My broadband has slowed down dramatically

duridian

I have been experiencing a major decrease in speed of my broadband with the past 6 weeks or thereabouts.
My usual connection is 3072/384 and has been that way constantly since mid 2005. Now it fluctuates between ~1600 and ~2400 downstream. This by the way is on a line with business broadband.
Have been on to support guys on 1890 260260 in the past week. While they were running their tests the line picked up to its normal speed, but when checked again a few hours later, it was back down to almost half speed again.

I have checked everything here, plugged this in/that out/nothing but the router etc. I have also tried it with 3 different routers to no avail. Two of these were eircom Netopia routers (2247NWG and 2247-62) and the third was a Zyxel. All three routers were getting similarly low speed syncs.
So the last time I was talking to support, I explained that a repair had been done to the phone line about 100 metres up the road about two months ago, and that I suspected this may have caused my problem, if moisture had got into the line or something like that.
With this info, support said a technician would be out in a few days. This morning I had a call from the tech, he made some improvements to the previous repair work, but this did not improve the situation. He then brought in his analyser and plugged it in to get the readings from the exchange. Initially his device was also getting a lower reading, but after a while it picked up to the normal speed. So the tech left about 11.30 this morning. The line stayed up until late afternoon, when once again the router disconnected, followed by a drop back down to ~1700kbps. As I type this the router shows:
Speed 1760/384 (kbps) Line Attenuation 49/30 dB

This is absolutely disastrous speed for a line that has constantly been 3Mb for over 7 years now, so clearly the distance is not a problem. What on earth is going on at all? Having now looked about online, I see loads of others having similar complaints on here and other forums.

duridian

Hello? Are there any eircom reps here?

Today I got a text after luchtime: "Dear customer, we have now fixed the fault on your line. If you have any more problems ring such and such...."

Are you taking the mick eircom? My line is no more repaired today than it was a week ago, in fact if anything it is now worse. :mad: This is dreadful service.

eircom: Mark

duridian wrote: »

Hello? Are there any eircom reps here?

Today I got a text after luchtime: "Dear customer, we have now fixed the fault on your line. If you have any more problems ring such and such...."

Are you taking the mick eircom? My line is no more repaired today than it was a week ago, in fact if anything it is now worse. :mad: This is dreadful service.

Hi duridian,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, can you PM me with your tel no: and I will look into the decrease in your speeds.

Thanks, Mark

duridian

PM sent

eircom: Mark

duridian wrote: »

PM sent

Hi duridian,

I have been looking into the contact history with broadband support and the engineers case notes.

I have asked managers in broadband technical support to look into it directly and I will get back to you as soon as I have a response.

Thanks, Mark

duridian

Okay, thanks Mark

eircom: Mark

duridian wrote: »

Hello? Are there any eircom reps here?

Today I got a text after luchtime: "Dear customer, we have now fixed the fault on your line. If you have any more problems ring such and such...."

Are you taking the mick eircom? My line is no more repaired today than it was a week ago, in fact if anything it is now worse. :mad: This is dreadful service.

Hi duridian,

Manager in broadband technical support ran some further checks after the technician called out and cleared the falt on the 25/06/12 at the exchange.

Although the broadband signal is stable at the 1.5 -1.8MB speeds they confirmed the speeds should be the 3MB speeds you were getting previously.

Manages in broadband support said they will re-escalate to have an engineer check the connection / set up at your address. I advised of the complete checks you did with multiple modems exc ...

However in order to check every possibility having the engineer check it directly would be best.

If the problem is found to be with the eircom modem, line or exchange no charge will apply for the call out.

However if the problem is due to the internal set up or third party equipment then there could be a call out charge of €150.

Let me know if you would like me to arrange this for you and confirm you accept the conditions & possible charges outlined above.

Thanks, Mark

duridian

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Although the broadband signal is stable at the 1.5 -1.8MB speeds they confirmed the speeds should be the 3MB speeds you were getting previously.

Well that is pretty much all I want, the same service I've had for 7+years...

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Manages in broadband support said they will re-escalate to have an engineer check the connection / set up at your address. I advised of the complete checks you did with multiple modems exc ...

However in order to check every possibility having the engineer check it directly would be best.

Fine, but since I've already had an engineer do all of this already on Monday morning, and since he could find nothing wrong with my internal set up, I don't know how useful it will be.

eircom: Mark wrote: »

If the problem is found to be with the eircom modem, line or exchange no charge will apply for the call out.

However if the problem is due to the internal set up or third party equipment then there could be a call out charge of €150.

