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Slow FTTP: Difference between revisions
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==Overview==
This page has lots of information and guidance on dealing with a slow FTTP connection. We suggest it's read by customers and that we then work with you. The page covers slow FTTP with BT Openreach and CityFibre connections.
The information here has a number of objectives:
*Explain the problems with dealing with slow speeds
*Try to manage expectations about timescales and what to expect from a 1Gb/s connection
*Provide various tests the customer can perform and send the results in to our support team
*Provide questions that will help A&A support staff further investigate
==Useful things to let us know==
When reporting a slow connection fault to us it is always useful to have some background information. Answering these questions will help us get a better understanding of the story:
# Describe what is slow. (eg a game, streaming, video calls, downloads, etc)
# When did the connection become slow (the date)?
# Can you think of any change that happened at the time the connection started to be slow?
*CityFibre 1Gb/s = '''70Mb/s'''
*BT 1Gb/s ='''195Mb/s'''
Whilst we would expect to see our customers get near the full line rate, this is not guaranteed, and can be complex and long-winded to resolve if the cause of the low speed is due to the back-haul network and the speeds observed are within specification.
In short, we, and our suppliers are within their right to say a 1Gb/s service is working to acceptable standards if the observed throughput is above the figures above. The service is working within the acceptable range. so, contractually, a 1Gb/s service running at 200Mb/s is not a fault. More info about these rates on: https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/fttp-speeds/
That said, in practice, we would expect to see our customers get the near full line rate. Just bear in mind the service being purchased does have levels of acceptable speeds.
===SLA===
We will try our best but faults where a customer has had previous problems with an ISP, or ISPs, and has moved to us and still has the same problem can take a much longer time to fix, and in some cases it may not be possible - especially if the speed is above the committed rate and all avenues of investigation have been exhausted.
==Working with us, not against us==
At A&A we do work hard on diagnosing and fixing faults for and with our customers. A slow fibre fault is not always easy to fix - there are many places that could cause slow downs and a fault is not always clear.
We do need cooperation from our customers in running tests, swapping things around and so on. These tests may need to be repeated at different times of day and after a change has been made. This can seem like a waste of time, but this testing and cooperation is needed and is appreciated.
On the other hand, we will work with our suppliers - BT/CityFibre etc, and we do and will escalate and chase for updates. We will also push back if they ask us to do things that are clearly not going to help.
=Investigating the cause of slow FTTP (getting practical)=
==Finding the cause of slowness==
When faced with a slow service, the challenge is to find the cause. If a cause can be found then a solution can be found, or at least, explained.
If the problem is easily visible - eg constant packet loss, dropping PPP, high latency then these sort of faults are far easier to resolve than a line that looks perfect in terms of loss/latency but suffers with lower throughput than anticipated.
== Things to test and try ==
===Diagnostics you can run from a computer:===
These are tests you can from your computer, some of them (eg the ping) will need you to use a command prompt or terminal to enter the commands. Do get in touch if you need help with how to do that.
# '''View the CQM graph'''
#* We plot loss/latency/traffic graphs and these can be seen on our Control Pages - viewing those is the first port of call, as loss and latency are easily spotted. Feel free to ask our support team to help explain them.
#* There are some example CQM graphs at the end of this page
#* Always worth running a test, even if LOS light is off - there could be a problem further upstream and Openreach may already be aware or we'll need to report a fault:▼
#'''Ping tests:''' <br> running ping tests from the 'command line' can help see if there is any strange loss or latency. <br> ''Expected results'': The ping results should show 0% loss and the latency should be below 20ms, any thing else would need further investigation.
## '''ping your router:''' <br> This will test your local connection. eg, if your router (gateway) is 192.168.0.1 then run this to send 100 pings: <syntaxhighlight>(on windows) ping -n 100 192.168.0.1</syntaxhighlight> <syntaxhighlight>(on Mac) ping -c 100 192.168.0.1</syntaxhighlight> and let us know the last few lines containing the results, which show any loss, the latency and jitter, eg:<syntaxhighlight>
## https://speedtest.aa.net.uk
## https://www.fast.com
# '''iperf''' <br> Ask us about testing with ''''iperf'''' - as this is generally better than http speed test websites. This can test single and multi-thread, upload and download. See: https://support.aa.net.uk/Windows_iperf3 Running an iperf for 10 or 20 minutes is a good idea, as this will then be seen on our CQM graphs, and that may show loss/latency etc, and also run upload and download tests along with single and multiple threads.
## <syntaxhighlight>iperf3 -R -P1 -t 600 -c speedtest.aa.net.uk # Download, singlethread, for 10 minutes</syntaxhighlight>
## <syntaxhighlight>iperf3 -P1 -t 600 -c speedtest.aa.net.uk # Upload, single-thread, for 10 minutes</syntaxhighlight>
## <syntaxhighlight>iperf3 -R -P10 -t 600 -c speedtest.aa.net.uk # Download, 10- thread, for 10 minutes</syntaxhighlight>
## <syntaxhighlight>iperf3 -P10 -t 600 -c speedtest.aa.net.uk # Upload, 10-thread, for 10 minutes</syntaxhighlight>
#'''Other tests'''
## Search Youtube for a '4k test' video, and see if that streams smoothly - there are various nature/landscape videos that are high quality and should stream nicely
# ...'''get in touch'''.
▲Always worth running a test, even if LOS light is off - there could be a problem further upstream and Openreach may already be aware or we'll need to report a fault:
▲* '''Run a test:-'''
▲*# Our Control Page will allow you to run an 'End to End' test, this may if Openreach's systems detect a fault, in which case, do get in touch. eg: <tt>GTC_FTTP_SERVICE_1005 Possible fault in the Openreach network.</tt>
=More advanced topics and areas of investigation=
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