Broadband speeds & Copyright 3 Strikes

[info4u]

Ok I feel this is a terrible level of service I am getting recently from Virgin Media on the broadband

Now 98% of the time I have no issues,
Mainly because I am at work during the day, come home and use Facebook and MSN so nothing really that demands high bandwidth

Might occasionally play on the PS2 online or watch some videos of youtube (13MB of data for a 15 min video for instance as its FLV format)

However getting to the point, they have stated the 3 strikes on illegal downloads and yoru off the system, they also claim to have suitable speeds for live streaming

Some say,
Well if I cannot download movies etc illegally why have a broadband service

Well you can still watch live streaming legally
Paid video downloads of websites
Live TV Streaming (www.wwitv.com for instance)
Live radio (www.di.fm for instance) so forth

So you can still get a legal version of live streaming without copyright infringement.

However they once advertised it as being suitable for video streaming
I tried watching Pushing Daisies which I missed the first 2 episodes but people have been talking about it at work so I thought id watch it online direct from the ITV website

http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/Video/def...5&Filter=17732

5 Mins of streaming took 20 mins to watch because my modem keept cutting off and loosing connection, not just with the ITV website but as a whole with this site it took 3 attempts to get this page to show

So not being able to watch it LEGALLY makes me more tempted to go to piratebay (no link supplied) or other illegal download sites and download the content to watch without it being spoiled

As I feel the first part of it was spoiled by me having to watch 3 mins, pause for connection for 3-5 mins, another 2 mins then pause for another 5 mins so on

It made it pointless and a poor experiance at live streaming, not only this but tedious and flustrating

You cannot technically report it as a fault because there is connection there, its just not enough for all their customers.

So I called customer services and reported it
So at the end of the month when they pull their stats off to see what customers have complained about there will be 1 more to the list of SLOW CONNECTION

And I suggest you call in on this and do the same

DONT YELL at the advisor

Working in call centres and having worked for them once, it causes the agent to be more put off helping you than wanting to help, never the less they will still log it as its their job plus lets face it, the agents at the other end of the phone cannot correct the slow connection for people, they can send a refresh signal and temporary boost signal but its not a permanent fix.

So talk calmly, report the issue and the guys above will pick up on it and will have to act and prioritise the problem when they have X amount of complaints coming thought about that


I also mentioned there trying to get publicity with the 3 stikes and yoru out
What they spent probably the best half of 2 months thinking up the system
and yet I can go to www.VDownloader.es download that programme and I can then download music videos, and any other video directly from YOUTUBE
a website they will not monitoring and not capable of detecting it as high bandwidth use as the files always tend to be at about 1.5MB to 3MB at a time

Thats 20 seconds max download time

[refraction]

Which service are you on? 2meg? 4meg? 10meg? 20meg?

[info4u]

Originally Posted by refraction

Which service are you on? 2meg? 4meg? 10meg? 20meg?

4 Meg

[refraction]

might wanna try squeezing a better connection out of them. if youve been a customer more than 12 months see if you can get your broadband speed increased. the 2 lower tier broadband packages pretty much do suck, but the speed is awsome when you get on the 10-20meg services. Streaming really isnt a problem with it.

[whydoIneedatech]

Originally Posted by info4u

4 Meg

You are due an automatic upgrade to 10 meg sometime this year.

[info4u]

Originally Posted by whydoIneedatech

You are due an automatic upgrade to 10 meg sometime this year.

Cant see the point in upgrading etc when they cannot seem to deliver a good service on the speeds they got in existance

I think there eyes are bigger than their bellys

Yes they can say mm 10meg but if you get that 10meg for 1hr a day id rather stay at the 4 lol

[whydoIneedatech]

Originally Posted by info4u

Cant see the point in upgrading etc when they cannot seem to deliver a good service on the speeds they got in existance

I think there eyes are bigger than their bellys

Yes they can say mm 10meg but if you get that 10meg for 1hr a day id rather stay at the 4 lol

I know what your saying but it will be an automatic upgrade and for free

[refraction]

well the good thing about having 10meg, when they cap you the limit is half useable.

4meg generally gets you about 2meg down and 256kps up which is neglegable (especially with their servers dropping your packets) when streaming, but with 10meg you get 5mbit/386kbps so its not quite a big loss and its still very usable for streaming.

[info4u]

Still should be able to watch a streaming without interruption on a 512Kps stream on 2meg, specially when only using MSN as my only other internet access.

Its not just slow connection but loss of connection every 3-4 minutes

This is not as bad when its just general browsing

tends to happen mostly about 9-11pm

[refraction]

connection loss should be a non-existant or rare thing on cable. What stats are being churned out from your modem?

[ceedee]

I suspect the reason that info4u had problems streaming from ITV's CatchUp had more to do with itv's service than VM's -- maybe it would be watchable during the day?
Perhaps info4u's connection is less than optimal?

I get fairly high-quality streamed video (around 100kB/s) on my 4Mb connection at pretty much all times of the day with hardly any problems.

@refraction -- you might want to check those STM figures?

[refraction]

Originally Posted by ceedee

@refraction -- you might want to check those STM figures?

they pretty much back up what i say about people on the lower packages getting screwed over :p as i said, i was on 2mbit before and it was like being on dialup, since getting 20mbit its been lovely, even when capped.

Not looking forward to their trial ones kicking in down this neck of the woods though.

[info4u]

Originally Posted by ceedee

I suspect the reason that info4u had problems streaming from ITV's CatchUp had more to do with itv's service than VM's -- maybe it would be watchable during the day?
Perhaps info4u's connection is less than optimal?

I get fairly high-quality streamed video (around 100kB/s) on my 4Mb connection at pretty much all times of the day with hardly any problems.

@refraction -- you might want to check those STM figures?

I would normally agree with you on the fact it may be issues with ITVs servers delivering the data, however when the data light stops and other pages that i then load such as Google, CableForum, Youtube or Facebook to name but a few don;t load and I get Page cannot be displayed, that then becomes a clean indication nothing is coming down the lines to me.

about 5 mins later the service comes back on.

I do agree it is rare in the whole of the 5yrs of service Ive had with Telewest/Virgin Media its only recently this is happening, more and more frequently

---------- Post added at 17:25 ---------- Previous post was at 17:23 ----------

could i also ask what you mean by SMT?

[Frank]

I doubt Virgin Media will be implementing any three strikes policy any time soon, the European Parliament already rejected the very principle of three strikes and your internet access is suspended. Not that Virgin Media has a problem interfering in customers civil liberties, but hey.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...s-vm-listening

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by info4u

I would normally agree with you on the fact it may be issues with ITVs servers delivering the data, however when the data light stops and other pages that i then load such as Google, CableForum, Youtube or Facebook to name but a few don;t load and I get Page cannot be displayed, that then becomes a clean indication nothing is coming down the lines to me.

about 5 mins later the service comes back on.

I do agree it is rare in the whole of the 5yrs of service Ive had with Telewest/Virgin Media its only recently this is happening, more and more frequently

If it happens again, it would be very useful if you could do a netstat -a (here's how) and a tracert (a what?) to whichever website you can't reach, then copy both reports and post them back to this thread.

could i also ask what you mean by SMT?

Subscriber Traffic Management: Basically VM's network can't cope with everyone accessing the internet at the same time.