Extreme Latency Spikes & Download Speed Drops

[BenAC]

Hi all,

I've been a BT customer for the last 7 months. 6 of those months have been fantastic, but in the last month or so I have noticed extreme latency spikes, jitter, and download speed drops at random times throughout the day.

On average, the fluctuation I am experiencing is:
10-20ms ping spiking to 600+ms ping.
60-70mbps download dropping to 0.5-3mbps download.
16-17mbps upload dropping to 0mbps upload. 

I first encountered this issue on Nov 9, and since then I have encountered results similar to the above at least once a day. These spikes and drops occur randomly (although, I notice them more in the evening), and tend to last anywhere between 15 minutes to 2/3 hours.

I just ran a couple of tracerts (8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1) and encountered the following results:

Tracing route to dns.google [8.8.8.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms [router]
2 393 ms 402 ms * 172.16.11.144
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 566 ms 432 ms * 62.172.102.78
5 429 ms 427 ms * peer8-et4-1-7.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [62.172.102.45]
6 465 ms 485 ms * 109.159.253.187
7 605 ms 550 ms 452 ms 192.178.97.49
8 545 ms 573 ms 588 ms 142.251.54.27
9 471 ms 484 ms 476 ms dns.google [8.8.8.8]

Tracing route to one.one.one.one [1.1.1.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 3 ms 2 ms [router]
2 446 ms * * 172.16.11.144
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 377 ms 352 ms 361 ms 62.172.102.70
5 809 ms 952 ms 726 ms peer3-et4-1-6.slough.ukcore.bt.net [62.172.103.199]
6 612 ms 632 ms 669 ms 195.99.126.99
7 525 ms 614 ms 560 ms 141.101.71.97
8 705 ms 771 ms 876 ms one.one.one.one [1.1.1.1]

Additionally, I have included an export from PingPlotter below.

I have spoken to BT at least 10-15 times and have had an engineer attend my property to review internal and external... all results have come back exactly the same: no faults.

Clearly, there is something wrong here, but I have no idea what. I am looking for an expert to chime in on the above.

Am I correct in saying that the data above supports my belief that the issue lies on the BT side, not mine? Any insight that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated, it's driving me mad and I'm running out of options... Thank you in advance!

[Crimliar]

Are you on FTTP (with an ONT) or on some form of xDSL, and does the connection from the router connect straight to an ONT or a filtered phone socket - not via any additional equipment (and this is the BT router)?

Without there being any intervening equipment, I'm struggling to figure out why your connection to the gateway is 1000x slower than my own.  *Though I always worry when I see ping plotter in use!

[BenAC]

Hi @Crimliar, thanks for the response. 

We're on FTTC, so not full fibre, and it's 80/20 VDSL according to a recent report that BT provided me (where they see nothing but green lights and no issues!).

The connection runs directly between our master socket into our BT Smart Hub 2 - there is no additional equipment in use anywhere and everything is very much standard.

It's very odd. As I mentioned, the issue has not always been there, and nothing has changed setup wise within the property since we moved in 7 months ago. 

As for PingPlotter, I suspect I ended up here the same way many others do: scouring the internet for ways to get visibility of latency issues. I didn't even know what a tracert was a month ago!

[Crimliar]

I can't think of much more than you can do, other than to ask BT to monitor the line, as it looks like an issue between your router and the "gateway" device.  I'd suggest you have a word with your neighbours, to see if any of them are also suffering the same issue.

[BenAC]

Thank you, I thought that might be the case. I'll have a word with the neighbours and see whether they're experiencing the same challenges.

Unfortunately, BT have told me they're monitoring the line multiple times over the last month, but nothing seems to have been identified or addressed so far.

Perhaps someone from BT will see this and can contact me to help me escalate this to the appropriate team.