Rural connection speeds halved or worse in the last month with very unstable ping.

[Mavark]

Hello, I'm going to preface this with I ramble, We already overpay for a "fibre" connection that isn't fibre at all, but it's all that's apparently available to us as we're 2miles from the nearest exchange. We have an ADSLThe Product management page reads we should get speeds between 1mbps-3mbps/0.2mbps-0.5mbps. Which is exactly what we do get, however I thought this was below the national set minimum of 10mbps? I don't know. Anyway, that's only half the issue.

TL;DR 6 weeks ago issues began, changed router to BT hub to test, no change. Online games are unplayable, very unstable pings and speeds. Streaming is like watching a few pixels change colour. Very slow web page loading. Possibly dropping connection every few minutes.

About 6 weeks ago, I noticed our internet connection (shared by three of us) started dropping every few minutes. I was using an Archer VR600 at the time and performed a factory reset, let it be for a day for any change, no different. So I set it up as it was before and again, same problems. That didn't seem to be the issue. About 3 weeks after that I finally caved and reset-up the Smart Hub 2+wifidiscs  BT gave us earlier this year when the homeowner renewed our contract. I have full permission to talk to BT for her, as I always end up speaking to them anyway as I understand what's being said. Once the Smart hub had set it's self up and figured out which way was up the connection stopped dropping, or so I think, it doesn't display any disconnects but occasionally a webpage will take much, much longer to load than normal. But now I'm noticing that our usual 6-7mbps rural speed has dropped to 1-3mbps and the ping sits around a fluffy 200ms-600ms, but in some cases spikes up to around 2000ms. I've no idea why it's doing this.

Online games are unplayable. PVP on Pokémon Go is unplayable and that's just tapping on a screen. (also, no mobile signal here as we're in a shadow of a hill). Video streaming at best can handle 480 with occasional jumps to 720p when no one else is using it.

Our smart hub reads our downstream to be 5.8mbps, but I've got plentiful speed tests that say otherwise. I've not had that sort of speed for over a month now.

I will try to answer any and all questions, I'm quite literate, but it may take a minute.

thanks.

[imjolly]

welcome to the BT community forum where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods

in order for the forum members to help please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if  HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information . 

Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

enter your phone number and post results  remember to delete number   https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

[Mavark]

Hello, thanks for the rapid response. I've run a quiet line test a few times over the last month and had some slight hissing and a couple of pops/crackles.

I've asked everyone to turn off/disconnect their gadgets and devices and run some speed tests, and the speeds recorded range from 0.2 to 3.9mbps down and 0.1 to 0.7mbps up. Ping also ranges from 33ms to 678ms.

I also removed the face plate on our newish master socket plug, it splits and filters at the plug, and used the old micro filter we used before that was installed to see if that changed anything, but I got the same result.

I will also mention, there has been some work done within the last 2 weeks IIRC just up the road from us as they were having issues too. They're between us and the cabinet, so I was hoping that may fix our issues downstream, but it doesn't seem to have done so.

Tech log from SH2 from the .CVS file:

Product name,BT Smart Hub 2
Serial number,+091298+2032034541
Fireware version,v0.27.06.04290-BT (Thu Apr 29 20:28:10 2021)
Board version,R01
GUI version,1.74 12_11_2020
DSL uptime,0 days 0 Hours 47 Mins 16 Secs
Data rate,797.0 Kbps / 5.8 Mbps
Maximum Data rate,1.1 Mbps / 6.7 Mbps
Noise margin,14.3/7.4
Line attenuation,22.1/42.8
Signal attenuation,22.1/43.4
VLAN id,101
Upstream error control,Off
Downstream error control,Off
Data sent / received,218.6 MB Uploaded / 1.2 GB Downloaded
Broadband username,bthomehub@btbroadband.com
BT Wi-Fi,Active
2.4 GHz wireless network name,BT-Smrt Hub
2.4 GHz wireless channel,Channel: 6
5 GHz wireless network name,BT-Smrt Hub
5 GHz wireless channel,Smart (Channel36)
Wireless Security,WPA2 (Recommanded)
Wireless mode,Mode 1
Firewall,On
MAC address,EC:6C:9A:7A:B6:A4
Software variant,-
Boot loader, 0.1.7-BT (Thu Nov 30 09:45:22 2017)

Results from btwholesale:

Thanks again.

[imjolly]

I moved your post to correct fibre vdsl board as you are not on adsl

If you still have noise on quiet line test then account holder will need to report a phone fault to 151

You could try the test socket and see what speed especially attainable you can get

You are a long way from your street cabinet hence the very low speeds

[Mavark]

I tried the test socket and no noticeable change.

I'll try another quiet line test. Is a slight hissing and the odd quiet crackle normal?

I'm aware we're very far away, multipul times when we've/I've called they said "yeah you should get more speed... oh you're very far away, this is the best you can get."

I'm trying to figure out why our already meagre speeds have halved or worse again in the last 6 weeks or so.

[imjolly]

Any noise on quiet line test is not normal as it should be silent apart from announcement so need to report phone fault to 151

[Mavark]

Just spent the last hour on the phone with BT trying to report the line fault, as there's hissing and a slight crackle on the quiet line test. They can't detect it.

He did the standard thing of factory resetting the hub which instantly cut the call as I use wifi calling as we live in the shadow of a hill from the mast and rely on wifi for calling. Anyway, he called back on the landline which was hissy and noisy. Still can't detect it their end, so our phones must be **bleep**.

Speed wise, we're up a creek and that's it until USO or someone else comes along and installs new infrastructure.

Ping wise, which to me is the biggest issue, is a bit of a /shrug. It was working last month, now it's not, so that's cool I guess. If we still have issues in 2 weeks once it's sorted its self out again, and I've watched it for a week I can call back and tell um it's not working right but for now it is what it is.

[pippincp]

The only reason a C/S agent would attempt resetting the hub is if you were reporting a broadband fault. You don't have a broadband fault, you have a line fault. Just report a noisy line and don't mention broadband.

[Mavark]

I guess I'll try this in the week or so after I've left the SH2 to settle down and figure out it's life choices. Is there any point trying someone else's landline? Ours are a few years old, BT with call blocking built in with a funky button up front and centre. I'm wondering if I borrow me mums if we'll still hear the hissing. Next-door has a terribly noisy line, but she's too old to really care about it.

Either way, I'll be shopping around for a modem/router that supports QoS, or a better QoS system than the BT hardware has, as online gaming is completely possible here and has been for a decade.

[DavidM]

Hi @Mavark and welcome to our community.

If you're hearing noise on the line while running the quiet line check (assuming you're in the test socket) then the problem is on the network and won't be cured by changing your equipment. You need to report this as a line fault as mentioned by @pippincp and @imjolly . Once the line issue is sorted your broadband will sort itself out.

Cheers

David