View Full Version : Virgin Media slow internet speeds
snatch75
13-11-2007, 13:38
Hi everyone,
This is mainly written about Plymouth but the same is true for any outer city area in the UK that is getting rubbish speeds, especially on 20mb service.
It's not your equipment at fault, read on and I'll explain.
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I've been a cable customer for sometime now and since VM have taken over the service has become a joke.
But here is the explaination of the problem in laymans terms:
The network basically runs in rings, with a huge fibre optic cable supplying Plymouth and small rings looped off supplying us residential customers, eg: Mutley, St.Judes, Lipson, etc...
The problem is these small cables don't have the network capacity to run all these 20mb connections, 10mb was fine but now the bandwidth has gone up it's getting swamped.
The sales dept. at VM have been signing up so many new connections and especially 20mb the network is past saturation point.
I've been in contact with the management in VM to get this problem sorted out as I'm fed up with the speeds and there is no way I'm moving to BT as trust me you'll have more problems than you can shake a stick at ! (I used to work for them, so I know this).
So let me confirm a few things:
1. No I don't work for VM, I work in IT and I need a reliable fast connection, something that you won't get on BT's old and ropey copper network.
2. VM have confirmed the work on the UBR's in Newton Abbott, which serves Plymouth has been completed and they are always running below capacity.
3. The problem is with our local cabling, not our modems, pc's, routers, etc, etc... so don't bother wasting your money calling technical or customer services, unless of course you are going to cancel !
4. This is a nationwide problem not just Plymouth.
I am waiting a reply to my email sent this morning to see when the engineering works to replace our cabling is going to start. This is going to involve digging up the roads/pavements so Plymouth City Council need to give permission so this could take a while.
I have warned VM that a large majority of people in our area are very dissatisfied with the service they have been given. I've been offered my broadband for £5 a month until this is resolved so I suggest you all call and get the same deal.
All the above info I have been privvy to has come from VM managers and engineers, not call centre people who are the last to know anything !
I will post anymore info I get but I need your help so contact the following people at VM to back me up with your rubbish speeds.
Mod edit: Removed
(email addresses altered to avoid spammers)
So c'mon guys and gals let them know how rubbish your service is, they WILL listen and have been a great help, so please respect them and don't send abusive emails, swear, etc..... Even though I know you are all angry about this, the more people who complain the higher up the priority list we go so get typing !
Thanks for reading and all the best
Si
Please do not post VM employees' e-mail addresses without their expressed permission.
interesting theory.
got any evidence?
snatch75
13-11-2007, 13:49
I have emails from VM which states there are network issues.
I have personally spoken to ex-engineers who said Telewest were aware the network needed serious upgrading a couple of years ago.
Also every engineer they've sent to my property when apparantly my modem was "faulty" confirms it's a network issue and no quick fix is possible, they need to lay new fibres, as when HDTV finally kicks in bandwidth will go through the roof !
They are creating stalling tactics to stop a mass exodus to other providers.
Basically their local fibres could support the old 10mb service but that was pushing it.
Then some idiot at VM decided to roll out 20mb service and whilst some customers will receive it, the majority are lucky to hit 1-2mb 24/7 here in Plymouth.
It's all due to them knowing the only way they will stay in business is to offer the best and "fastest" broadband in the UK. Sky will always have the edge in pay TV.
Thanks
Si
Some relief at last for us down in "little old Plymouth"! iv been waiting for ages! But i have seen a major improvement in my internet speeds! i was only able to get around 2mb but now i am at around 14mb wirelessly at peak times and 20mb at non peak times! i think they have moved me to UBR 25 and given me a new IP address. Lets hope this is the start of something reliable.
snatch75
13-11-2007, 14:53
Some relief at last for us down in "little old Plymouth"! iv been waiting for ages! But i have seen a major improvement in my internet speeds! i was only able to get around 2mb but now i am at around 14mb wirelessly at peak times and 20mb at non peak times! i think they have moved me to UBR 25 and given me a new IP address. Lets hope this is the start of something reliable.
