Unplayable lag when netflix is running

[dubstepzombie]

 I will say what worries me is a half fixed result, an in an improvement but still giving some issues. BT saying "increasing the modulation" suggests they're going to push the connection in some way, why wouldn't they have set things up to reliably cope with the incoming connections / bandwidth in the first place. 

The other aspect is if the problem is between the road side cabinet and the exchange swapping ISPs isn't going to help.

[Jakeyb21]

@dubstepzombie just a quick question if you don't mind, how much difference in ping / latency between ethernet and WiFi did you notice, thanks.

[dubstepzombie]

I've never really gamed on Wifi, it may well be ok if you're signal is strong but I always had problems from neighbours using the same channel etc, wired network is just so much less hassle and 100% reliable. Before going fully wired I used power line adapters to get ethernet upstairs, so I'd prefer those over Wifi personally for gaming.

You can easy test your wifi connection, just ping your router / hub, again watch out for no responses (packet loss) and whatever ping you get will just get added to the ping to your game server you're connecting to, I'd expect it to be well below 10ms. 

[cowo8]

seems like everyone is having this problem...

[cowo8]

My understanding then is that the only solution is to change from BT... fair enough 

[dubstepzombie]

Well I'd find it hard to believe another top tier ISP would be any worse, although as I've said if you have problems between your house and the exchange, be it the connection to the road side cabinet or the cabinet to the exchange then another ISP won't really help.

Anyhow no sign of any fix yet for me, another test today to be double sure, using the same browser and exact same file from thinkbroadband .com/download, selecting the 512 MB file and pinging the same Overwatch game server.

Below graphs are the last hop - the actual ping to the desination, the ping that really matters.

Virgin connection with 30+PC's connected to it all doing all sorts of internect activity and downloading the thinkbroadband  file.

BT connection, exactly the same download, the initial flat area is before I started the file download. The test is the same as I can make it.

[Jakeyb21]

I've just spent nearly an hour arguing with customer service advisors, they really havnt got a clue what I'm on about, apparently it's just me having these issues. It definitely isn't. They are sending out an engineer although I already know there is little to nothing they can do about it.

[dubstepzombie]

I think it's worth going through the motions, let the engineer visit and either they'll make changes or find nothing wrong, if they find nothing wrong then your're 1 step closer to arguing that a BT internet connection isn't fit for online gaming. It would be worth getting a demonstration setup that you can show the engineer the problem happening, at least then they'll be able to see if they do make changes that they have or haven't solved your problem.

When you look at most ISP packages they're all about 'speed', you need to make whoever you're taking to aware that gaming doesn't require high speed or bandwidth it requires low and consistent latency. The option of no one else using the same connection for other activities such as netflix while somneone else in your household games isn't an option - which is the problem. 

I'll give BT until Friday then I'll get in touch with them again, I should be getting a phone call when it's fixed, although I can easily see at the moment that it's not fixed - I don't need a phone call.

I looked at the BT packages today on their website, they have - quote.

"SUPERFAST FIBRE - Superfast fibre broadband that’s great for streaming and catch-up TV, Average speed 50Mb" - no mention of gaming. 

then "SUPERFAST FIBRE 2 - Perfect for streaming, gaming, watching and downloading in HD on multiple devices, Average speed 67Mb"

I have "Superfast Fibre 2 Unlimited" - so they're advertising you can game and download HD movies on multiple devices, if they can't provide that then either it's false advertising which I'll be contacting Ofcom about if I can't get this solved or they have a fault that they need to fix.

[Mighten82]

I am months into this fault and i can assure you that it is not going to be an easy fix.  I have an open complaint with Bt and have had 3 engineer visits and demonstrated the fault for them and no joy what so ever so far.  I have done alot of research on this and have suggested to them that this is a fault or misconfiguration at the street cabinet or exchange relating to the svlan (supplier virtual local area network) but anyone i speak to simply say all the test came back fine and there is no fault in the network!  I am in the process of trying to get the ombundsman service involved however so far Bt are ignoring my requests for a deadlock letter or to let me switch penalty free.  They dont seem to understand that regardless of what speed my router is syncing at the latency kills the connection as soon as someone starts streaming netflix, amazon prime video, etc. Trust me your in for a stressful time with this.  

[Reaps]

Ladies and Gents,

Since I was in the same position as you - BT let me leave without penalities.

I would fight this tooth and nail, get your stats to hand, keep requesting this get raised to case manager status etc.

They didn't believe me that it was their network causing the issue until I left, and then showed them thinkbroadband latency graphs of the different between my old BT connection and the new Zen connection.

I was able to show them, because I was assigned a case manager and my case manager emailed me asking to keep in contact until after I've moved ISP. I subsequently sent him the details and he was astounded.

There's nothing you can do your end to resolve this, some QoS helps a little, but no where near as well as changing provider.

The problem is BT have so many customers, you are probably 1 in 10,000 people who have called up today and your believed to have an 'isolated' issue because not many people are technical enough to figure out what we have.

The only way to resolve this, will be to keep hammering case managers and managers above their 1st line support. Find a way to go beyond that as quickly as you can.