Extremely Slow

[Nutter]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me.  Over the past 3 days my connection has been slowing down, getting worse and worse.  The current speed test results are:


As you can see, it's a ridiculous low speed and huge ping time.  I normally get 4-6mb/s.

I'm on gw5 and my router stats are:
Connection Speed   6176 kbps
Line Attenuation   31.0 db
Noise Margin   14.9 db

I tried a BT speed test but it rejects my username, saying it doesn't match the line profile or something.  Now the BT speed tester is just reporting 404 page not found.

Nothing has changed in terms of phone line, new equipment, etc.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[ippylad]

you may want to read other threads about recent issues, although it doesn't always mean you/ we are suffering from the same issue.

First thing I would do is report it to Idnet and include speedtest results.

It is however starting to seem that gw5 is suffering more than others...

[Nutter]

Quick update, BT Speed Test is now working, and the results are:

    Your DSL connection rate: 6176 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 5000 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4413 kbps

I'll report it to IDNet as suggested.

[ippylad]

I am doing speed test on several speed test websites as speedtest.net is not always steady... but using several test sites will give you an overall idea of what's happening

[vitriol]

Recommended speed test sites (apart from Speedtest.net, which nearly always gives dodgy results)

My Broadband Speed

Namesco Speedtester

ThinkBroadband

KBPS



and the one that really matters

BT Speedtest

[Sebby]

You're not alone, Nutter, but the problem is unknown. I suspect BT as not everyone is affected, and if it was a capacity issue, you'd expect at least everyone on the same pipe to be.

I can only suggest that you report it to IDNet so they can try to build up a picture of what's going on.

[Nutter]

Ok, thanks everyone.  I've reported it to IDNet, and I'll try some of those other speed test sites tonight when I get home.  Even if the Speedtest.net isn't entirely accurate, my speeds have definately been very slow because it can take 5-10 seconds to get a response from a web site, and pages can take anything from 10-40 seconds to load.

[vitriol]

Sorry Nutter, manners have left me of late

 

[Sebby]

Ok, thanks everyone.  I've reported it to IDNet, and I'll try some of those other speed test sites tonight when I get home.  Even if the Speedtest.net isn't entirely accurate, my speeds have definately been very slow because it can take 5-10 seconds to get a response from a web site, and pages can take anything from 10-40 seconds to load.

That could be DNS - if you ever have slow response from sites, try using OpenDNS instead.

[Nutter]

IDNet asked me to run some traceroutes and give them access to ping my router, which I've done.  This traceroute results are:

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    43 ms    47 ms    44 ms  telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net [212.69.63.51]
  3    40 ms    39 ms    39 ms  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]
  4    43 ms    49 ms    42 ms  rt-lonap-a.thdo.bbc.co.uk [193.203.5.90]
  5    40 ms    41 ms    41 ms  212.58.238.129
  6    41 ms    43 ms    42 ms  rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Tracing route to idnet.net [212.69.36.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    10 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    40 ms    40 ms    43 ms  telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net [212.69.63.51]
  3    44 ms    40 ms    40 ms  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]
  4    40 ms    46 ms    40 ms  redbus-gw2-g0-1-331.idnet.net [212.69.63.5]
  5    41 ms    41 ms    40 ms  redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net [212.69.63.225]
  6    41 ms    41 ms    40 ms  www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]

Which all look ok to me.  Speeds are considerably better than the last few days, but still much slower than my normal of 4-6mb/s.

Ignoring Speedtest.net, mybroadbandspeed.co.uk gives 3275kb/s, speedtest.bbmax.co.uk gives 1984kb/s, thinkbroadband says 1616.99 kb/s and kbps.co.uk says 2.72mb/s.   BT Speedtest tonight reports:

    Your DSL connection rate: 6240 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 5000 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 3700 kbps

Does the fact that the profile my line is 5000 kbps mean that something has happened recently, since I was getting more than that before?

Thanks for the tip about using OpenDNS.  I'll leave it for now while IDNet are looking into it I think, but bear it in mind for the future.

[Simon]

Assuming you've sent them to IDNet, let us know what they say, Nutter. 

[Lance]

If your profile is lower, then it means that your line has resynced. This has nothing to do with the isp, and is most likely due to your line picking up more electrical noise (although it could be bt but only when they are doing work at your exchange). Generally, you will sync higher in the morning as there is less noise about, and if your sync high enough, then after 3 to 5 days your profile will increase too.