Your lucky you don't live near Mutley, the influx of students haven't helped the over subscribed network. Many people have now got better speeds thanks to the new UBR's installed at Newton Abbott which is great but is not much help for people like me stuck on over crowded fibres out of the city.
If you know of any people affected pass on the email addresses in my first post and get them to contact the VM people, the more the merrier.
I hope your fast internet stays that way !
zac naloen
13-11-2007, 15:06
So basically the areas likely to be unaffected are the ones that have already had all their cables dug up and replaced in the last 5 years. I certainly can recall this happening in the last few years where I live.
snatch75
13-11-2007, 15:19
From what VM engineers have told me, it certainly looks that way.
Unless they can pull new fibres through the existing ducting which should minimise the roadworks.
At least something is going to be done, I for one wouldn't mind a few road works in my street if it means permanent 20mb speeds.
Can you give an email address as a starting point for people not near Plymouth? So we can start getting some action at our local UBR, local fibres etc. :dunce:
snatch75
13-11-2007, 16:50
Sorry I broke the rules posting VM email addresses, if anyone wants to know the contacts I am happy to PM them to you, providing this is ok with the mods ?
Cheers
Si
Rubbish, you've got fibre with NEAR infinite bandwidth, COAX cables feeding off these with plenty of bandwidth.
Single-Mode Fibre
Single-mode fibre exhibits lower attenuation. Attenuation of Mercury's current single-mode fibre is specified at 0.37dB/km at 1310nm, in effect allowing a non-repeatered run to be increased by a factor of two over multi-mode fibre. The use of single-mode fibre completely eliminates modal-dispersion - the key cause of bandwidth limitation in multi-mode fibre optic fibre, but this does not mean that it has infinite bandwidth. What dispersion is left is called chromatic dispersion (so called as it is wavelength dependent). Chromatic dispersion is caused by the core material itself and is actually negative at short wavelengths and moves positive at longer wavelengths. This creates a 'magic' wavelength at which dispersion is actually zero.
This is, interestingly enough, at about 1310nm which explains the wide use of this particular wavelength . If 1310nm is used on a single-mode fibre it is easy to achieve a bandwidth of several Gbit/s with losses of around .37dB/km (Mercury's specification). Thus, in a single-mode fibre, attenuation is the limiting factor for long-distance transmission.
The characteristics of single-mode fibre are:
Bandwidth can be in the order of many Gbit/s with very low attenuation. This allows long-distance unrepeatered transmission up to around 50km.
The small diameter (10µm) of the core necessitates the use of expensive laser diodes to enable efficient light coupling and pass sufficient light into the fibre.
The small core diameter needs extremely precise connectors e.g. if two fibres are misaligned by only 1µm the overlap area is reduced by about 15% or attenuation equivalent to several km of fibre. Single-mode connectors are thus more expensive.
The performance of single-mode fibre is so good that it is the only type of fibre used for long distance links.
It's the Optical transmitters and receivers that are 1310nm wavelength, you've got DWDM and all sorts of other options that can be put onto single mode fibre to give even more data down the fibre.
Most of Virginmedia use 1310nm Transmitters and receivers. The short distance that the Copper coax from customers house to fibre node isn't going to cause problems of bandwidth due to to design meaning that not many devices will be on one piece of cable to have bandwidth issues.
There might be issues with UBR's being oversubscribed in some places, some network equipment does need replacing/upgrading but it's not the cabling that's at fault unless it has a fault on it.
In some areas the nodal areas need upgrading and more fibre optic nodes put into the network which will require more fibre to these to make the nodal areas smaller, i think this is what is meant, you've got the wrong end of the fibre cable on this one mate!!!
By the way i do work for VM and i do know what I'm talking about,(well most of it i do) and this type of work goes on all the time as part of the upgrades to give better service.
