Sync and "Real" Download speeds wildly differ

[crocks]

Hello all

We have been with IDNet for nearly 2 weeks now, line sync at 50mbs down 7mbs up and is connected to a TP-Link Archer VR600 router.

Totally happy with the SYnc speeds as they are in line with expectations.

However..

Lately I have noticed a download/upload speed done by Speedtest.net seems to wildly vary in speed. The best download I have ever got was 45mb a few days ago, this has since dropped down to 14mb now with 2mb up on the speedtest I have just done. On average, the speed is approximately half of the Sync Speed of the line.

We did have a line issue at the beginning with a crackly line, but this has sorted (itself) and the line has been quite and stable ever since with no disconnects.

Does anyone have any idea why our download/upload speed via Speedtest is likely to be so different from the Sync? We were on talktalk previously and consistantly managed 39mb down so I know our line from the cabinet is capable of it.

[nowster]

It's Openreach's upstream bandwidth management. If a line improves after a lot of impulse noise it takes a long time for the DSLAM to signal back to the central system that the end point can take the higher throughput (ie. without retries).

[crocks]

It's Openreach's upstream bandwidth management. If a line improves after a lot of impulse noise it takes a long time for the DSLAM to signal back to the central system that the end point can take the higher throughput (ie. without retries).

Ok so I guess as long as the line remains stable at 50mbs things should creep up then??

[nowster]

Ok so I guess as long as the line remains stable at 50mbs things should creep up then??

It might require a kick from iDNet's end if it's not moving after a couple of weeks.

[andrue]

What speed tester are you running? Is it using a wired or wireless connection.

For what it's worth I have a curious story to tell (but with a happy ending):

I migrated from PlusNet to IDNet back in August and during transition my PPP connection was down for 18 hours (because I hadn't noticed and forgot to change the credentials when I left for work). Up till that point I'd had a solid 67Mb/s according to speed testers for a couple of years but after changing ISPs I only got 55Mb/s. I still got 20Mb/s up but downstream seemed stuck. Over the following months I had a couple of early morning connection drops but nothing much changed. IDNet support said all looked normal and openreach wouldn't investigate.

Then toward the end of January I decided to backup a large amount of data to the cloud (over 400GB). About forty minutes into the upload (while I was out playing golf) my line lost sync and my HG612 failed to reacquire it (or couldn't be bothered). So when I got home I had to power cycle the modem.

After reconnection I was back to 67Mb/s throughput. I mentioned this to a friend and they reminded me that they had a similar experience. A long period of poor sync speed apparently 'cured' by sending large amounts of data upstream.

It's odd because my line has never before or since dropped during the day like that. It's dropped occasionally in the wee hours but that's just the openreach maintenance window. My current theory is that somehow during migration my downstream got capped at the 55/10 level (but my upstream remained where it should at 20Mb/s). When I kicked off my major upload run some part of the network finally saw the anomaly (18Mb/s upstream on a 55/10 package) and booted me off. On connect from power off the system reset my profile back to where it should be (80/20) and everything was good again.

It's a compelling theory but is pure conjecture. So far none of the experts I've suggested it to have given it much credence 

[Gary]

It's a compelling theory but is pure conjecture. So far none of the experts I've suggested it to have given it much credence 

Much more likely a coincidence and maybe a disturber you had which was causing crosstalk was moved to a new port in the cab tbh.

[MajorCrocks]

Ok now it's down to 1.78mbs down and 2.78mbs speed test up, on a 50mbs down 7mbs up synching line that's not right is it??

To be honest I'm starting to regret moving from Talk talk with its fast download.. I was sold idnet on a decent speed and service :-(

[nowster]

Have a word with support. Perhaps you are on the wrong backhaul provider.

But if you were having impulse noise on the wires, that would have happened whichever ISP you were with.

[Simon]

Ok now it's down to 1.78mbs down and 2.78mbs speed test up, on a 50mbs down 7mbs up synching line that's not right is it??

To be honest I'm starting to regret moving from Talk talk with its fast download.. I was sold idnet on a decent speed and service :-(

I'm sure if you contact IDNet they will look into the problem for you.

[Gary]

We did have a line issue at the beginning with a crackly line, but this has sorted (itself) and the line has been quite and stable ever since with no disconnects.