I am very tech savvy and am certain it is not my equipment or internal wiring. Eircom engineer on Monday morning seemed to concur with this. Everything has been checked and double checked in the house. 3 different routers give same results, 3 different wires between routers and wall socket/ADSL filter give same results, routers plugged directly with no telephone and no filter gives same result, routers plugged directly with no telephone and with filter gives same result. etc., etc. We're talking lotto odds here that everything I use in my house is faulty, while a telephone wire strung between 2 poles which was broken 2 months ago by a mechanical digger 100 metres up the road and patched up in two places is perfect. Is it not more likely that this somehow messed up my line, maybe even upset something at the exchange?

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Let me know if you would like me to arrange this for you and confirm you accept the conditions & possible charges outlined above.

Thanks, Mark

Yes, please get them on it for me.

eircom: Mark

duridian wrote: »

Well that is pretty much all I want, the same service I've had for 7+years...

Fine, but since I've already had an engineer do all of this already on Monday morning, and since he could find nothing wrong with my internal set up, I don't know how useful it will be.

I am very tech savvy and am certain it is not my equipment or internal wiring. Eircom engineer on Monday morning seemed to concur with this. Everything has been checked and double checked in the house. 3 different routers give same results, 3 different wires between routers and wall socket/ADSL filter give same results, routers plugged directly with no telephone and no filter gives same result, routers plugged directly with no telephone and with filter gives same result. etc., etc. We're talking lotto odds here that everything I use in my house is faulty, while a telephone wire strung between 2 poles which was broken 2 months ago by a mechanical digger 100 metres up the road and patched up in two places is perfect. Is it not more likely that this somehow messed up my line, maybe even upset something at the exchange?


Yes, please get them on it for me.

Hi duridian,

I completely concur that given the history the likelihood of it being a internal / equipment issue is very low.

However whenever we escalate an issue to engineers we need to insure we advise every customer of (and accepts) the possible charge.

I have re-escalated the fault with broadband technical support, I will track the progress with the technician and keep you updated.

Thanks, Mark

duridian

Okay, cheers Mark

eircom: Mark

duridian wrote: »

Okay, cheers Mark

Hi duridian,

No problem, just to confirm the new fault reference number is - 11349722

I will let you know of any updates as I get them.

Thanks, Mark

duridian

Just to follow up, I had another technician out yesterday.
This man was very helpful and went through everything again in great detail. He completely replaced the recently repaired span of wire along the roadside, checked the connections in my house, thoroughly, many times during his work, and from what I could see, did the same with all the external connections in the vicinity of my house, on either side of where the phone line had previously been damaged.
In the end his work stabilised my line, and I have been back to 3072/384 speed since yesterday afternoon without interruption. Apparently the line can handle more, but my broadband package is still restricted to 3 by the local exchange. Anyway I'm happy with the stable 3Mb line for now. It gives me same as everyone else in this locale can get.
So I just wanted to say thanks eircom and the technician, and thanks to the reps here on Boards for their help in resolving this.

eircom: Ant

duridian wrote: »

Just to follow up, I had another technician out yesterday.
This man was very helpful and went through everything again in great detail. He completely replaced the recently repaired span of wire along the roadside, checked the connections in my house, thoroughly, many times during his work, and from what I could see, did the same with all the external connections in the vicinity of my house, on either side of where the phone line had previously been damaged.
In the end his work stabilised my line, and I have been back to 3072/384 speed since yesterday afternoon without interruption. Apparently the line can handle more, but my broadband package is still restricted to 3 by the local exchange. Anyway I'm happy with the stable 3Mb line for now. It gives me same as everyone else in this locale can get.
So I just wanted to say thanks eircom and the technician, and thanks to the reps here on Boards for their help in resolving this.

Glad to hear you're sorted duridian and the Technician was helpful.

Mark and James will also appreciate your comments.

Have a good weekend!

Ant

mazvis

I got decreased speeds as well, I was getting ~6mb down, but now it is 1.4mb!!!! What happened?? Could anybody check that?

eircom: Ant

mazvis wrote: »

I got decreased speeds as well, I was getting ~6mb down, but now it is 1.4mb!!!! What happened?? Could anybody check that?

Hi mazvis,

Thanks for your post.

I've taken a quick look at your broadband and it is syncing fine on 7Mb with good attainable rates.

Can you just test your broadband speed again with only one computer connected. Can you try this test the computer connected by Ethernet cable. If there is any other equipment connected to your phoneline, can you temporarily disconnect this (e.g: Sky box(s), fax, etc.).

When testing your broadband speed try to make sure there are no programmes or applications are running in the background on your PC, if possible.

You may want to look at this post on the eircom Forum, which may be helpful also - community.eircom.net

Let me know if your speed improves.

Best wishes,
Ant