Download speed half what it was

[Kellygiles]

Hello. I've been with Sky broadband a while and rarely have problems but now the reduction in my download speed is getting to be a major concern. I'm supposed to be on the 159mbps package, I was consistently getting 145-9mbps but now it's dropped to 74mbps consistently, this is over Wi-Fi and ethernet. I had an engineer out yesterday whom confirmed that the line is working perfectly so he recommended a new router, that router arrived this morning and has been installed without me fiddling with any settings; nothing except my phone (Wi-Fi) and my P.C. (ethernet) are connected to the new router at this moment and they haven't been connected at the same time while running speed tests but they're both getting exactly the same result on numerous speed testing sites: 74mbps. I've tried using the old and new cables, I've tried the old and new power adaptor. I've tried the speed tests with and without the phone line plugged in (it's the Sky 4.2ghz router, I believe the model number is SR204) as it's one of those routers where the phone line plugs into it. 

The upload speed is fine, it's very close to what it should be.

If it's important, I am around 241 metres away from the box with a 10 metre span of wire connecting my house to the telephone pole.

Can anyone advise me on what I should do please?

 

[kkaaiibbaa]

This is really strange. I'm on the same package, and my speeds were at max for the first few months, but recently mine has started capping out at 74mbps as well.

The downstream speed to the router normally shows 120-145, but when actually running a speed test or downloading anything, 74mbps cap! I can't remember the last time I actually saw over 100 in real world useage, this is with multiple devices tested wired and wireless.

[Skull+Treaty]

@Kellygiles 

On a G.fast connection I would say your noise margin is higher than ideal. 
@mae-3 - thoughts?

[Highlinder]

@Skull+TreatyWould say looking at that noise margin is high, but @Kellygiles is getting the full speed going by the router stats.

[Kellygiles]

I believe it is a G-fast connection, the Openreach socket says so.

[mae-3]

@Skull+Treaty & @Kellygiles 

The noise margin is high for there is additional capacity above the maximum synchronising speed with the G.fast Pod at 160/30Mbps putting them pretty close to the cabinet, eg: about 180-200 metres to the G.fast PoD. It is likely some other issue that is causing the throughput issue and is unlikely to be the G.fast broadband line, eg: profile parameters or similar upstream or at the cabinet multiplexing onto the fibre?

[Skull+Treaty]

@Highlinder 

It's odd, @Kellygiles also mentioned that an engineer checked the line and all was well. 
Full speed to the Hub, high noise and not performing as well as it had been 🤔

[Kellygiles]

The stats do say we are getting the full speed coming in to the router but the router doesn't seem to give me it on any device, no matter how it's connected.

When the engineer came yesterday he said that the router has been behaving weirdly according to whatever it was he looked at on his laptop; it randomly turns itself off for anywhere between 3 and 4 hours, there is no pattern to it. We don't have it set to do this and it's only ever turned off when we reset it to try and improve the connection which hasn't worked so far.

The connection speed was fine for months, although it would randomly lose connection completely and require a reset. Could it be a dodgy firmware problem?

We are currently seeing an issue with the phone line too, the light on the router keeps going amber for now reason and our phone says 'line cord error' on it.

[mae-3]

@Skull+Treaty 

A high noise 'margin' does not mean that the line is noisy, quite the opposite for a line at maximum speed for ultrafast 1 on G.fast means its low-level noise and a good G.fast line supports higher speeds when or if the cap was taken off, eg: 200Mbps+ upwards downstream!

[Kellygiles]

This is correct; he checked the line and said it was working perfectly. He even checked the Openreach socket and said that was fine too.

He came to the conclusion that the router was the issue but today's new router is presenting with exactly the same issue with identical speed, it's not even 74mbps plus a bit most of the time, it's pretty consistently exactly 74mbps. Is it possible that Sky are restricting my speed through the router but won't tell me that they're doing it? It seems unlikely but I can't think of anything else.

[Highlinder]

@KellygilesHas Sky suggested a new router be sent out to discount this as a possible issue?

[Kellygiles]

Yes, it arrived today and I've installed it. The speed issue is exactly the same as the old router. Both the same model of router.

[Skull+Treaty]

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@mae-3 wrote:

@Skull+Treaty 

A high noise 'margin' does not mean that the line is noisy, quite the opposite for a line at maximum speed for ultrafast 1 on G.fast means its low-level noise and a good G.fast line supports higher speeds when or if the cap was taken off, eg: 200Mbps+ upwards downstream!

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@mae-3  and that why I called in the big guns 😉

[mae-3]

@Kellygiles 

Can you try turning off the router for more than half an hour at some point and see whether a new public IP address and likely another route through the internet may solve the issue?

[Kellygiles]

Yes, I will try that now. The phone line light is still amber and has been that way for the past 20+ minutes.