Reduced throughput

[Gematria]

Having had nice stable Superfast FTTC connection for a good while, today I noticed a bit of a problem: we normally get around 32 mb/s down over wifi, and as you'd expect, a little higher over wired connections. Sync speed usually shows 39 mb/s down. However, earlier on today I noticed a wifi download was running at around 22 mb/s. I initially thought it was simply a wifi and/or in-house contention issue, but even after disabling wifi and testing via ethernet only, it still remained at ~22 mb/s. I tried several different devices, and got the same stats. I even used another, new router that's never broadcast a wifi address, and it still gave the same result via ethernet.

Our sync speeds for up/down are still showing the same as normal, but I don't know why the throughput has dropped by around a third? That said, upload speeds are as normal (5-6 mb/s).  Nothing has changed in our home setup. A couple of days back there were a couple of Openreach vehicles outside, but I didn't notice them doing any work on the pole (which is in our garden).

Any help/ideas gratefully received. Stats are below. Thanks all 🙂  

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collision Pkts Tx b/s Rx b/s Up Time

WAN MER 211662 413955 0 120086 768034 01:33:52

LAN Up 37976 4739 0 964 0 03:34:21

WLAN (2.4 GHz) Up 956857 465400 0 792004 120268 03:32:53

WLAN (5 GHz) Up 345310 144945 0 1376 1038 03:32:46

---

Broadband Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed (Kbps) 39912 6190 Line Attenuation (dB) DS1:18.9    DS2:54.1    DS3:84.3 US0:9.3    US1:46.0    US2:69.3 Noise Margin (dB) DS1:4.4    DS2:4.5    DS3:0.0 US0:6.1    US1:6.3    US2:0.0

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Gematria 

Could you run tests on your my sky app and post the info in more about your connection. You had a line drop some hour and a half ago which could indicate a line fault that would impact throughput until it reconnects

[Gematria]

Hi @cookiemonsteruk 

Thanks for the quick reply... that line drop can be accounted for by me swapping over to the other router to test it.  It had been up for about 40 hours prior to that (we had bad thunder and lightning then, which often causes it to drop).

In "more about my connection" on the app, it says: 39 mb/s access line speed to your hub, est upload speed 6.1, normally available download speed 32 - 40, Guaranteed minimum speed 25, access line speed 39. Speed history for last 14 days shows 39 all across the board.

Thanks! 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Gematria 

"that line drop can be accounted for by me swapping over to the other router to test it"

If that had been the case the two wifi bands would be showing the same time as the "wan mer" time. Were infact the wifi times are both just over 3 1/2 hours.  It may be a knock on effect from openreach working at the cabinet as opposed to the pole. I think you've ruled out interference from neighbouring networks by using ethernet . Monitor until sunday evening and get back to us

[Gematria]

@cookiemonsteruk 

Thanks so much - I will monitor and post back here on Sunday night (maybe Monday, as I'm working until quite late on Sunday).

The only thing I would say about switching over to the other router - I didn't switch off my main router (I'd rebooted at 3.5 hours previously, as the stats show), but 1.5 hours earlier I had disconnected it from the phone socket in order to test with the other router, so I guess the wifi was technically still running, but with no internet to feed it, as it were?  Not sure it makes a difference, but anyway.

Thanks again - your help is appreciated.

[Gematria]

Posting an update here, as promised. Nothing has really changed since my last post, and still getting download speeds of around 20mb/s (wired & wireless), while sync speed is still reporting as 39. I'm not usually quick to turn off my router and would rather it ran 24/7, but yesterday I switched it off for a good half an hour and also did the reset using the button. No change in stats. The speed does seem to be pretty steady, it's just much slower than we had less than a week ago. I'm puzzled as to how the numbers check out on the Sky test (and also using Routerstats), but throughput is only around half of the sync speed. I have no idea as to how I can use more of that sync speed or get it to pass through to this side of the router, as I haven't seen this before (in the past, a lower download speed has been reflected in the sync speed, or vice-versa).  

[Gematria]

Sorry @cookiemonsteruk , I forgot to tag you in when I replied last night.

Anyway, another update: I just called Sky, and the tests and numbers seem fine on their end, as I expected, and they couldn't really see why the download speed isn't coming through as it should. They did mention they'd seen the line drop in the early hours of Thursday (which would have been the bad thunder and lightning) and suggested it may take up to 7 days after that for speeds to get back to what they were. So it's a case of monitoring it and getting back to them at the end of this week or the start of next. Obviously, I still can't figure out why I'm barely seeing half of the sync speed, so would be good to hear from anyone that's seen a similar problem.

[Blossom11]

We are having the same problem. Our connection is usually quite stable, sync speed usually 39.5 to 40 mpbs down and throughput 36 mb/s over wired connections.

We were affected by the outage in the Bath area on Friday and when it came back on the sync speed was normal, but the throughput was down to 28.8 mb/s. Since then it has gradually been getting lower and is now at 17.5mb/s. We have tested on several wired computers on 2 different speed tests but the results are consistent. We have reset the hub and connected one computer directly to the hub by ethernet and no change.

Current stats

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collision Pkts Tx b/s Rx b/s Up Time WAN MER 1367903 2129099 0 107992 2615971 02:08:19 LAN Up 2249291 1479230 0 3264476 146362 02:10:06 WLAN (2.4 GHz) Disable 0 0 0 0 0 00:00:00 WLAN (5 GHz) Disable 0 0 0 0 0 00:00:00

---

Broadband Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed 39999 kbps 7423 kbps Line Attenuation D1(19.8 dB) , D2(55.0 dB) , D3(85.2 dB) U0(7.3 dB) , U1(42.7 dB) , U2(0.0 dB) Noise Margin 3.9 dB 6.1 dB

Could it be a faulty hub?

[Highlinder]

@Blossom11 Can you please run the broadband test, this can be done either via the Sky app on mobile data or use the link below.
https://www.sky.com/help/diagnostics/sky-broadband-diagnostic/sky-broadband-diagnostic

Could you click on " Tell me more about my connection" and tell us what speed you are supposed to get between and your minimum speed.

[Blossom11]

@Highlinder 

Thanks for your reply.

Your package: Sky Broadband Superfast

Estimated upload speed: 7.4 Mb/s

Normally available download speed 29 - 40 Mb/s

Guaranteed Minimum Download Speed: 23 Mb/s

Access line speed 39 Mb/s

According to the speed history it has been at 39 Mb/s since 15 May

[Highlinder]

@Blossom11Those speeds are showing what you are getting on the router. Can I ask which sites you are using to do these tests on please?

[Blossom11]

@Highlinder 

We used Ookla on several different servers and thinkbroadband.

I've just retested on both and it has gone back up to 24 Mb/s

[Highlinder]

@Blossom11Have you tried to use fast 'dot' com That seems to work reasonable.

[Gematria]

@Blossom11 Thanks for your reply - interesting that someone else has the same problem, with full sync speed showing in stats, yet downloads coming nowhere close to that. I did wonder if it may be a faulty hub, and I did briefly try swapping over to another router shortly after noticing the problem, but it gave the same results. I haven't had much time so far this week to do much beyond running basic speed tests a few times a day, but I hope to take a closer look at it all in the next few days. If you're able to post back if you make any progress, and I'll do the same. Thanks.

[JPR007]

@Gematria Try leaving the router off for at least 30 mins. This will ensure you get a new IP address from the IP pool that Sky use. I've had the same issue before, only occured once in 6 years or so on my current connection, throughput halved.

As soon as i did that, speed was restored and it's been fine ever since. Must be something to do with routing of the internet traffic or some such other issue at Skys end.