Finally BT do something well

adamibbo · 7 Jan 2009 at 13:30

Having noticed my download speed drop over the last couple of months, i was forced to send an email to BT asking for an explination to the situation. Our maximised speed had dropped from 6.5mps to 1mps which I pointed out to them was unacceptable. They sent me an email the next day and phoned me to let me know that our broadband would be down for 10 mins and now the line is running back at 6.5mps. Do you think this is a case of they were throttling our line or they have actually genuinly fixed something.
All in all though I couldn't believe they had fixed something write for once and in minimal time

tolien · 7 Jan 2009 at 13:30

Without more information, it's impossible to say what they did.

ShaolinDreams · 7 Jan 2009 at 13:35

not sure if its connected but wasnt some major internet undersea cable severed recently.. maybe they been patched up

adamibbo · 7 Jan 2009 at 13:35

tolien said:
Without more information, it's impossible to say what they did.

tehy didnt give any information just said that the line would be down for 10 mins and then they would ring me on my mobile and run a speed test.

adamibbo · 7 Jan 2009 at 13:36

ShaolinDreams said:
not sure if its connected but wasnt some major internet undersea cable severed recently.. maybe they been patched up

not sure mate but its good new if they have sorted it out

C64 · 7 Jan 2009 at 14:50

Of course they limit peoples speeds, I know for a fact my old telephone line could pull 7mb sec and bt limited it to anywhere from 512k to 4mb.

512k I got 4pm ish to 1am ish.

Craig321 · 7 Jan 2009 at 14:57

adamibbo said:
Having noticed my download speed drop over the last couple of months, i was forced to send an email to BT asking for an explination to the situation. Our maximised speed had dropped from 6.5mps to 1mps which I pointed out to them was unacceptable. They sent me an email the next day and phoned me to let me know that our broadband would be down for 10 mins and now the line is running back at 6.5mps. Do you think this is a case of they were throttling our line or they have actually genuinly fixed something.
All in all though I couldn't believe they had fixed something write for once and in minimal time

My guess is your line became unstable at one point and the technology they use reduced your IP profile speed to try and gain some reliability - our line has been doing this quite a lot recently. They simply reset the IP profile speed which lets you connect at full speed again.

adamibbo · 7 Jan 2009 at 15:46

Craig321 said:
My guess is your line became unstable at one point and the technology they use reduced your IP profile speed to try and gain some reliability - our line has been doing this quite a lot recently. They simply reset the IP profile speed which lets you connect at full speed again.

this sounds a more reasonable explanation

tolien · 7 Jan 2009 at 16:37

It is a guess though, without knowing your sync rate or IP profile before and after.

It's possible you actually had some sort of fault, your target SNR margin had increased to deal with instability, reduced (and stuck) IP profile, or your ISP were screwing you around.

Craig321 · 7 Jan 2009 at 20:17

tolien said:
It is a guess though, without knowing your sync rate or IP profile before and after.

It's possible you actually had some sort of fault, your target SNR margin had increased to deal with instability, reduced (and stuck) IP profile, or your ISP were screwing you around.

It's not a guess, I know for a fact they reduce your IP profile speed if your connection becomes unstable. However, he might not be having the same problem.

BringTheRain · 7 Jan 2009 at 20:59

adamibbo said:
They sent me an email the next day and phoned me to let me know that our broadband would be down for 10 mins and now the line is running back at 6.5mps

not sure if its connected but wasnt some major internet undersea cable severed recently.. maybe they been patched up

Blimey, they went out to the sea and fixed it in 10 mins that is going some

tolien · 7 Jan 2009 at 21:55

Craig321 said:
It's not a guess, I know for a fact they reduce your IP profile speed if your connection becomes unstable.

You know for a fact the OP's IP profile was abnormally low (not that changing the IP profile would affect stability)? That is the guess...

mp260767 · 8 Jan 2009 at 12:27

adamibbo said:
They sent me an email the next day and phoned me to let me know that our broadband would be down for 10 mins and now the line is running back at 6.5mps. Do you think this is a case of they were throttling our line or they have actually genuinly fixed something.

i vote for throttling, usually when BT "fix" something they ring you back and say they cant find any problems and suddenly the problems clears

Craig321 · 8 Jan 2009 at 13:55

tolien said:
You know for a fact the OP's IP profile was abnormally low (not that changing the IP profile would affect stability)? That is the guess...

