PlusNet fibre: speeds much lower than advertised/guaranteed (HG612/Edgerouter X)

[#1]

Hi everyone - happy new year!

For about 18 months I've been a Plusnet fibre customer. I run a server at home that needs a rock solid internet connection as several people rely on it (my partner's business, various services used by my family, etc), and I need a router with reliable QoS functionality, so I'm using a Huawei/Openreach HG612 modem with a Ubiquiti Edgerouter X. The connection has been rock solid ever since I set it up, which is perfect for me.

What's not perfect is that my internet speeds have become very slow - I can barely get more than 22Mbps downstream or 4.5Mbps upstream. This hasn't always been the case: I was hitting 35Mbps downstream when I originally set everything up with exactly the same equipment and configuration that I use today. But over time the actual speeds I'm able to reach are getting lower and lower.

I'm guaranteed at least 29Mbps downstream by Plusnet, so I called to report the issue and they sent a Qube engineer to inspect the master socket. He confirmed that there were no issues with internal wiring (master socket), but that couldn't validate anything further as 1. I was using a third-party modem/router, and 2. he wasn't able to validate anything about the line coming into the house.

The trouble is, I'm now uncertain whether the issue is with the modem/router or the line, and I also don't know what steps I can take to narrow down the possibilities.

I've attached the results of https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com for my phone number, but I don't have the expertise to be able to interpret the results.

The questions I'd ideally like answered:

1. Are there any tests I can perform, or metrics I can access, that would allow me to determine whether the issue is likely to be the modem or the line?
2. If the modem is the issue, what would the best modem be to replace the HG612? I want to continue using the EdgeRouter X as it's been rock solid and it has a lot of functionality that I lean on, and I don't want a double-NAT scenario, so ideally I'd want a modem that can be set up as a simple bridge modem.
3. If the line is the issue, what would the best next steps be to get the line issue resolved?

Thanks in advance!

Steve

[#2]

Did you forget the attachment?

[#3]

@stevehopkinson 

Aren't pictures banned from new users until they've posted a couple of times.

Brian

Edit : Try running the troubleshooting reports. See https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/

[#4]

Oops - I forgot I was posting from my work VPN (which blocks attachments), so the screenshot was eaten when I tried to upload it. Posting again from my home network:

@bmc I'm not able to find any troubleshooting reports (when I select 'Troubleshooting broadband issues' and then 'Broadband problems and how to fix them', it just gives me a list of very simple steps to follow, such as checking that the cables are all plugged in) - is there a link I'm missing?

Edit: Found a 'Broadband Troubleshooter' tool and am running the tests now…

[#5]

@bmc - thanks for pointing me towards the troubleshooting reports (assuming I found the right page!). These are the results it returned:

[#6]

@stevehopkinson 

Still think your first picture would have been blocked as it was your first post. No matter, you've got there now.

Something doesn't look right to me but I'm not technically minded so I'll leave others to pass judgement. Hopefully a staff member will pick up on this thread.

But in the short term the Checker results give a minimum (hand back) speed of 30 down on a good line to 25 down on an impacted line. You're reporting 19.49 down with an estimated range of 16.49 - 23.56.

Brian

[#7]

Thanks for your post @stevehopkinson, welcome to our Community forums and happy new year to you as well.

I'm sorry to see you're having speed issues and a Qube engineer couldn't resolve it.

Thanks also for going through our broadband troubleshooter. It's definitely always a good idea, but in this instance, when you completed that process, it raised another fault ticket when we already had an existing ticket 220950445 open, so I've closed the automatically raised ticket 221041089 in favour of that. Apologies if you receive any confusing notifications. 

I can see we've booked an Openreach engineer visit to investigate further and looking at our diagnostics, I'm hopeful that they'll find something wrong, because your line does indeed to be in bad shape. 

I've attached below a copy of the diagnostics I've had a look at:

Let us know how the engineer visit goes

[#8]

Thanks @Gandalf! Apologies, I didn’t realise that running the troubleshooter would generate a ticket - didn’t mean to confuse the process.

Thanks for attaching the diagnostics - I feel a lot happier having a few numbers on side before the engineer’s visit. I’ll update with the result of the visit. Fingers crossed!

[#9]

No worries at all @stevehopkinson, two fault tickets better than one. Makes sure we've definitely got it in hand! It was no problem closing the duplicate ticket, though it did trigger a likely confusing 'fault resolved' e-mail notification.

Fingers crossed the visit goes well!

[#10]

Hi @Gandalf - the engineer just finished up here. He was an extremely helpful and knowledgeable guy.

He initially inspected the internal cable and found that the cable running from the junction box at the front door to the master phone socket was Cat5 with copper strands, rather than solid-core telephone cable. He said that using stranded cable could lead to higher noise levels in the signal compared with a solid copper cable, which could be having some impact on the speed. However, I asked him if he could test the speeds he was able to achieve at the front-door (bypassing the 'bad' strand cable entirely), and it was only negligibly faster - still beneath the guaranteed speed and 6-10Mbps slower than I was achieving with the same setup a year or so ago. So we can eliminate the internal wiring as the main issue.

He took some time to look investigate the line outside, and found a couple of blips in the line, but no smoking gun. He's planning to come back tomorrow to run some further tests outside and get access to the main box to investigate further. He mentioned that the length of the line from the main box (over 500m) may be an issue, although obviously that hasn't changed in the last 12-18 months and in that time our speeds have deteriorated quite significantly.

He showed me the speed figures going back three months, and there has been a quite clear dropoff from a solid 29Mbps in early November down to a maximum of 24-25Mbps in January. So I do wonder if something has happened to affect the quality of the line.

Hopefully he will be able to resolve the issues on the line tomorrow. If he's unable to get the speeds above the speeds guaranteed in my contract, what would the next steps be? My speeds have been below the guaranteed speeds for at least six months now, which hasn't been ideal!

Thanks again to everyone at Plusnet support for being helpful so far - fingers crossed this will be sorted soon.

[#11]

Oh, I meant to say: he also reset the speed at the ISP end and I now seem to be able to consistently reach speeds of just under 24Mbps, which is a substantial improvement from the 19Mbps I was seeing yesterday, although still 5Mbps below my guaranteed speeds. Hopefully he'll be able to achieve a similar jump tomorrow.

[#12]

Hi @stevehopkinson cheers for the detailed overview.

Fingers crossed the engineer's able to get to the bottom of the issue today and increase your speed!

We'd need 30 days of investigating before we're able to waive termination fees if we can't get your download throughput speed on a wired connection, or wireless in the same room as your router, above your minimum guaranteed speed.

Keep me posted on how it goes.

[#13]

@Gandalf Success! After further investigation today the engineer discovered that the pair running to my house from the box was bad - he switched it for a good pair and speeds are now the best I've ever seen them (36Mbps - double what I was receiving a few days ago).

Fantastic service from everyone I've dealt with at Plusnet and Openreach, and a better outcome than I had hoped for. Huge thanks in particular to Prem the Openreach engineer, who was extremely knowledgeable, diligent and patient, and ultimately managed to solve the issue. Thanks all!

[#14]

Ah, and here's the money shot...

[#15]

Awesome! Looking good @stevehopkinson 

Cheers for the feedback.

If you'd like to extend your thanks onto the engineer, I'd recommend filling out the short form Here to let Openreach know.

Let me know if you have further issues or there's ever anything else you'd need help with