Bad internet connection with BT

GodAtum · 20 Sep 2012 at 19:21

My internet keeps dropping out and is very slow. It should be around 7Mbps but sometimes goes down to < 1Mbps. My thinkbroadband test just now gave me a download of 0.42 Mbps.

I'm paying £26/month for BT Option 3 so I'm not happy :mad:

An engineer did come out and could not find any issues :confused:

Some tech details:

Code:

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    84 ms    99 ms    99 ms  api.home [192.168.1.254]
  2    54 ms    62 ms    38 ms  217.32.146.167
  3    23 ms    22 ms    67 ms  217.32.146.206
  4    35 ms    65 ms    75 ms  213.120.156.34
  5    22 ms    72 ms    57 ms  217.41.168.225
  6    41 ms    36 ms    79 ms  217.41.168.109
  7    21 ms    51 ms    22 ms  109.159.249.240
  8    36 ms    66 ms    34 ms  core2-te0-15-0-7.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.
249.167]
  9    67 ms    74 ms    77 ms  peer2-xe8-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.179]
 10    42 ms    59 ms    71 ms  194.74.65.42
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12    86 ms    61 ms    63 ms  ae1.er01.rbsov.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.46]
 13    55 ms    62 ms    66 ms  132.185.255.60
 14    76 ms    36 ms    57 ms  212.58.241.131

Code:

Uptime:	1 day, 17:11:05
Modulation:	G.992.1 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:	448 / 7,840
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [GB/GB]:	1.05 / 4.31
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:	12.0 / 19.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:	24.5 / 41.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:	20.0 / 6.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote):	TMMB / TSTC
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):	0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):	1 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):	0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote):	0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):	5 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down):	0 / 4,071,982
CRC Errors (Up/Down):	0 / 973
HEC Errors (Up/Down):	0 / 865
Line Profile:	Interleaved

KIA · 21 Sep 2012 at 09:59

Test socket?

GodAtum · 21 Sep 2012 at 10:09

The engineer found no problems, I think he did do a test on the test socket.

PiKe · 21 Sep 2012 at 10:10

Probably something to do with the 4 million FEC errors...

NeoReloaded · 21 Sep 2012 at 17:31

Exact same problem mate! Tealc helped me with an issue I had due to my sky box being plugged in without a filter and straight after I removed it I went back up to 5mb-7mb, but in the last two days it's nowhere near as bad as what it was (unstable 0.1mb) but same as you stuck on 1mb :/

CKOZUK · 21 Sep 2012 at 18:01

Are you on wireless? A 99ms response time from your router is pretty high for a device that's on your local network.

If you have a laptop connect directly to the router via Ethernet and run the same speedtest again. Also who else is connected to your network?

Have you ran the speedtests at different times of the day, if not run one first thing in the morning off peak (before 12 on the weekends is off peak).

The FEC themselves wouldn't cause slow throughput as they are corrected bits and not bits that have had to be dropped and resent.

Tealc · 21 Sep 2012 at 20:55

FECs are not a concern. It's quite normal for an interleaved line.

Your connection speed is good, and in fact better than most on a relatively long line.

If you are on wireless then you've just wasted a thread. Always run your speed tests on a direct connection to the router with an ethernet cable. If you are getting 99ms ping to the router via the Ethernet cable then the problem isn't your connection but could be a software configuration issue and could include a network misconfiguration.

HEC and CRC errors are a tad on the high side but not so much as it would cause you a problem.

If you called out BT I'm surprised they don't slap you with a £138 charge as your sync speed is good and you clearly have a PPP session.

CKOZUK · 21 Sep 2012 at 21:12

Tealc said:
good stuff

Being near Swansea.. you wouldn't happen to work for VM?

Tealc · 21 Sep 2012 at 21:19

No mate. I picked up all this stuff after I had an issue with my own line coupled with my insatiable thirst for knowledge of techy stuff. Still it's not so bad as it got me a filler job in tech support, not my cup of tea but will do until something better comes along.

Nightglow · 22 Sep 2012 at 08:00

GodAtum: Having the exact same problem here, but it's Infinity in my case dropped connection,high pings, etc, got so ****** off, I contacted Ian Livingstone CEO, BT ([email protected])

He appointed someone from the Service Team to look at my problem, this person a (Executive Level Technical Complaints) sent yet another engineer (5th or 6th one this year) to do yet more tests.

