20 Meg, what 20Meg?

[thighguy_uk]

Well, i have been with NTL since they started and have gone from dial up in the early days to 20Meg as it stands now. However, when i use all the speed test utils and websites i only seem to get around 7Meg.

Ok, so its now run by the bearded wonder, Branson, and failrplay to them, they upgraded my modem to the little diddy 255 model. But why oh why am i paying ffor 20 when i only get 7. Surely its not a conspiracy from Mr Gates as i run Vista? is the service throttled? Is it Vista? Is it too much porn that i download, or is it the mother in law? (no connection to Porn here)

Anyone with any suggestions? i live in the B77 Postcode.

for reference:
Downstream Receive Power Level : 6.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 36.3 dB
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 30.3 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 4
Cable Modem : DOCSIS 1.0/1.1/2.0 Compliant
Boot Code Version : 3.1.6d
Software Version : 2.94.1014
Hardware Version : 1.19
Linksys BEFSR41 Cable Router
NTL 255 Modem

Cheers.

[homealone]

:welcome:

What model is your BEFSR41?

Earlier models only had a 10baseT WAN port - which would equate to the 7Mb/s you are getting, try the connection without the router ...

[thighguy_uk]

Erm, i think its a 10 base,

specification says IEEE 802.3 (10BaseT), IEEE 802.3u (100BaseTX)
is this the problem then, if so, what router do you recommend?

its not the Nvidia network controller is it thats on the Motherboard?
• NVIDIA® nForce4 SLI Chipset
- HyperTransport link to the AMD Athlon 64/Athlon 64 FX CPU
- HyperTransport supporting speed up to 1GHz (2000MT/s)
- Supports 2 x PCI Express x16/x1 interface
- Two independent SATA controllers, for four drives
- Dual Fast ATA-133 IDE controllers
- IEEE 802.3 NVIDIA MAC for 1000BASE-T

[homealone]

Erm, i think its a 10 base,

specification says IEEE 802.3 (10BaseT), IEEE 802.3u (100BaseTX)
is this the problem then, if so, what router do you recommend?

Yes, that is the problem, you will never get 20Mb/s through a 10baseT interface

- 'recommend' is probably the wrong term, as I try never to recommend anything I haven't used/tried, myself - personally I use a safecom SBRU-10100, which works, but I don't know if it is still available..

Many members of this forum use the later Linksys wireless routers, such as the WRT54GL

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1133202177241&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7724139789B04

hth

[Ignitionnet]

I see the IEEE 802.3u (100BaseTX) as well though.

Is there any way to hard set the WAN port on the router to 100Mbit full duplex, and do the same to the modem?

Is the WAN port currently set at 100Mbit full duplex? If it is and the modem is set at auto-negotiate you will end up with 10BaseT.

Also Mr Branson is not involved in the running of Virgin Media in any way, shape or form. He's a 'figure head' and a major shareholder but that is all. He is not involved in the operations of the company and has no seat on the board.

[homealone]

I see the IEEE 802.3u (100BaseTX) as well though.

Is there any way to hard set the WAN port on the router to 100Mbit full duplex, and do the same to the modem?

Is the WAN port currently set at 100Mbit full duplex? If it is and the modem is set at auto-negotiate you will end up with 10BaseT.

Also Mr Branson is not involved in the running of Virgin Media in any way, shape or form. He's a 'figure head' and a major shareholder but that is all. He is not involved in the operations of the company and has no seat on the board.

didn't see the 100baseT :dunce:

If so it may be worthwhile trying to set 100Mb half duplex for the WAN :)

[thighguy_uk]

thanks for the info, i unplugged the router and went straight from the modem, speedtest.net gave me double the speed i was getting than before, so i guess afterall it is the router. Cant see any settings in the router software to change anything, so i guess its a trip to PCWorld, as much as it pains me to do so.

Was thinking of the N1 belkin Wireless router.

[Ignitionnet]

thanks for the info, i unplugged the router and went straight from the modem, speedtest.net gave me double the speed i was getting than before, so i guess afterall it is the router. Cant see any settings in the router software to change anything, so i guess its a trip to PCWorld, as much as it pains me to do so.

Was thinking of the N1 belkin Wireless router.

If the router is pants or just can't get along with the modem then yeah I guess you're stuck :(

Oddly mine is ages old but handles 20Mbit without any issues at all.

[going to sky]

I too have been with blueyonder/NTL/Virgin since dial up days,and have progressed to 2 Meg which is sufficient for my needs, however recently having carried out checks via speedtest.net i realised that I am only getting 0.75Meg downoad speeds.According to Virgin I am being throttled/penalised for actually daring to use the 2 Meg speed (unlimited download)that I am paying for. So, in the very near future, goodbye Virgin for all my services,net, tv, phone. I am off to Sky. Hello Sky one and hello up to 16 Meg for the same money

[thighguy_uk]

Agghhh, so i bought a new router, and its made no differrence at all, so why when i use direct connection to the modem is everrything ok, but when i use a router does it throttle the speed back?

[Ignitionnet]

Sounds like my intiial thought might have been right, it's a problem with the modem autonegotiating with the WAN port on the modem so it defaults down to 10Mbit half-duplex and gives the speeds you are seeing.

Hopefully someone can inform you how to check the modem and ensure it is doing autodetection properly.

