View Full Version : 4Mb connection keeps going back to 2Mb
Hello all,
Since a few days my internet connection keeps jumping back to 2Mb while it should be 4Mb. It always starts OK but after about 30 minutes it switches over. I have called the CS and TS 4 or 5 times now and every time they say "it will stay on 4Mb now" but it doesn't :( .
Any ideas from you guys and girls?
Regards,
Rokos
This is the packet shaping thing that's getting trialled in the north west. Hopefully the trial will be a failure so we can all have back our usually great connections.
Hello Caster, thanks for your reply. I'll talk to VM about this and see what they say.
There's probably not much they can do about it, but you never know they might give you a few free months on 10Mb aka 5Mb most of the time ;).
That is the least they can do. It is not much use paying for 4meg but only being able to use that for 30 minutes a day. I'll let you know the result :) .
Turns out it has to do with a 1GB download "limit" a day. If you go over this 1GB it halves your speed for the rest of the day :mad: . Vaguely remember a letter about that.
What I don't understand is that you have to say "is there some sort of download limit?" for TS to realise that this is what's causing the 'problem' :banghead: .
Turns out it has to do with a 1GB download "limit" a day. If you go over this 1GB it halves your speed for the rest of the day :mad: . Vaguely remember a letter about that.
What I don't understand is that you have to say "is there some sort of download limit?" for TS to realise that this is what's causing the 'problem' :banghead: .
I'm sorry but you have been lied to as nothing like that exists. There is something with traffic shaping that lets you download a few gig and then halves your speed, then later on gives you the speed back but it's definately NOT 1gig a day. On 10mbit i can download 1gig in approx 15minutes so such limits would be stupid. :)
I'm glad i don't currently live in an area where the traffic shaping trials are going on.
I'm in the northwest and have been downloading a bit the last few days, I'm on a 4M link and was finding BitTorrent to be heavily shaped yesterday.
Normal max upload is ~45k/s, dropped to 23k/s then 11k/s then <7k/s during the day. Also all Voip calls were appalling quality yesterday (with the torrent off), but I then did a speedtest in the evening after the download was finished and it was showing about 3690kbits/367kbits.
Does anyone know if there is *specific* BitTorrent shaping trial going on?
Rokos If your connection is being alterd due to traffic shaping and you want to get the most out of your conneciton, then download between 12am and 4pm. You should get the full 4mbit download rate all the time in that period.
NewageIT
22-04-2007, 17:51
:confused: HI,
I live in Manchester, have the 4Mb Service but my download speeds, are consistently only 40% of what they should be. Check results at the following URL:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1165366
58.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
Anybody else with similiar problems, and what can be done about it? Have used Cybertweak, and Dan Ellwell's Broadband Speedcheck.
on in an hour!
22-04-2007, 17:55
I'm in the northwest and have been downloading a bit the last few days, I'm on a 4M link and was finding BitTorrent to be heavily shaped yesterday.
Normal max upload is ~45k/s, dropped to 23k/s then 11k/s then <7k/s during the day. Also all Voip calls were appalling quality yesterday (with the torrent off), but I then did a speedtest in the evening after the download was finished and it was showing about 3690kbits/367kbits.
Does anyone know if there is *specific* BitTorrent shaping trial going on?
this is the official customer facing statement 'as per our terms and conditions of service we ''reserve the right to manage traffic on our network to optimise the quality of service for all our broadband customers'' this is ONLY relevant to the ex NTL network and NOT ex telewest.within the current Ts & Cs the appropriate clause is: 'we reserve the right to monitor and control data volume and/or types of traffic transmitted via the interactive services and/or internet services'. further: 'as this technology will be used as and when necessary on the network to manage congestion issues (either those experienced now or expected),it is not possible to definitively state what restrictions will be applied and when'.and more:'this traffic management only impacts P2P file downloads,and not other internet services such as e-mail,newsgroups and web browsing.these controls will also impact the broadband plus service where P2P protocols are used (e.g. napster)
we have a user policy,available at www.ntlworld.com/userpolicy,which includes information about fair usage and usage allowances in section 20.2. all other major ISP;s also have Acceptable Use Policies.below is a list of P2P protocols that will be controlled:
100BAO
100GP2P
ARES
AudioGalaxy
BAIDU
BitTorrent
Blubster-MANOLITO
COOLGO
DIRECT CONNECT
EDONKEY
EXOSEE
FILETOPIA
FREENET
FURTHER
GNUTELLA
HOTLINE
JABBER
KAMUN
KAZAA
KONTIKI
KURO
MADSTER-AIMSTER
MANOLITO
MUTE
NAPSTER
POCO
QQ
REALLINK
SHARE
SORIBADA
SOUGOOD
SOULSEEK
THUNDER
WASTE
WINand finally 'to deliver the highest quality of service possible we use traffic management technology to manage peer-to-peer file downloads in areas where we believe that customer affecting issues would be generated otherwise.This is done in conjunction with our continuous work to build out our network to meet the capacity needs of our network and our customers'
sorry if this is a bit vauge but its all i could find!!
