Speed is extremely low both over WiFi and Ethernet

[jamesdaniels]

Hi all, I had been plagued with poor speeds (around 3-10mbps) back in 2020/2021 until an engineer visited and replaced the main socket and did a few other things and I got up to ~27mbps fairly reliably. It occassionaly drops down again but I tend to find restarting the router sets it back again.

Since Friday 18th Feb, I have been running at between 1.00mpbs and 10mbps. I have been trying everything and managed to get it up to around 14mbps. I split 2.4 and 5.0GHz, changed channels, tried moving the router, restarting etc. but it only gets worse. I tried BT's speed checker and it says I am getting 29mbps from the exchange to my Hub, so I assumed it must be something interfering witht he WiFi. I've just plugged in with Ethernet and got 10mbps up and 0.30mbps down. I went to raise a ticket and it says I already raised a ticket on the 18th and the fix is 'in progress'. I didn't raise a ticket, so I'm assuming there is just a fault that is being worked on?

The question is, how do I speak to someone to find out what the heck is going on? No chat, tried calling twice and got diconnected once and then in a queue the second time and then cut off. I was meant to be working from home today but couldn't even open my emails, let alone do calls etc.

Has anyone else got the same issue and is there anything I can do, or do I just have to wait? Thanks in advance!

[RobbieBaron]

Post your router stats.

[PaddyB]

Hi @jamesdaniels,

Thank you for posting and welcome to the Community. I'm sorry if you are experiencing issues with the speed of your connection.

If you can post the Router stats as suggested by @RobbieBaron this will help to give us an indication of how the connection is performing and where the problem might be.

To post these stats, open up a web browser and type 192.168.1.254 or BThomehub.home. Navigate to the 'Troubleshooting' Tab and then click on 'Helpdesk', you will then need to enter the admin password which can be found on the sticker on the back of BT Home Hub 4 and 5. BT Home hub 3 will have the sticker on the underside of the router.

If using a BT Home Hub 4 or 5 navigate to 'Troubleshooting' then to 'Logs'. You will then find two lines that will state 'DSL noise margin' and 'DSL line rate', copy this info and include this in your post.

Thanks,

Paddy

[stevebrass]

Try a quiet test. Dial 17070 preferably on a corded phone plugged into the master socket. Any crackling report a telephone fault. Do not mention broadband.
Does your set up use a filter plugged into the master socket?

[jamesdaniels]

Router stats below.

Funny story from last night, I got onto the chat, waited a short/medium time (about 20 minutes) and got through to someone. They tested from box to hub and said it was going to the house absolutely fine at around 28mbps. They asked me to remove the front cover of the box (Master Socket 5C) and check for a test port, but removing the front cover disconnected the WiFi and I lost the chat 😄

I am picking up a corded phone to do a line test when I get home (I don't own a landline). If they told me it is coming to the hub with absolutely no issue then I assume it is something wrong with the hub? I've ordered a new TP-Link hub off amazon (they had a sale on so it is only £29) as we have had nothing but problems with BT hubs ever since we joined them in 2015 (always having to turn them off and on). The engineer that came to replace the master socket in 2020/21 gave us a new one but now it has started doing this...

1. Product Name: HomeHub5

2. Serial number: +076286+1617002031

3. Firmware version: v0.07.08.25060-BT (Type B) Last updated 26/6/2020

4. Board version: 01A

5. VDSL uptime: 0 days, 07:27:14

6. Data Rate: 314 / 27392

7. Maximum Data Rate: 317 / 41436

8. Noise Margin: 10.1 / 10.0

9. Line Attenuation: 26.4 / 23.6

10. Signal Attenuation: 0.0 / 0.0

11. Data sent/received: 2.8 GB / 26.9 GB

12. Broadband username: bthomehub@btbroadband.com

13. BT Wi-fi: Yes

14. 2.4GHz wireless network/SSID: BTHub5-5ZQN

15. 2.4GHz wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))

16. 2.4GHz wireless security: WPA2 Only (Recommended)

17. 2.4GHz wireless channel: Automatic (Smart Wireless)

18. 5GHz wireless network/SSID: BTHub5-5ZQN 5GHz

19. 5GHz wireless connections: Enabled (802.11 a/n/ac (up to 1300 Mb/s))

20. 5GHz wireless security: WPA2 Only (Recommended)

21. 5GHz wireless channel: 56

22. Firewall: Default

23. MAC Address: d4:63:fe:ce:d6:81

24. Software variant: -

25. Boot loader: 0.5.1-BT (Wed Nov 12 11:52:05 2014)

[jamesdaniels]

Hi Steve, I just got home with a wired phone and as soon as I dial 17070 I can hear distortion and crackling. I press 2 for the quiet test and I hear the same crackling and distortion. I haven't used a wired landline phone for quite a long time, so not sure if some level of distortion is normal, but it does not get any worse whilst the quiet test is running. Should I still report a telephone fault?

[stevebrass]

You don’t have a landline service then - you don’t pay for a BT phone service?

orignal reply was “yep report a line fault” then I read there was no landline service. So I am not sure!

[licquorice]

@jamesdaniels Quiet line test should be completely silent.

[jamesdaniels]

ah, yes I do have a line, what I meant was I just didn't own a physical landline/wired phone until today, sorry for the confusion!

As for the quiet line test, what I mean is that as soon as I dial a number with the wired phone, there is distortion and minor crackling. Dialling 17070, it is distorted as soon as it starts ringing, then before I even press 2 there is distortion. On the quiet test, it makes the same, continuous distortion.

I will report a line fault! Thank you all

[jamesdaniels]

Just spoke with customer services and they've confirmed that the line from the exchange to my house is damaged and have booked an engineer to visit on Thursday. Result!

Thanks for the help everyone