Virgin 10 meg is a dud

[hvendelbo]

I have been round the mill a couple of times with UK IPSs. I know by now that they are lying through their teeth to the extent that Ofcom should shut most of them down for malpractice.
But of course being the UK, businesses can get away with everything short of murder.

For those that are curious about how the 10 meg service performs,

Pros:
1) It rarely disconnects you
2) At times you will get 8 meg download

Cons:
1) Ping times can be quite bad
2) Their provisioning means that you share with a lot of others
3) Some websites break because the connection is so congested

Coming from Bulldog, it's an improvement even if not a big one.

Sunday afternoon this is my connection stats

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/02/40.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/235527752.png

[deathtrap3000]

You sure your on 10meg?
Have you looked at the modem config?

[hvendelbo]

Unfortunately I cannot access the modem, as I have a bridge in front of it to get around the lame hardcoded ip setup.
But 10 meg is what I ordered, and I have had 8 meg effective speed once, so it's what I expect to have.

[Graham M]

Unfortunately I cannot access the modem, as I have a bridge in front of it to get around the lame hardcoded ip setup.
But 10 meg is what I ordered, and I have had 8 meg effective speed once, so it's what I expect to have.

What "lame hardcoded ip setup" does it have a dodgy leg?

[deathtrap3000]

Well until you can have a look at the modem config then all I can say is that the speedtests are very unreliable and you should stick with it until you have proof that your on 10meg until you complain to vm about the slow speeds. Then maybe they will drop the price or try and improve the speed or something.

[SnoopZ]

Just because you're having problems with you're 10mbit doesn't mean that everyone is. When i had 10mbit i always got 10mbit and now i'm on 20mbit i also always get that too.

Doing webpage speed tests isn't a very accurate way of measuring your speed, for example our own forum speedtest was giving me results of only around 12mbit which i know to be wrong.

I use a multi threaded newsgroup download to test mine as thats always accurate.

I do hope you get it all sorted though. :)

[hvendelbo]

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 1
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 9.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 29.5 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 4
Upstream Frequency : 46200000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 42.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size :

Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled

Sun Feb 17 19:59:57 2008 Sun Feb 17 19:59:57 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Sun Feb 17 19:57:36 2008 Sun Feb 17 19:57:36 2008 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...

I'm not sure what the two log entry lines indicate.

[Paul]

You are on 20M

Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000

[hvendelbo]

I guess this is not the level I would want, and the cause of the slow speeds:

Downstream Receive Power Level : 9.8 dBmV

Can this be caused by the cabling at my place, or is it at Virgins end?

[Pierre]

I have been round the mill a couple of times with UK IPSs. I know by now that they are lying through their teeth to the extent that Ofcom should shut most of them down for malpractice.
But of course being the UK, businesses can get away with everything short of murder.

For those that are curious about how the 10 meg service performs,

Pros:
1) It rarely disconnects you
2) At times you will get 8 meg download

Cons:
1) Ping times can be quite bad
2) Their provisioning means that you share with a lot of others
3) Some websites break because the connection is so congested

Coming from Bulldog, it's an improvement even if not a big one.

Sunday afternoon this is my connection stats

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/02/40.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/235527752.png

You're an ****.

to anyone out there who's not sure, or who isn't wise in the ways........ 99% of the time cable (virgin) will be quicker, by a long way, than adsl.

and if you're not sure, if you haven't got cable then you've most likely got adsl.

virgin offer ftt*. Now ftt* stands for (FTTH,FTTK,FTTN) which is fibre to the home or kerb or node.

Virgin fibre is never more than 500m away max. to your kit. BT only deeam of such things and therefore so can all the other service providers.

in the long term virgin will always provide the faster service .

[Ernie_C]

You are on 20M
Of course, we could have seen that without his config info as the speedtest was suggesting an upload speed above the 10Mb maximum.

[buckleb]

The ping looks quite high too. I would expect to see less than 50ms. Whether that means a problem at the customer's premises, or on the network, I have no idea. It does indicate something out of the ordinary though.

To reinforce that, here are my results (run from my laptop over a wireless connection). I'm on 4mb broadband.
Interesting that it says Telewest Broadband.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/02/39.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[Ben B]

Interesting that it says Telewest Broadband.


It's only changed to Virgin Media in ex NTL areas and possibly on Virgin.net connections

[roland69uk]

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/02/38.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[SnoopZ]

I'm no expert but i'm sure the downstream power level of 9.8 dBmV is way way to high. And you're still on QAM64 although i'm not sure what difference that will make, but some modems don't like it.

[Graham M]

I'm no expert but i'm sure the downstream power level of 9.8 dBmV is way way to high. And you're still on QAM64 although i'm not sure what difference that will make, but some modems don't like it.