So why has it been throttling VOIP traffic as well??
The throttling has been cutting in almost immediately on BT traffic at anytime of day, over the last few days, not just in the evenings, though a speedtest at the same time shows my link is still 4M.
Still I hear they are upgrading capacity at the moment and the throttling may go away eventually.
ECW_Original
23-04-2007, 01:57
1 question about this "shaping" or whatever it is, surely with masses of people downloading their stuff at early hours of the morning to get full speeds, wouldnt that just have a bad effect on the network anyway? in theory, this time would become the "new peak time" and people would probably still be getting slow speeds, and we would be back at square 1 again!
Anyone agree? (PLEASE be nice!) :)
chrisjones
23-04-2007, 07:51
1 question about this "shaping" or whatever it is, surely with masses of people downloading their stuff at early hours of the morning to get full speeds, wouldnt that just have a bad effect on the network anyway? in theory, this time would become the "new peak time" and people would probably still be getting slow speeds, and we would be back at square 1 again!
Anyone agree? (PLEASE be nice!) :)
Your right to a point...... but consider this, will there be many p*ssed off customers calling C.S to complain about awfull speeds at 3am? Although many people will end up downloading over night, they wont actually be sat are thier machines 'using' thier net connection.
grubbymitts
23-04-2007, 20:14
Well, as a usenet user on Virgin I can say this: The traffic shaping drops my connection after 30 mins from 4mb to 2mb ONLY after 4pm. From 12am to 4pm I get, if I cared to abuse it so, 4mb straight.
I can live with that.
Have to say if they were trialling this in north west it seems that they are now trialling it in the south east as well :-)
I'm on 4mb but now seems like it's exactly 2mb.
Started in the Watford area from 26/4 .
Sirpingalot
27-04-2007, 20:27
My 10mbit connection has gone back to normal now. Does anyone know if this affects the whole of the North West, or just specific areas? I'm living around the Chester area...
Have to say if they were trialling this in north west it seems that they are now trialling it in the south east as well :-)
I'm on 4mb but now seems like it's exactly 2mb.
Started in the Watford area from 26/4 .
agreed, i'm in norfolk and am experiencing exactly the same speed issues, complete bobbins!:td::mad::mad::mad:
Well if you connection drops to 50% then odds are it's the shaping.
I mean I do some pretty ridiculous amounts downloading so I can't imagine if they have any shaping mechanism I'd be not targeted by it.
Will be interesting to see what happens at midnight, see if the tap suddenly turns up to full again.
gotta say it's refreshing to see someone admitting heavy usage rather than groaning and saying that they download very little, i would say i'm on the lower end of the downloading scale but it would still be nice to be able to utilise full speeds when i need them rather than when virgin say i can have them just because there are some really heavy users on the network, where does it all end..
Well as of 11pm it went back to 4 meg full speed again.
The timing was spot on 11, so it's definitely shaping.
I'm pragmatic about shaping really, I think if someone downloads flat stick all day every day every month they should be maybe chilled out during peak times.
I think a good idea would be to give you a gig or so of fullspeed data between 4 and 11 and if you pull down more than that you get crippled. If you want to go silly do it in off peak times.
It's not a nice precedent to set, and one must think they are bringing in these 'shaping' procedures in part to give themselves the capacity to bump speeds up, but then it's been nice while the true 'unlimited' lasted :)
Sirpingalot
28-04-2007, 04:41
Yeah, got to say, I'd really prefer just to stick with a solid, reliable 10mbit/s rather than an inconsistent 20mbit/s
I get half of my 2MB connection speed in the evenings as well. But not just on P2P, I get it when downloading from free host sites like rapidshare and even when just streaming video or audio from different websites...
