Post Office Broadband

[Andy Clap]

After getting 6MBPS at any time of day for 5 years, my broadband suddenly started doing 6MBPS at 6am, reducing through the day to about 300Kbps.


After almost 4 months of doing speed tests for PO Broadband "Customer Service", they today said that as it's fine first thing it must be something in my house and they're not even going to try and fix it.  Yeah, my equipment, all of which has been replaced to try and fix this PITA, knows what time of day it is and decides to go slowly in the evening.


Complaint now with the Ombudsman for all the good it'll do 

[BBROWN1664]

Its the exchange. They have over subscribed your area meaning at 6am, your the only person using it but later, when everyone else is, you suffer.

[Andy Clap]

Its the exchange. They have over subscribed your area meaning at 6am, your the only person using it but later, when everyone else is, you suffer.

Agreed, but you try getting the F*&%ing PO to fix it! 

[BBROWN1664]

Another thing to consider. What is their capping policy? Do you have anything connected that could be puling down too much data and your getting capped? Check the router statistics.

[JoeRock]

Cancel it and go elsewhere?

[Andy Clap]

Cancel it and go elsewhere?

Will do, just as soon as they've fixed it.  They'd obviously rather I foc'ed off than spend money fixing the problem, don't think they should get away with that. 


Capping policy - no, nothing downloading data.

[ajmes1]

I get the unfortunate experience of faulting broadband for openreach.


It sounds like it could be what's called a 'hot vp' which, as described by a previous poster is where the virtual port you are connected to is reaching it's maximum capacity. more common in rural exchange areas. keep at them to get an engineer out.


The PO aren't entirely wrong in what they're saying though, as you can get electrical interference from cheaper transformers and stuff that are gradually breaking down. It can be anything and is usually identified by a regular pattern, for example, every time the heating comes on/outside light comes on/etc. my broadband goes off. again really hard to diagnose correctly as it could be anywhere in the local area. (we're not really meant to explain this stuff outside of work but hey ho!)


really difficult to diagnose broadband connection issues remotely as it really could be anything between you and the exchange. my 2p worth if it helps.

[Andy Clap]

I get the unfortunate experience of faulting broadband for openreach.


It sounds like it could be what's called a 'hot vp' which, as described by a previous poster is where the virtual port you are connected to is reaching it's maximum capacity. more common in rural exchange areas. keep at them to get an engineer out.


The PO aren't entirely wrong in what they're saying though, as you can get electrical interference from cheaper transformers and stuff that are gradually breaking down. It can be anything and is usually identified by a regular pattern, for example, every time the heating comes on/outside light comes on/etc. my broadband goes off. again really hard to diagnose correctly as it could be anywhere in the local area. (we're not really meant to explain this stuff outside of work but hey ho!)


really difficult to diagnose broadband connection issues remotely as it really could be anything between you and the exchange. my 2p worth if it helps.

Hm, very interesting and helpful, thanks.  May have to quote "hot vp" to them, via the ombudsman who it's now with.

[chaz]

a few years ago I kept loosing my broadband connection (talktalk) after talking to India  a couple of times I got an English engineer he moved me onto another band or line or something? end of problem.

[phonesurgeon]

If you can log in into your router check out the SnR rating. A open reach engineer once told me that after a while the line is in sync those rating could go crazy an out of parameters.

[Andy Clap]

If you can log in into your router check out the SnR rating. A open reach engineer once told me that after a while the line is in sync those rating could go crazy an out of parameters.

   Eh?

[Andy Clap]

Okay, found something.  I'm getting 24db upsteam, which is considered excellent, and 11db downstream, which is borderline fair/good, but doesn't leave much room for variations.

[ajmes1]

if it's running at a 12db profile downstream (SNR goes in 3's) that is kind of high, standard is 6dB, or 9dB for longer lines. worst i've ever seen is 27dB.


Whats more important is the error rate. If you're seeing a high, increasing numbers of CRC or HEC (could be named errored seconds) then it looks as though you have a problem.


a high number of any errors in the upstream is considered bad news truth be told. could usually indicate a high resistance termination somewhere, which would need an openreach visit.

[Andy Clap]

if it's running at a 12db profile downstream (SNR goes in 3's) that is kind of high, standard is 6dB, or 9dB for longer lines. worst i've ever seen is 27dB.


Whats more important is the error rate. If you're seeing a high, increasing numbers of CRC or HEC (could be named errored seconds) then it looks as though you have a problem.


a high number of any errors in the upstream is considered bad news truth be told. could usually indicate a high resistance termination somewhere, which would need an openreach visit.

I'm guessing this wouldn't vary with time of day though, excellent at 6am and pants at 6pm?

[ajmes1]

not especially, although if your profile is set incorrectly then any variances in speeds will be noticed more on a higher SNR as it reduces the amount of flexibility in what the line can achieve as the exchange is being told to keep the broadband signal at 12dB above the system noise, although it will help to a certain extent in trying to stabilise it if the system noise is excessive.


Is the phone line crackling or noisy at all, or even humming?