View Full Version : ambit 100/120 with 20 meg
Hi all,
My general understanding is the ambit 100 and 120's are incapable of reaching 20 meg despite what the VM website says.
I have a ambit 120 and got upgraded yesterday and about from the odd blip i cant get above 12meg.
If VM say these modems are fine but we the actual users disagree how the hell am i supposed to convince virgin to send me a better modem?
Im worried about paying 25p a min for a fruitless phonecall. "Your modem is fine Mr Zanny....." no it isnt! etc etc.
MindfreeZe
27-06-2007, 09:51
Well i have bee told by many people that the 120 can reach speeds of up to about 30meg with the right config file. Are u sure that your bb has been upgraded? have u went in to the modem settings and checked the speeds?
rossco555
27-06-2007, 10:22
I've got the Ambit 100, and as you say, the VM website states that the 100/120 is compatable with the XL service. I've been upgraded for about three to four weeks, and never reached any higher than 11-12 Meg.
Getting through to India twice has been a total b***ache, the second time the guy said there was work going on, to leave it three hours and see what difference it made after rebooting. Surprise,surprise....no difference.
If you feel strongly enough about it, the only avenue left open is to phone Retentions and threaten cancellation if a new modem (250/255) is'nt sent out because of the speed issues.
Call 150, ask for a modem swap as the VM site has told you. As long as you can get an engineer out, you wil have it swapped.
The 100/120's can reach speeds of 20-25Mb, but only on 64QAM, or so i've heard. Your area will most likely be 256QAM after the upgrade (Different modulation etc.)
Bottom line: Ring 150 (free) and ask for a new modem due to yours dropping out when you donwload, or, just make an excuse. It's an old modem.
rossco555
27-06-2007, 12:56
My Ambit 100 is on 64QAM and can only achieve 11 or 12 meg
My Ambit 120 is on 64QAM and can only achieve 12 or 13 meg.
I shall be making a few calls before the 1st July charges kick in to try and get a new modem.
If that fails I shall be teaching my 3 year old to switch the modem off every 3 minutes during the day to simulate a dodgy modem!
Thanks for starting the thread Zanny.
jimborae
27-06-2007, 14:24
I have an Ambit 120 and I think my area go upgraded last night so I'll see what mine can do. My main gripe is that for a few months now the modem can't seem to handle torrents anymore.
On a reasonably seeded torrent my download speed ramps up nicely but it can't sustain it. It appears my connection drops and the lights on the modem flash while it reboots itself. This carries on till the torrent is complete. Reported this to India and got the response that of course it does Virgin Media does not support bit torrent clients on its network!
Had a stroke of luck. Phoned technical supported and ended up speaking to someone in the UK. Apparently India is busy so I overflowed! Hurrah....
He agreed that the 120 struggles at 20Mb and is sending me a new one.
the ambit 100 / 120 / and the 200
WILL NOT REACH 20 MBS
yes any body on the modems will not get what they are paying for ie: 20mbs
the ambit 100 / 120 / and the 200
WILL NOT REACH 20 MBS
yes any body on the modems will not get what they are paying for ie: 20mbs
Based on what technical references, support, knowledge are you basing this conclusion on?
im getting ****e speeds on my ambit 100, dont fancy phoning up one of the indian robots to explain though.
Based on what technical references, support, knowledge are you basing this conclusion on?
based on the info in my laptop that tells me other wise
as i work for virgin and my vast knowledge of the network !
rossco555
27-06-2007, 17:57
Is there a way of contacting VM Tech Services without going via India?
Tried India twice & email but still no joy...Is there a phone number to use other than a VM phone?
Is there a way of contacting VM Tech Services without going via India?
Tried India twice & email but still no joy...Is there a phone number to use other than a VM phone?
there are 4 ways to call them
1: 150
2: 151
3: 0845 454 1111
4: 0800 052 1111
5: ill pm you in a mo if ok?????
Still never anymore than 15-16 on my 120.
Only at 10meg just now though....which is a bit more than i often see since the "upgrade" of course.
Oh well,cant complain:)
rossco555
27-06-2007, 18:27
To: VMTECH......re PM......sure thing...anything that helps...thanks
jimborae
27-06-2007, 18:35
Still never anymore than 15-16 on my 120.
Only at 10meg just now though....which is a bit more than i often see since the "upgrade" of course.
Oh well,cant complain:)
Me too, upgraded last night now as I thought the max i'm getting is 15mb but it's fluctuating wildly between that & 500k.
What an amazing upgrade......not.
maverick
27-06-2007, 19:09
Got an ambit 100 here using quam 256
cable modem direct to pc 18 mb
Belkin wireless router cabled to pc 10 mb
Wireless laptop 5mb
Me too, upgraded last night now as I thought the max i'm getting is 15mb but it's fluctuating wildly between that & 500k.
What an amazing upgrade......not.
If you just got upgraded last night then i would give it a few days at different times to get a better overall idea of your average speeds.
If you dont download from newsgroups then try at least downloading multiple files from a virgin mirror of some sort.
Thats where i can see the best speeds.....NOT on any speedtest.:)
Sometimes see 12/13meg on the test here but never the 16meg i have by downloading.
Never ever seen over that 16 though.......at any time of any day
Hi,
Just to confirm ive got the 2048/768+ lots of zeros so have been upgraded :)
Mild weirdness from newsgroups tonight (downloading lots of headers as a test) and my newsreader says about 10.5meg but my bandwidth monitor (bandwidth monitor pro) reckons its more like 14, still not close to 20.
Ever since ive had my modem its had a loose ethernet connection you only have to breathe on the modem and it loses a connection to the pc. Only reason I didnt report it earlier was when i didnt have 10meg i used USB, i only noticed it when i changed over to ethernet.