It's just annoying... Why I get 1MB when I'm paying for 2MB...
I get half of my 2MB connection speed in the evenings as well. But not just on P2P, I get it when downloading from free host sites like rapidshare and even when just streaming video or audio from different websites...
It's just annoying... Why I get 1MB when I'm paying for 2MB...
Are you connecting via a pace set top box by any chance? Or Cable Modem?
Are you connecting via a pace set top box by any chance? Or Cable Modem?
No, I'm connected via VM 255 cable modem...
I do get 2MB connection speed in the mornings, so it's not a problem on my side, it's them capping me, because I download "a lot."
snip
You are referring to a user policy on the old ntlworld.com domain, you need to be more up to date.
No, I'm connected via VM 255 cable modem...
I do get 2MB connection speed in the mornings, so it's not a problem on my side, it's them capping me, because I download "a lot."
I fail to see how you can download "a lot" on a 2Mb connection to be honest...
Sirpingalot
29-04-2007, 17:03
I fail to see how you can download "a lot" on a 2Mb connection to be honest...
My thoughts exactly. If there's any throttling going on, it's not because of usage (assuming you haven't been hammering it 24/7).
Didn't the shaping only refer to 10Mb?
Didn't the shaping only refer to 10Mb?
That's what is meant to be happening, there was a post on here saying a tech admitted a fault with shaping that was affecting all tiers... I can't find it now. Might explain a lot.
I fail to see how you can download "a lot" on a 2Mb connection to be honest...
I read in another thread that they half ur speed for a day after u download 1GB. I do download just slightly more than 1GB on most days...
So that means 1GB is a lot to them...
Sirpingalot
29-04-2007, 17:26
Downloaded 2GB the other day with absolutely no problems. For the duration of the download, speeds remained consistent at 1.2mByte/s
---------- Post added at 17:26 ---------- Previous post was at 17:25 ----------
Downloaded 2GB the other day with absolutely no problems. For the duration of the download, speeds remained consistent at 1.2mByte/s
---------- Post added at 17:26 ---------- Previous post was at 17:25 ----------
They probably dont do capping in all areas yet...
I'm in Bromley, London, BR3...
Sirpingalot
29-04-2007, 17:37
Well, ironically, the capping is supposed to be going on in the northwest (where the heavy users are---or so I've been told), yet it appears to be happening in the less congested London.
Rapid_UK
29-04-2007, 18:21
im getting capped right now.
im gonna admit im a heavy downloader, ive downloaded aproximately 4gb today with my 4mb connection, and im not sure when but within the past 2 hours my connection has been dropped to 2mb.
Im in Essex btw, so not only North West, but all over it would seem.
Yeah I'm capped today too. Have done 3 gig today and it kicked in about half n hour ago, back to 2mb.
I'm in the Watford area.
It's certainly spread everywhere , pity Virgin had to takeover NTL ,I get the same cut in service after about 30 mins or so of dloading , managed a 700 mb file in less than 30 mins , then was seeding at 45k ,looked a little while later and it was only going at 22k ,so bang goes the 1 gb theory ,thats not how it happens, there must be some kind of bot that kicks in when Bt use is detected. Better start looking for a better ISP provider I suppose . 4mb for £25 is well expensive these days especially if it's only going to run at 2 mb when your at home to be able to use it :td: .I'm in Suffolk so thats bridging the gap between the NE and Essex a bit more. So the 10mb shaping law is not true , the 1 gb a day rule is not true , seems any file sharing of any type starts off the half speed .Is the new Sky BBand any good , if it is I might as well dump Virgin completely ,get Sky one back and maybe a better BBand service ?
slowvirgin
02-05-2007, 20:54
I've acceped a 50% discount on my 10Mb in the hope that something emerges when they go to 20Mb.
Currently I'm getting 1Mb in the eves which is no good for browsing. I've taken a 3 month commitment to Be but because of BT line quality, instead of 24Mb max, I get a consistent 5.5 --- but it is so much better for browsing than VM. Pathetic really!
Joe from Walthamstow
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