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SpEJay
06-01-2009, 02:00
Howdee folks, always been a regular reader here, never had the need to join until now as to be honest, i don't know all that much about things to help anyone!
Please stay with me as it's a long post, a lot to describe and question.

Basically i thought i'd ask for help regarding my issues, as i've looked for months now with no success and simply have no answer for my problems.

Iam on the 20mb, have been since it came out, gone up speeds from since virgin took over ntl, previous to that i was ntl of course, using the ambit 120 i believe it is... Silver modem, still using that.

Thing is with my connection, it's mostly stable, however the speeds have never got close to 20mb.... I believe i got a reasonable 14mb speed once upon a time, after several speed tests showed me the same result, but since then...

Well i've been looking at speeds from people in a post further down, and a couple are from my area. Someone has a full 10mb speed from a 10mb connection, which is the speed iam getting from my 20mb, so obviously now iam really not happy about this, and it's putting me off going for the 50mb.

Strangely enough i seem to have several random lil problems i can't resolve...

Using Bit torrent, it always used to be perfectly fine, now i notice i lose my connection for a few seconds then it comes back.... Happens quite frequently, by losing connection i mean to the internet.
I read quite a lot into things to solve my own problems, i came to the conclusion it was the amount of connections with my torrents, so i limited them down to a reasonable amount, with success... But now, once again iam losing connection to the internet again.... Same as before, but with lesser connections on my bit torrent client, so there's no reason i can find for it happening!

My upload speed is always very stable at the advertised speed, 730kbps ish no matter when i do a speed test..... However my download speed, as i said, doesn't manage to reach above a 10mb connection.
Weirdly, speedtest.net .... Didn't always finish testing my connection, it used to get stuck.... By that i mean, is constantly telling me my download speed, varying slightly as if it was still testing... But never completing the test lol...
Just tried now and it has finished the test, 10mb down.

Incase this gives some clues i thought i'd mention..... I used to use IE until like a couple years ago.... Because IE simply wouldn't download at all, it would get stuck.... Since then, firefox worked but about a month or two after i started using it.... Same problem.... Downloads will start, but then get stuck.
Anything i download since.... I have to pause then resume the download again, and then it will fully download.... Any possible reason for that??

And finally, the firewall i use is Agnitum Outpost.... This is a strange thing, especially when using bit torrent, upon me losing connectivity to the internet, my firewall asks exactly 3 times ... Twice.... To block or allow ''system''..... No matter what choice i make, it always asks three times, and makes no difference what option i select....
After looking into this i came to the conclusion that it's just there..... I don't have any trojans / spyware etc.... My computer is clean, just bizare it asks me that when i lose my internet connection.

Also... All the above issues happen on a fresh install of windows... As extra proof it's not related with any kind of malicious software.

Finally, i have followed every setting suggested off loads of websites to configure for 20mb.... Using TCP optimizer ....
Tcp recieve window : 1027840
With the other proper settings...

I've tried different Tcp recieve values and stayed with the above, as it was the fastest i could get.... If it matters iam using the link speed & duplex at 100mbps half duplex... As the full duplex trashed my speed in half.

That's about the extent of my annoying issues..... I regularly play with my ps3 online, and have no issues.... My actual download speed maxed on bit torrent, the playstation or from a good server through a browser download, is always around 1.1mb .... per second...

Looking at everyone else on 20mb, and the people from my area from the other post, they are all getting what they should near enough which is double my speed, practically on the 20mb mark..... Iam getting half of that....

If anyone can help me here it would be greatly appreciated obviously!!! I can live with bit torrent d/c me... I can live with pausing and resuming browser downloads.... But i can't live with having half the speed iam paying for.

Any help would be great! By the way i use that same modem for both my ps3 and on my pc, not on a network, no router, no wireless anything, just direct ethernet lead from modem to pc / console.... Same speed on both.
Could this be the modem chugging on old age?
Could it be an issue for me to contact virgin about?
Could it be settings on my pc for the speed?
Could it be my bandwidth being murdered by virgin because of there restriction things???
Btw... I don't excessively download.... Somedays i get a couple gigs.... Some weeks i go without using at all when iam away.... My regular usage would be pretty low every single day unless playing the playstation games uses a lot.... The only exception being when i download a game or demo with the playstation... But that's rare and usually around a 1gb ish in size... I make sure i don't download several gigs in one day, hoping i don't get the bandwidth cut, as iam not sure on the amount your aloud before it kicks in.

Just to point out, no matter what time of day.... Like now i've tested the speed a few times between 1am and nearly 2am now.......

I have noticed a couple of times the speedtest shows my speed jump to 13mb at the start, then instantly fall below 10mb...

Well i think that's everything, thanks a lot for taking the time to read my post,
Regards,
Steph.

Roy MM
06-01-2009, 07:19
I've just done a speedtest now, showing 17+mbps, that is a lot higher than i get during the day, and i dont use any consoles just basic internet stuff, the most i ever d/l is maybe an Album or a single music track, but the speeds i get are abissmal most of the time, someone on my streetcab must be hammering it during the day, that's all i can presume for my speeds, maybe you are experiencing the same. :shrug:

weesteev
06-01-2009, 08:43
Hey Roy

It may well be over utilisation on your node, PM me your MAC address if you want and I can check this for you.