Finally after weeks of grief, a 'Lift & Shift' was authorised, where they changed my ports in the cabinet.

The improvement was impressive, UL/DL improved greatly, but I'm still getting a few dropped connections a week,& u/l is slowly getting slower by the week, but that is down to quality of my line & distance from the cabinet, this is due to Infinity 2 high frequency signal being degraded to the poor aluminum line I have.

Still in discussion with them, about getting my line shift to another closer pole which would halve the distance to the same cabinet.

Like you, I'm paying £26/month for BT Option 3 & I'm far happy.

GodAtum · 22 Sep 2012 at 11:57

My connection improved in the early ours of this morning but it does still cut out during the week

Code:

traceroute to bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  api.home (192.168.1.254)  71.056 ms  70.469 ms  69.785 ms
 2  217.32.146.167 (217.32.146.167)  20.992 ms  28.519 ms  30.688 ms
 3  217.32.146.206 (217.32.146.206)  32.822 ms  33.738 ms  37.097 ms
 4  213.120.177.50 (213.120.177.50)  39.180 ms  41.230 ms  43.289 ms
 5  217.41.168.217 (217.41.168.217)  44.316 ms  46.343 ms  47.515 ms
 6  217.41.168.109 (217.41.168.109)  50.996 ms  31.070 ms  26.242 ms
 7  acc2-10GigE-0-2-0-5.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.249.227)  24.979 ms acc2-10GigE-0-0-0-4.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.249.194)  25.457 ms 109.159.249.238 (109.159.249.238)  27.305 ms
 8  core-te0-7-0-6.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.147)  30.817 ms core1-te0-7-0-17.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.141)  39.958 ms core2-te0-15-0-7.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.167)  35.320 ms
 9  host213-121-193-111.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.111)  23.625 ms  33.001 ms host213-121-193-99.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.99)  31.792 ms
10  194.74.65.42 (194.74.65.42)  32.315 ms  29.550 ms  29.550 ms
11  * * *
12  ae1.er01.rbsov.bbc.co.uk (132.185.254.46)  54.335 ms  50.064 ms  48.310 ms
13  132.185.255.60 (132.185.255.60)  36.367 ms  37.356 ms  21.913 ms
14  212.58.241.131 (212.58.241.131)  31.510 ms  33.826 ms  35.704 ms

Just to confirm this was done through a laptop directly connected to my BT Home Hub via ethernet.

Tealc · 22 Sep 2012 at 12:04

71ms to reach the homehub is a big problem. It should be <1ms for a wired connection, even if it's on the end of a long cable.

I get there in 8 hops while yours takes 14. Not quite sure what to make of that.

CKOZUK · 22 Sep 2012 at 13:00

GodAtum said:
My connection improved in the early ours of this morning:

1 api.home (192.168.1.254) 71.056 ms 70.469 ms 69.785 ms

That response time from your router is still too high, I get a 9ms response time from mine using wireless with a poor signal. Is anyone else connected to your network?

Leave yourself connected via ethernet, disable wireless on the router and then run the traceroute, if its the same response time then reboot the router and retry. If it is not then turn the wireless on and identify what wireless devices connect, see if someone is using your connection when they shouldn't be, did you opt out of BT Openzone? When you enable wireless do you then see an Openzone connection that wasn't there before? It doesn't use much bandwidth but still still.

If no one else is on your network then try an alternative router and see what happens, you will need to setup the alternative router with your PPP details.

KIA · 22 Sep 2012 at 13:11

Tealc said:
I get there in 8 hops while yours takes 14. Not quite sure what to make of that.

Typical BT routing.

hyperst · 22 Sep 2012 at 14:29

To fix it you need to leave BT and go with a better supplier

GodAtum · 22 Sep 2012 at 15:38

CKOZUK said:
That response time from your router is still too high, I get a 9ms response time from mine using wireless with a poor signal. Is anyone else connected to your network?

Leave yourself connected via ethernet, disable wireless on the router and then run the traceroute, if its the same response time then reboot the router and retry. If it is not then turn the wireless on and identify what wireless devices connect, see if someone is using your connection when they shouldn't be, did you opt out of BT Openzone? When you enable wireless do you then see an Openzone connection that wasn't there before? It doesn't use much bandwidth but still still.

If no one else is on your network then try an alternative router and see what happens, you will need to setup the alternative router with your PPP details.

