Follow Up : Broadband Speed Test

[Andrew Mawson]

>Anyone any idea how BT's broadband speed test works? ( > ) > >I was having a problem yesterday, my download speed being reported as 0.33 >Mbs but the 'local connection' was about 5Mbs according to the BT test. >This was with the PC plugged directly into the Home Hub ethernet port, and >the phone line directly into the hub via an adsl filter eliminating all my >lan wiring and internal phone wiring. I convinced myself that the Home Hub >had failed, and this was what the BT test suggested. This morning speed was >back to normal with me having done nothing! > >How do they test the path from exchange to hub and separate the results >from the hub to PC? (As I think that they got it wrong this time!) > >AWEM

OK after several days of snails pace Broadband (0.11 Mb/sec download) I am back up to speed. In summary:

a/ I have building works going on resulting in the hub being powered down and / or the line disconnected several times in the days up to the fault. b/ After the building work had finished the Broadband speed was still good. c/ It seems BT have some monitor running that flagged my line a flaky and applied a 'banded profile' deliberately slowing me down. d/ Despite numerous conversations with BT level 1 helpdesk in Mumbai the profile stayed on. e/ It wasn't until BT level 2 help desk (also Mumbai) got involved after three days had elapsed it dawned on them that the line / hub were deliberately separated! f/ Even then it took considerable 'persuasion' to get them to restore the settings to the previous level.

All very frustrating.

As another phase of 'works' will again require the hub powering off and the line disconnecting how do I avoid going through the same nightmare again?????

AWEM

[Man at B&Q]

Change providers. My router is powerd off when not in use. No problems here.

MBQ

[The Natural Philosopher]

that wont stop it happening -its BTs algorithm. But it will mean that a quick email to the ISP will get it sorted in less than half a day.

I juts email mine and say 'had some issues, my BRAS has gone down. I think I've fixed the issues, can you get BT to reset the line? and it gets done rapidly.

[michael adams]

- Change providers. My router is powerd off when not in use. No problems

- here.

- MBQ

That's surprising.

I'm with Plusnet ADSL and the Plusnet help pages are very specific about leaving your router switched on all the time.

Its software run by BT in the exchanges that automatically lowers the speed profile as a result of frequent disconnections. In theory (I think) the user should get more information in this way slow speed - frequent disconnections than with high speed frequent disconnections. Don't ask me why.

I only know this because when I first joined Plusnet I was using a modem and this was being switched off a lot. Having looked at the Plusnet help pages I had to phone Plusnet to get them to get BT to raise the profile. The profile is solely down to BT not the ISP.

michael adams

[michael adams]

"Andrew Mawson" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

Trying to convince somebody living in Mubai of your "nightmare" in having to suffer a slow broadband speed for a few days could be quite a problem, clearly.

The profiles are set in the exchanges by BT and according to the Plusnet Help pages anyway (I assume BT have similar pages) can take anything up to 48 or maybe 72 hours to correct. They work on the immediate past usage - how many disconnections have taken place in the past say 72 hours. Not on what may happen in the future. It may be possible to reset these manually but for that you'd probably need to be paying for a premium service.

michael adams

...

[Dave Liquorice]

Changing ISP won't affect this automatic speed reduction in response to bad line conditions. A decent ISP can restart the 10 day training period but I don't think they can reset the BRAS. But there shouldn't be any need, only have the hub connected and powered when the line is stable. Don't mess with the wiring or have electrically noisy things going on(*) with the internet connection "live". If there is no active connection the kits doesn't know what the line conditions are and will reconnect with the last known settings.

(*) Thunderstorms within a few miles will also bugger up the BRAS rate for up to three days. The BRAS should automagically recover within 72 hours of the noise that forced it down stopping.

[John Rumm]

A different ISP would not make the problem go away (although may make getting it fixed less vexing!). There are a couple of technical things you can do. Generally the DSLAMs can tell the difference between random disconnects and ordered disconnects. So if you know you need to power the router off, then going to its web page first and telling it to disconnect can be better than simply powering it off.

Check also if you router has "dying gasp" support - this should again allow it to disconnect gracefully on power loss, so that it does not look like a line interruption.

Finally if the interruptions are going to be short (few mins at a time before power is restored, or can be found from an alternate supply) consider a small UPS to hold up the router etc.

[Dave Liquorice]

A simple just "dissappears" shouldn't trigger the BRAS to be reduced, I don't even think frequent reconnects with the sync rate remaining more or less what it should will trigger a speed reduction either.

However a single resync at a low speed that remains for a few minuets to less than an hour will force the BRAS down. There is no effective buffering within the BT network so they only allow the ISPs to feed data in at a speed below which it can leave.

[tony sayer]

In article , Andrew Mawson scribeth thus

Yes I know .. that's why we have for some of our services a provider up in Rochdale in darkest Lancashire and 'tho they do speak funny they do get things done;!>.

Even Virgin media aren't as bad as BT now;!....

[tony sayer]

Yes a friend of mine who still sticks with AOL tells me thats their standard stock fault response when they have problems.

He has VM's up to 60 meg service going right past his house but still he sticks with around 1.8 down and . 2 something up and waffle when he has a problem;'(.