20MB - how is everyone else's doing?

[Sirpingalot]

Right now I'm getting 998Kb/s Down, and 670Kb/s Up. On the 20Mbit/s service. Fantastic!

[tvout]

Hmm...interesting. I just plugged the Cat5 cable from the modem directly into my laptop and rebooted the modem...
Went onto www.speedtest.net and got:
19156kb/s down and 698 up (I know speedtest isn't really reliable though...but quite a difference!)

On the simple speed test through my wireless connection I got about 4mb/s download, with direct connection:

Sun, 9 Dec 2007 12:59:56 UTC

Test 1: 1024K took 610 ms = 1678.7 KB/sec, approx 13832 Kbps, 13.51 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 609 ms = 1681.4 KB/sec, approx 13855 Kbps, 13.53 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 641 ms = 1597.5 KB/sec, approx 13163 Kbps, 12.85 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 1094 ms = 1872 KB/sec, approx 15425 Kbps, 15.06 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 14069 Kbps, 13.74 Mbps


To repeat this test from the source server click here.

How is everyone else connected? Are you using wired or wireless?
I'm wondering if a wireless connection should be causing that much loss in speed?

[lordy]

Originally Posted by deakin

Speedtest.net is less than useless. i've never got accurate results from that site. Try downloading a large file from here...

http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blueyondergames/

This should give you an indication of your true download speeds. when i grab anything from there i get about 1.65Mb,however i get the full 2Mb when grabbing stuff from virgins own news groups.

You might also want to give that a try too.

OK but what about if VMs peering with other ISPs is rubbish ? Does this still not affect your overall service whilst you can download from Virgins own servers happily.

I would say open a few connections to a UK based (non-virgin) NNTP server or Giganews(who have excellet peering hence their cost_ , for an idea of your overall speed.

[tvout]

Originally Posted by lordy

OK but what about if VMs peering with other ISPs is rubbish ? Does this still not affect your overall service whilst you can download from Virgins own servers happily.

I wondered that too, my experience is based on using non-VM sites (banking, ebay, google searches etc.). I don't use any of VM's services really apart from e-mail and PWP...

Do you think it's possible then that accessing sites outside of the VM network as such could be slower than a comparable ISP that offers a lower overall speed (e.g. 'up to 8mb' etc)...

Do you think people might go to an ISP based on their peering to other ISPs and the hosts of the sites they like giving good speed for general browsing or downloading as opposed to the potential download speed attainable? Pay for a cheaper and theoretically slower service but the sites you use regularly load much quicker...?

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by tvout

Do you think it's possible then that accessing sites outside of the VM network as such could be slower than a comparable ISP that offers a lower overall speed (e.g. 'up to 8mb' etc)...

Definately. it's the one thing that is overlooked by a person is the peering outside of VM's network. if it's their responsibility then it should be working efficiently, but is overlooked when asked to do a speedtest from their own server and then told a problem doesn't exist when that speed is ok.

Do you think people might go to an ISP based on their peering to other ISPs and the hosts of the sites they like giving good speed for general browsing or downloading as opposed to the potential download speed attainable? Pay for a cheaper and theoretically slower service but the sites you use regularly load much quicker...?

It may well do if people knew about how it should work. but many just go by the speed offered and not what makes a good ISP.

[Impz2002]

Well a quick speedtest i ran a few minutes ago yielded the following results. Not bad for 4:10pm on a Sunday afternoon ! Although as originally stated earlier in this thread speedtests are not an accurate way of testing connection speed.

Dec 09, 16:10pm - 19570 kbps (2.45MB/s) 729 kbps (91.1kB/s)

I am one of the lucky ones , last time i spoke to my mate at VM he said my UBR was under-subscribed , apparently it only ever runs at around 20 - 40% capacity as there isn't that many BB customers around here let alone cloners !

So when it works properly its a dream , i get full whack ALL the time , without fail ! and unless there is a sudden uptake of BB around here I expect it to stay this way.

I hope I have not just tempted fate !

Impz

[pigpen]

Doing fine thanks. Rock solid 20mbit off peak and anywhere between 10-15mbit at peak time.

Never had any issues with latency either if anyone is wondering about that too.

[smeagoly1]

A few months ago I mailed VM tech support and behold my download jumped from constant 5meg to between 17 - 19 Meg at 45ms ping...so was a mega happy bunny...

Moved house, great install, tested ok 19meg average Downlaod at 80ping, several times during the first day...then from day 2 the ping is constantly around 170ms, making gaming a no go.

For average download speeds it's excellent just not so for the new pings

[clanelliott]

signed up for 20meg a few months back and got good speeds, now however over the last 2 weeks i have been running speed tests 3 times a day, early am, teatime and late pm
upload 0.73Mbps downloads 2.03-4.27Mbps
not a happy bunny

[gazzaaa]

Hi All,
over the last couple of weeks i have had a really slow "20mb" speed, best being around 4-5 mb. Having read this post i decided to use an optimiser. http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php There is no installation and has a setting that optomises all of your settings, all you have to do is say what speed you should have (mine 20mb), and what network card you are using.(mine built in Marvel Yukon). Then just select "optimise" and restart your computer. Marvelous, tested the speed and I had 19mb and 12mb (at different times). I would recomend it to all that are having a problem, before speaking to Virgin.

thanks,
Gary

[clanelliott]

Update:- phoned VM they asked me to switch off modem and PC, re start modem and PC but go into safe mode-networking (press F5 lots of times when PC starts up). when windows loads go onto w**.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk
results 3.12Mbps. They are sending out a engineer for no charge and giving back my phone call costs. Heres hoping back to 20meg soon!!

[paulu781]

Utter rubbish here in south Manchester (on baguley I think).
Currently 1MBit (that's bit not byte) down.
I've had faster at 2am, but never get anything like 20MB. Off somewhere else as soon as I am out of contract. What a joke.