Current Line Speed still doesn't update when it should

[#1]

And they won't junk it

Current Line Speed 37Mb/s

BRAS Profile 38.88Mb/s for over 5 days

It may not seem much but it is annoying

[#2]

Not as annoying as when the Current Line Speed is greater than the BRAS profile, resulting in packet loss !

I'm not convinced that any of that stuff works any more since the move to the "new network" and the removal of "traffic prioritization".

My 20CN ADSL1 connection has been utterly miserable since the day that traffic prioritization was taken away, and is only just bearable with the "Pro addon" enabled.

Now I can't wait until the day my connection is upgraded to 21CN ADSL2 so that I can migrate to an ISP that manages traffic properly on low speed lines, unfortunately the dslchecker.bt.com and roadworks.org websites keep being updated to show BT's upgrade work always one month from the current date, so I will just have to wait until something actually happens on the ground.

I don't really understand why Plusnet can't simply re-enable the old traffic prioritization on residential ADSL lines, because if it's possible for business customers, then why can't residential customers have it selectively applied ?.  If only they did that, then I wouldn't be so desperate to migrate elsewhere at the first opportunity.

[#3]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Not as annoying as when the Current Line Speed is greater than the BRAS profile, resulting in packet loss !

When does that even happen for you? I thought you were always connected at the maximum ADSL1 speed, so I can't imagine your Current Line Speed changes much.

[#4]

@Anonymous,

From various conversations, I am given to understand that the "Current Speed" (Plusnet's profile) has no operational bearing on residential users except those having a fixed IP address or connecting over 20CN.

I concur that withdrawing TP seems quite at odds with it claimed benefits ... but that is what happens when people who do not understand go to other people who really don't have a clue making the claim that "Prioritising traffic is not 'unlimited' broadband because it implies a restriction on something" then asking the ASA to poke their noses in.  Then others who also do not quite get it decide its too difficult to explain, no one else offers it whilst we take pain to provide it ... so we'll scrap it.

...however its not entirely bad nor unexplainable so we'll leave it in place on Business and measured service residential packages.

I too do not understand why if it can be applied to Biz and measured Res services why, upon request, it cannot be applied to UNLIMITED Res accounts.  I guess that it is too complex to manage and configure in a piecemeal fashion.

[#5]

Can you continue your explanation as to how the "Pro Addon" would fit into your description ?

I broadly agree with your explanation, and am not picking holes in what you've said.

The "Pro Addon" is an alternative traffic prioritization profile, which any customer can choose to add to any type of account, whether 20CN or not, dynamic or fixed IP, residential or business, ADSL or fibre. 

As any traffic prioritization scheme requires the use of a bandwidth limiter (i.e. the Current Line Speed multiplied by a calculated percentage) to determine when the download traffic requires prioritizing,  how is it that Plusnet claim the "Pro Addon" works on any account, but say the Current Line Speed is no longer relevant unless on the limited use cases you highlighted ?.

I would argue that if the "Pro Addon" had two traffic priority profiles (the current version, and the old traffic prioritization version), then Plusnet could selectively add whichever profile they chose to customer's connections suffering from bandwidth saturation like mine, AND apply it to ANY type of broadband connection.

[#6]

Perhaps the real reason Plusnet largely abandoned the traffic prioritisation system is that they were unable to solve the Current Line Speed updating problem. Once they realised it was impossible to make the Current Line Speed update in a timely and reliable manner, they had no choice but to scrap the whole thing and everything depending on it.

[#7]

If that was the case, I would be happy to set my Current Line Speed manually in the Member Centre, and I would be setting it about 5% to 10% lower than the value that Plusnet would have updated it to, minimizing latency and packet loss in preference to having the full line rate bandwidth.

[#8]

I've often thought that offering a "Pro Take-off" on request which was configured to provide something like the old traffic prioritisation might be attractive to some customers, especially those who understand what it does.