[David]

    Your DSL connection rate: 5728 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 5000 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 2411 kbps

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

If you are experiencing problems with specific applications, servers or websites please contact your ISP for assistance.

Your test has completed please close this window to exit the performance tester.

 
I dont know if this will  help or hinder Im on gw5 and my speeds are down,it  normally double what it has been of late,

Welcome Karma heading your way Nutter 

[Sebby]

I think anyone who is experiencing slow speeds should get in contact with IDNet. As already mentioned, nothing was showing up at their end (or at least this is what we have been told), and so it will help if those with problems contact them with speed tests (preferably BT) and tracerts.

My speed is still at the maximum, even now, so this is a strange on...

[David]

If it helps I will send mine over Simon......thanks 

[Sebby]

I ain't Simon...

[David]

 

I ain't Simon...

Sorry Sebby..........Im seeing double.....tome for bed I think.cut to the quick..just sent results over to IDnet......(thought I was on the other thread this is confusing,for a man in my condition 

[Dopamine]

I've been watching all these "slow" threads with interest, as there's very clearly a large body of goodwill here towards IDNet, yet, once again, we hear nothing from IDNet themselves.

We're quite rightly asked to contact IDNet, yet the last time I did so I was told my line needed to be monitored and I would be called back. I wasn't....  and that's not the only time I've not had a promised phone call from IDNet.

Could it be that there is little IDNet can do, hence the non-returned calls? However willing they are, staff can't magic up more capacity, and whilst I want to believe that the problems are either fixable or caused by sources outside of IDNet's control, my experiences make me doubtful. My symptoms are virtually identical to those I suffered when Pipex was Tiscallied: slow, fluctuating speeds that got better outside of peak periods.

I'll call support again tomorrow, but really, is there any point? If they genuinely don't know what the problem is, then someone there needs to rattle a few tech heads together. If however they do know the problem, please IDNet, keep us a little more informed. At the moment, it appears to be left to Rik and a few others do a heck of a lot of your PR, and they deserve medals and a year's free connection.....

..... maybe you could give them my capacity, because unless there's a fix or an explanation soon, I'll, reluctantly, be moving on.


And just so this isn't just a pointless rant, here's what I experience:

slow speeds between 3pm'ish and 11pm'ish, but not always,
sites hosted outside of the UK seem the worst, particularly those in the US,
sites taking an age to load one minute, but super fast another - again, it's worse with US hosted sites.

[Inactive]

I've been watching all these "slow" threads with interest, as there's very clearly a large body of goodwill here towards IDNet, yet, once again, we hear nothing from IDNet themselves.

We're quite rightly asked to contact IDNet, yet the last time I did so I was told my line needed to be monitored and I would be called back. I wasn't....  and that's not the only time I've not had a promised phone call from IDNet.

Could it be that there is little IDNet can do, hence the non-returned calls? However willing they are, staff can't magic up more capacity, and whilst I want to believe that the problems are either fixable or caused by sources outside of IDNet's control, my experiences make me doubtful. My symptoms are virtually identical to those I suffered when Pipex was Tiscallied: slow, fluctuating speeds that got better outside of peak periods.

I'll call support again tomorrow, but really, is there any point? If they genuinely don't know what the problem is, then someone there needs to rattle a few tech heads together. If however they do know the problem, please IDNet, keep us a little more informed. At the moment, it appears to be left to Rik and a few others do a heck of a lot of your PR, and they deserve medals and a year's free connection.....



.

I have also been monitoring them closely Dopamine, and tho' I am fortunately not affected by the low speeds, I do share many of your concerns.

(1) I agree that there are far too many reports of calls not being returned.

(2) I agree that IDNet do not keep us fully informed and seem to leave it mainly to the dedicated forum Admin Team.

(3) I was prepared to accept that the Olympics was at the root cause of these problems, however that now seems to be not the case.

Like everybody else, I have no idea what the problem is, however I would very much appreciate a post directly from IDNet explaining what they think the problem is, and hopefully how they intend to deal with it.

This is not intended as a stab at IDNet, they have over the years built up an excellent reputation for service and reliability, I would hate to see that lost in a short period of time.

