Internet Speed - An Actual Crisis

So, my internet speed at home has spontaneously and aggressively plummeted to unusable speeds - I mean, I can't even browse this forum and I'm using the last of my mobile data asking you guys for help!

I've spoken to the provider who has carried out a line check and can't find a fault. I have also gone through the routine of systematically replacing each item in the filter/cable/router chain, with no improvement. I have also hooked up a laptop via Ethernet cable rather than wi-fi and the performance, or lack of it, is the same.

There is definitely a broadband connection but the speed has been shite for a few days now, and the only thing that has changed, and I'm grasping at straws here, is that we recently connected a telephone to the landline (always just used mobiles before). However, it is connected via a filter and works fine so I don't know if this is having Amy effect.

BT are sending out an engineer in a few days but I'm frustrated I can't sort this out myself and am preparing to be stung with a bill because of something obvious and stupid, so I'd like to avoid that, if possible.

tldr/

Internet's turned gooseberry fool - how do I fix it?

Cheers

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You're with BT, that's the problem. Honestly.

When I was with them they would constantly cap my download speeds and it sounds exactly like what you're describing. Honestly, they were strawberry floating awful. I had "unlimited" broadband with them and they'd absolutely kill my download speeds if I even dared to download so much as 10GB in one month. I remember calling them about it and they played dumb with me as well but after a few months of it happening repeatedly it was obvious that that's what they were doing to me.

They're a dog gooseberry fool company.

Sounds like you have no choice but to wait for the engineer, i had an issue in my house a few years back and when the engineer came, he found the cause to be a fault in the wiring on my property.

The added landline phone should have no effect if connected to a filter, but if it was not installed correctly, a fault may have developed as a result.

Tragic Magic wrote:You're with BT, that's the problem. Honestly.

When I was with them they would constantly cap my download speeds and it sounds exactly like what you're describing. Honestly, they were strawberry floating awful. I had "unlimited" broadband with them and they'd absolutely kill my download speeds if I even dared to download so much as 10GB in one month. I remember calling them about it and they played dumb with me as well but after a few months of it happening repeatedly it was obvious that that's what they were doing to me.

They're a dog gooseberry fool company.

Nah, I'm with Talktalk but the infrastructure is maintained by BT.

I did pop the cover off the connection point to which the phone is connected, and found what I believe was a loose wire (there were three white/blue wires connected to one terminal but only two blue wires connected to the other, plus a single blue wire hanging loose). Have tried to pop it back in the terminal but I don't have the right tool so I'm not convinced it's actually made a connection and there's been no improvement.

Will start taking the other connection points to bits....

Find the master socket in the house if you're on ADSL.
On older houses it'll look like this,

Take off the bottom part and you should get something like this,

Unplug everything from every other phone socket, then plug your modem into the test socket, then test your speeds.
If it's still gooseberry fool, there's a problem with your line.
If the connection is totally fine then there's a problem with the wiring in your house.

Your providers responsibility is up to the Master socket. Anything beyond that is your problem and they'll charge you to come out if they do this same test and find it works fine in the master socket and is only strawberry floated in other sockets.

That's the weird thing - I'm struggling to find the master socket. The one nearest the front door (where I found the loose wire) is a generic socket with no removable panel, same in the bedroom, so I'm assuming these are both extension sockets. The only other one is in the front room and that is a multi thing that has a couple of aerial coaxial sockets, plus a couple of sattelite tv connections. Still no removable panel though. Anyways, that's the strawberry floater I'm taking my hammer to next.

Older houses don't have the master socket in the style that Laga posted.

I'm guessing it's not an old house then.
My brothers house is weird like that, the phone socket in the living room isn't the master socket despite being nearest the point where the cable is entering the house. He lives in a 3 floor townhouse and for some reason the socket on the middle floor is the master one.

A lot of newer houses have been built with those multi sockets with satellite points, though usually not wired up. That's probably the best bet for your master socket.
When testing make sure you don't have anything else plugged in to other phone sockets, not even filters, just have a filter plugged into the master test socket and only the modem to that.

Our house is 6 years old!

Winckle wrote:Older houses don't have the master socket in the style that Laga posted.

Newer houses don't either anymore.

Thanks for the input, all - I'll let you know how I get on (unless I fail to find the problem and my mobile data runs out, in which case it's been nice knowing you).

If you are fairly competent, engineer is your only option. I don't think plugging a phone in even without a filter will reduce your speed, I think it only causes a problem when in use.

