Hub One Connection Instability

[#1]

On 19th October I had an engineer visit to investigate the slow speeds I have been experiencing since switching to Plusnet a couple of months ago. During the visit, no problems with the external line were found and the only advice I was given was to stop using the rj11 extension from the master socket which had been fitted by Openreach several years ago. Since the visit I've moved the Hub One to sit next to the master socket and it can now be plugged straight into the socket via a short rj11 cable.

However, over the few weeks since the visit the Hub One has become increasingly unstable and drops connection with the log showing the message:

PPP LCP Send Termination Request [PPPoE PADT received]

I’ve tried a range of cables and positions for the Hub One but the longest it will stay connected is a couple of days and sometimes the connection will drop after a few minutes. The Hub One web UI becomes unresponsive when the connection drops and strangely the sync speed will often be identical after it manages to reconnect. On a few occasions the Hub One required a complete restart in order to reconnect.

To further diagnose the problem, I’ve tried switching the Hub One with an older TP-Link TD-W9970 router/modem. In the same position and using the same cables as the Hub One it is completely stable, although it does sync slower. This makes me feel there is a problem with the Hub One which is separate to the one causing the slow speeds.

I had hoped that once the Hub One had been moved to the master socket that the speed issues would be able to be investigated properly. However, I am unable to get the Hub One to be stable so am using the slower TD-W9970 to not make any speed problems worse.

I’ve attached a screenshot of the modem stats from the Hub One and the TD-W9970 to show the difference in sync speed and connection stats. There is also a screenshot of the WAN section of the Hub One log which shows a couple of disconnection episodes.

I am happy to try a new Hub One to see if that solves the instability problems before then moving on to diagnosing the speed problems.

[#2]

Hi @SusanL1, thanks for getting in touch and welcome to our Community Forums.
I'm sorry to hear you've been seeing speed issues as of recent. Your testing of the older router and getting better sync speeds hints that something could be out of place with the Hub One. In which case, I've arranged a replacement router be sent out to you which should arrive in the next 3-5 working days. Along with the router I'd advise replacing all the cabling which come with the new one also as to also rule these out as the cause.
Let us know once the new router arrives and how the sync speeds are looking as we'll happily dive into this further should it be needed.

[#3]

Thanks for sorting a replacement so quickly. I’ll give it a week or two to make sure it’s stable and then let you know how the sync speeds are looking.

[#4]

Hi @BD I've had the new Hub One plugged in for the past week and, apart from a manual reset this morning to test sync speeds, the connection has been completely stable. The old Hub One must have been faulty and it appears to have been the cause of the disconnects. Will it be OK for me to use the Royal Mail label creator to send it back to you?

Unfortunately, the new modem hasn’t had any effect on the sync speeds I’m getting. On signing the contract with Plusnet the minimum guaranteed speed that I was given was 51.4 Mbps with an estimated speed of 55 - 71Mbps. I’ve included a screenshot of the BT Broadband Availability Checker which gives similar estimates for speeds on my line.

After the engineer visit on 19^th October I have actioned all the advice that I was given, moving the Hub One closer to the master socket and replacing all internal cables with new ones, and have seen no increase in speeds. Sync speeds remain around 53000 kbps which, after all of the usual line overheads are applied, results in a usable speed of around 49.5 Mbps. I’ve attached screenshots of a couple of speed tests that were done with a single device plugged into the Hub One using the supplied network cable.

In July this year when I was still with my previous provider I had an Openreach engineer come out to fix a problem with the line coming into the house that was causing noise on the phone line and the broadband connection to drop. The solution to this problem was to switch the line to a secondary one that must have been installed before I moved into the house 10+ years ago. This line is the one that is currently active and it seems stable but replacing the external wiring completely is a potential solution that has not been tried.

Can you see any other reason that the speeds I’m receiving are below the minimum guaranteed speed? Unless Openreach can be persuaded to change the external wiring and if there are no more diagnostics to be done, would it be possible for a note to be added to the account that I’m able to leave with no Early Termination charges as it has now been more than 30 days since I reported the problem in October.

