topic Re: Speed Cap? in Broadband

Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 04:32:30 GMT

Is a member of TalkTalk staff able to whether or not the DLM is capping my downstream sync speed at 35Mbps?

It seems to have been at a rather suspicious value of around 34.99 for a little while now with a SNR margin of 8dB.

Re: Speed Cap?

amahle-TT — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 07:20:08 GMT

Hi there AllyM, thank you for reaching out. I will look into this for you. Please confirm if you are messaging us from home.

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:03:59 GMT

I made the original post at home, then I went out, and I'm back home now.

Don't know what that has to do with anything. I only asked you to check your line stats.

Re: Speed Cap?

amahle-TT — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:24:06 GMT

Just to confirm are you having issues with your speeds?

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:33:24 GMT

As stated in my original post, yes it is a question about my broadband speed.

I thought my question was perfectly clear but I will explain once more:

It appears from my end that the downstream sync speed it artificially limited at 35Mbps by the DLM. I was just asking for confirmation of that point and if the was the possibility of anything that could be done about it (but I am guessing not).

Re: Speed Cap?

amahle-TT — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:52:31 GMT

Okay, looking into your account I can confirm that the following speeds are speeds you should be receiving as stated when you took up this package.

Highest Download is 35.0

Lowest Download is 31.5

Minimum guaranteed Download is 28.3

Highest upload 5.8

Lowest upload 5.2

But if you would like to receive more speeds or a better package you may check our website http://talktalk.co.uk to see the available and latest deals or you may contact our Better Value team at 0345 172 0088
from Monday - Friday 9am - 7pm; Saturday - 9am - 6pm to further assist you in looking for better deals. https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/Our-live-chat-team/ta-p/2230529

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 14:02:10 GMT

@amahle-TT , you have totally missed the point.

I understand I will not get much higher than 35Mbps, but I should get a little bit higher, and have done in the past. I will re-iterate again that recently it has been sitting suspiciously at the 35Mbps figure (a if it is artificially capped/limited) and the SNR margin is 8dB which suggests there is still some speed to be gained as I am aware the target SNR is 6dB.

Would a "community star" be able to escalate my post for attention by a proper member of staff who will simply answer my question?

I'm not sure if these "new" staff members AIs or just clueless humans.

Re: Speed Cap?

Gliwmaeden2 — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 17:43:02 GMT

@AllyM, there's no guarantee of who will answer when we escalate your thread, but I will escalate it for further attention.

Re: Speed Cap?

ferguson — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 17:52:13 GMT

@AllyM

If you are on a Fibre 35 package, why would you expect to see higher? Of course it is capped, that is what you signed up to. The fact that your SNR shows as it does simply means that there is potential for more if you switch to a faster service. I think you have been immensely rude in the way you have characterised the staff response, which seems to be perfectly clear.

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:07:05 GMT

Ok, @ferguson here goes:

@ferguson wrote:
If you are on a Fibre 35 package, why would you expect to see higher?

I believe a Fibre35 service would be capped at 40Mbps, not 35Mbps.

I am on Fibre65 (have been for several years) although I do realise my line is not capable of delivering much higher than 40Mbps.

I expect to see somewhere between 35Mbps and 40Mbps since that is what I have previously always seen.

@ferguson wrote:
Of course it is capped, that is what you signed up to.

Not sure what you mean. I guess when signing up we do kind of implicitly agree that the DLM can make changes to our line profile that it thinks are necessary. I believe that has happened, and I was just asking if a member of staff could confirm that?

@ferguson wrote:
The fact that your SNR shows as it does simply means that there is potential for more if you switch to a faster service.

Like I have said, I have previously always seen speeds slightly higher than 35Mbps at an SNR of 6dB. Recently (last few weeks maybe, not sure) it has been syncing at almost exactly 35Mbps at an SNR of 8dB which leads me to suspect that a 35Mbps cap has been applied. There is no faster service available that I can move to.

@ferguson wrote:
I think you have been immensely rude in the way you have characterised the staff response, which seems to be perfectly clear.

The member of staff has quite clearly quoted the estimated speeds as stated in my contract, but that is not the question I asked.

I'm sorry if you thought I was rude, but it is very frustrating when they fail to understand what I thought that was a very simple and straightforward question, which should have easily answered in 2 minutes.

I'll repeat my question again in the hope of making it as clear as possible:

I am asking is for a member of staff to please check the actual line stats and confirm if the DLM has capped my sync speed at 35Mbps.

I do realise with the Easter holiday, staff will likely not be back at work now until Tuesday.

