Riddle me this...(slow internet speed)

[Jono8]

I have NOW Broadband and have had it for over a year with zero problems and got a consistent 42Mbps the whole time.

Two days ago, our phone line went down and the internet speed was cut to a quarter (10-11Mbps) of what it should be. The same day when i was taking the dog for a walk, i saw an openreach engineer with loads of stuff open at the bottom of the road....a coincidence it was not.

Had an Openreach engineer visit today who confirmed a fault their end, and it was where that man was working...he had broken an aluminium connection/wire to our house.

The engineer fixed it (or so he thought), and in fairness to him he has because every test from the exchange at the bottom of the road to the master socket in our house shows the correct speed (42Mbps). The Now Broadband help checker thing says all is fine now and that speed too (before it recognised a fault). The router statistics show the correct speed as well.

However, i am still only getting 10-11Mbps download speeds on all devices in my house, no matter what i try/do....! The same happens for both ethernet and wifi connection.

The router is connected straight to the master socket and always has been. Ive changed nothing in terms of any connections or anything inside my home.

So why the **** is the download limited to 10-11Mbps on every device (Phone, Laptop, PC, TV etc)!? I feel like i'm going mad as i just cannot fathom what the issue is.

 

[Jono8]

You probably need NOW to ask Openreach to perform a DLM reset.

I think the guy did this whilst he was here. He said he would perform a reset on it (called some automated line thing and inputted various codes etc), then he waited for a text for the results. Is that it?

As mentioned, every test he did at my master socket showed the correct speed.

However every test i do from the router onward on any device, only goes up to ~11 Mbps. The speed tests almost look like it is being throttled.

 

[Jono8]

after continually running speedtests, it is like it is being throttled to exactly 11.7Mbps (give or take 0.1 of a Mb).

 

[Jono8]

Just to add to what i have tried:

Taking the faceplate off the master socket and putting a microfilter into the test socket - same thing
Removing all devices and just connecting one to test - same thing
Factory reset the router - same thing

The router shows it is getting the ~40mbps in the statistics section so it is receiving the correct speed, but for whatever reason whatever it is putting out over wifi or ethernet is capped at just under 12mbps.

Is the router just borked? I find that highly unlikely considering the timing of the fault etc, but i guess it could be a massive coincidence.

 

[Jono8]

Perhaps someone can answer this if they know a lot about it:

If the mastersocket test shows 40mbps by the BT engineer, and the router statitics show that the router is getting 40mbps, is it possible that DLM reduction or banding is still in place (or would the reduced speeds show on the aforementioned things)?

The BT engineer is absolutely adamant that there is no problem up to the master socket of our house and that the speed is there (i was there when he did it and saw the screen on his device).

 

[Jono8]

Sounds more like a software bug in the router rather than a fault then. Have you tried restarting it, or checking for updates? If it's an integrated DSL modem don't restart more than once as DLM will see that as the line dropping after a while and start reigning the in connection speed.

Yep, restarted it and reset it to factory defaults. Changed the cable, and made sure every device was off the network except one to test the speed etc. NOTHING changes the fact that the maximum download is throttled to just under 12mbps on all devices either via ethernet or wifi.

I just dont understand how the router has broken at the same time as that chumly cut the wire to our house at the exchange..! That seems highly coincidental. I have not had one single problem since this one. It has been rock solid for over a year with almost no dropped connections and a constant ~40mbps.



Do you know if DLM or banding would show in the router and the test that the engineer did at the master socket? By that i mean that if DLM was limiting the line to just under 12mbps, would that show as in the downstream connection speed on the router, and on the engineers test?

 

[Jono8]

The router is showing 40 Mbps as the connection rate, that will be reported by the modem. If it's not achieving that via speed tests then it does point to a router fault, or maybe some weird thing NOW are doing but I can't see that tbh.

What is it that NOW could be doing to throttle it from their end/beyond the master socket in my house and via the router?

The only thing i read after scouring the internet was something to do with adsl or fibre profiles not being switched correctly or something.

 

[Jono8]

Nothing that I can think of. Do you have another modem/router you can try?

I only have WLAN routers easily accessible (no adsl modem). I think i do have an old adsl modem somewhere, but i'm not sure where it is/might be in the attic somewhere : /

I just don't see how the router/modem would have suddenly broken in that way though. Seems bizarre.

