My speeds have dropped since fibre upgrade

[#1]

To renew my contract and take up a new offer, I upgraded from Unlimited Fibre to Unlimited Fibre Extra a couple of weeks ago.

At first, the speed rose from my usual 35+ up to 40+ Mbps, which was a nice bonus.

But in the past couple of days, it seems to be permanently down at 31Mbps.

Is this likely to be indicating a problem, or might it eventually settle back upwards to 35+ ?

It was very nice to have the 40+, but I would be happy if it could be at least where it was before I upgraded i.e at or above 35.

Thanks for any advice

EDIT Apologies, I just realised I have posted this in the ADSL forum instead of Fibre, perhaps it could be moved to the correct one.

[#2]

Moderators Note
This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to Fibre Broadband.

[#3]

Hello @kmw350

Thanks a lot for reaching out and I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with the speeds on your line. I've run some tests this afternoon and can see that the line is currently being banded by DLM at 35Mbps. Usually, we'd raise a DLM reset request to get the line unbanded back to 80Mbps as per your broadband product, though it appears in this case, that the banding is a symptom of regular disconnections on the line.

I'll pop a visual radius below which shows that the line is disconnecting every day, so DLM has been gradually decreasing the banding profile. Rather than raising a DLM reset, we need to figure out the source of the disconnections and get that rectified.

Going forward, please have a read through our Troubleshooting Guide to see if you're able to resolve the issue sooner. When testing, please remove the faceplate from your Master Socket, and connect your router directly into the test socket which lies behind it. Avoid using any extension cables / sockets too if possible.

Troubleshooting Guide - https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/connection-troubleshooting/

See how you get on for a few days after doing thar, and let us know if things have improved. We'll be more than happy to follow up.

[#4]

Hi @adam945 thanks for the reply, 

I don't know how close you would have to be to the fibre cabinet to get the full 80, but I'm a good 500 metres away, so I assume that would have a fair impact on it. I have often had these occasional (slightly too often) disconnects, but they are usually during the night and seemed to settle quite reasonably around 35Mbps, so it would be good to be at least back around there if possible.

I've also tried resetting it myself a couple of times this week, which probably didn't help - how long should I leave it turned off if doing a reset, in order to not cause any speed reductions (by the way I usually leave it on all the time, I was just trying to see if it improved by starting up on a different server).

I'll do as you advise, check troubleshooting tips and run the router from the main socket for a few days. I'll let you know the result,

Thank you

[#5]

Thanks a lot for getting back to me. It's often best to avoid resetting your router as much as you can, as it can trick DLM to think that the line is being intermittent, which causes it to band it at a particular speed. Once we're able to determine that the speed issue is solely being caused by artificial banding on the line, i.e. no / very few drops, we can then raise a DLM reset to get it lifted.

As I said though, at the minute it just seems to be a symptom of the regular drops we're seeing. Let us know how you get on in a few days and we'll be able to get another visual radius up to see how it's performed.

[#6]

@adam945 I finally got chance to go through the troubleshooting and move my router to the master socket. It's been there for 3 days without disconnects and is holding at a steady 31Mbps.

Would it be ok to request a reset and see where the speed settles if I leave the router at the master socket?

Thanks for help with this

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us @kmw350

I'm glad to see your connection's stable now.

I've just arranged for your line to be reset, which should go through within 3 working days. 

Let us know how it goes.

[#8]

@Gandalf The speed touched 50 after the reset which was amazing, but already I have seen 4 (or more?) disconnects in the past few hours, so I assume my speeds will eventually drop until it reaches a speed the line can manage?

I expect it will be finally stable again at 31Mbps but I assume the line would have to be checked between my house and the cabinet in order to look for the cause?

Is this something I just have to accept as the limit of my local line, or is there anything that can be done?

Thanks

[#9]

Thanks for getting back to me @kmw350

I'm sorry to see your broadband's starting to drop with the higher speed. 

It's possible that your line can't handle that sort of speed, but to try to prevent your speed from dropping that low again, I've arranged for the stability profile of your connection to be increased from Standard/Speed to Stable. 

This will basically ask the DLM (dynamic line management) software at the cabinet (the green box in the road) to do what it can to prioritise stability over speed, so you may likely see a drop in speed but hopefully not as much as 20mbps.

The change should start to take effect from tomorrow but it can take around a week before you may notice a difference.

Let me know how it goes. 

[#10]

Understood, I'll let you know in a week or so, thanks again for your help with this.

[#11]

No problem, sounds like a plan

[#12]

Well @Gandalf , it's been less than a week, and I have seen what looks like a single disconnect once every night, somewhere between 2am and 6am (which was the original pattern that spurred me to post here).

This has caused a steady drop in speed, from 50 down to currently just under 40.

Is there anything that could realistically be done to find/fix the cause of this, or, would it be sensible for me to turn off my router every night (say for example using a timer plug from midnight to 6.30am), thus preventing any more (or the majority of) unforseen disconnects, and so maybe keep my speeds from dropping further?

Or should I just let it fall and settle wherever it is eventually going to, which is likely to be between 30 and 35 and not actually so bad as long as it allows me to play online games and stream tv without buffering, which it seems to do ?

I'd be grateful for opinions on this

[#13]

Hey @kmw350,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with the connection. I've had a look over the account this morning and I can't see any underlying faults on the line, though I can see the drops you've spoken about. Are you currently using the Hub One router we sent you a few years ago, or have you got your own 3rd party one setup? Also, if you haven't had the chance, please could you try setting the router up in the test socket? For reference, we have a guide on how to do this here.

[#14]

hI @TheMightyAJ thanks for the reply,

Yes I'm using the Hub one supplied by Plusnet a few yrs ago. I went through the troubleshooting steps and plugged the router directly in the test socket, where it has been for over a week now as previously advised.

So the disconnects continued happening after I moved it to the test socket, and they pretty much only happen during the hours of 1am to 5am.

If there is nothing that can be done by an engineer, I assume my only option would be to switch off completely for a few hours each night (unless it could be a router fault - I'll be guided by you on that ) ?

Thanks

[#15]

Thanks for getting back to us @kmw350 and for confirming this info. I've had another look over the account and line test results this afternoon and I have an idea for how we could tackle this issue. I've written a support ticket regarding this, which can be accessed here. Please could you have a read of it and update the thread once you've had a chance to respond so that we can pick this back up for review as soon as possible.