Where have you got this info from?
Do you work for Sky?
snatch75
16-11-2007, 00:05
I've got this info from VM engineers, their 2nd & 3rd line support and their managers, email addresses can be supplied via PM. You certainly appear to know your stuff considering you work for VM ! ;-)
I don't work for Sky, VM or any communications company and was only posting what I was told "straight from the horses mouth" so to speak.
I just want a product that works without all the ****l**** VM keep telling me.
So I got off my backside and did something as VM are consistantly ignoring complaints of slow internet speeds 24/7 and these forums are littered with posts like mine.
Since you are in the know, when are we expecting our local fibre/nodes to be upgraded/replaced in the PL4 area of Plymouth ?
So we can actually get the speeds we are paying for instead of 2-4mb on a 20mb connection, on a good day ?
If you can answer this and provide details it may do some good for VM as their reputation is getting worse on a daily basis, just check the other posts !
Regards
Si
slowcoach
16-11-2007, 00:56
Rubbish, you've got fibre with NEAR infinite bandwidth, COAX cables feeding off these with plenty of bandwidth.
-snip-
So what you are saying is that we should all be getting what we pay for, or are other parts of the infrastructure dilapidated resulting in the poor performance many are receiving.
OldGeezer
16-11-2007, 11:55
-snip-
In some areas the nodal areas need upgrading and more fibre optic nodes put into the network which will require more fibre to these to make the nodal areas smaller, i think this is what is meant, you've got the wrong end of the fibre cable on this one mate!!!
So would the fact that my 4Mbps connection (solid 3.7 during daytime) drops to 0.6Mbps during the evening when TS say the UBR utilisation is 42% be due to me being in a rubbish nodal area?
I can't get anyone to acknowledge that there's a problem ("up to" 4M excuses), and that I'm in an area that needs upgrading.
I wonder if it might be easier for VM to examine their network and instead of struggling to provide a 20Mb service, they provide a service at a speed that they can reliably maintain e.g. 15KMb at an adjusted price.
Many users are fed up of getting 20Mb once for a short while ( if at all) and then getting anything below that for the rest of the time.
We want a consistently high speed for most if not all of each day.
So what you are saying is that we should all be getting what we pay for, or are other parts of the infrastructure dilapidated resulting in the poor performance many are receiving.
The Fibres have near infinite bandwidth. The cable certainly has a lot of bandwidth not currently used for Broadband, and, with DOCSIS 3, VM can make more efficient use of the bandwidth available.
The problem is that the hardware running the fibre and cables doesn't have infinite (or even near-infinite) bandwidth, and with the cable, in most areas, a *lot* of the cable bandwidth is allocated to Digital and Analogue TV.
If you read my post like Stuart C seems to have you will understand my reply in response to the original op. He was told or explained or he thought, that the cables/fibre needed upgrading and this was the problem, i pointed out this wasn't the problem, there might be issues else where like... or dare i say, customers equipment that is also at fault,(no way, there all perfect). Alot of customers PC's, believe me, can be an issue regardless of how new they are,(i'm no PC expert) we all know how they will cause problems so many will need to look at there own PC's and see if that isn't the problem or at least part of it!!
So the network is constantly being upgraded in various stages in response to the amount of traffic on it, like BT ,this will meet certain trigger points and the various parts of the network will undergo various upgrades to meet these points.
Obviously like any business they will do what is needed when it is needed to keep costs down.
---------- Post added at 15:56 ---------- Previous post was at 15:53 ----------
So would the fact that my 4Mbps connection (solid 3.7 during daytime) drops to 0.6Mbps during the evening when TS say the UBR utilisation is 42% be due to me being in a rubbish nodal area?
I can't get anyone to acknowledge that there's a problem ("up to" 4M excuses), and that I'm in an area that needs upgrading.