That's my 2P's worth on the matter.

[jaydub]

I've just migrated over from Newnet and I'm just maintaining a watching brief at the moment.

Unfortunately I didn't run many speed tests with Newnet before I left, so I have no direct comparison, however at peak times the minimum speed I ever saw was > 3000kbps and it was usually no worse than 4500kbps.

Like many others here, I am definitely suffering contention at peak times with speeds at maximum for my line (~6000 kbps) at this time of day, but dropping fairly significantly when there's more people on line.

I'm willing to accept that the Olympics played a part in the picture.  My speeds last week went as low as 1195 kbps.  This week my worst speedtest has been 2621 kbps.  Not very good, but a significant improvement nonetheless.

I'll be interested to see what happens next week when the schools go back.

I live in a large village and the exchange status has been solidly green for the last year or two.  I can't rule out exchange contention, but I can't help suspecting that at least some of the issue must lie at IDNet's door.  I'm on GW5 as well btw.

I have to say I'm disappointed with the speeds I'm seeing since I transferred over and would appreciate a some feedback from Simon or Tim about whether there are any IDNet related issues and if there are what is being done to resolve the problem.

I'm willing to be patient if there's a known problem that's being worked on.  It's the uncertainty that's so unsettling.

On the plus side, I'm still on a free month trial and can't complain about the value for money of the service atm.

[ippylad]

I think most of us agree from time to time all ISP's have issues but it is how fast and how quick the resolve them.

I have sent two emails to Idnet neither got a reply, I sent an email requesting a MAC code and got it in less than an hour...!

Last night I sent another email containing traceroutes, BT Speedtest result along with other test results. It was only 2 weeks ago Idnet arrange BTO to visit and they remapped my line changed my master socket and I even asked the engineer to disconnect my internal extensions.

The lack of communication from Idnet is.. well shocking. even o2 and the large ISP's respond even if to say nothing wrong. And I also think it is wrong that have no issues showing on the status page. Whilst only a small amount of people on the forum are effected... only a small number of Idnet users use it, and without being rude.... most of those have tinited glasses.

The service that Idnet is giving some of its customers should be compared to that of TalkTalk.... and idnet you can not rely on people on the forums to fight your battles.... a few words gives people with issues confidence that you are lookiing into the matter rather than saying no issues and passing the buck to BT or the end user.

I expected more from an isp who charges top money and one who in the past had a good reputation....

And before you shoot me down for my rant, and tell me to leave Idnet if I am not happy.... I am! but if everyone does that how long will they stay an ISP!!!!

Even if it is a bandwidth issues, I am sure most users would understand and wait knowing what the issues were.....

last night I couldnt even view webpages.

[Nutter]

I sent the tracert and speed test results to ID Net, so I'll let you know when I hear back.

I sent my original problem to IDNet using the contact form on their website on Wednesday night and got a reply just after midday Thursday, so that's not bad espcially considering my previous ISP, Freedom 2 Surf, took more than 4 months to get back to me.  I sent the info they asked for last night, so will hopefully get a reply today.

I've just looked at my exchange status here and notice that capcaity is red, so I wonder if that's the cause of the current low speeds.  It still doesn't explain the terrible speeds I was having for the 3 days where just standard websites were painfully slow though, or why my profile might have been reset.

[Rik]

A reset profile is always as a result of a low-sync event. Does your router log disconnections? Could you run a Routerstats for 24 hours to see what is happening in respect of noise margin and re-syncs.

[Simon]

IDNet can't be expected to constantly monitor these forums.  We do point them at relevant threads, but as we keep saying, if users are having problems, and it's already clear from the thread that it's something we can't deal with from the forums, the best course of action is to contact IDNet, either by phone or by email to support@idnet.net.  We can only tell members what they tell us, and if you don't believe that information, or require further explanation, the only way is to contact them direct, and the more people who do this, the more it will bring IDNet's attention to the issues.

Edit:  this post also refers.

[Inactive]

IDNet can't be expected to constantly monitor these forums. 

I agree Simon, however their visits to the site seem to be increasingly rare these days, I would have hoped that they could at least have given an explanation to some of the reported problems on here, such as the reports of non-returned phone calls, which I find totally unacceptable.

As I have said, none of this has affected me personally, however this is a premium service, I believe customers expect and deserve better.