View Full Version : A plea to Virgin Media: Please sort out my 1(0)Mbit connection
Virgin Media:
I have used xDSL for the past 6 years and have experienced good downloading performance using various ISP's.
I decided to consolidate my television and broadband by subscribing to the 10Mbit Virgin Media offering.
The first thing I tried is to download a file from a local site. I got a healthy 1.1Mbytes/sec. But at the time I didn't realise that my first test was out of peak hours.
Coming home from work in the evenings, I like to surf the web like most others. The problem I am suffering from is that my line behaves more like a 1Mbit connection, about 120Kbytes/sec.
Why should I pay all that money and get a crappy service of a 1Mbit line!
I am most upset that I have entered into a 12 month contract and receive such a poor service like this. Please sort out my connection. I can only think that UBR10 in New Market is severly oversubscribed.
Not happy,
loiphin.:(
erm, this site is not part of Virgin Media.
Kooshini
13-02-2007, 22:28
I am too utterly disgusted with the service shown over the last few days. All you have to do is look at the amount of comments around the web regarding this new shaping system already.
I still unable to grasp the concept that shaping traffic is "better" when all they are doing is restricting your connection when you want to use it, and in turn giving you the actual speed you are paying for while you are in bed. All this so that people who are freely admitting to downloading 200gig plus are caning the broadband network off peak as it suits the new Virgin toss pot bosses.
not happy!
Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:18:52 GMT
Overall Average Speed = approx 887 Kbps, 0.87 Mbps
^^ 10Mb broadband?
When will you listen!!
It is advertised as upto 10MB
Is unlimited, just because speeds drop does not mean you can't download!!
Why is everyone so inpatient!! I have 10Mb, I don't mind if my speeds drop, I just downlaod when I go to bed.
It's not like you can't browse the web, stop wincing and read the website!
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=3246
Simple if you don't like it, leave and find another isp!!!
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/88.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
As an ex employee I can shed some light on some cenarious that may help you...
1) Are you USB connected? - This is an old form so you might not be now as it was questioned in september time which was 2 months before I left.
If so there is a limit USB ports will do on transmitting data back and forth, therefore not your connection
2) I agree with the above comment, the advertising does clearly state UPTO 10 Meg as per any other company when they advertise, they always say UPTO as companies dont wish to make a commitment incase of high traffic or faults with technology (as technology can go wrong) as there would be high compensations and losses if they made the promises they may not be able to deliver (Due to technology fails and unpredicted number of users)
3) 1 Meg connection is still fast, I remember when I started working at Telewest in 2003 the highest speeds you could get where...
250kps - 512kps and 1meg
And it was advertising how you could download music and photos in no time, so unless your downloading movies or live streaming you wont really notice the loss,
And even live streaming can show a nice picture at 500kps (see ministry of sound TV for instance)
4) Are you testing YOUR SPEED or the SPEED OF THE SERVER
Speed tests are simply done by counting how long it takes to download a file and then working out the connection speed you have,
If the server can only send 5meg per second then thats all your going to record. If the server is sending the same file out to 10,000 users (Example a popular site) then their server limits are strained, slowing down the delivery to your PC (As you will probably notice now mentioned on channel 999)
5) are you downloading high usage of data, normally when people are file sharing, word of warning, government asked last year for ISP providers to now pass on the details of any person who may be copying music / software.
Last year 2 children's parents where fined £10K for downloads they had made on their PC, their ISP where asked to report any users with high bandwidth to the government to then confiscate their PC.
(obviously downloads made via purchased sites would be excluded, but how many people start downloading for 7 continuous days and high number of packets of data) probably on a 10meg 30 DVDs or more costing over £450?
The Jackal
14-02-2007, 00:27
Well as per other threads - Virgin in suffering having inherited such a run down system so lets just be patient with them until they get their hands more dirty.
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/87.png
When will you listen!!
It is advertised as upto 10MB
Is unlimited, just because speeds drop does not mean you can't download!!
Why is everyone so inpatient!! I have 10Mb, I don't mind if my speeds drop, I just downlaod when I go to bed.
It's not like you can't browse the web, stop wincing and read the website!
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=3246
Simple if you don't like it, leave and find another isp!!!
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/88.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
UPTO
Is the word many businesses use to try and cover their arses.
UPTO can mean you will have speeds anywhere to 10mb
or
UPTO as in not everyone can send at 10mb speeds.
But tell that to the people who have been pulled into the idea they are getting 10mb speeds all the time.
Like all businesses they will say anything to get you in and say the opposite after it.
From what I remember there is a bill getting passed or going to be tried to get passed, which forces ISP's to give the correct information for new accounts. I.E. The allocated bandwith they will receive and not an UPTO bandwith.