Re: Speed Cap?

ferguson — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:12:45 GMT

Do you leave your router on 24/7 as a rule? If so, as a one off, try switching it off for a full 30 minutes, this should be enough to restart the session and kickstart DLM if that is indeed the problem.

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 21:00:09 GMT

@ferguson wrote:
Do you leave your router on 24/7 as a rule?

No, I generally switch it off when leaving the house an switch it on when I get home.

I understand that many people have a "leave it on 24/7" philosophy, but years of experience has shown me that one or two off/on cycles per day is nowhere near enough to trick the DLM into taking action, particularly when it is always left off for much more than 30 mins before being powered back on.

@ferguson wrote:
try switching it off for a full 30 minutes, this should be enough to restart the session and kickstart DLM if that is indeed the problem.

As I said, it is normally powered off for well over 30 mins most days, and in any case I believe the "trick" you describe only really works in cases where the session has got screwed up such that the sync speed has remained good but the throughput speed has become disproportionately slow.

To clarify, what I am taking about is that every time I power on the router, it has always synced at somewhere between 35 and 40Mbps at round about the target SNR. The exact sync speed would vary slightly from day to day. (perhaps environmental factors like temperature, humidity etc affecting the exact line quality at the time of negotiation, I really don't know)

Recently however (I'm not sure for how long) each time powering on the router the sync speed is suspiciously always almost exactly 35Mbps at 8dB SNR. Hence, me asking the question.

The speed difference is very small and for all practical purposes doesn't affect my use of the internet. I just wanted confirmation of what was going on and thought, as I said, that it would only take staff a couple of minutes to do so.

I had not envisaged myself, yourself, and others having to spend as much time and energy to get a simple answer to a simple question.

Re: Speed Cap?

ferguson — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 21:10:20 GMT

Well, if you switch it on and off regularly then there's your answer. Maybe try leaving it on for a while and see if DLM starts to look kindly on your connection? Otherwise, you really haven't got an issue.

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 21:23:01 GMT

@ferguson wrote:
Well, if you switch it on and off regularly then there's your answer.

Like I said, switching off/on most days for many years has never triggered DLM action in the past so I don't think that's the answer

@ferguson wrote:
Maybe try leaving it on for a while and see if DLM starts to look kindly on your connection?

Yes, that is a logical suggestion. I had thought of that but it is difficult for me to implement as I am not comfortable leaving electrical equipment powered on when I am not at home (with a few obvious exceptions), even if the risk of any potential disaster is low.

Re: Speed Cap?

ferguson — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 22:03:17 GMT

Why not add the router to the obvious exceptions? Is it more or less likely to spontaneously burst into flames than your alarm system, doorbell, fridge, freezer etc? Do you reset your microwave and oven clocks every day? I am all for safety and energy conservation, but sometimes?

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 22:39:03 GMT

It an overall risk assessment @ferguson

While the router will only use a small amount of power and the fire risk is low, weighed up against no obvious benefit to having it powered on when nobody is using it, I don't see the point in taking the (admittedly low) risk.

With a fridge, on the other hand, I would consider the risk of food poisoning is greater than the risk of fire so it stays on.

At the risk of going off on a tangent, but you did give the (I think rather odd) example:

Microwave gets switched on when needed to heat food and switched off afterwards, as does the cooker/oven and most other appliances. The Microwave clock never gets set because I've never even considered the need to have a clock on a microwave (or a cooker which doesn't have a clock anyway)

Re: Speed Cap?

ferguson — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 22:42:53 GMT

OK. Have a happy life as you are, we all do our own thing. Just don't complain if your broadband isn't even actually underperforming. 🙂

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 23:18:56 GMT

It is kind of underperforming (slightly) in the sense that I know the line is capable of a little bit more speed, but I don't recall ever saying that I was raising a "complaint", I have stated many times that was simply trying to ask a question.

Re: Speed Cap?

Chris-TalkTalk — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 09:10:31 GMT

Hi AllyM,

I can confirm that your sync speed is being capped at 35Mbps by the line profile set by DLM. Are you experiencing any problems with your telephone service, any noise on the line?

Chris

Re: Speed Cap?

AllyM — Sun, 20 Apr 2025 18:16:00 GMT

Thanks for your reply @Chris-TalkTalk

I've connected up a landline phone and there doesn't appear to be any audible noise on the line. Router stats also show no errored seconds in last 18 hours since last power on at time of writing so I'm guessing whatever event triggered the DLM to take action was an isolated incident.