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ritch0s
27-03-2007, 02:09
Hello, ive got a problem which may sound familiar but customer support and the engineers are stumped.

The mystery starts with slow broadband speeds since we had the it installed (2meg in sept 06) - we upgraded to 10meg on 3 month trial on half price. When the trial finished we decided not to stay with 10 meg because we didnt notice that much of a difference we never got full speed or anything near. Thats the background.

Recently we are on another 3 month half price trial (as compensation for slow speeds and down time from before) and this time im making a big fuss about not getting speeds. typical off peak speeds for 10megabits/sec is 2.5megabits/sec (3 max) and peak 0.5megabits/sec. Upload is constantly 0.5megabits/sec no matter what time of day.

After speaking to VM technical support (in india it seems) for hours! and going through the whole debugging process "connect your modem directly to your pc via ethernet... blah blah" and "boot into safe mode and download this file" etc etc an engineer was finally called out to check the equipment. he found nothing wrong with anything. he checked signal levels and tinkered with the modem to find nothing. he even connected his own laptop to the modem and got the same speeds as me. he didnt know what the problem was - he said "it must be that 10mbits isnt enabled on the account - phoned them up and check".

When he left i phoned up VM (another hour phone call) and told them what he said - they said its definitely on 10 megabits we even cross-checked the mac address of the modem to make sure it was our modem that was meant to be getting the speed. i was put through to technical support again. they were saying that the line looked perfectly fine and it was working from their end. in the end they said it was my computer's anti virus and firewall. which makes no sense at all since the engineer didnt get the speeds himself (not to mention the other 4 people sharing the connection with various anti viruses and firewalls).

basically i need some good advice - what on earth is causing this??? any idea at all.

thanks you for taking the time to read this, hope to hear from you soon.

PS connection is in Brighton.

Uncle Peter
27-03-2007, 02:39
Check for yourself that your modem is actually enabled for 10MB:

Open a browser session to http://192.168.100.1

Login as root, password root

Browse to "Operation config." (left menu)

Check your max data rates. They should be like this:

Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000

Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 02:43
yup 10240000 and 512000.

any other ideas?

Uncle Peter
27-03-2007, 02:51
Based on what has already been tested and your signal levels being ok I would suspect something amiss with either your modem or at the UBR side.
Unfortunately it sounds like you're going to have to keep pestering.

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 03:08
the engineer tried to replace the modem but after waiting for ages for the new 1 to be activated he gave up. another engineer is coming thurs so i will chase that up to at least eliminate that possibility.

whats UBR? im guessing its something to do with the network load? i think that may be a possibility since most people on my road are students hence they mostly use cable and rinse the line.

do you think that if i complain enough that i can demand to be put on VM ADSL and that they pay my £11 BT line rental or take it out of the bill? :-/

has this ever happened before?

Uncle Peter
27-03-2007, 03:58
Well the UBR (Universal Broadband Router) is one of the core bits of the networking jigsaw where your modem terminates (a big horrible looking box full of cards :) ). If there's something amiss at this point then the engineer coming to your house isn't going to be able to sort it unfortunately. Fingers crossed that replacing your modem will do the trick.

EdwardTobia
27-03-2007, 11:19
are you connected via usb or ethernet? you should be connected via ethernet...

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 16:28
ethernet via router

AndyCambs
27-03-2007, 16:37
Have you tried directly into the modem (missing out the router)?

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 16:43
Have you tried directly into the modem (missing out the router)?

Yup many times, done it 3 times when speaking to technical support, done it on another computer (to rule out a fault on mine), done it in safe mode on XP and Vista and the engineer even done it on his own laptop.

it didnt make a difference. :(

Locky
27-03-2007, 16:49
more than likely oversubscribed area ?

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 16:53
more than likely oversubscribed area ?

that is probably true, but is there anything i can do about it? or do i just have to pay for 10meg and receive 2meg?

Locky
27-03-2007, 17:25
to be honest i dont think there is anything to you i would suggest tho downgradeing to either 2 or 4 meg until the problem (wether capacity or otherwise) is rectified, at least this way you wont be WASTEING money on a server you are not able to recieve

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 17:34
to be honest i dont think there is anything to you i would suggest tho downgradeing to either 2 or 4 meg until the problem (wether capacity or otherwise) is rectified, at least this way you wont be WASTEING money on a server you are not able to recieve


im scared that if i downgrade that i will also lose some speed. 2mb and 4mb will probably not get full speeds either if the area is oversubscribed? i need as much as i can get since there are 5 in the house all using it.

Locky
27-03-2007, 17:44
ahhh your not in a pretty situation then, i guess just try 4 meg for one month if you are not geting full speed / enough for the family then phone ntl and say i want to upgrade back to 10 but in the area a lot of users experienceing shocking speeds etc etc and maybe they will do something about it

ritch0s
27-03-2007, 17:52
im screwed.

Locky
27-03-2007, 17:55
i'm sorry but i cant think of anything other than downgradeing OR trying to use there advertiseing against them (they advertise they are 3x faster than bt tiscali and aol, and in this case, they clearly are not)

dcclanuk
27-03-2007, 18:16
i'm sorry but i cant think of anything other than downgradeing OR trying to use there advertiseing against them (they advertise they are 3x faster than bt tiscali and aol, and in this case, they clearly are not)

have you read the small print of that advert???

