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[Max]

Hello

For years I have been on an "up to 8 Mb" ADSL Max product and was receiving the full download speed for a sync rate of 8128 Kbps and around 2 months ago I was upgraded by Plusnet to the 21CN, at the time the connection dropped for around an hour then came back syncing at exactly the same speed of 8128 Kbps but now over ADSL2+. I spoke to Plusnet at the time and was advised to wait 10 days for the training period to complete but they said that the speed may not increase. After the 10 days it was still not any faster so I just accepted what they said and didn't think it would get any faster.

Recently, I had to ring them for another matter and mentioned this speed situation to the person on the phone and he had a look and found that while it was on ADSL2+ it had been set to ADSL Max speeds. They said that this would be fixed and I should notice the speed increase within a week. Within a few hours Plusnet's website now reported that I should receive an estimated line speed of 16 - 18 Mb (It used to say 7 - 8 Mb) and the current line speed profile had been set at 21 Mb (Used to say 7.1 Mb), this stayed the same for a couple of days before going back to 7.1 Mb.

Around 5 days ago the connection dropped for around an hour again but this time the connection came back syncing at 18978 Kbps but although the sync rate had increased the actual download speed of the connection is still the same and the current line speed profile on Plusnet's website still says 7.1 Mb.

I rang Plusnet again today and they had a look and again advised me that I wasn't likely to see any actual speed increase even though the connection is syncing at 18978 Kbps because the line would not remain stable if they where to try and increase the actual speed.

I guess I really want to know if this is true or not, can the line be syncing at the speed it is but be unable to provide an actual throughput of that speed?

These are the current stats from my router:

                           Downstream     Upstream
Rate (Kbps):           18978              1075
SNR Margin (dB):           5.3                  6.7
Attenuation (dB):           22.5                  20.6

Max

[roseway]

Welcome to the forum.

I rang Plusnet again today and they had a look and again advised me that I wasn't likely to see any actual speed increase even though the connection is syncing at 18978 Kbps because the line would not remain stable if they where to try and increase the actual speed.

That's nonsense. Limiting the throughput speed in that way doesn't increase stability. If Plusnet are limiting the throughput to ADSL Max speeds, they need to reconfigure this to allow you to see the full speed capability of your connection. I'm afraid you have to go back to them and insist.

[kitz]

Hi and welcome.

As Eric has already said, unfortunately youve been told incorrect information.  The stats from your router clearly show that you are quite capable of the higher speeds

I would also recommend you do a BT Performance test to check your IPprofile.   
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/btwperformancetest.htm


Im a bit surprised that Plusnet told you this as normally their staff should know better.  In fact the Plusnet profile is meant to automatically follow the BT IP profile, but it looks like something may have gone wrong.

When you have your IPprofile,  get back in touch with PN, informing them that your sync speed is 'x' kbps and your IP profile is 'y' kbps, but your Plusnet profile seems to be stuck at 7.1 Mbps and can they please amend it.

If you still have problems, let us know and someone here will give one of the PN reps a prod.

[HPsauce]

Im a bit surprised that Plusnet told you this as normally their staff should know better.

Absolutely, couldn't agree more, it's a clear case of a "stuck profile". Not that common but they know how to deal with it.

I suggest you "have a little whinge" in the appropriate section of the PN forums; that'll get it sorted PDQ. 

PS While you're at it make sure they "uncap" the upload speed too; by default they quite often keep ADSL2+ upload speeds at ADSL1 values for some reason I've never seen convincingly explained. 

[kitz]

>>> PN forums.

That did go through my head, but with it being weekend I was unsure if it would be quicker to raise a ticket.   The PN reps do look in on here, and are also often prodded if something gets missed, but comms dont always work w/ends.   

 A ticket such as the above though should be easy for any of the 24/7 CS staff to pick up on?
Not sure what their CS queues are like these days..  but I always used to phone up at about silly o'clock when I knew it would be quieter.

[Black Sheep]

I can only concur with those posts ^^^^^^^^^^^^. You've been fed 'a line', I'm afraid.   

[c6em]

Yup, I'd agree with all the above.
The Plusnet 'problem response' seems to have got worse since mid year.
I'm begining to suspect a policy to try and ignore all but the most obvious faults is creeping in and if the line "works" then that is good enough unless the customer kicks up a fuss proper.

Strangly I've found the staff and forums better than the ticket system.  Sometimes I really do wonder at who reads the tickets, do they had any idea what they are doing, and most of all a frequent complaint they they don't read the whole ticket trail/response back so end up going round in circles on a problem.
(I've been on the receiving end of this with one PN response contradicting a previous PN response)
The staff only look at the forum during normal office working hours.

Never tried the phone system - but I'd expect they read from scripts - so useless for anything other than a straightforward problem.

PS the OP's upstream IS already uncapped based on their upstream sync figures.

[kitz]

Until the OP has done a BTw Performance test we dont know if its the IP profile thats stuck or if its the PN profile that for some reason isnt following the IPprofile.

I also wonder what caused that line to drop for about an hour, thats quite a while to be without any sync at all.  Whatever caused the loss of sync obviously upset the profile system 

[Max]

Hi guys

Thank you all for the advice! I did the BT Performance test to find that my BT IP profile was set at 16.74 Mbps so I replied to the ticket that was created when I called them yesterday and within a few hours someone replied saying this mismatch was what was restricting the speed and they had now updated their profile to match BT's and I am now getting the correct throughput speed .

I have to admit im still confused as to why the guy I spoke to told me what he did especially when I did ask him if the 7.1 Mb profile on their end could be what was causing the slow speed but that didn't seem to prompt him to look into it. But its all working well now so Im happy .

Thanks again!

Max

[kitz]

Im glad you got it sorted.


Im a bit surprised too, if it was say BT/AOL first line support type then I could perhaps have understood, but PN staff normally know better that these things can happen and will try to resolve it:/

[chrisparr]

Hi Max,

I know this was a month ago but...

Can you let me know the ticket ID or PM me your username over? I'm not happy with the response about the 7.1Mb profile as *all* of the faults teams should know to check that as one of the first steps.