A couple of times I've got to the point of needing engineers (normally when I have no internet connection rather than slow) and at those times it miraculously started working prior to the engineer visit so it was cancelled. There was one time where the performance had dropped to about a quarter of what it should be (in the days of 2mb/s) and the engineer did come out as a result (even though my provider made it clear I would have to pay if the problem was at my end but I was confident it wasn't).

Engineer tested. Turned out provider had throttled my connection....

When you speak to BT ask them to run a copper line test. This should determine if there's a fault on the line between your house and the exchange.
If that passes then it may be that the fault is within your premises and BT/Openreach will probably charge you to fix it.

You could try plugging the router into a different socket, unplug all phones and see if it's just a faulty socket or someone there issue.

Death's Head wrote:If you are fairly competent, engineer is your only option. I don't think plugging a phone in even without a filter will reduce your speed, I think it only causes a problem when in use.

A couple of times I've got to the point of needing engineers (normally when I have no internet connection rather than slow) and at those times it miraculously started working prior to the engineer visit so it was cancelled. There was one time where the performance had dropped to about a quarter of what it should be (in the days of 2mb/s) and the engineer did come out as a result (even though my provider made it clear I would have to pay if the problem was at my end but I was confident it wasn't).

Engineer tested. Turned out provider had throttled my connection....

When openreach engineers come out (and actually show up) they're pretty diligent, in the first case what they probably did was check the nearest breakout point (those boxes with BT written on them or similar that seem to pop up out of Tarmac like a filing cabinet) and found a fault there, or they check the line between your house and that point and find a fault there and fix it, without necessarily needing to enter your home. I asked all about it and was quite interesting.

Johnny, it sounds like maybe as described by others you never had these master sockets installed, or that big thing with extra connections for satellite etc was a replacement done by some whoever, disguising the fact maybe it is a master socket? Openreach never install those I don't think.

When my internet was totally down for two months, it turned out the connection to the house had been torn out of its casing by wind or something (right in the roof, it's attached to the chimney breast) and then the cables had literally corroded away meaning no connection, maybe yours is halfway through that point. They replaced it with some super durable thing but harder to access in the future.

Anyway, I wasn't charged as it was outside and if I was the landlord would pay for it anyway.

Good luck getting your vital Internet connection back.

Tragic Magic wrote:You're with BT, that's the problem. Honestly.

When I was with them they would constantly cap my download speeds and it sounds exactly like what you're describing. Honestly, they were strawberry floating awful. I had "unlimited" broadband with them and they'd absolutely kill my download speeds if I even dared to download so much as 10GB in one month. I remember calling them about it and they played dumb with me as well but after a few months of it happening repeatedly it was obvious that that's what they were doing to me.

They're a dog gooseberry fool company.

They haven't done that for years.

BT are absolutely fine for me. Been with them for years and have been on Infinity 2 or whatever their unlimited top speed package is and download 300Gb+ most months without any issue.

Hope you get your issue sorted

Most ISPs are just BT resellers anyway. By switching to someone else you're just adding a middle man.

satriales wrote:Most ISPs are just BT resellers anyway. By switching to someone else you're just adding a middle man.

Isn't BT the cabling infrastructure company and BT the broadband company two legally separate companies?

It's why it's possible for the middle man to be cheaper than BT, both are buying rights to use the infrastructure, but some companies can offer lower prices for whatever reason despite your post suggesting going to anyone else means complications.

satriales wrote:Most ISPs are just BT resellers anyway. By switching to someone else you're just adding a middle man.

BT themselves are basically a reseller for Openreach nowadays aren't they?

Grumpy David wrote:
satriales wrote:Most ISPs are just BT resellers anyway. By switching to someone else you're just adding a middle man.

Isn't BT the cabling infrastructure company and BT the broadband company two legally separate companies?

It's why it's possible for the middle man to be cheaper than BT, both are buying rights to use the infrastructure, but some companies can offer lower prices for whatever reason despite your post suggesting going to anyone else means complications.

All I know is that we used to supply business internet to some of our customers, but we were a reseller and the company we bought lines from was also a reseller for another company that bought direct from BT.
So when our customer has problems we had to report it to another company and wait for them to report to someone else who could use BT's portal to run tests. It was ridiculous, and simple things would take all day to get resolved.

In the end we did create our own portal for running basic line tests, and I expect most major ISPs have their own similar tools, but there are still certain things that couldn't be done without going to BT.

Internet Speed - An Actual Crisis

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