Problems after upgrade to BT Business Total Broadband Option 2 ADSL2 Next Gen (prt2)

[ciaran77]

I've had to restart my post as someone has locked my original post? See same topic for the background.

Well today my problems have reoccured. I had this on my router today.

Status:	Up
Downstream Rate:	1231 Kbps
Upstream Rate:	696 Kbps

After several router restarts, because it just wouldn't get anything better than a 1.2mb circuit, I finally managed to get a 16.9mb connection, but downloads are slow again, just 7mb. I have been getting 13.6mbps downloads for 3-4 weeks solidly, and then this.

This seems to indicate a pattern, every now and again my service just drops. My sense is there is an issue at the local exchange (it took a major incident there last time to finally get decent speeds after weeks of wasting time trying things at my end) after the incident my line was stable and I got decent speeds for 3-4 weeks.  Ping tests now show 13ms responses, so I would expect download speeds to be at least 13-14mbps. But I'm only getting 7mbps.

 Download speedachieved during the test was - 7693 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 2000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :16946 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 1211 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 8000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 4.71:18.45:76.84 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

Could BT advise on next steps, I firmly believe there are no issues at my end, there's lots of background info in my previous post and logged from my many hours of phone calls since December. I'm puzzeled as to why my ip profile change every 3-4 weeks, when my connection rate is consistant at 16.9kbps?

thanks.

[ciaran77]

and today my router shows a 10mb circuit, and tests with a 3rd party tool show 8.5mb downloads, the BT speed tester fails when I try to use it today.

So I am back to square one, where I was mid December, with an unreliable and unstable service.

BT, why is this happening after I've had a stable period of 3-4 weeks?

 

My router shows this today:

Status:	Up
Downstream Rate:	10004 Kbps
Upstream Rate:	1203 Kbps

[ciaran77]

I have been informed this is normal/expected behaviour, ADSL2 is a variable service, and is more sensitive to errors and BT monitoring technology drops the speed of my circuit if they see a lot of errors, so I should expect to see the ADSL2 service vary from 8mb to it's upper limit/best the line can handlle. I will report back in a few days what speeds I'm getting, still only getting at 10mb circuit since the weekend problem when it dropped to 1mb on Saturday.

1.3.11 @ 13.30

 Download speedachieved during the test was - 7209 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 2000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :10004 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 1203 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 8000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 3.65:17.11:79.25 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

>Upload speed achieved during the test was - 948 Kbps
 Additional Information:
 Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 1203 Kbps

[ciaran77]

thur 3rd March, still the same, 10mb connection and 7.6 downloads. So I am effectively back to the same speeds I had on the 8mb service, and I had to sign a new 2 year contract for "up to 20mb" on ADSL2 for this. I am really disappointed with BT and it's business service and now I am trapped for 2 years and can't move to a better service provider.

I know my line can support a lot faster connection rate and twice the download speeds. There is hard evidence of that from my IP profile after I was regraded in December, for 3 days I had 17.5mb downloads after the regrade. And for most of Feb I had much better connection rates and speeds than I have this week.

BT, when can I have some consistency and reliability on conenction rate and speeds?

[Fiona]

Hi ciaran77,

I am sure this has been explained to you previously, but I will update this post with the information.

Broadband services are described as 'Up to' a certain speed. This is because high-speed broadband doesn't come as a fixed speed - it's flexible. Often, the speed you get will be automatically adjusted. This is to make sure you're getting the fastest, most stable broadband service that your phone line can support.

The synchronisation (sync) speed is the speed at which your broadband modem or router communicates with the BT Exchange. This is always higher than the speed at which data will actually be downloaded over the connection. The sync rate is worked out by your phone line's characteristics, such as line length and quality. The shorter the line and the better the quality the faster the line will sync.

The BRAS profile is responsible for regulating the maximum throughput (data rate) you will receive on your broadband service. Your BRAS profile changes when a stable connection has been made for a period of time; this may be up to 3 days in some cases. The BRAS Profile will also drop should the line rate decrease significantly. This is the absolute maximum speed you would get on the line at that point, please don’t confuse this with a fixed download rate.

