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View Full Version : Virgin's TM Jargon explained Here!. ;-)


PowerUser
24-07-2007, 01:01
Hi. I sat down with Virgin media's official guidlines on Traffic Managment and re-wrote it for a laugh!.

Hope some of you will find it amusing!. ;)

Will my download speed be affected?

Your speed won't be Shaped if Don't download much during the Daylight times of the day!.. Our boffins recently ran a trial to see how much our service was being affected. They Discovered that, in Most areas, many customers decided to Download the Size in data of a whole DVD during the whole 8 hours of our glorious shaping hours!.

That's around 1000+ pointless music tracks in the space of a few hours.
So, unless you're downloading more then a few measley episodes of your favourite Tv show at peak times, we won't mess up your service and you can download to your heart's content. "Up to Your usuage allowance of course,
oops we always forget that part"

Aren't you simply trying to cut costs?

We've never believed in cutting costs for the sake of it. But this is business, And were not willing to spend our profits on upgrading the network so it's stable enough to remove Traffic Shaping.

When will this new policy be launched?

Launched ages ago!, Didn't you notice all the hundreds of unhappy customers on the forums.

What traffic management policies are you applying to the heaviest users?
That depends on the broadband package you're signed up to. And it's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply during peak times (4pm till midnight) – as this is when our customers NEED our service the most, Inconvenient/ignorant buggers aren't we.

The Technical stuff
Here are some details about the different thresholds for each broadband service:

Broadband Size: M
During peak times, ALL those on the Size: M package download at least 350MB of traffic each.
Any users hitting this amount during peak times are screwed, their broadband will slow to a crawl and there ping times will be so bad that Online gaming will be impossible, their download speed will be set to 1Mb, with their upload speed set to ridiculous 128Kb. This will last for 4 WHOLE hours from when the traffic management policy is applied. So hitting this at 11.59pm, and wow 3.59am before you get it back to normal again.

Even if a Broadband Size: M user gets traffic managed, they can still download over 1,000 music files per day. or 2500 Pics, or 3000 pages of meaningless text.

Broadband Size: L
During peak times, ALL those on the Size: L package can download at least 1x 750MB Xvid movie!. Before we Knacker your speed up.
Your download speed will be set to 2Mb, with your upload speed set to 192Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied. Again, Watch out for 11.59pm
Even if a Broadband: Size L user has their speed temporarily traffic managed, they can still Watch our TV service
instead.
Broadband Size: XL
During peak times, ALL those on the Size: XL package download at least 3GB of traffic each.
Obviously Your going to hit this inside 15 Mins with 20mbit, So Down to 5mb you go, Muhaha, And upload Set to
256Kb. So forget about Hosting Xbox 360 games on xbox live, This will last for 4 hours So by the time it ends you will need to be in bed for work the next day.!.

Even if a Broadband Size: XL user has their speed temporarily traffic managed, they can still download 1/3 of a DVD And get the rest the next day, Sound Good!!.

How do we know this will work?
As you can see Traffic shaping has been in afffect for over a month now and most people still suffer from speed problems between 4pm and midnight. So traffic shaping looks as though it wasn't helping much. especially in areas
that are in dire need of equipment Servicing.

Will the thresholds change?
Don't make us laugh, If they did you know which way that's going to go!.

How can I tell if I'm nearing the threshold?
Depends on the package your on, XL. Think 3 Xvid's movies just to be safe. L Just 1 xvid movie And M, well forget it. your going to get shaped after just a few hours browsing the net.

Hope this Helps. Luv VM

Stuart
24-07-2007, 01:10
Traffic management won't affect ping times..

PowerUser
24-07-2007, 01:19
Traffic management won't affect ping times..

Well As I get 50ms ping times on 20mbit and over 150ms to 200ms pings when shaped. Both On same traceroute, I thought that's the way it was!.

Stuart
24-07-2007, 01:23
No, it's more likely that the network is busy at those times. VM's routing hardware tends to assign pings a low priority on CPU time, so if it is busy, it will take a relatively long time to answer (if at all).

PowerUser
24-07-2007, 01:27
No, it's more likely that the network is busy at those times. VM's routing hardware tends to assign pings a low priority on CPU time, so if it is busy, it will take a relatively long time to answer (if at all).

Unfortunatly I can't put that to the test to show you. as Virgin Don't traffic shape in the mornings. It's still poor anyways, I used to get 190ms ping times on my old BT anytime Dial Up years ago. So your right in saying pings are given low priority.

dev
24-07-2007, 01:47
Unfortunatly I can't put that to the test to show you. as Virgin Don't traffic shape in the mornings. It's still poor anyways, I used to get 190ms ping times on my old BT anytime Dial Up years ago. So your right in saying pings are given low priority.

from what i understand, only the ping packets destined for VM's routers are given low priority, not ones just passing through.

BloodyL
24-07-2007, 04:21
I think I can explain it all a little better:

Two words....Virgin...Money....

Stuart
24-07-2007, 09:59
from what i understand, only the ping packets destined for VM's routers are given low priority, not ones just passing through.

He was talking about traceroutes, in which case the tracert command would ping each individual hop.