XL 20Meg - What is an acceptable level of drop off in download speed?

[Noggo]

I'm currently on XL BB and I'm wondering what other Virgin media users class as an acceptable level of drop off in download speed. Day after day I see the same drop off in speed, tech support think there is no problem:

According to google 20480000 bits/sec = 2.44140625 MB/s. To me an acceptable level would be around 2/3 of the maximum, which should be around 1.62 MB/s

These are the figures from the last day and an half (four simultaneous downloads, two from fuller.zen.co.uk/test and two from gamefiles.virginmedia.com)

28th March 2008
09:48 - 2521 KB/s
12:12 - 1581 KB/s
14:20 - 1106 KB/s
16:28 - 926 KB/s
18:29 - 1304 KB/s

29th March 2008
09:24 - 2375 KB/s
11:12 - 1086 KB/s
12:13 - 268.5 KB/s

[foreverwar]

Are you hitting the STM limits?

[Noggo]

No STM limits hit, Upload always around 700 kbps

[Joxer]

Looks like an oversubscription issue to me, judging by the times the dropoff is happening. The test at 12:13 today is appaling, if it's still going on I'd contact support either by phone or on the newsgroups.

[chickendippers]

Have you posted on the Newsgroup? My speed is slow, I posted my modem logs and signal levels. Now a tech is coming round to boost my signal (or some such).

[Noggo]

Basically I've been having issues for ages now and in February I was told by VM, that the capacity problem with the UBR I'm on will be resolved on 19 April 2008 (subject to change). Then I got told the problems had been resolved by re-routing on the UBR, but my issues continued to happen. So I got back in contact with support, basically there answer to me is:-

"Tests on your connection do show that around midnight the SNR level had
dropped although this looks to have been restored around 2 AM. None of the
other checks show any issues with the connection"

"Checks show that in the last 24 hours, the downstream was hitting maximum
for less than 30 minutes, and is currently not hitting the trigger for us to
raise as an issue. Once it reaches a certain threshold, then it triggers a
warning to the networks team to start the upgrade process, this trigger
point is lower than what we use to raise the issue, and as yet there are no
dates as to when they will be implemented. At this time there is ample
capacity on your connection, so utilisation issues would not be causing you
a problem."

Yet, someone who lives less than half and mile away from me on the same UBR, gets this response:

"I have made a change from our side to see if we can make any improvement to your connection. Please note that whilst there is an issue on your UBR you may continue to experience issues with your connection until this fault has been resolved.

--
Kind Regards
Sabri B****
Virgin Media Technical Support"

Left hand say hello to right hand for me will ya.

[Joxer]

UBRs have 24 cables, each with a number jof upstream channels (I think it's four) problems tend to be cable specific or may only effect certain upstream channels. Whilst you near neighbor may be on the same UBR they will almost certainly not be on the same cable. It is likely the change made to you neighbour was to change the upstream channel, though this tends to be temporary as the automatic load balancing is likely to swap it back.

[ufitm]

Originally Posted by Noggo

Basically I've been having issues for ages now and in February I was told by VM, that the capacity problem with the UBR I'm on will be resolved on 19 April 2008 (subject to change). Then I got told the problems had been resolved by re-routing on the UBR, but my issues continued to happen. So I got back in contact with support, basically there answer to me is:-

"Tests on your connection do show that around midnight the SNR level had
dropped although this looks to have been restored around 2 AM. None of the
other checks show any issues with the connection"

"Checks show that in the last 24 hours, the downstream was hitting maximum
for less than 30 minutes, and is currently not hitting the trigger for us to
raise as an issue. Once it reaches a certain threshold, then it triggers a
warning to the networks team to start the upgrade process, this trigger
point is lower than what we use to raise the issue, and as yet there are no
dates as to when they will be implemented. At this time there is ample
capacity on your connection, so utilisation issues would not be causing you
a problem."

Yet, someone who lives less than half and mile away from me on the same UBR, gets this response:

"I have made a change from our side to see if we can make any improvement to your connection. Please note that whilst there is an issue on your UBR you may continue to experience issues with your connection until this fault has been resolved.

--
Kind Regards
Sabri B****
Virgin Media Technical Support"

Left hand say hello to right hand for me will ya.