I've tried all your suggestions but still high response times. I have not got an alternate router but will buy the Acer n66 when I have enough money. I have quite an old BT Hub (the white one). Would that be the cause?

Whats odd is that one trace shows:

Code:

traceroute to bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  api.home (192.168.1.254)  28.556 ms  27.978 ms  27.337 ms
 2  217.32.146.167 (217.32.146.167)  29.929 ms  30.684 ms  34.023 ms
 3  217.32.146.206 (217.32.146.206)  34.908 ms  36.332 ms  37.445 ms
 4  213.120.177.58 (213.120.177.58)  40.445 ms  43.043 ms  44.183 ms
 5  217.41.168.225 (217.41.168.225)  46.240 ms  47.659 ms  49.624 ms
 6  217.41.168.109 (217.41.168.109)  51.767 ms  26.455 ms  27.554 ms
 7  109.159.249.250 (109.159.249.250)  21.018 ms acc2-10GigE-0-2-0-6.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.249.229)  223.026 ms acc2-10GigE-0-7-0-4.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.249.202)  225.222 ms
 8  core1-te0-15-0-16.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.157)  229.957 ms core2-te0-15-0-4.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.153)  231.669 ms core1-te0-15-0-15.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.149)  238.298 ms
 9  host213-121-193-99.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.99)  233.547 ms  24.163 ms host213-121-193-111.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.111)  26.269 ms
10  194.74.65.42 (194.74.65.42)  28.409 ms  29.951 ms  31.943 ms
11  * * *
12  ae1.er01.rbsov.bbc.co.uk (132.185.254.46)  39.143 ms  139.386 ms  33.246 ms
13  132.185.255.60 (132.185.255.60)  35.825 ms  37.270 ms  46.219 ms
14  212.58.241.131 (212.58.241.131)  45.234 ms  47.564 ms  24.055 ms

A trace a few seconds later shows:

Code:

traceroute to bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  api.home (192.168.1.254)  97.867 ms  97.336 ms  96.697 ms
 2  217.32.146.167 (217.32.146.167)  19.911 ms  28.529 ms  30.581 ms
 3  217.32.146.206 (217.32.146.206)  32.547 ms  34.728 ms  36.745 ms
 4  213.120.177.58 (213.120.177.58)  38.719 ms  40.842 ms  42.837 ms
 5  217.41.168.225 (217.41.168.225)  47.057 ms  47.807 ms  48.670 ms
 6  217.41.168.109 (217.41.168.109)  51.919 ms  33.077 ms  27.125 ms
 7  109.159.249.236 (109.159.249.236)  25.927 ms acc2-10GigE-0-1-0-6.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.249.222)  24.827 ms 109.159.249.240 (109.159.249.240)  25.174 ms
 8  core1-te0-0-0-14.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.169)  32.417 ms core1-te0-15-0-16.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.157)  27.755 ms core2-te0-15-0-4.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.153)  27.419 ms
 9  host213-121-193-99.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.99)  24.463 ms  22.789 ms  26.618 ms
10  194.74.65.42 (194.74.65.42)  26.515 ms  24.183 ms  24.226 ms
11  * * *
12  ae1.er01.rbsov.bbc.co.uk (132.185.254.46)  24.980 ms  25.125 ms  26.820 ms
13  132.185.255.60 (132.185.255.60)  34.915 ms  34.853 ms  35.623 ms
14  212.58.241.131 (212.58.241.131)  30.218 ms  31.161 ms  31.012 ms

CKOZUK · 22 Sep 2012 at 21:06

You don't have anything running torrents or anything do you, that first trace is improved, is that by any chance just after rebooting the router or just randomly testing?

Do you have any friends that might have an old router knocking round?

No idea how BT works but some ISP's will replace the router they provided. Worth giving them a call I guess explain the slow throughput issue and that your testing has identified slow response times from the router when directly connected using ethernet and ask if they will replace it, if they say no then you could always try and drop the I am leaving then, "please give me my MAC code" line. It's a competitive world out there in the broadband market with low profit margins so they might just replace it

GodAtum · 22 Sep 2012 at 21:15

How would i need to setp up a 2nd router and turn my home hub into just a modem?

Tealc · 22 Sep 2012 at 22:21

Why not just replace it with a decent modem router?

bledd · 23 Sep 2012 at 01:32

In my experience, home hub are quite good for drop kicking down the stairs and not much else

Get a billion 7800N