Slow speeds since migrating from AOL

[WRF81]

I was an AOL customer who got their broadband through the virgin cable network and was informed that as of June the 2nd Virgin would be responsible for my broadband.

Now, massive billing issues aside I’ve had to make many phone calls to Virgin in the last 2 weeks to try and sort my speed out. I was on the AOL 2mb package, but since the migration my speed has not increased at all. I am being billed for the L package – supposedly 4mb (although I live in Middlesbrough and since the upgrade is listed as completed there I’m not sure if it should be 10mb) but every time I do a speed test it comes up at 1.2mb.

I called Virgin, they told me download one of the games from their site to give a true indication of speed – I did – it came out as 152kb. They reset my modem settings and said this would fix it. I downloaded the game again and my speed had jumped to 380k so I was very happy, but 5 minutes later I downloaded the game again and speed was back down to about 126k!

I’ve noticed today that when I put the game on to download the download started at 404kb, dropped about 3 seconds later to 200kb and then gradually sank until it hit about 120kb. Does this indicate it is a fault with my computer or modem or is it something Virgin should be helping me with?

My modem is AOL branded and is listed underneath as “AOL modem 200” and is silver in colour. It is connected to the PC via Ethernet and I don’t have a router. This happens all times of day, not just in peak times, as I am mostly on the net between midnight and 4am anyway. I don’t download a lot either – net monitor tells me I’ve downloaded 50mb today. When I unplug my modem for longer than about 5 minutes it seems to have trouble syncing up again – the sync & RDY light flash for 10-15 minutes before they go solid.

I would love to be able to use the virgin technical help online, but since I don’t have a virgin email address I can’t access the site at all!

Here is a tracert and ping to the BBC

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.251.195]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 6 ms 5 ms 7 ms 10.100.204.1
2 7 ms 14 ms 37 ms midd-t2cam1-a-ge89.inet.ntl.com [213.106.239.21]
3 6 ms 6 ms 9 ms midd-t3core-1a-ge-018-0.inet.ntl.com [62.254.64.181]
4 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms lee-bb-a-so-130-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.75.45]
5 12 ms 11 ms 12 ms nth-bb-b-as2-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.101]
6 13 ms 13 ms 15 ms tele-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.2]
7 13 ms 13 ms 38 ms pos6-1.rt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.237]
8 13 ms 14 ms 13 ms 212.58.238.153
9 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms 212.58.239.62
10 18 ms 18 ms 20 ms www-vip.telhc.bbc.co.uk [212.58.251.195]
Trace complete.

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.251.195] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.251.195: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=118
Reply from 212.58.251.195: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=118
Reply from 212.58.251.195: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=118
Reply from 212.58.251.195: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=118
Ping statistics for 212.58.251.195:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 18ms, Maximum = 28ms, Average = 21ms

Sorry for the long post but I would really appreciate it if someone can help me figure out if this is a problem at my end or at Virgins because I don’t know if I can face calling the support line again! Thanks for any help in advance.

[sstainer]

well the modem is a ntl ambit 200, if your now with virgin i'd suggest a modem swap to a branded virgin modem tbh. try the newsgroups if know how or try support once more
i think using http://192.168.100.1/ root root as user password should work will tell you more what modem is doing also

[aseriouscat]

this modem can reach 2Mb, how old is it?

[WRF81]

this modem can reach 2Mb, how old is it?
I got broadband in January 2005 so I guess a little over 3 years old

---------- Post added at 23:54 ---------- Previous post was at 23:42 ----------

well the modem is a ntl ambit 200, if your now with virgin i'd suggest a modem swap to a branded virgin modem tbh. try the newsgroups if know how or try support once more
i think using http://192.168.100.1/ root root as user password should work will tell you more what modem is doing also

When I try going to that address it says "Internet explorer cannot display the page"

Do I need a virgin Email address to access the newsgroups? When i try to access them it won't download the list of groups

[sstainer]

I got broadband in January 2005 so I guess a little over 3 years old

---------- Post added at 23:54 ---------- Previous post was at 23:42 ----------



When I try going to that address it says "Internet explorer cannot display the page"

Do I need a virgin Email address to access the newsgroups? When i try to access them it won't download the list of groups

if virgin now is your isp, i'd give them a ring and say you wish to swap modem as its giving you terrible problems for starters its an old AOL modem as for news groups i belive so yeah that email needed

[WRF81]

if virgin now is your isp, i'd give them a ring and say you wish to swap modem as its giving you terrible problems for starters its an old AOL modem as for news groups i belive so yeah that email needed

Thanks for the help :) I'll ring Virgin up this week and hopefully can get them to send me a new one out.