Dropouts and line speed

[#1]

After I had disconnected this morning, then reconnected after an hour to attempt a gateway change, the router stats showed an unprecedentedly high (for recent months) download data rate of 576Kbps (448Kbps upload) with a noise margin of 6.0 and attenuation of 58.6. The usual download data rate recently has been 160Kbps, so 3.6 times higher. I then did a speed test on MBS - after a minute waiting for the page to load it was obvious that it wasn't going to show any improvement - indeed it eventually crawled its way through the test and showed a speed of 95Kbps download and 327Kbps upload. It has never been quite this low before. Quite what is going on is a puzzle, no doubt someone will explain, but I hope the DLM will kick the profile up a bit otherwise I might as well trudge through the snow to the pub.

[#2]

Still it goes on remorselessly. This morning the router stats show a download data rate of 832Kbps, with a noise margin of 7.5 and attenuation 59.7. The download speed according to MBS is now 74Kbps. Can it get any slower? At this rate my connection will have sunk without trace within a couple of days.

[#3]

Just been on to the Ofcom website to see if I can get any help, and found the folowing:-

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Please note: We do not investigate individual consumer complaints. However, we record and monitor complaint levels. If we identify an area of concern we may raise the matter with the management of the company directly. The information you provide will be used for monitoring purposes. We will not respond to you about your individual complaint.

Another waste of space quango then?

[#4]

BT speedtester today reports as follows:-

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Download speedachieved during the test was - 215 Kbps For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 200-1000 Kbps. Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :1568 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM) IP Profile for your line is - 750 Kbps

Current router stats are:-

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Downstream Upstream Rate (Kbps): 1568  448  SNR Margin (dB): 6.9  20.0  Attenuation (dB): 62.0  31.5  Output Power (dBm): 11.9  15.7

They have been around these figures for the last 24hrs.
MBS reports currently:-

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Date Download Speed Upload Speed  Today 12:38 230 kbps (28.8kB/s) 372 kbps (46.5kB/s)

The connection appears to be working better than it has done for many a month.
PN profile is set at 250Kbps - this does not match the BT profile of 750Kbps. Could a PN staffer please say whether a profile uplift to 750 their end would improve things further, and if so, do it for me please?

[#5]

I've lifted the profile to 750, so you should see a bit better throughput now.

[#6]

Thanks for that Mand. Speed now reads

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Today 16:20 688 kbps (86kB/s) 377 kbps (47.1kB/s)

That's more than 5 times what I have been used to recently - veritably greased lightning.  Let's hope it stays stable for a while. Now for a few downloads whilst the going's good.

[#7]

Yay, download speed this morning is 1168kbps, the first time ever it has reached 1meg, and nearly 10 times the speed I have been getting for the last several months, and quite a Christmas present. Quite why there has been this improvement recently I don't know - clearly someone has done something somewhere. BT have placed an embargo on work such as upgrading the VP at the exchange until early in the New Year, so I don't think that can be anything to do with it. I can only think that I must be the only one daft enough to be online at this time of the day on Christmas Day, so the VP is not so contended.
Keeping fingers crossed, but for the moment I'm a happy bunny.
Merry Christmas everyone, especially to Plusnet staff and others working on Christmas Day.

[#8]

That's good news A little late now but Merry Christmas to you too.

[#9]

I have resurrected this thread because after having satisfactory download speeds of around 1 mb/s since just before Christmas, since Sunday afternoon the speed has fallen to 630mb/s (per MBS).
Reference to the BT speed tester shows that the IP Profile has dropped to 750kb/s as follows:

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Download speedachieved during the test was - 674 Kbps For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 200-1000 Kbps. Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :1376 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM) IP Profile for your line is - 750 Kbps

My router stats also show a sync speed of 1376/448kbps, SNR Margin 9.1dB and Attenuation 62dB.
I have not experienced any connection drops.
Regarding the required VP upgrade at the exchange, BT are still dragging their heels and seem incapable of providing PN with a a timescale for the work to be carried-out. To their credit, CSC staff are keeping up the pressure on BT.
Whilst attempting to access the BT speedtester this morning, I experienced the blue screen of death for the first time, and Windows automatically restarted the PC. The system has been scanned by Norton Internet Security 2010 (up-to-date) and other than the usual spate of tracking cookies (now resolved), there were no issues to report. A full backup was carried-out yesterday. So far, system is working well.
I'm very disappointed after nearly three weeks of good broadband speeds, it looks like it's going bad again. Any suggestions anyone?

[#10]

Within a few minutes of uploading my last post, speeds were back up to around 1mb/s and a later check of the IP Profile (on both BT and PN sides) showed that had returned to normal too. Coincidence?

[#11]

Hi birdman, we're still waiting for an update from BT regarding the issue so haven't got any notes on what's been done yet. I'm hoping we can get some this afternoon, I'll see what's there and post back/update the ticket.

[#12]

The latest on this long-standing problem -
CSC have said that BT have told them there is some room on a new NCIF (Virtual Path) at my exchange, so yesterday they were due to go ahead with a 'Tie-Pair Modify' to put my line on to a different port. However, I have now recalled that on 17 Dec, CSC said

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I've contacted the Complex Faults Team today to check if we can move your line to another VP at the exchange by placing a Tie pair modify order. Unfortunately, The Tie pair modify orders doesn't allow them to map the port to a specific VP, this means that the system will automatically map the line to the same VP.

I have not heard whether this work was done yesterday - the promised update from CSC has not been forthcoming. I did not experience the expected loss of service whilst work was carried-out, but my sync speed has now dropped to less than 1000kbps (was around 1400kbps) with a commensurate decrease in download speeds. Attempts to access the BT speedtester failed for some reason so I have been unable to check the IP Profile, but according to the PN members page they have 1000kbps set (I think it was 1250 before). At my low speeds, small decreases make a big difference.
I am now puzzled as to whether the Tie-Pair Modify will work, and wonder whether this a ploy to avoid having to install an upgraded VP as promised. And assuming they have moved my line, is it a case of a 2-3 day wait for speeds to get back up again? If anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful.
Update: 10 hours later, sync speed has returned to normal following a router reboot. I have now been able to do a BT speedtest which reports -

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Download speedachieved during the test was - 687 Kbps For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 200-1000 Kbps. Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :1312 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM) IP Profile for your line is - 750 Kbps

So, the IP Profile has plummeted to 750kbps and download speeds have dropped too. What's going on? Perhaps PN should have let sleeping dogs lie.