[piggy]

try setting the pc conx to 100Mbit full duplex

[thighguy_uk]

ok, and how do i do this?

thx for the responses by the way

[piggy]

if your running xp open your local area conx goto properties, then configure, then advanced and look at linkspeed/duplex control, then apply

[Gopher]

Another usefull tip If you run Virgins PC Guard !! Turn OFF (ONLY IF BEHIND ANOTHER FIREWALL OR ROUTER FIREWALL ) the Firewall then run your speed test and notice the Difference. It appears that Virgin's PC Guard Throttles Speed down By up to 3 Mbs

[confucious]

I am off to Sky. Hello Sky one and hello up to 16 Meg for the same money
When I moved to a Virgin Cable area I was with another ISP and used to get 4-5Mb on my upto 8Mb connection but when I moved i was getting about 2. I did actually find a website that checked your phone line (Anyone know what it is? I've lost it) rather than your postcode - it reported 2Mb as the max on my line.
I rang Sky as I had Sky TV and asked about their 16 Mb service and they checked my line and said I could get 2.5Mb....
What I'm saying is they can tell you what speeds you can expect and it's worth checking first.
I'm now on Virgin Cable 20Mb and speedchecks show 10Mb over my wireless network which is reasonable.
Good luck.

[utt]

I too have been with blueyonder/NTL/Virgin since dial up days,and have progressed to 2 Meg which is sufficient for my needs, however recently having carried out checks via speedtest.net i realised that I am only getting 0.75Meg downoad speeds.According to Virgin I am being throttled/penalised for actually daring to use the 2 Meg speed (unlimited download)that I am paying for. So, in the very near future, goodbye Virgin for all my services,net, tv, phone. I am off to Sky. Hello Sky one and hello up to 16 Meg for the same money

My Sky upto 16 Meg tonight here (http://www.speedtest.net/result/319830784.png)

Not what is it is made out to be !!!

[confucious]

Are you sure you don't have upto 1.6Mb? lol

[LaineY]

what do people not understand about speedtest.net

Listen i worked for VM Tech Support and cannot stress enough.. that WEB URL Speed tests are generally designed for ADSL.

If you want to do a proper test go to
http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com and download a game demo

The Link Duplex Speed shouldnt really be played about with if you dont know what you are doing. There is a few times putting that onto FULL has disconnected me.

there is an extreme amount of people who dont check the obvious before flaming @ VM and blaming them for their issues when infact sometimes things are hardware/software related....

I had a router that only supported 10 meg when i was on on 20 meg.. guess who supplied it .. TELEWEST!...

I binned it and got myself a linksys and have not had one issue to this date.
(however i have since learned there has been a recent firmware update for it on VM's Website)

[whydoIneedatech]

------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are a Virgin Media customer then the best speedtest is from the link below which is from a dedicated server within the Virgin Media network, hence the is no www. before the address.

Have you tried going to this link to check your speeds http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/

click on blueyondergames>demos>then click on at least 2 large files around 400/500 mb and save them to your desktop, and then wait a couple of minutes then write down the transfer rates on the files that are running> times them by 8 and you will get a truer download speed.

i.e : 250kbps X 8 = 2MB, 500kbps X 8 = 4MB, 1250kbps X 8 = 10MB, 2500kbps X 8 = 20MB
-----------------------------------------------------------

[thighguy_uk]

now i am getting cheesed off with all this, gimme back my Hayes 56k dialup, LOL.

Do i really need to mess with duplex settings of the network card? i have tried everything and really dont know what to set it at. half duplex 100, or full duplex 100 or autonoegotiate for 100fd or 100hd.

Since i bought my new router - Linksys WRT160N i get intermittent speeds and disconnects, tried my old Linksys and that was the same, but te direct connection from pc to modem is fine, so god knows what i have done wrong, i should never have messed in the 1st place i guess.

---------- Post added at 18:48 ---------- Previous post was at 17:18 ----------

incidentally, these are the new figures with the new router:

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 2
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5056.941 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 6.0 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 35.0 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 2
Upstream Frequency : 22000000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 27.8 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 4

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

[chickendippers]

Is it the connection to the router that's intermittent? I.e. when it drops out can you still access the router config page?

[thighguy_uk]

yes i can still access the router config

---------- Post added at 21:31 ---------- Previous post was at 20:52 ----------

does anyone else have the Linksys WRT160N that can point me in the right direction, or, do i just go get me a belkin or a netgear or, 2 cans and a piece of string?

[Axegrinder]

now i am getting cheesed off with all this, gimme back my Hayes 56k dialup, LOL.

Do i really need to mess with duplex settings of the network card? i have tried everything and really dont know what to set it at. half duplex 100, or full duplex 100 or autonoegotiate for 100fd or 100hd.

Since i bought my new router - Linksys WRT160N i get intermittent speeds and disconnects, tried my old Linksys and that was the same, but te direct connection from pc to modem is fine, so god knows what i have done wrong, i should never have messed in the 1st place i guess.

---------- Post added at 18:48 ---------- Previous post was at 17:18 ----------

incidentally, these are the new figures with the new router:

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 2
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5056.941 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 6.0 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 35.0 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 2
Upstream Frequency : 22000000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 27.8 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 4

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

Your upstream power is abit too low, you might need a tech out to adjust the power in your street cab.

[thighguy_uk]

just noticed that when i lose my connection, my IP address is Nil in the router settings, when i reset the modem, the IP address reappears in the router settings. What causes this?