So you can use your "when will you listen" theory, but at the end of the day thats for your speeds you get downloading, NOT the bandwith allocated to you anyway.
Well as per other threads - Virgin in suffering having inherited such a run down system so lets just be patient with them until they get their hands more dirty.
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/87.png
Whos your ISP with that kind of upload speed
The Jackal
14-02-2007, 00:33
Whos your ISP with that kind of upload speed
Do you want to see it 10 times faster than that and do you have 5grand a month to spend ?
Yeah but in all fairness as mentioned, the "Up to" is how all companies advertise this...
Example...
BT:
BT Website (http://www.bt.com/broadband/bb_info.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1072554604.1171413725 @@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckaddkeghhmhkcflgcefkdffndfki.0&s_cid=HP_TotalBB_Bulletlistlink&obsNoSee=Y&vStore=1128&obsPage=/index.jsp&obsType=LINK&obsOID=112066)
Sky:
Sky Website (http://broadband.sky.com/) Click on Skip on the flash document to see how many "Up To's" you see
aol
orange
vodaphone
list goes on...
As mentioned it is what protects companies against technological failure and unexpected high numbers of traffic.
Because this is across the board you would get the same with all companies and it would boil down to high expectations and how you have personally perceived the wording.
For NTL regions I belive its making changes to match Telewest's speeds therefore those area may experiance some hickups since its a new service for them.
Info4U:
1) 100 Mbit Ethernet
2) Sure, "upto 10Mbit" is fine.... but when you can only run at 10% of that, thats bullsh*t!! I would be happy with 6-7Mbits , but not 1Mbit!
3) Sorry, its 2007, 1Mbit is not fast. And yes, I had a 1200baud modem in 1987, so I can appreciate speed increases over the years.
4) Tested my connection by FTP'ing MANY local sites. So I know exactly how my connection behaves, and its not the server being the limiting factor.
5) Sometimes I d/l alot of data, but I am not someone who is on P2P 24/7.
loiphin.
janipewter
14-02-2007, 12:57
10Mb at its best:
1st 512K took 26906 ms = 19 KB/sec, approx 157 Kbps, 0.15 Mbps
2nd 512K took 23031 ms = 22.2 KB/sec, approx 183 Kbps, 0.18 Mbps
3rd 512K took 22907 ms = 22.4 KB/sec, approx 185 Kbps, 0.18 Mbps
4th 512K took 22172 ms = 23.1 KB/sec, approx 190 Kbps, 0.19 Mbps
Overall Average Speed = approx 179 Kbps, 0.18 Mbps
foreverwar:
Well I am sure Virgin Media are clever enough to read this forum.
Well this is my findings:
When I am 4mbit, I generally get anytime of the day 4mbit (depending on Site of course) and 400K upload. When I have jumped Ship many times to get 10mbit I noticed a bad thing - During the hours which I use the computer, which are I guess called peak (7pm - 11pm), 10mbit actec more like 1-2mbit most of the time and the odd time I was on past 11pm - it shot back upto 10mbit no problem.
Personally I would rather pay £25 a month and get s steady 4mbit all the time then shell out £35 for a very limited connection at the times I can use the thing. I could understand it coming in at 4 mbit as the system seems to cope with this but to go lower then 4mbit (which seems to be the case) is very odd.
Kooshini
14-02-2007, 23:40
My Point exactly Mauldor,
If the situation doesn't improve i say everyone calls them up and simply boycotts the 10Mb XL (xtra laggy) product. If all they can provide you with is 3Mb connection when YOU want to use it we all may as well just all downgrade and hit them where it hurts...
or the other solution would be for us all to change jobs and work nights, this way we could use the 10Mb broadband we're paying £35 all day.
The only question that remains is... will downgrading to 4mb give you ISDN speeds when you get home from work? lol
Koosh
harmonyinfo
15-02-2007, 08:17
My Point exactly Mauldor,
If the situation doesn't improve i say everyone calls them up and simply boycotts the 10Mb XL (xtra laggy) product. If all they can provide you with is 3Mb connection when YOU want to use it we all may as well just all downgrade and hit them where it hurts...
I also tried 10Mb connection for a few months after having 4Mb. From early evening 4pm to midnight it was significantly worse than my 4Mb connection. So I downgraded it again. Basically it seems that Virgin Media's broadband network cannot provide 10Mb to many customers at the time when those are most likely to use it. It is false or at least misleading advertising to say up to 10Mb without any further qualifications, but as someone mentioned all the providers do this so it is not just VM that stretch the truth. Anyway, it seems that for your extra £10/month you are not getting any better equipment, or a higher speed channel for your broadband, or a better contention ratio. Or you seem to get is a different file in your modem to raise the capped speed.
Thanks Chaps!
Thats exactly my point too. Why bother paying extra when the service is in fact worse :(
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.