20mb What A Joke

[Hondacurver]

Having had broadband since the start, and had free upgrades I now find i have serious issues.
Had major problems since going to 20mb max speed around 4-6mb and the usual crap of it my router, anti-virus software!!!
Had engineer out yesterday who told me that my area NN9 Corby Northants WAS OVER SUBSCRIBED!!!! and that I would NEVER be able to get 20mb.

This morning (Sunday) i find my d/l speed is 1.79mb a total joke, i have been paying £37.99 since i went to 20mb. How do I stand for getting my money back? and secondly free upgrade from 4-10mb is only gonna make things worse here. It would have been nice for someone to tell me this 12 months ago then I could have gone elsewhere instead of still being ripped off by a bunch of [Admin Edit: Removed]

[D_Skids]

I am in the same situation as you and I am not far from you. NN3 Northampton. Maybe Northampton is oversubscribed too.

I got Virgin to give me Broadband at half price for 3 months with the understanding that if it isn't any better in three months that they do the same for another three months. It is about time I phoned them and made sure they stick to the bargain.

[ultimate]

My speed has been ok since march, then suddenly during peak hours and week ends (when the kids got their xboxes running) my speed is down to 3-4mb.

[ceedee]

This morning (Sunday) i find my d/l speed is 1.79mb a total joke, i have been paying £37.99 since i went to 20mb. How do I stand for getting my money back?

I'd recommend you get Tech Support (via the VM newsgroup: much easier than on the phone!) to check your connection and the state of your UBR and get them to make a note in your file.
Then on Monday morning, phone Customer Care (150 if you've got a VM phone) and get them to check the notes and ask for compensation and a reduced rate until the quality of service improves.
If they aren't willing to help, ask to be put through to Retentions and tell them you're considering switching to ADSL.

(And if the person you speak to there won't help, call back again in 10 minutes and try another member of staff!)

Need help getting onto VM's Tech Support newsgroup? (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showpost.php?p=34527446&postcount=6)

[Berealwith]

Having had broadband since the start, and had free upgrades I now find i have serious issues.
Had major problems since going to 20mb max speed around 4-6mb and the usual crap of it my router, anti-virus software!!!
Had engineer out yesterday who told me that my area NN9 Corby Northants WAS OVER SUBSCRIBED!!!! and that I would NEVER be able to get 20mb.

This morning (Sunday) i find my d/l speed is 1.79mb a total joke, i have been paying £37.99 since i went to 20mb. How do I stand for getting my money back? and secondly free upgrade from 4-10mb is only gonna make things worse here. It would have been nice for someone to tell me this 12 months ago then I could have gone elsewhere instead of still being ripped off by a bunch of [Admin Edit: Removed]

Totally agree with you. It should be shouted from the roof tops. I for one have started to advise people to go elsewhere. Virgin has gone if it ever was good rubbish !! Skywill have a field-day..and remember how good branson was at taking on Murdock. Grey Clouds over Virgin., and not a blue sky in sight........................."SUBJECT TO CHANGE" quote VM support

[AndyIggs83]

Its become a joke in my area now, used to get brilliant speeds 24/7 and I always used to praise NTL but now in the last month or so the service has become abysmal, rarely reaching 10MB at times when I need to use it, average speed now being 4-6MB

[chrome]

you are lucky, my download speeds suck, 1-2 meg on a 20 meg connection, waiting for the ubr update this week ( or should ) see what i get then. if nothing happens or if i don't get a reduced rate on the bb i'm off, what is the point of paying for something that you are not recieving. vm have had long enough now to take care of there customers but still they keep taking on new ones. the network can not cope with any more. now we have 50 meg being brought out, they can't even give us 20 meg. i shall wiat until wednesday 23 and see what speeds i get then, i can see a long phone call to vm on wednesday

[trevortt]

What is the average download rate for a customer on a 20Mb line. The maximum i have ever downloaded a file is about 1.7Mb and average about 1Mb. Should i be getting higher than this?

When i last spoke to CS @ Virgin they advised my download rate was fine, is this correct or a load of squabbles?

[Noggo]

The maximum for an XL 20 Mb/s connection is 2.44 MB/s
(20Mb/s) 20480000 bits/sec = 2.44 MB/sec

Don't get your bits (small b) and bytes (BIG B) mixed up now. Easy way to convert is google `20480000 bits/sec to MB/sec'

Have a look on this thread:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33631394-my-broadband-is-slow-check-first.html

As for your average 1MB/s (I think thats what you mean and not 1Mb/s), it depends on a lot of things, the way to check according to Virgin Media is to download 4 files at the same time and add the four download speeds together.
2 from http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blueyondergames/demos/
(Choose some of the larger files) and
2 from http://www.fuller.zen.co.uk/test/

Here is a good download speed (2375 KB/s):
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/attachments/12/attachment-16065d1206794597-09-24-29th-march-2008-speedtest.jpg

And here is a very bad one (268.5 KB/s):
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/attachments/12/attachment-16067d1206794597-12-13-29th-march-2008-speedtest.jpg

[chrome]

sorry i don't understand, if i'm on a 20 meg conection, if i am downloading a file,i should i get 20 meg ( or there abouts ), people i know on a 4 meg conection always seem to get the speed they are signed up for. if i download a file from virgin test files and on a 20 meg bb my download rate should be near 20 meg not 1-2, if i'm wrong will someone please tell me

[trevortt]

It's not a 20MB connection but a 20Mb connection.

[Noggo]

XL 20M means 20,000,000 bits per sec or 20 Mega b/s.
8 bits = 1 byte (B), so therefore 20Mb/s divided by 8 = 2.5 MB/s Maximum

your web browser will display the download speed as either KB/s or MB/s (bytes big `B') depending on how fast your download speed is, the change over point is 999 KB/s goes to 1MB/s

Your 1-2 you're on about converts to:
1 MB/s = 8 Mb / s
2 MB/s = 16 Mb / s

[chrome]

yea understand , so why are my friends downloading at there said speed, ie 4 meg, and also why do vm say a 20 meg bb, is that for general surfing or downloading

[Noggo]

They have propably converted the 4Mb/s to KB/s, so the maximum download speed for them will be 512 KB/s.

Remember if you don't download much`L' 4Meg broadband is been upgraded to 10 Meg this summer sometime, so save yourself some ca$h. I know I'm downgrading, that's if I'm still a customer that is.
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/current_service.html

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/schedule.html

[Tali]

Speed is also affected by how the fast the server you are conntected to can serve up the data. That's why it's suggested to download 4 files as some servers will limit the connection speed.