They compare VM's MAXIMUM SPEED WORKING IN OPTIMUM CONDITIONS, to the AVERAGE of the other ISP's. How fair is that!
I forgot... ur a cable fanboy, so u would obviously not think that is a problem!
I am not against/for VM! What they do good is said, and what they are not good on is said too!

Locky
27-03-2007, 18:41
Hello, ive got a problem which may sound familiar but customer support and the engineers are stumped.

The mystery starts with slow broadband speeds since we had the it installed (2meg in sept 06) - we upgraded to 10meg on 3 month trial on half price. When the trial finished we decided not to stay with 10 meg because we didnt notice that much of a difference we never got full speed or anything near. Thats the background.

Recently we are on another 3 month half price trial (as compensation for slow speeds and down time from before) and this time im making a big fuss about not getting speeds. typical off peak speeds for 10megabits/sec is 2.5megabits/sec (3 max) and peak 0.5megabits/sec. Upload is constantly 0.5megabits/sec no matter what time of day.

After speaking to VM technical support (in india it seems) for hours! and going through the whole debugging process "connect your modem directly to your pc via ethernet... blah blah" and "boot into safe mode and download this file" etc etc an engineer was finally called out to check the equipment. he found nothing wrong with anything. he checked signal levels and tinkered with the modem to find nothing. he even connected his own laptop to the modem and got the same speeds as me. he didnt know what the problem was - he said "it must be that 10mbits isnt enabled on the account - phoned them up and check".

When he left i phoned up VM (another hour phone call) and told them what he said - they said its definitely on 10 megabits we even cross-checked the mac address of the modem to make sure it was our modem that was meant to be getting the speed. i was put through to technical support again. they were saying that the line looked perfectly fine and it was working from their end. in the end they said it was my computer's anti virus and firewall. which makes no sense at all since the engineer didnt get the speeds himself (not to mention the other 4 people sharing the connection with various anti viruses and firewalls).

basically i need some good advice - what on earth is causing this??? any idea at all.

thanks you for taking the time to read this, hope to hear from you soon.

PS connection is in Brighton.

because he said that a line problem is ruled out...

ritch0s
28-03-2007, 02:59
MAGIC

Its somehow fixed itself? I havent changed anything but i noticed the net and ftp was a bit quicker i done a speed test and for the first time in ages im getting the correct speeds!

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/03/12.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

The Missing Bytes still remain a Mystery, but for now its working. The engineer is still due to come thursday shall i cancel or still get him to find out what caused it? Im worried they might charge me for call out now that the problem is fixed (touch wood) so far.

Uncle Peter
28-03-2007, 12:26
Have a look at the network status pages and check if any network optimisation was done in your area.

Locky
28-03-2007, 14:47
MAGIC

Its somehow fixed itself? I havent changed anything but i noticed the net and ftp was a bit quicker i done a speed test and for the first time in ages im getting the correct speeds!

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/03/12.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

The Missing Bytes still remain a Mystery, but for now its working. The engineer is still due to come thursday shall i cancel or still get him to find out what caused it? Im worried they might charge me for call out now that the problem is fixed (touch wood) so far.

glad you got it sorted, great speeds there indeed

Druchii
28-03-2007, 14:49
MAGIC

Its somehow fixed itself? I havent changed anything but i noticed the net and ftp was a bit quicker i done a speed test and for the first time in ages im getting the correct speeds!

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/03/12.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

The Missing Bytes still remain a Mystery, but for now its working. The engineer is still due to come thursday shall i cancel or still get him to find out what caused it? Im worried they might charge me for call out now that the problem is fixed (touch wood) so far.
They probably upgraded the UBR in your area, or did some balancing of loads. Possibly in anticipation of the new 20Mb service.

ritch0s
28-03-2007, 15:43
Theres nothing on the service status page about anything (unless im looking at the wrong page).

its slowed down now to 5meg speeds but i guess its acceptable at peak hours since its not "optimum conditions".

what do you think i should do about the engineer? cancel or risk getting a call out charge just so he can check for problems so that it doesnt happen again. im worried that the problem will come back.

im guessing you guys are right about it being at the UBR side of things since i managed to get 10meg at 1AM so that rules out a problem on the modem.

thanks for all your efforts.

Locky
28-03-2007, 15:50
Theres nothing on the service status page about anything (unless im looking at the wrong page).

its slowed down now to 5meg speeds but i guess its acceptable at peak hours since its not "optimum conditions".

what do you think i should do about the engineer? cancel or risk getting a call out charge just so he can check for problems so that it doesnt happen again. im worried that the problem will come back.

im guessing you guys are right about it being at the UBR side of things since i managed to get 10meg at 1AM so that rules out a problem on the modem.

thanks for all your efforts.

is it EXACTLY 5 meg speeds or is it hit and miss ?

ritch0s
28-03-2007, 16:59
is it EXACTLY 5 meg speeds or is it hit and miss ?

:/ Its gone right back down again.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/03/10.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

good thing i didnt cancel the engineer.

Locky
28-03-2007, 17:22
hmmm if it was up before it must be a serious congestion issue see what engi says first he knows more