Download speed dropped from 75 Mbps to 5 Mbps - router or line?

[#1]

Have been running FTTC for over 18months via a BT hub 6 - rock solid connection with consistent 75 ish down and just under 20 up. Router is always on apart from it's auto reboot every 14 days. It is connected by a dedicated 5 metre cable (BT spec) from the back of the NT5 box direct to the router. Phone cable is completely separate.

Last Wednesday (19th Feb) around midnight I was writing an email and listening to music online and the router dropped out.

Tried repeatedly to reconnect but just kept getting the solid orange light. Initially I thought the router may have died, but the Wifi was working normally. Brain hurting, gave up and went to bed.

Over the next 2 days I spent hours checking all wires and connections, changing various settings, factory resets etc. until I relented and contacted PN (Leon) on Friday who went through various tests and eventually booked an engineer visit for the following Tuesday. Left the hub switched on (solid orange) till Tuesday.

The guy turned up, checked stuff (with a PN hub 1), eventually got a blue light,  pronounced the internal wiring was all OK and that it was probably the HH6 router and ordered a replacement ('should be a couple of days'). I asked him if it could be the line but "I don't do outside"

By this time I'd been offline for 7 days and needed to get things done, so I bought a TP link VDSL router as a temporary measure.

I got it working, but the speeds were lousy - 5.6 down and 9.2 up. So I wondered if it was just a [-Censored-] router or if the 40 or so re-boots had caused changes and it need time to retrain.

But at least I was online and could do some research. After reading Baldrick 1's excellent guide to using a BT HH6 on PN account, I thought I'd try the router again - connected it up and followed the guide and - lo & behold - blue light!

But - the speeds are still lousy -  5.01 down and 7.96 up with a ping of 18 ms.

So now I'm wondering if my initial thoughts were correct and the problem is upstream of the NT5 box . . .

I'll wait and see which type of router they have sent before I go back to PN - any thoughts will be appreciated . . .

THX in advance.

Alastair

[#2]

If you have been doing as you sa, you will have seriously upset the DLM, I suggest as a first option, you call PN and ask them to reset your connection. If that doesn't work, report back and we can possibly offer further help.

[#3]

@odyssey 

Do you have a phone service? If so is it working whilst getting these slow speeds?

A large drop in sync speed can be caused by a break in one of the two phone wires that make the connection from your master socket to the exchange. The result is that whilst the phone will stop working, the broadband can stagger along on just the one wire. I'm just wondering if you have an intermittent bad connection somewhere.

[#4]

Moderator's note:
Thread moved from My Router to Broadband

[#5]

Hi Baldrick - Yes phone has worked all the way through,

I've spoken to PN and it seems there is a line problem - the engineer wasn't Openreach but Qube who only "do inside" (all internal wiring checked out 100%) so it's an OR problem. Just had a text from OR "tests suggest the fault is outside your premises, an engineer is investigating"

A

[#6]

Why they send out the (usually) pointless/useless Qube 'engineers' in these cases is a total mystery to me.