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Network Performance

Packet Drops per Pipe

Summary: We use a number of tools to keep an eye on the performance of our network. Here are some of the graphs used to monitor broadband packet drops. What you're seeing here is exactly what our Operations team see, so don't worry if you don't understand everything.

This page provides a per-pipe breakdown of the packets dropped on the Plusnet broadband network over the last 24 hours. See our Broadband Usage Graphs for an overall view of our network.

Packet drops per pipe

Packet drops are shown separately for six traffic queues:

Titanium (highest priority)
Gold
Gold Plated
Silver
Bronze
Best Effort

Traffic can be assigned to different queues depending on your broadband account (e.g. Gaming is classed as Gold on Value, but as Titanium on Extra and Pro). See our Traffic Prioritisation guide for more details.

When our systems are working correctly and the network is in balance you should see very few (if any) drops on titanium and gold traffic. The other queues are designed to drop traffic at peak times; this is to preserve the quality of the overall service. If you're seeing reduced speeds on your connection and there are no packet drops in these queues on your pipe, there could be congestion at your local exchange or a problem with your broadband.

Which pipe am I using?

First you'll need to find the gateway you're connected to, the Usertools Gateway Checker is the easiest way to do this.

Each graph represents a single pipe and the gateway for each pipe is shown in brackets at the end of each graph title (e.g ptn-ag1)

Once you know the gateway you're connected to, find the corresponding graph on this page to find which pipe you're using.

How can I change pipe?

If you want to connect via another pipe, then you should try disconnecting and reconnecting. This is best done via your router interface rather than by physically rebooting. We use load balancing to decide which pipe you'll be connected to (we try and keep the amount of users on each pipe at a similar level) so you may have to try this a few times.