No, I didn't say that. I said I know for a fact they reduce the IP profile speed if the line becomes unstable. I did also say in my post that he might not be having the same problem.

My diagnosis of the problem originally was a guess, as I said my post:

Craig321 said:
My guess is your line became unstable at one point and the technology they use reduced your IP profile speed to try and gain some reliability - our line has been doing this quite a lot recently. They simply reset the IP profile speed which lets you connect at full speed again.

All I was saying is I know for a fact they reduce your IP profile speed if your line becomes unstable. I was just suggesting something that could have been the problem.

tolien · 8 Jan 2009 at 14:09

Craig321 said:
No, I didn't say that. I said I know for a fact they reduce the IP profile speed if the line becomes unstable.

Arrrgh. They don't reduce your IP profile if your line becomes unstable.

BT Wholesale reduce the IP profile if your sync rate drops below the minimum sync rate for the IP profile you're on. That could happen without your connection being unstable.

If your connection was losing sync frequently enough, your SNR margin would perhaps go up and/or interleaving would get enabled. Your IP profile will follow your sync rate, but it has no impact on the stability of your connection.

My diagnosis of the problem originally was a guess, as I said my post:

Then I said it was just a guess, then you said it's not a guess...

tolien said:
It is a guess though, without knowing your sync rate or IP profile before and after.

Craig321 said:
It's not a guess

I even said in my first post in this thread that it was impossible to say definitively what had changed without more information.

Craig321 · 8 Jan 2009 at 14:34

tolien said:
Arrrgh. They don't reduce your IP profile if your line becomes unstable.

BT Wholesale reduce the IP profile if your sync rate drops below the minimum sync rate for the IP profile you're on. That could happen without your connection being unstable.

If your connection was losing sync frequently enough, your SNR margin would perhaps go up and/or interleaving would get enabled. Your IP profile will follow your sync rate, but it has no impact on the stability of your connection.

Then I said it was just a guess, then you said it's not a guess...

I even said in my first post in this thread that it was impossible to say definitively what had changed without more information.

The last bit was just a misunderstanding then

I've spoken to multiple BT technicians/engineers and every single one has said BT's technology automatically reduces your IP profile if your line becomes unstable (e.g. goes down during rain like ours does). They must all be wrong

Our line has never connected below 512Kbps, yet they reduced our IP profile to 250Kbps because the line was unstable when it rained.

tolien · 8 Jan 2009 at 14:38

Craig321 said:
I've spoken to multiple BT technicians/engineers and every single one has said BT's technology automatically reduces your IP profile if your line becomes unstable (e.g. goes down during rain like ours does). They must all be wrong

Evidently, when it's at odds with reality, common sense and the line from BT Wholesale.
Think about it, if your ISP throttles your throughput (and that's all the IP profile effectively does), how is that going to make your connection more stable? Magic an increased SNR out of nowhere?

Our line has never connected below 512Kbps, yet they reduced our IP profile to 250Kbps because the line was unstable when it rained.

No, because your sync rate goes <576kbps.

Craig321 · 8 Jan 2009 at 16:30

tolien said:
Evidently, when it's at odds with reality, common sense and the line from BT Wholesale.
Think about it, if your ISP throttles your throughput (and that's all the IP profile effectively does), how is that going to make your connection more stable? Magic an increased SNR out of nowhere?

No, because your sync rate goes <576kbps.

IP Profile: 500K
Sync rate has never gone below 512K

Every technician I've asked (we've had them around 5+ times here, every one has been different) has said it was decreased because the line was unstable. Them decreasing the IP profile never did increase our stability, but that's their excuse/reason.

tolien · 8 Jan 2009 at 19:15

Craig321 said:
IP Profile: 500K
Sync rate has never gone below 512K

576kbps is the minimum threshold for 512kbps.

Every technician I've asked (we've had them around 5+ times here, every one has been different) has said it was decreased because the line was unstable. Them decreasing the IP profile never did increase our stability, but that's their excuse/reason.

The IP Profile? They were telling you a line or mistaken if they told you the IP profile was reduced to make your connection more stable.

Craig321 · 8 Jan 2009 at 19:17

tolien said:
576kbps is the minimum threshold for 512kbps.

The IP Profile? They were telling you a line, mistaken, or something.

Yep, I'm certain that's what they said.

Our line is set differently as well - connect at 512Kbps and IP profile of 500Kbps. We've had major problems with it for the past 3 years so they've applied different settings etc