Can't really answer for specific areas, all i can say is what i have said previous, there could be many reason why this occurs not always down to one specific problem.
Saneboy13
16-11-2007, 16:49
[quote=sollp;34434632]If you read my post like Stuart C seems to have you will understand my reply in response to the original op. He was told or explained or he thought, that the cables/fibre needed upgrading and this was the problem, i pointed out this wasn't the problem, there might be issues else where like... or dare i say, customers equipment that is also at fault,(no way, there all perfect). Alot of customers PC's, believe me, can be an issue regardless of how new they are,(i'm no PC expert) we all know how they will cause problems so many will need to look at there own PC's and see if that isn't the problem or at least part of it!!
So the network is constantly being upgraded in various stages in response to the amount of traffic on it, like BT ,this will meet certain trigger points and the various parts of the network will undergo various upgrades to meet these points.
Obviously like any business they will do what is needed when it is needed to keep costs down.
:clap::clap::clap:
What an absolute star, and your previous post. I know that we have some issues with the Network, but people's pc's are also a huge factor.
Had a customer complain and bitch about slow speeds so I started checking his pc, ran trend house call to see what was happening and gave up after 30 minutes and 300 odd viruses found to that point.
People need to look at other places for "Testing" their speeds. Speedtest and all the other sites are only an "Indication" of what is happening, NOT a true reflection of their speeds.
If you read my post like Stuart C seems to have you will understand my reply in response to the original op. He was told or explained or he thought, that the cables/fibre needed upgrading and this was the problem,
Actually, my post was partially inspired by yours, and partially based on things I remember from learning Comms at Uni. Particularly the bit about bandwidth of Fibre being nearly infinite, or, as our lecturer put it, effectively infinite (he based that on the fact that logic tells us that fibre does have a finite bandwidth, but it has so much, we are unlikely to ever hit the limit).
snatch75
16-11-2007, 19:04
Well I seem to have opened a can of worms on this post !
After speaking to a VM network engineer today in my road and apparantly there being no issues with the network, what a suprise now that my 20mb connection has gone from <4mb to 15mb+ @ 7pm !
So it makes me wonder when you create enough noise, ie. emailing and hassling the company and getting many other people to do so miraculous things can happen.
Lets see if my connection stays this way, I'm not holding my breath though.....
The only main thing that ****** me off was VM reluctance to admit the network issues, even though this was obviously the case.
I hope everyone else has noticed improved speeds in the PL4 area tonight, if so congrats to whoever that network engineer was in Ladysmith Road today !
Cheers
Si
WHISTLED
16-11-2007, 20:06
Snatch are you then saying that because of your emails and possibly a few from other members today they have re-cabled your area?
You said your areas fibe/cable wasnt capable of more than 10 but tonight have 15..
Lets get serious there are plenty of probs with the VMs network and how its managed but it isnt the fibre!
papa smurf
16-11-2007, 20:33
----Well I seem to have opened a can of worms on this post !
After speaking to a VM network engineer today in my road and apparantly there being no issues with the network, what a suprise now that my 20mb connection has gone from <4mb to 15mb+ @ 7pm !
So it makes me wonder when you create enough noise, ie. emailing and hassling the company and getting many other people to do so miraculous things can happen.
Lets see if my connection stays this way, I'm not holding my breath though.....
The only main thing that ****** me off was VM reluctance to admit the network issues, even though this was obviously the case.---allso as whistled has posted its not the fibres we havent run them past tick over yet
I hope everyone else has noticed improved speeds in the PL4 area tonight, if so congrats to whoever that network engineer was in Ladysmith Road today !
Cheers
Si
network engineers are currently engaged in a program of remooving all catv and telco cables that are not active ,[paying]from all cabinets this has the knock on effect of improving service, this may or may not explain your improoved connection , then again he may have just re set the levels in the amplifier. allso as whistled has posted its not the fibres we havent run them past tickover yet
snatch75
17-11-2007, 13:23
Snatch are you then saying that because of your emails and possibly a few from other members today they have re-cabled your area?
