sorry to ask for more info, but can you post the WAN log from the Event log, please?

[#7]

WAN log attached.

Zahid

[#8]

Cheers for that - you appear to have a couple of drops (16th and yesterday), which may indicate an intermittent network problem. I think I know the answer to this question, but I have to ask: you don't turn your Hub off, do you?

This looks like it needs PN Help Team intervention, as I have run out of ideas, sorry.

[#9]

@zahidaziz1  @jab1   The router log info would suggest that the line has been banded at a fixed speed of 27.4Mbps, there have been a couple of re-syncs at exactly the same speed and the SNR margin is high, it should be 6dB or less.

This speed is about half the expected rate, Plusnet can request a DLM reset to remove the banding, as to why it has happened is difficult to say. Have you had a lot of disconnections or line drops recently? Plusnet probably won't know the cause either.🤔

[#10]

Yesterday afternoon I tried turning the router off and on. That's the only time I have turned it off in several months. It made no difference.

I haven't had any noticeable disconnections or drops. If I hadn't measured the line speed yesterday, which I do as a routine before hosting Zoom meetings, I would not have been aware of the reduced speed in any of my usage.

[#11]

@zahidaziz1 In that case, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for a PN staff member to pick this up and action it.

[#12]

PlusNet are sending an engineer tomorrow morning. Thank you to those who responded here.

Zahid.

[#13]

Result!👍

[#14]

Hi @zahidaziz1,

I'm glad to hear that an engineer appointment has been arranged for tomorrow. Please let us know how it turns out and if there's anything else we may be able to help with then we'll be happy to assist.

[#15]

The Open Reach engineer came within the agreed time slot. His tests inside and outside our house resulted in the discovery that under a BT cover outside our property boundary the small cable connectors which serve us were damp and covered with green fungus. He replaced those and the speed went back to normal. It was about an hour's work for him.

Thanks to everyone here who tried to help.

Zahid.