[#9]

I would do the opposite,  reinstate the Traffic Prioritization to be enabled by default for everyone,  but then provide a user settable option in the Member Centre where customers who *think* they would do better without it can disable it.

As Traffic Prioritization is enabled by setting the bandwidth limiter to -

    "Current Line Speed" multiplied by a restriction percentage

Then that restriction percentage by default would be say 96% (or whatever was appropriate for the line type),

to disable the Traffic Prioritization, then the user could set 100% line speed,

and for people like me who would prefer other values, then I might choose perhaps 92% to allow for peak time congestion.

[#10]

@Anonymous,

I cannot offer any further explanations - (a) I do not fully understand the Pro offer; (b) I clearly understand the merits of TP and therefore cannot comprehended its withdrawal; (c) It's not for me to explain PN's rationale for the change / alternative further than that I have already done.  I really get TP, but it is evident that some mischief makers have used TP to malign the Plusnet "Totally Unlimited" marketing claims.  I believe that PN's TP was somewhat unique.

Some times when idiots do idiotic things, the outcome is not good for everyone else.  Unfortunately idiots seem to make more noise than do sensible people, resulting in incomprehensible decision making.

[#11]

Thanks for your reply.

Regarding the statement -

---

@Townman wrote:

...no one else offers it whilst we take pain to provide it ... so we'll scrap it.

I accept what you wrote is the widespread perception of how things are,

however can I just point out that "no one else offers it" is not factually correct.

Because having Traffic Prioritization is so critical to my broadband connection, and without it I will be forced to leave Plusnet at the first opportunity (when I'm upgraded to 21CN !),  I have spent a considerable amount of time phoning the technical support of my prospective next ISPs to discuss various deal-breaking technical issues (multiple static IPv4 WAN IP, IPv6, jumbo frame MTU, Traffic Prioritization, etc).  ALL of the ISPs were able to discuss in detail anything I asked (i.e. not hiding behind Plusnet's "commercially sensitive" excuse), and ALL of them so far have more than adequate (for me) Traffic Prioritization in place.  The difference is that they consider Traffic Prioritization as an essential part of their products and don't advertise that they have it, because it assumed to be integral to providing a good service.

---

@Townman wrote:
I believe that PN's TP was somewhat unique.

Having listened to what the other ISPs provide, what made Plusnet unique and a step above the others, was that over the years many forum users have been able to submit WireShark traces of their specific traffic issue (normally new console or PC games), and Plusnet staff added those 'signatures' to the prioritization profile.

For me, Plusnet removing Traffic Prioritization is the equivalent of killing the goose that laid the golden egg, more than anything else, this WAS the feature that kept me here, despite the rest of the service being eroded one feature at a time.

Fortunately it appears that BT might make their next attempt at upgrading my exchange to 21CN in the second half of January,  in the mean time my kids will be moaning all Christmas that their devices keep stalling or buffering, after previously more than a decade without those issues.

I would like to see a reply from the ignorant bean counter at Plusnet who thought ruining customers broadband performance for no good reason was such a good idea.

[#12]

Which ISPs were they?

I've always thought the benefits of Plusnet's traffic prioritisation were severely overstated, but the drawback, of restricting the line speed, applies to all lines all the time. For the slowest lines, they may simply not have enough bandwidth to do lots of different things simultaneously, no matter how things are or aren't prioritised.

[#13]

after router reboot at about 11pm yesterday the capped speed went so this is the present status

The current Downstream BRAS rate is: 45.07 Mbps
The current Upstream BRAS rate is: 20 Mbps

and the Plusnet Profile is still 37Mb/s

Can @bobpullen sort it out permanently please

 

[#14 · Accepted solution]

Gandalf sorted it

Quick fix changed the profile

Permanent fix - moved to new network as I no longer have a fixed IP Address

[#15]

I can't take all the credit

It looks like Bob updated the profile. But yeah when your service moves to our "new" network on the 29th, the connection profile/current line speed should be irrelevant for you.