You said your areas fibe/cable wasnt capable of more than 10 but tonight have 15..
Lets get serious there are plenty of probs with the VMs network and how its managed but it isnt the fibre!
I didn't say that they re-cabled my area or that is was only capable of 10mb, it used to be fine on 10mb, please read other posts before voicing an inaccurate opinion, do you live in Plymouth, have you had to put up with crap speeds and VM cust services for the last 4-5 months ? I bet not !
My speed problems have been resolved, the only reason I posted on these forums is to maybe get some help and put more pressure on VM to solve the issues in Plymouth.
I don't usually "hang out" on forums as quite frankly it's sad and geeky and I'd rather be out socialising in the real world not sitting at my keyboard picking fault with peoples posts.
What I did say is that a VM network engineer was in my road, checking the local area and performing tests and if by magic by 20mb connection is running how it should be.
I don't care what he did or how he did it just that my area has been fixed and I have confirmed this with many people in the PL4 area of Plymouth.
If anyone wants to discuss this I won't be taking part so I'll leave that up to the die-hard nerds on here.
It was a shame that VM did nothing until I started emailing their head office and passing certain addresses on to others to hassle them.
Customer service at VM is the worst ever and maybe they should concentrate on that problem, before even thinking of rolling out their new 50mb broadband some time next year, (according to a VM engineer) so don't shoot me if it's wrong.
Anyway time to go now, no doubt however I'll be back in a few weeks/moths when VM f#ck up again !
Ta ta
Snatch
Had a customer complain and bitch about slow speeds so I started checking his pc, ran trend house call to see what was happening and gave up after 30 minutes and 300 odd viruses found to that point.
People need to look at other places for "Testing" their speeds. Speedtest and all the other sites are only an "Indication" of what is happening, NOT a true reflection of their speeds.
Of course people need to be checking their own ends but what about the techs and engineers who blame viruses & spyware when there really is none.Or the ones who tell you to head over to Speedtest.net, as soon as you get one you can understand on that phone anyway...
I had a tech last Friday say ..."oh sir,i see your using a wireless router"....:shocked:
I dont even have a wired router..as such.
The subsequent engineer on Wedensday though sat right down at the fresh,clean,optimized XP laptop i`d set up for him and he too headed right off to speedtest.net:rolleyes:
I should have just left him to it but i did a few decent downloads to show a good bit more than speedtest.net was producing......still not enough but more than that place is ever capable of,for us anyway.I even rewired the modem into our main(linux) network and got slightly better speeds for him by that point.
A neighbour of ours also had an engineer in person tell her that their pc was full of viruses a week or two ago.They all seem to have vanished from that perfectly clean XP by time i checked it later that night...Cleaner than the day it left the shop in fact.
Their engineer had only been a result of a shoddy installation in the first place with about 15 feet of wire,hanging from the little black box outside and lying unsecured in her garden.Plus her neighbours services had somehow been lost at the time of their own installation.:erm:
BUUUUMP
i was living in pl4 last year and had the same [Mod Edit] service from VM untill mid noverber, from early september. they sorted it out but it seems to have come about again. moved house still in pl4 is anyone haveing the same problems this year? theyve tried all the stalling tactics and now are blaming it on cisco there hardware provider. do you think it may clear up soonish because we are considering changing providers. what [Mod Edit] me off is all the salesmen moping up the student customers knowing full well it will overload the system, [Mod Edit]
snatch75
29-10-2008, 16:18
I got an email as forgot I still was subscribed to this thread.
The PL4 issues were solved (around the date of my last post).
Apparantly the problem was due to conflicting frequencies with the modems (at least that's what VM told me).
My speed is 20mb give or take a bit at peak times and have had no problems since then.