 

[Jono8]

Did you change your wifi password and have you turned WPS off ?

Back in the day the internet was free for me

Yes, it is nothing to do with that

 

[Jono8]

When you restarted, did you just restart (button at back), or pull the plug and shut down (full power loss), then wait for 35 minutes (so DLM doesn't ding you), then plug back in and then try again? (When hopefully any retention of the older line speed or anything on the modem/router is fully lost)

I didn't wait 35 minutes no.

I did do a factory reset though. Wouldn't that have been enough?

Why would I have to wait 35 minutes?

 

[Jono8]

Sometimes the residual power in the modem/router can keep the old details alive. That's why you want to fully drain it of power by powering it off (and pull the plug) to let it fully drain that way. Then when you power it back on, it's the same as a restart anyway.



If you're on ~40Mbs then you're on FTTC I'm assuming. There's a thing called DLM (Dynamic Line Management) that will change your line speed as to how much errors or noise it perceives on the line. But, it takes snapshots every 15 (or possibly 30) minutes in order to do this. And if you are not powered on for those two segments (the 15/30 before and after) it knows not to add that to the calculation for possible issues on the line. That's why wait that time before powering back on to avoid DLM putting your speed down (and then needing to wait for it to let you get back up or even never let you get back to a faster speed).

Ok, thanks. Im certain the guy did a DLM reset while he was here anyway, which made no difference.

He was adamant all was fine as all his tools and systems etc were showing the right speed. The router even shows the downstream connection at roughly 41mbps. However, any device (via ethernet or WiFi) will not go above just under 12mbps

It's like there is a throttle /limit on it and I just can't understand why. How would that even be possible if all the open reach tests, the now broadband account line checker, and router itself say it's getting the right speed? Where on earth is this limit coming from? I just can't believe the router has somehow developed a bizarre fault like that, at exactly the same time as the fault caused by the BT engineer down the road the other day.

 

[Jono8]

Yep yep, that's fine. They did a reset, but we just don't want to provoke the DLM unnecessarily when we power off your modem/router. (Some DLM have very aggressive views on what constitutes as a problem on the line)



Sometimes there's something in the software (table or cache somewhere inside) that has been corrupted (it happens) and needs to be refreshed or expunged so it rebuilds it anew. But it can't do that whilst there's power keeping the data alive. Hence why we are attempting the power off to get it to start fully from fresh, instead of only reset/reboot which may not touch those stuff in the modem/router.

Ok. I'll give it a full 35 minutes power off tomorrow morning and report back.

 

[Jono8]

So, this morning the speed is back up to pretty much where it should be (37mbps). Maybe I've lost a few Mbps to DLM from fiddling with the router yesterday afternoon, but hopefully this will go back up.

Very bizarre. Does something happen somewhere overnight or something? I've read DLM works around 3am, but I thought it wouldn't work like that (IE bump it from 10 to 37 in one night). Also, if it was DLM, wouldn't the router have showed the lower speed yesterday?

It was still slow all the way up to 11pm last night, and I haven't touched the router since mid afternoon.

 

[Jono8]

Nothing more annoying than this. I had very similar issues a few years back and it took multiple visits from an Openreach engineer to fix it. Hope you speeds maintain now.

Indeed. It's mainly because no one, not even the open reach engineers have a clue why these sort of things happen. It's like no one really knows the reason or can explain it.

 

[Jono8]

My guess would be a stuck profile that wasn't updated until last night then. So instead of the issue being from your modem/router with a stuck item, it was over by the cabinet. But unlike your home modem/router (which won't clear automatically) they have built in "after x amount of time check this" and it happened to be last night when it saw that the line was clear, DLM was reset and relented and changed the profile to match the line.

Anyway, not the important thing; grats on getting your speeds back!

Yes, you are probably right. It's just frustrating that neither openreach, nor NOW could tell me that this is what would happen. Both were adamant that I should have been back to the correct speed right away. So I just wasted an afternoon trying to fix it. If they actually knew how things worked, and told me it would be back to speed in the morning, that would have been fine.

Anyway, hopefully no more openreach engineers will cut/break my line again in future!

 

[Jono8]

I mean, you chose to use NOW, rather than someone like Aquiss who would have given you transparent information.

True

I'd have thought the openreach engineer would have known though. He seemed just as clueless though.