Hi folks,
Was hoping for a bit of advice here as I seem to be going in circles with plusnet support.
I had a new line installed from plusnet when I moved to my new home. The choice of home was made in part by the location to a FTTC enabled cabinet, as I am particularly throughput hungry in my line of work. The cabinet is approx 200m (300 tops) in terms of actual line length from the home and the BT line speed estimator is 71.9mbps. Its a new estate (8 years) with all new wiring. My in laws live next door, have ADSL2+ and their attenuation is around the 7db mark direct to exchange one 600 metres away.
for the first 14 days of my line being installed, it ran at a sync of 78mbps solid. Did not change once and throughput was fine (though there was some throughput decreases during peak periods, the vdsl2 line sync rate did not change and off peak was full throughput). Ping was a steady 8ms.
About 5 days after the email from plusnet saying my line speed (after training) was 78mbps, the line speed started to go down. At first it was 76mbps, then 72, then 68, then 65, then 64 and today its down further to 62mbps. Upstream has remained solid at 20mbps sync rate with 20mbps ip profile (though throughput is only about 15mbps). Ping has shot up to mid 20's.
The attenuation stats of the line are
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation(dB): 2.7 12.6 19.1 N/A 7.0 14.3 22.2
Which seems very high on D1 for the wire going just around the corner. We also have people reporting its very hard to hear us on a voice call (though we hear them just fine). We have tried different handsets and the same result.
Also saw this on the HG612 last time I pulled the stats when it dropped to 64mbps sync.
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 2
Max: Upstream rate = 24713 Kbps, Downstream rate = 77612 Kbps
Path: 0, Upstream rate = 19499 Kbps, Downstream rate = 64601 Kbps
What is the difference between 'path' and 'max' ? Why would my path be lower than my 'max' ? Plusnet said that 'max' just means the capability of the cabinet, not my line (which seems odd).
Plusnet are saying that as throughput is actually at near line sync rate, there is not a problem. Even though I have demonstrated line sync rate was high but is deteriorating over time they state (via their faults checker) that my line just cannot support the throughput it originally had and there is no way they can raise a BTW fault until my throughput is 50% of the sync speed (which as the sync speed just keeps decreasing over time, seems like a catch 22). As a techie, it bugs the hell out of me that something 'did' work then deteriorates, but is actually 'operating correctly'...
There are no extensions wired in to phone socket, its straight to the NTE. Theres the FTTC faceplate on there direct to modem. Speed tests have all been carried out via BTW checker using Ethernet on my side not wireless. Quiet line test seems fine, I cant hear any buzz, crackles or hum. I have changed both the VDSL2 modem and the router itself and the problem remains, so I am pretty confident this is not a CPE side issue.
You can see from plusnets own diagnostics (taken before the recent line sync rate drop to 62mbps) that things appear OK, though I do note that the connection uptime was at this highest speed the longest.
Test Outcome Pass
Test Outcome Code GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location OK
Sync Status In Sync
Downstream Speed 65.5 Mbps
Upstream Speed 20.0 Mbps
Appointment Required N
Fault Target Fix Time null
Fault Report Advised N
NTE Power Status PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result Pass
Bridge Tap Not Detected
Radio Frequency Ingress Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise Not Detected
Cross Talk Not Detected
Profile Name 37M-74M Downstream, Interleaving Low - 10M-20M Upstream, Interleaving Off
Time Stamp 2013-09-23T03:00:00
Parameters MIN MAX AVG
Down Stream Line Rate 64.5 Mbps 80.0 Mbps 71.1 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate 18.8 Mbps 20.0 Mbps 19.7 Mbps
Up Time 21577 Sec 86394 Sec 76967 Sec
Retrains 0 5 0
Ive demonstrated to plusnet via the ticket that the speeds were stable, but are now deteriorating. They are just saying this is normal and until my throughput is 50% of sync speed there is nothing that can be done, which seems stupid if the sync speed just keeps decreasing. Right now I get throughput of about 58mbps down, which means essentially I am paying them 50% more than their 40mbps product for 18mbps of gain (which im sure as the situation continues will end up being even less).
Does anyone have any advice here? I feel like im banging my head off a brick wall with their support team.