The fact that it sorted would suggest its maybe either a battery fault (does not effect throughput really though) or a more likely a HR (high resistance) fault starting maybe, faults don't 'sort themselves out' that often, especially crackly lines. Get on to idnet who will test your line and hopefully this will be sorted soon. As has been mentioned line faults occur with any provider, its nothing to do with swapping over.

[steve195527]

have you tried a quiet line test?if its noisey when you run that then there is def a line issue

dial 17070.  You will reach BT's line test facility.
Choose option 2 from the menu presented - "Quiet Line Test".
usually noise issues do result in lower sync and throughput though,not just throughput

[MajorCrocks]

Just did quiet line test.. very noisy.. hang up rang to report

Very quiet..lol

[crocks]

Well one line test after calling, all fine. still slow, need to find a microfilter to enable more testing..


Current results from http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/ say

Download 7.5mbs
Upload 2.35mbs
Ping 46.88ms


Line profile is 47mbs.

[nowster]

There's your problem: the speeds should be in Mbps. 

[crocks]

Haha

Tried a random thing last night..... Factory reset the router.

since about 8pm last night, download speed has been 48mbs and upload 7mbs with a 12ms ping

no idea what would have caused it, basically factory reset the router and configured it again using the settings email I got from IdNet

[Technical Ben]

That is strange. Not really heard of that happening before. But great it's fixed!

[Gary]

This link explains why its always worth doing a hard reset. RMerlin who provides the information writes Asuswrt-Merlin firmware which Asus support I believe he helps them out so they actually incorporate some of his own work in their official patches too. He know what he is doing, and the link makes a quick but interesting read.


https://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

[crocks]

Bumping this one to the top again :-(

The family complained to me (Being the resident IT support bod) that the internet was dying so I investigated.

Noticed last night that the Upstream Line Attenuation is an eye watering 160db !!! Subsequently upstream speed is dropping and has dropped so far down to 300kbs.

We are using a TP Link Archer VR600 (one of the IDnet routers)

I did a quiet line test and there is a noticable background hiss on the line now.

Interestingly tho the downstream speed is still in the expected 48-52mbs range that we are supposed to get so it looks like only Upstream is affected and forcing the broadband to intermittantly drop - is this possible??!

Is this likely down to something in the home wiring?? Just as a test before I left for work today I unplugged all the extensions and plugged a phone and the router into a Microfilter direct in the test socket.. So I will see if things improve over the day. If so I| guess this points to a possible wiring issue in the house. Sadly I didnt have time to do another line test with everything unplugged.

[Simon]

It would certainly be worth doing some home tests before calling IDNet, as they will probably ask you to do them anyway.

[crocks]

It would certainly be worth doing some home tests before calling IDNet, as they will probably ask you to do them anyway.

Is that the quiet line test?

Anyways it will have had all day today to stabilise on "test socket only" so I will see what the line stats are tonight.. That should give an indicator if its something "inside" or "outside" the house.

[crocks]

We have had a lot of work done round our area by BT Openreach lately. Including:

- Our POTS Cabinet lifted and replaced by larger one (not the new fibre one) with new ducting..
- Several new BT manholes dug and appeared locally near our house

This leads me to wonder if during these works, and when they spent time in a manhole outside our house, that they may have knocked or done something to our cable that leads from the cabinet to the house.

Back when were were on a unbundled Talktalk line, we had a perfect line! We have only had these problems since we have switched back to a Openreach managed line.

I'm guessing that since it's an audible noise on the line, it can be raised as a voice fault??

[Simon]

Yes, I think audible noise on the line would indeed be raised as a voice fault. 

[crocks]

Well after the line noise magically went away (again - coincidently after a load of Openreach engineers descended on our area peering into manholes without us getting an engineer visit scheduled!) our speed stuck at a level lower than expected, on calling IdNet again it looks like our DLM profile is stuck at the wrong level, our line has survived several thunderstorms over the weekend without problems so the Openreach guys I believe are resetting our DLM profile today and touch wood all works as expected.

[crocks]

Returned the Router as well incase it was broken (Diagnostics were pointing to a duff router) it didnt make any difference, but got a nice Asus Router now instead as they didn't have any TpLink in stock ;-)

[Simon]

I've found Asus routers to be very good.