I've been shaped for months

[TOPSie]

It says "welcome back" at the top of my screen. I used to be an ntl: cable customer, and was happy with my 1Mb link, which got automatically upgraded to 2Mb then 4Mb so I was a pretty happy bunny. The we moved house, only down the road, still "in area" but due to lack of foresight by the builder of this brand new (2006) house, or lack of investment by VM or the government or something, there is no cable in this road, which has still not got its final surface. So I went with a Virgin phone/broadband bundle down a BT wire "up to 8Mb". Now I know there are issues within these walls with the wiring of the (BT) sockets and the best I ever get is about 1Mb. But sad old git that I am - I am still fairly content with that.
But for months now, and I do mean months, the service(?) has shown marked deterioration particularly through the evening. Last week I got an email entitled "Improving your broadband service", (don't know which dictionary definition of "improving" they are using), but it simply points to their new Ts&Cs where it says they can cap you if you break their fair usage policy.

So I decided to take some measurements. Now I know that the figures are not absolutes, but I always take them in the same conditions within my house - no downloads or other network activity.

At "good" times I get a fairly consistent download speed of 900 Kilobits per second. Through the evening it dips dramatically often to below half of this figure, and for the last hour it is running at 90 kilobits per second. Less than one tenth of my good average.

Now I wouldn't say my usage is even average - just some regular browsing, but apart from a burst at the weekend when I download a single (large) file - which I won't be doing again after the next 2 weekends! - until a new series next year?)
So I cannot see how I could possibly be incurring the wrath of the "shape police". I read elsewhere in this forum, that the capping should be lifted after 4 hours - not my experience - 4pm to midnight is consistently bad.

Until I got the VM "Improving" note I was blaming BT for not having thick enough copper, but now I am inclined to believe it is Virgin which has the lack of capacity.

Views - comments - or related rants are welcome

[ferretuk]

You're not being traffic shaped, you are experiencing issues related to contention.

[fizgog]

I wouldn't recommend Virgin Media over a non cable network, how much is that costing you, as you can get Sky TV, Phone and Broadband for £26.

[flowrebmit]

I am still a newbie here but I haven't noticed much discussion of ADSL on this site.

Oops, I've decided to remove the link to another site because I've just realised that I might have broken the rules, not sure thought it was better to be safe than sorry,

[v0id]

I wouldn't recommend Virgin Media over a non cable network, how much is that costing you, as you can get Sky TV, Phone and Broadband for £26.

surely you mean £37 incl. the BT line rental ;)

[fizgog]

surely you mean £37 incl. the BT line rental ;)

Yes I forgot about wonderfull BT ;)

[TOPSie]

You're not being traffic shaped, you are experiencing issues related to contention.
Could you define "contension", because if it is my first thought that the problem is congestion on BT's copper/exchange whatever, then it doesn't make any difference who my ISP is because they all have to use the same physical wires I would get the same preformance no matter who I paid.
(I shopped around last night at Be(?) are offering 24Mb down the phone - but when I told them my phone number they said I was too far from the exchange)

[TOPSie]

or even "contention"

[Mick Fisher]

Think of contention as if you have a 15mm water supply pipe and 50 people have a tap connected to that pipe. If they all fully open there tap at the same time then it is probable that there would not be enough water to service all their needs at the same time.

If contention was kept in bounds it would not be a biggie but with the increased uptake of BB and the ever increasing speeds coupled with the reluctence of ISP to upgrade capacity, contention has now become just plain over subscription and seems to be actually slowing down the entire internet.

:) If not the entire internet then VM's international routing at the least.

[TOPSie]

As I experience the same slow down when doing downloads from Virgin's own news server as general browsing, then I assume the contention is between my home and the Virgin servers. Is it possible to pin it down further, my line to the exchange, or exchange to Virgin, or undercapacity at VM?