Which Modems don't like QAM64!?

[beejay999]

I've been on cable broadband since it first became available 8 years ago with 512k. Birmingham Cable/Telewest/Virgin. Couple of years ago upgraded to 10Mb/s. Best ever speeds 7Mb/s between 7.0am and 12 noon. After 12 dropped to around 4Mb/s. After 5.0pm dropped to around 1.5Mb/s, sometimes as low as 0.5Mb/s. These speeds were logged daily over 30 days. All sorts of excuses from Customer Services but no improvements, so downgraded to 4Mb/s. Saw no point in paying for 10Mb when average speed was 4Mb/s.

[Sinth]

Downstream Receive Power Level : 9.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 29.5 dB

Your power level is within range but as close to zero is really what you are after.
Your SNR seems low to me. Mine is 42 and considered slightly high. Around 38/39 I think is about right.

Just my opinion of what I have read on the newsgroups trying to get my problem sorted.
I had 2 techs come out, sorted my levels and was still getting 4meg on my 20meg BB. Cable to my house was ok too, infact I was "spot on".
Low and behold yesterday magically my speed has gone up after 2 weeks.
I have come to the assumption that these "proper" levels are not as critical as they want to make out.
It really is VM.

[ceedee]

I find it laughable that somebody reports terrible connection speeds for their (reportedly) 10Mb service only to discover that they're actually supposed to be receiving twice the presumed speed and are actually getting less than a tenth.

And VM's major attraction over ADSL2 is supposed to be the reliability of the connection rate?

God alone know what speeds the 4->10Mb upgrade (and I use the term with some caution) will produce but I've started recording daily test results to establish my 'base' in case I need to refer to them later...

Anybody know if VM have done any trials upgrading an entire UBR from 4Mb to 10Mb to check how it affects the overall performance? Or is this more 'seat of the pants' development?

[BBKing]

Downstream Receive Power Level : 9.8 dBmV

Slightly too high but not enough to cause a problem. If no one's checked the obvious suspect of CMTS upstream congestion I suggest we do that before coming up with other theories. Occam's Razor 'n all that.

SNR should preferably be over 30 really, so that's lowish.

[zullz]

Slightly too high but not enough to cause a problem. If no one's checked the obvious suspect of CMTS upstream congestion I suggest we do that before coming up with other theories. Occam's Razor 'n all that.

SNR should preferably be over 30 really, so that's lowish.


Downstream Receive Power Level : -10.3 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 29.9 dB

Is -10.3 bad?

[Efour]

Downstream Receive Power Level : -2.2 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 35.6

I posted those on the Support news group and i have an engineer due right now... im guessing yours are royally screwed.

Somone should do a guide to what it all means HINT HINT!:angel:

[ceedee]

Somone should do a guide to what it all means HINT HINT!:angel:
You might find these Cable Modem Troubleshooting Tips (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/index.html) useful even tho' they're a little out of date!

:erm:

[SnoopZ]

Which Modems don't like QAM64!?

Oops i meant QAM256 is what Terayon doesn't like, so that part of my post was useless. ;)

[hvendelbo]

As a point of reference:

Bulldog ADSL: They installed a line in May 2007. Sent a tech twice to check the line. They managed to get me from 1Meg download speed to 5Meg on an 8 meg line, but I still am getting disconnected every 15 minutes. So I have given up on them, and is trying to figure out how to file a formal complaint.

BT: I ordered a phone line in July 2007, and then again in August, they still can't process my orders....

So Virgin is doing ok in my book. They even pick up the phone if you call their support. What a marvelous time to be alive!:dunce:

[jaycee]

Your power level is within range but as close to zero is really what you are after.
Your SNR seems low to me. Mine is 42 and considered slightly high. Around 38/39 I think is about right.


Who on earth said 42 was "slightly high" ?

SNR aka Signal to Noise Ratio cannot be "too high". Higher is better, as every electronics engineer knows.

Ideally, 30+ is best

[lsproc]

Most modems are 40-50 IIRC

As for the signal levels, I believe the boundaries are different depending on the QAM.

[Zee]

Have you ever thought maybe it is a problem on your side, not their side.

[zing_deleted]

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 1
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 9.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 29.5 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 4
Upstream Frequency : 46200000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 42.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size :

Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled

Sun Feb 17 19:59:57 2008 Sun Feb 17 19:59:57 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Sun Feb 17 19:57:36 2008 Sun Feb 17 19:57:36 2008 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...

I'm not sure what the two log entry lines indicate.

I take it you check the speeds whilst you removed your bridge and just had the modem connected?