Best Regards

cripinuk
06-01-2009, 12:19
I have same problems with no access,everything including connection lights on modem are ok but no net access.Ive been onto vm for last month they gave me new modem but no change.Now vm say there is a problem but they don't know what it is.The disconnection lasts between 10 seconds to a minute,sometimes i reboot modem.

Telboy
06-01-2009, 12:59
I am having the same problem slow speeds with the connection stopping all together at times. I am on 10meg connection. I have been logging the speed with Broadband Choices the last couple of days with the results below. For the last couple of days I have been pulling an average speed of 2.25megs.

Date Time Speed
04/01/2009 14:06 653
04/01/2009 15:07 666
04/01/2009 16:08 504
04/01/2009 18:03 510
04/01/2009 23:01 731
04/01/2009 23:51 2957
05/01/2009 07:39 2131
05/01/2009 08:40 8613
05/01/2009 09:40 8625
05/01/2009 10:41 1279
05/01/2009 11:42 955
05/01/2009 12:43 694
05/01/2009 13:44 686
05/01/2009 14:46 551
05/01/2009 15:47 1047
05/01/2009 16:49 432
05/01/2009 17:50 454
05/01/2009 18:52 436
05/01/2009 19:53 438
05/01/2009 19:58 497
05/01/2009 22:16 431
05/01/2009 23:17 855
06/01/2009 00:18 2272
06/01/2009 08:05 7928
06/01/2009 09:20 8605
06/01/2009 10:21 1650
06/01/2009 11:21 2136
06/01/2009 12:22 842

Stuart
06-01-2009, 13:47
Hey Roy

It may well be over utilisation on your node, PM me your MAC address if you want and I can check this for you.

Best Regards

weesteev does work for VM.

SpEJay
07-01-2009, 01:24
Weesteev, with regard to my original post, Roy followed that up by saying maybe iam experiencing the same thing as he..... Any chance you could check mine for me?

Joxer
07-01-2009, 02:26
I didn't think the Ambit 120 would handle 20Mb...

But what do I know about NTL modems...

General Maximus
07-01-2009, 12:19
Just found this:

Dear All (this only affects xNTL customers),

After some reports in here of problems affecting XL customers on the Ambit (ntl: home branded) 100 & 120 cable modems, we have undertaken a round of further lab testing and identified that there are circumstances under which these cable modems need replacing in order to achieve the best performance.

Hence, we have updated the site http://www.virginmedia.com/evenfaster) and would recommend that any XL customers with these cable modems request a swapout to achieve the most out of their 20Mb speeds.

Please find a copy of the further information that will be going live on the website early next week:

"Ambit 100, & 120 and 200 Cable Modems - More Information

After further investigations we have now concluded that there may be circumstances where these Ambit 100 and Ambit 120 modems do not meet the performance criteria for the Broadband Size XL service.

We recommend that any customers who have either of these modems now request a cable modem swapout in order to get the maximum performance from their broadband connection.

The Ambit 200 modems meet the performance criteria."

We'd ask that you use the site to request any swapout and not ask the e-contact technical support team to do this for you. As you'll see on the site, the Ambit 100, 120 & 200 modems look quite similar - you can tell which one you have by looking at the note just above the barcode on the reverse (A 100 says "ntl: home 100", a 120 "ntl: home 120" and a 200 "ntl: home 200").

Many thanks for the reports and the assistance from those who have worked with us on diagnosing the issues they have experienced.

We have also identified that some customers experiencing speed problems need their PC to be performance tuned in order to get best results. We've put a page on our site about this, and will post further updates to it in the near future:

http://www.virginmedia.com/help/20mb...timisation.php

Hope this helps ...


Cheers

Alex

-- Alex Brown Senior Product Manager Product Management, Virgin Media



I think if you ring customer services they will send you a new Ambit 250.

Rik
07-01-2009, 21:38
I didn't think the Ambit 120 would handle 20Mb...

But what do I know about NTL modems...

Well all I will say on this matter as VM insist that 120s work fine with 20Mb................................. BUT in some areas they are the issue and DONT work properly, i had massive problems when my 20Mb was connected, random disconnects etc.

Things got soo bad, a nice guy from then NTL (Ovenchips on this forum, anyone know what happened to him?) took pity on me and escalated the problem, another engineer came around tweaked a few things in the box up the road and then it worked of course while he was standing there for 5mins, as soon as he left it disconnected again.

Now the great thing is I get another knock on the door, its some service manager guy asking me if it has all been sorted and working fine, he was a boss of some kind, very nice bloke, I said well no its disconnected again.

He then went to his van/car (didnt see) and came back with a NTL 250 modem and informed me the problem was related to my Ambit 120, he then connected me up with the 250 modem and ive had no problems since, this is going back years now.

So i would ring VM and insist they replace the modem.

:)