WAN Link Speed Dropping

[Lancashire]

Hello

We have FTTP at home and currently pay for 150 Mbps, having just entered into a two-year contract after renewing with BT (been with them for years).

The setup is as follows, with the property being a new build of only two years.

1. ONT is in the garage.
2. There is a network port in the garage into which a cat 5e Ethernet cable connects from the ONT.

3. Cat 5e cable runs from that port through the walls of the house (I’ve had it confirmed that the cable is definitely cat5e), to the Ethernet port in the living room where our Smart Hub 2 is situated.

All cables involved are cat 5e.

The hub seems to reset itself at random intervals in the day which is rather irritating but this is not the reason for this post.

We regularly get speeds dropping to 94 Mbps, when our ‘stay fast’ guarantee is 100. Only when I reset the hub, which I have to do several times per week, does the speed get back up to 150 for a brief period.

BT have sent two engineers to the property and sent me a replacement hub all to no avail.

I have noticed that when we’re getting 94 Mbps, that the WAN Link Speed is 100, and when we get the full 150 Mbps, the WAN Link Speed is 1,000 - I know this by looking at the hub settings web page. Only by resetting the hub, ONT modem or by simply removing the WAN cable and reconnecting it does the WAN Link Speed return to 1,000.

I obviously don’t want to spend the next two years of the contract having to reset the hub several times per week.

Something is causing this WAN speed to drop to 100.

I have tried different cables to no avail, and this is our second Smart Hub 2.

Having scoured this forum and Google, I’ve come across a few different potential reasons such as duplex mismatch or faulty hub but the symptoms were not exactly the same as mine.

I’ve been at this for two months since we upgraded and I’d really appreciate any advice before I fire BT and move elsewhere.

94 Mbps is plenty fast enough for our needs but the point is, I am paying for 150 Mbps and it’s just the principal.

[DanielS]

Hi @Lancashire,

This may be something that we would need to look into for you.

Do you know if the engineers that were out were Qube engineers or were they from Openreach?

Also, have you tried a replacement cable from the ONT to the Smart Hub 2? I only ask as you've already replaced out the Smart Hub 2 that you had.

Thanks
DanielS

[Lancashire]

Thanks for your reply. 

I have an engineer coming around this afternoon. 

I am not sure where the engineers were from as I was not present at the time, but I’ll be present this afternoon. 

I have tried a replacement cable which links the ONT to the network socket in the garage (this is wired to the network socket in the living room).

[DanielS]

Thanks for getting back to me @Lancashire,

Let me know how you get on after this appointment.

Hopefully they're able to help you with this.

Thanks

DanielS

[SkydiveUK2904]

Did you get this sorted? Is so, what was the issue?

[Crimliar]

Might not seem relevant, but by any chance is the OP in a rural location on an LV or MV supply system, possibly with an EV charging point in the garage?  If so a UPS or some other means of mains conditioning might be needed!

[Lancashire]

The conclusion was, that there is a fault in the cabling between the garage and the network port in the living room. This could be a fault with the network port at either end, or the cabling itself. Process of elimination and no quick fix unfortunately. The BT engineer had some software on his laptop which clearly stated in black and white that there was a fault between the ONT and the Smart Hub 2.

Luckily I work for the builder of the house and I have spoken to the electrician, who’s going to come and look at it for me. 

The engineer from BT advised that if I am going to replace the cat 5e cabling which was installed with the house, that I should spend a bit extra and go for cat6. 

We are semi-rural and do have an EV point. 

[Passed_by]

Had this happen to one of our family members.  It turns out the cable (Cat 6) had a faulty wire, which eventually had broken somewhere in the walls.  Most likely poor installation with a strained or badly kinked cable at the time and it just give up.

It now only runs at Cat 5 100Mb, which is fine as it's only connected to an upstairs TV.  The break was easily confirmed with a cable tester. 

Cat 5e  and Cat 6 use all 4 pairs of wire (8 wires) in the cable, but Cat 5 only uses 2 pairs (4wires). hence the cable was still able to supply 100Mb.

[countrypaul]

100mb Ethernet only uses 2 pairs  whether CAT5, 5e, 6 or 6a (as does 10mb ethernet -10aseT). Gigabit ethernet uses all 4 pairs whether over cat5e, 6 or 6a.

If the broken wire was one that was used for 100mb ethernet it would have been much more obvious as nothing would have worked.

I would definitely go with the suggestion of using Cat6 or 6a, as if you upgrade to 2.5G ethernet in the future it may well be needed.

[Lancashire]

By way of an update.

I have had a data specialist round to the house and he ran a test using a cable testing machine (don’t know the technical term). The test was failing on one of the credentials, think it was something to do with the return loop or something. 

Anyway, the cabling at the ports wasn’t installed to the correct specification (some cables were showing ‘naked’ rather than being in the grey plastic protective casing), this he said was not proper. He amended and installed correctly in a matter of minutes (did this to both the port in the garage and the port in the living room where the hub lives). Retested and it passed. So, I’m hoping this will be the resolution but I’ll post here again should we be back to square one.