BT Broadband issues

pinkaardvark · 28 Dec 2006 at 23:08

I got BT Broadband option 3(upto 8mb) on the 7th of December. Speeds tend to vary between 1.4Mb and 1.9Mb which is kinda what I expected although initial line tests showed 2.5Mb. I just moved into this house so it's my first connection at this location.

Problem is for the last 4 days now the BT speedtester consistently shows 0.128Mbit download speed. The router shows connection at 1.4 - 1.9Mb. The first two weeks downloads were normal for the displayed connection speed and I had no dropouts or any other problems with the connection staying up constantly.

I've tried all of the usual ie resetting router etc but nothing helps. I find it odd that the speed test is so consistently slow. I'm ruling out a hardware problem as I had no issues in the first 2 weeks, the service just suddenly dropped to abysmal.

Any ideas on where i should start with trying to figure this out?

I don't think it's a hardware issue, BT show no outages and I haven't exceeded the 40gb cap though I did dload around 10gb of stuff off Xbox live prior to the slowdown.

tolien · 28 Dec 2006 at 23:39

Try the BT Speedtest (FAQ). It should give you the current IP profile you're on - if you've had a sudden (brief) drop in sync rate, the profile (and your throughput) would drop.

pinkaardvark · 28 Dec 2006 at 23:46

Not entirely sure I know what you mean. This is what it says

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:

-provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 135 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 1408 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 94 kbps

If you wish to discuss these results please contact your ISP.

pinkaardvark · 28 Dec 2006 at 23:47

Why is my profile rate so low

These are the stats from the router, but to be honest I don't know whether they are ok or bad?

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:448 / 1,408

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]:5.94 / 62.84

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:11.5 / 15.5

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:31.5 / 60.0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:19.0 / 10.0

tolien · 29 Dec 2006 at 00:17

Sounds like you've lost sync and then connected at <256kbps.
The stats are decent, but not great - you should expect the profile to increase to 1Mbps (eventually), and you could probably get to 1.5Mbps with a little pushing.

pinkaardvark · 29 Dec 2006 at 00:37

tolien said:
Sounds like you've lost sync and then connected at <256kbps.
The stats are decent, but not great - you should expect the profile to increase to 1Mbps (eventually), and you could probably get to 1.5Mbps with a little pushing.

When you say expect it to increase, what process needs to occur for it to increase?

tolien · 29 Dec 2006 at 01:16

The IP profile needs to increase, so you need to stay synched at or near what you're at now.

pinkaardvark · 29 Dec 2006 at 01:46

ouch that sucks, so basically if I have a bad blip I have to spend days at crawl speed

. Don't think I can handle that as I work from home but can't see that happening too much at 135k.

Is there any point in phoning BT part of the problem could be that the phone line to my house is ancient, ie on a pole and going to a 1960s style connector in house before a master socket. Even there speedtester consistently says I should be getting much higher and there seems to be a problem??

Bloody pain this, seems to work fine for weeks and then wham. Does the fact that I have been regularily unplugging my home hub shed any light on the issue? My master socket doesn't have a power point nearby so have had hub on a power extension that I have had to move around/unplug a lot recently.

tolien · 29 Dec 2006 at 02:08

pinkaardvark said:
Is there any point in phoning BT

Not really.

Even there speedtester consistently says I should be getting much higher and there seems to be a problem??

The "checker" (and by extension, the "initial line test" since it uses the same database) is only an estimate - it doesn't define any kind of fault condition, nor does it state what you'll actually get.

Does the fact that I have been regularily unplugging my home hub shed any light on the issue?

How regularly? Disconnecting too often (like 10 times an hour) would have an effect, but it shouldn't be as bad as you're seeing.
It would definitely be a good idea to try the Home Hub connected to the master socket with no extensions, and see how you do. A different router might not go amiss too (since the Home Hub is ropey at best).

pinkaardvark · 29 Dec 2006 at 02:32

Yeah already on the master socket, there is a couple of extension sockets off of this in same room one of which is dead which makes me question the state of the wiring in this old house

. From what I know of people ie neighbours etc I should be getting a reasonable 2-3Mbps hence my concerns.No not been disconnecting it that often. I do have a good netgear router I can use instead of homehub but I think I'd lose the Hub Phone use which attracted me to the package.

HomerJ · 29 Dec 2006 at 10:50

If your master socket has a test port inside try connecting the router directly to it as it will by pass all your interal wiring and see if you get a higher sync rate or not. If you do then you know the internal wiring is an issue.

If you expereince a drop in sync rate then the BT system will normally reduce the BRAS profile (your actual throughput) on your line within 90 minutes. If you then sync at a higher rate it takes 3 full days for the BRAS to be increaed back up in speed also you need to keep that higher sync rate for 3 days.

It is best not to keep turn on and of the router. If the BT system see lots of disconnection which I think they have set to 15 in any one 24 hour period then it will make changes to your line as it sees the disconnections as a sign of the line not being stable.