Fingers crossed it stays this way.......
good to hear man, yeah they sorted ours out last november too, but since changing houses the fun is back, wouldent mind but my chances of halo 3 general status is slipping away with every day of lag.
Impz2002
29-10-2008, 16:31
I don't usually "hang out" on forums as quite frankly it's sad and geeky and I'd rather be out socialising in the real world not sitting at my keyboard picking fault with peoples posts.
That sort of speak isnt going to get you anywhere around here !
Turkey Machine
29-10-2008, 16:53
That sort of speak isnt going to get you anywhere around here !
The post is nearly a year old. Read the dates before judging! ;)
We just moved house ourselves some two months ago and thankfully our speeds have been just fine at the new place.Not that we really moved far.
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:01:58 GMT
Test 1: 1024K took 460 ms = 2226.1 KB/sec, approx 18343 Kbps, 17.91 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 444 ms = 2306.3 KB/sec, approx 19004 Kbps, 18.56 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 456 ms = 2245.6 KB/sec, approx 18504 Kbps, 18.07 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 890 ms = 2301.1 KB/sec, approx 18961 Kbps, 18.52 Mbps
Overall Average Speed = approx 18703 Kbps, 18.27 Mbps
That sort of speak isnt going to get you anywhere around here !
I thought it was quite funny:)
I don't usually "hang out" on forums as quite frankly it's sad and geeky and I'd rather be out socialising in the real world not sitting at my keyboard picking fault with peoples posts.
Sadly, I think that's a very acurate description when you read through some of the petty, picky and pointless arguments posted on these forums.
First one to pick at my spelling of acurate, which should read accurate gets a life sent to them by 1st class mail. :p:
xspeedyx
29-10-2008, 17:30
wow xpod aint seen you in ages
---------- Post added at 17:30 ---------- Previous post was at 17:29 ----------
The post is nearly a year old. Read the dates before judging! ;)
Yet still a valid point
on in an hour!
29-10-2008, 17:36
Well I seem to have opened a can of worms on this post !
After speaking to a VM network engineer today in my road and apparantly there being no issues with the network, what a suprise now that my 20mb connection has gone from <4mb to 15mb+ @ 7pm !
So it makes me wonder when you create enough noise, ie. emailing and hassling the company and getting many other people to do so miraculous things can happen.
Lets see if my connection stays this way, I'm not holding my breath though.....
The only main thing that ****** me off was VM reluctance to admit the network issues, even though this was obviously the case.
I hope everyone else has noticed improved speeds in the PL4 area tonight, if so congrats to whoever that network engineer was in Ladysmith Road today !
Cheers
Si
jeez,youre saying 1 network engineer 'dug up all the roads' and layed all that lovely new cable you needed laying to improve your speed??
that man can move!! :rolleyes: :D
Nice to see the point in my post (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/34664333-post30.html) go from strength to strength :D
:LOL:
Raistlin
29-10-2008, 17:43
Seriously people, read the whole damn thread before you comment.....
<Realises the self defeating futility in that post and gives up.....>
Impz2002
29-10-2008, 18:41
The post is nearly a year old. Read the dates before judging! ;)
ooooo , my bad :(
wow xpod aint seen you in ages
You just aint been looking hard enough DL.
Anyway,less posting and more socialising you;)
My speeds have been bad in Southport. I'm on 20mb and the problem always comes back to bandwidth problems. I even phoned the 151 guys and they even said bluntly that there is problems with bandwidth and it affects 20mb users. He said i should downgrade to 10mb but i can't cause i'm on a 1 year contract. I have had new cables, outside and inside. I have had new modems and everything.
Normally the tech guys phone 2nd line and they even admit the UBR is having bandwidth issues. After a few weeks or months they say it has been fixed but it hasn't. I then have to go thru the whole process all over again. The tech guys phone the 2nd line guys and guess what... UBR bandwidth issues again (that was meant to have been fixed). I'm really starting to believe what the OP is saying.
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