The throughput speed is the maximum speed that data will transfer across the connection. The maximum throughput speed is always lower than the sync speed. This is because the sync speed includes a certain amount of 'overhead data'. Essentially this is data that makes the connection work, rather than the data that gets added on to the web pages and files you download. Having the throughput speed lower that the sync speed ensures the connection doesn’t drop or become unstable.

It's perfectly normal to see throughput speeds that vary throughout the day. Broadband works on a shared network. The available capacity on the network is shared out amongst all the customers that are using the Internet at that time. This means that at busy times, when more people are using the Internet, each person gets a smaller share of the bandwidth and so lower speeds than when the network is quiet. As different people use the Internet in different ways and have different usage patterns. This can mean that the speed you see can be constantly going up and down. We have the fair usage policy in place so people do not abuse the shared network, and makes sure the service can be used fairly by everyone.

Looking at the speedtest information you have supplied the BRAS Profile has been dropped and as such your download speed is reduced as well. As explained the BRAS profile will drop if there is a dropping connection or problems with the connection. This is to try and offer a 'consistent and reliable' connection, although maybe not at the speed you would like.

I can understand your frustration if your speed is constantly fluctuating, and appreciate you coming onto the forum to let other customers know about the problems you are experiencing. However, if there is a fault at the exchange or on your line this cannot be reported or tracked through the forum. The forum is for customers to discuss and offer advice on BT Business products and services, with faults such as yours you would need to talk to the technical helpdesk. I have checked and there isn't an open technical issue at the moment, or since you posted this new thread on Saturday, if you are still experiencing a dropping or fluctuating connection my advice would be to talk to the Technical Team and try and investigate why your BRAS keeps being reduced.

There are also some help and support files you may want to browse if you haven't already

My Broadband connection is slow. What can I do?

I keep losing my Broadband connection. How can I fix it?

Up to 20Mbps broadband speed test for BT router customers

I hope you manage to get the help you require from the Technical team, please update us on the progress as it may be a solution that could benefit our other users.

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

[ciaran77]

thanks for the reply. I understand what you have said, I think you are missing the point here, the issue is that it seems to take a very very long time to climb back up after a problem which results in my BRAS profile being dropped.  For most of Feb I was happy with connection rate and speeds, then last Saturday my sync rate dropped to 1mb, after a while settled on 10mb connection and 7.5 downloads, and it hasn't changed since then, 7 working days later it still hasn't got back to the sync rate or download speeds I was getting in Feb.

You should be able to see the all the calls I have already logged with the technical helpdesk, and no faults were found, I replaced my master socket and filter at their request, and this made no difference.

Can you reclarify how long the stability period should be to get back to the sync rates/download speeds I had in Feb (17.5mb sync and 14.5 downloads) after my profile was dropped last Saturday?

[ciaran77]

still not getting above a 10mb connection.....

Download speedachieved during the test was - 8301 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 2000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :10004 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 1203 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 8000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 12.9:24.28:62.82 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

[ciaran77]

still the same, 10mb connection and 7.5mb downloads, so much for "up to 20mb".

I called tech support yesterday, they ran a line test, it was all clear, and they couldn't explain why some months I get 17.5mb connections and other months i get 10mb connections.  It has been explained that this is the way the service works, it can vary and change, and anything above 8mb is seen as acceptable.

I really don't know how BT can position this as a business class service.

What annoys me most is that BT insisted I resign for 2 years so I can get the "up to 2omb" service after my regrade to ADSL2, and I am getting exactly the same speeds I had on the 8mb business service and I am stuck for 2 years now.......very disappointed with BT.

[ciaran77]

here's todays results...............

Download speedachieved during the test was - 973 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 2000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :1291 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 696 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 8000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 11.82:33.27:54.94 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 567 Kbps
 Additional Information:
 Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 696 Kbps

[ciaran77]

after calling tech support on Saturday, they ran another line test and logged a fault. I'm awaiting the outcome. After the test, I connected at 17.1mb right away, for the first time in 2 weeks, my ip profile is still very low at 2.5mb, so downloads are now 2.3mb.

Download speedachieved during the test was - 2383 Kbps

For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 1200-4000 Kbps.

Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :17185 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 1208 Kbps(UP-STREAM)

IP Profile for your line is - 2500 Kbps

The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 13.95:20.5:65.55 (SBE:NBE:PBE)

These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 998 Kbps Additional Information: Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 1208 Kbps