Hi noggo
It has not made any difference( just for short while it did)
if anything it is worse now was given a ticket ref n of 674973 today

but i have been told they do not know when it will done and not exactley in these words go the imperstion it a case of putting up
with it till it is done ufitm


---------- Post added at 21:44 ---------- Previous post was at 21:10 ----------

just asked if there was a fix date for our problem this the answer i got back from support group.
Hi

Nothing I can say at the min. Can you asked again Monday we may have more
info then.


Kind Regards
Virgin Media Technical Support
does not even show up on the status page which i find strange
just phoned the support line and a gent there said the isuse had been FIXED , and there are testing in we should be getting normal speeds in a 2 to 3 hours 9we will have to wait and see

[what?]

just had a check up on it for you.
the issue is not resolved. still logged on the internal status page.
the initial fix time was set to 26th march which has obv now been passed with no updates on expected resolve time.
it has been assigned to another department as of the 25th and with them you will find that it can sometimes take weeks - occasionally months - for ubr upgrades to go through.

[Noggo]

Cheers what?

[ufitm]

when i was told it was fixed the gent from support, told it had been fixed at the time of my phone call and it was being tested then and everything should be fine in the time span i put on my post of 29/4/08

[IanGuy]

I seem to get around 15mb during peak and full 20mb off peak.

Doesn't bother me, still allows me alot due to the full upload speed i always retain.

[ufitm]

Originally Posted by Noggo

I'm currently on XL BB and I'm wondering what other Virgin media users class as an acceptable level of drop off in download speed. Day after day I see the same drop off in speed, tech support think there is no problem:

According to google 20480000 bits/sec = 2.44140625 MB/s. To me an acceptable level would be around 2/3 of the maximum, which should be around 1.62 MB/s

These are the figures from the last day and an half (four simultaneous downloads, two from fuller.zen.co.uk/test and two from gamefiles.virginmedia.com)

28th March 2008
09:48 - 2521 KB/s
12:12 - 1581 KB/s
14:20 - 1106 KB/s
16:28 - 926 KB/s
18:29 - 1304 KB/s

29th March 2008
09:24 - 2375 KB/s
11:12 - 1086 KB/s
12:13 - 268.5 KB/s

Hi noggo
are you still having trouble with your speeds or have the sort you out yet
because mine are still rubish for some time during the day and that period is seaming long each day they still say it the ubr , but still not got a fix date
yet ,or any idea . do you know anymore about it

[hokkers999]

Originally Posted by Noggo

I'm currently on XL BB and I'm wondering what other Virgin media users class as an acceptable level of drop off in download speed.

[snip]

Acceptable - NONE! Put up with it you will, I downgraded to the 2 meg service and ever since it has been absolutely rock solid, always get the full 2 meg (at least 95% anyway).

I just hope when the upgrades are done later this year that the 2 meg tier remains.

[Noggo]

Ufitm,

Yep, still got problems. Tech visit last Tuesday, no faults found from what he can test (modem, cable for kinks etc) and he passed it on to his manager, who has rang and is currently arranging for more tests to be done at my connection point and in the street at a local level.

Back to the UBR, the original date given to me for the fix / upgrade was 19 April 2008 (even though officially VM have told me the UBR issues have been resolved, but `what?’ above says differently from what he can see on the internal status page) and my reduced monthly charge was agreed with the 19th April as the resolved date, so VM have another 10 days or so before another letter or phone call goes in for even more money off.

Plus as the BT exchange is 24M ADSL2+ enabled now, I might be ordering it or 8M ADSL Max. 5.5Mb/s constant day or night + stable latency with a neighbour over the road with BT, so I'm guessing ADSL2+ will give around 17Mb/s (although I'm not really that concerned about download speed, more interested in stable connection for gaming as it is my primary use for the connection). But it all depends on what package I can find on a one month rolling contract because when cable works it works well, so I'm reluctant to switch totally away from it.

Even though I’ve given VM more than enough time to fix the problems. It will be nearly six months to the day from when I first reported a problem via e-contact (that’s if it gets sorted out next week on the 19th April). I’ve noticed that there isn’t a lot of planned maintenance for April on the VM website http://status-cable.virginmedia.com/...maintenance.do.