[#5]

Hey @SusanL1,

I'm glad to hear that the new router is performing a lot better. I'm assuming you've already got a returns bag for the old one, but if not, please let us know and we'll be happy to send one over to you

Regarding the speeds, I've had a look over your account today and I can see that, whilst they're above the Minimum Guaranteed speeds, it's not by much. The line itself doesn't appear to be banded and there isn't any immediately obvious reason why the speeds are performing under the estimated range. I have made one adjustment to the account which may result in the speeds improving over the next few hours. Please could you reboot the router before you go to bed tonight (it won't need to be offline all night, just needs a reboot to jumpstart the change I've made) and run another test tomorrow morning then let us know what results you see? If there doesn't appear to be any improvement to the speeds, the next best course of action would be to arrange an engineer visit to the property for further assessment.

[#6]

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I'm assuming you've already got a returns bag for the old one, but if not, please let us know and we'll be happy to send one over to you

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Hi @TheMightyAJ A bag would be great, it doesn’t look like one was included when the new router was sent out.

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Regarding the speeds, I've had a look over your account today and I can see that, whilst they're above the Minimum Guaranteed speeds, it's not by much.

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It was my understanding that the Minimum Guaranteed Speed (MGS) refers to the actual download speeds achievable on the line and not the sync speed at the router. Since I’ve joined Plusnet actual download speeds have never crossed 50 Mbps which is below the 51.4 Mbps MGS.

A message from @Gandalf clarified that here: https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Failing-to-achieve-Minimum-Guaranteed-Speed-Ticket-Ref...

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...let us know what results you see? If there doesn't appear to be any improvement to the speeds, the next best course of action would be to arrange an engineer visit to the property for further assessment.

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I would be happy for an engineer visit to be arranged. Now that I’ve actioned all of the previous advice given by the last engineer, hopefully a new one will be more willing to investigate potential problems outside the property.

[#7]

Thanks for getting back in touch @SusanL1. I'm sorry to hear that the speed didn't improve at all following the change I put through yesterday. I've raised a support ticket on your account regarding an engineer visit, which can be accessed here. Please let us know once you've had the chance to read and respond to the ticket and we'll be happy to pick this back up for review as soon as possible.

I've also ordered a returns bag for the old router, which should arrive within the next 3-5 working days.

[#8]

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@TheMightyAJ wrote:

I've also ordered a returns bag for the old router, which should arrive within the next 3-5 working days.

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That's not going to turn up 😉

@SusanL1 head over here where there's a link to Royal Mail's Click & Drop service. There you can print a returns label and arrange collection from your house (or alternatively generate a barcode that you cantake to the post office where they'll do the honours).

@TheMightyAJ feel free to give me a nudge if you want the background.

[#9]

Whoops, my bad! Sorry about that @SusanL1, thanks for stepping in here though @bobpullen

Whilst I'm here, I've updated your ticket in regards to the engineer appointment last night @SusanL1. If you haven't seen this yet, it can be accessed here.

[#10]

Thanks for the clarification @TheMightyAJ I'll get the old Hub One sent back in the next few days.

The engineer visited yesterday, and it looks like he managed to do a good job in investigating the speed issues. He routed the connection from the cabinet to my house onto a different line and the sync speed has now settled around 60 Mbps, a fairly large improvement from ~53 Mbps. I’ve attached the One Hub details and a couple of speed tests that show the download speed is now ~56 Mbps, which is above the Minimum Guaranteed Speed and just about above the lower estimate for the line.

The engineer was a bit surprised the download speed wasn’t higher given how close the house is to the cabinet and because the upload sync speed is now above the maximum estimate for the line and is being capped at 20 Mbps. Is there anything that can be fiddled with to bring the download speed more into line with the upload?

Thanks for helping to sort the issue and hopefully the speeds will stay as high as they are now and the new Hub One will remain nice and stable.

[#11]

Thanks a lo lot for getting back to us @SusanL1 and I'm glad to hear that your connection has improved following the engineer visit. The increase in your download sync speed is clearly visible on an RRT on my end, and the line is now syncing at around 60Mbps as you said. This is now within your estimated speeds so we wouldn't really be able to do much more to increase the speeds on your line.

Both my KBD and RRT line test are no longer sowing any further line issues.