Reckon theyll send a replacement if i just tell them the socket is loose? And yes i have tried more than one cat5 cable.
mcfc2134
27-06-2007, 21:36
I've got an Ambit 120 on 20mb, which is currently dropping whilst using xbox live and surfing the web and I haven't yet reached the full 20mb at all whilst downloading.
Gonna give CS a call - my SACM is almost 5 years old as I have it since the trials in Derby - think I deserve a newer one!!
Nice thread - hope I can get a new modem soon!!
I've had the 20mb upgrade since early may i think it was and testing over that period basically says that on my 120 via router I wont get anything better than 10mbs, without router it goes up by maybe 1 or 2mbs but not enough.
I'm wondering if it is actually worth trying to get a new modem sent? Since they have recognised that there is a problem and are apparently 'trying' to fix it - does anyone actually think they can fix it or should the lazy among us start battling for new modems?
Small rant: It seems insane to me that they haven't extensively tested the service on the range of modems they claim will work. I mean, there's teething problems and plain stupid imo and this seems like plain stupid. Im sure it would be potentially cheaper to reallocate these modems from people on the XL service to those on the lowest band service than it is attempting to fix a problem that has a short solved life (with the expectant upgrade to 50mb in the future that these spec modems cant do). A stitch in time saves nine ;) heh
End of rant.
based on the info in my laptop that tells me other wise
as i work for virgin and my vast knowledge of the network !
Please, when your down my way please impart your vast knowledge of the network and of course your lappy.
Basically i have noticed that apart from many reason's why there could be issues with 20Mb service, could be down to customer's PC/Network card router's ect.
Is the router any good, does it have the latest drivers, are the setting correct on it to pass over 10Mb speeds, the same goes for the router, as we are now in unknown territory with 20Mb service,(well at least for residential customers broadband service) we are now going to be experiencing issues that have not been a problem before. Maybe Virginmedia should have had Network cards for PC/Laptops recommended by a supplier so they could guarantee no problems with that make of card, same goes for routers ect.
No router for me and still no higher than 12/13. Plugged from onboard 10/100 ethernet direct into modem and yes ive done the server pack 2 tweak to increase outgoing connections optomise MTU etc etc.
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/06/12.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:50:50 GMT
1st 512K took 219 ms = 2337.9 KB/sec, approx 19264 Kbps, 18.81 Mbps
2nd 512K took 250 ms = 2048 KB/sec, approx 16876 Kbps, 16.48 Mbps
3rd 512K took 531 ms = 964.2 KB/sec, approx 7945 Kbps, 7.76 Mbps
4th 512K took 453 ms = 1130.2 KB/sec, approx 9313 Kbps, 9.09 Mbps
Overall Average Speed = approx 13350 Kbps, 13.04 Mbps
i got my 255 for replacing my 120 a few weeks after VM announced the 20meg rollout because i knew the 120 wouldn't handle the upgrade very well, i remembered all the issues when we had the 10meg upgrade with firmware being borked and having to be rolled back after a ton of complaints on here and yet CS saying everything should be fine. It needed a tech on here to look into it and get it sorted which he did. So anyway seeing as my 120 was about 5 years old i just got the self install 255 and getting full 20meg during the day now and anywhere between 5 meg (capped) and 8/9 (if within restrictions) in the evening
Had a stroke of luck. Phoned technical supported and ended up speaking to someone in the UK. Apparently India is busy so I overflowed! Hurrah....
He agreed that the 120 struggles at 20Mb and is sending me a new one.
Well knew it was too good to be true!
No modem showed on Friday, Monday and nothing so far today.
Phoned up Customer Service who checked my account which showed no record of my call to technical support. They told me to call Technical Support!
Technical Support (India this time) wanted to take me through all the diagnostic tests again. I refused and asked them to call me back. They called me back and tried to take me through the diagnositics again. They told me to call Customer Services!
Customer Services told me to call Technical Support so I ended up speaking to a Supervisor.
I now have an engineer booked for a modem swap.
Is it unreasonable to expect more than 60% of the bandwidth I am paying for? I have no expectations of it being fast in the afternoon/evening. I would just like to see it max out ever so often.
Perhaps I should only pay 60% of my bill.... or perhaps Carlyle should agree to pay 5.5 billion but only hand over 60% of it.
Final update.
Engineer turned up with a new 255 to replace my 120.
NTL 120 (Best speeds I've ever seen by the way)
Thu, 5 Jul 2007 13:50:50 UTC
1st 512K took 285 ms = 1796.5 KB/sec, approx 14803 Kbps, 14.46 Mbps
2nd 512K took 281 ms = 1822.1 KB/sec, approx 15014 Kbps, 14.66 Mbps
3rd 512K took 282 ms = 1815.6 KB/sec, approx 14961 Kbps, 14.61 Mbps
4th 512K took 291 ms = 1759.5 KB/sec, approx 14498 Kbps, 14.16 Mbps
Overall Average Speed = approx 14819 Kbps, 14.47 Mbps
Virgin Media 255
Thu, 5 Jul 2007 15:25:22 UTC
1st 512K took 226 ms = 2265.5 KB/sec, approx 18668 Kbps, 18.23 Mbps
2nd 512K took 233 ms = 2197.4 KB/sec, approx 18107 Kbps, 17.68 Mbps
3rd 512K took 211 ms = 2426.5 KB/sec, approx 19994 Kbps, 19.53 Mbps
4th 512K took 219 ms = 2337.9 KB/sec, approx 19264 Kbps, 18.81 Mbps
Overall Average Speed = approx 19008 Kbps, 18.56 Mbps
I never saw anything close to 20Mb when using the 120.
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.