View Full Version : Poor Connection Speeds
Hi all,
First post on here so thanks to all in advance (and the many threads I've read over the last few months...!)
OK, from the reading and searching I've already done, I don't think I have a new problem but maybe someone has a suggestion. Problem as follows;
I've been aware my connection speeds are not up to par for several months now, but I've been keeping a record since early January. In short (although nowhere near as bad as some I've seen on here!) I get;
15-17Mb if its really late at night, or very early morning. Brilliant! :cleader:
More usually 4 - 8 Mb during evenings/weekends
Occasionally down as low as 1Mb or less at peak times.
Rather boringly, I have a spreadsheet recording the whole thing! :erm:
Anyway, I've tested using 4 good speedtest sites.
I've connected direct to the Motorola Modem and so taken my router/wireless/wired connections out of the equation.
I've used two different laptops and my desktop PC to ensure local PC is not the issue (variety of OS' here as well, XP Pro and Vista Ultimate and Business)
I've been monitoring download totals on a daily basis, so capping inst an issue. Its rare I get more than 2GB downloaded in a single day. Plus when testing my upload speed is almost always in excess of 700Kbps...
In short, I've done all the good testing you can do.
Conclusion, its nothing to do with my setup, its Virgin - or by the looks of it, the number of connections in my area.
I would be happy with a connection that would stay around 12Mbps or above to be honest, I understand I'm unlikely to ever achieve the 20Mbps advertised, especially with high utilisation! However, I do begrudge paying for a 20Mbps service, when most commonly I recieve less than 10Mbps - which should be about £12 a month cheaper (off the top of my head!)
I darent downgrade though as if I do I'm sure I'll get no more than 3 or 4Mbps most of the time!
Well I have attempted to contact Virgin to "discuss" my concerns on several occassions. The most recent of which involved some idiot overseas talking me through deleting my cookies in Internet Explorer 7. The fact that as a rule I dont use IE seemed to phase him - and the mere mention of the fact that I use Firefox was immediately touted as the source of all my woes. Uninstall it I was advised and all will be well. That call came to a premature close after I politely advised the gent in question not to waste my time and I'd waste no more of his.
So, to the conclusion of this essay...
Does anyone have any advice, short of driving to Virgin's UK HQ and hammering on the door, of any way in which I might contact a sentient being at Virgin to raise my issues? A direct phone line perhaps? An e-mail address so I can bore them to death with my spreadsheet?
Any and all help or advice taken gladly (just dont tell me to delete my cookies! :afire: )
---------- Post added at 17:37 ---------- Previous post was at 17:35 ----------
....and in typical style I've just seen this, so I guess that's a good start..........
" http://www.virginmedia.com/customers...setting-up.php
and you will need to post on virginmedia.support.broadband.cable"
Hi all,
First post on here so thanks to all in advance (and the many threads I've read over the last few months...!)
OK, from the reading and searching I've already done, I don't think I have a new problem but maybe someone has a suggestion. Problem as follows;
I've been aware my connection speeds are not up to par for several months now, but I've been keeping a record since early January. In short (although nowhere near as bad as some I've seen on here!) I get;
15-17Mb if its really late at night, or very early morning. Brilliant! :cleader:
More usually 4 - 8 Mb during evenings/weekends
Occasionally down as low as 1Mb or less at peak times.
Rather boringly, I have a spreadsheet recording the whole thing! :erm:
Anyway, I've tested using 4 good speedtest sites.
I've connected direct to the Motorola Modem and so taken my router/wireless/wired connections out of the equation.
I've used two different laptops and my desktop PC to ensure local PC is not the issue (variety of OS' here as well, XP Pro and Vista Ultimate and Business)
I've been monitoring download totals on a daily basis, so capping inst an issue. Its rare I get more than 2GB downloaded in a single day. Plus when testing my upload speed is almost always in excess of 700Kbps...
In short, I've done all the good testing you can do.
Conclusion, its nothing to do with my setup, its Virgin - or by the looks of it, the number of connections in my area.
I would be happy with a connection that would stay around 12Mbps or above to be honest, I understand I'm unlikely to ever achieve the 20Mbps advertised, especially with high utilisation! However, I do begrudge paying for a 20Mbps service, when most commonly I recieve less than 10Mbps - which should be about £12 a month cheaper (off the top of my head!)
I darent downgrade though as if I do I'm sure I'll get no more than 3 or 4Mbps most of the time!
Well I have attempted to contact Virgin to "discuss" my concerns on several occassions. The most recent of which involved some idiot overseas talking me through deleting my cookies in Internet Explorer 7. The fact that as a rule I dont use IE seemed to phase him - and the mere mention of the fact that I use Firefox was immediately touted as the source of all my woes. Uninstall it I was advised and all will be well. That call came to a premature close after I politely advised the gent in question not to waste my time and I'd waste no more of his.
So, to the conclusion of this essay...
Does anyone have any advice, short of driving to Virgin's UK HQ and hammering on the door, of any way in which I might contact a sentient being at Virgin to raise my issues? A direct phone line perhaps? An e-mail address so I can bore them to death with my spreadsheet?
Any and all help or advice taken gladly (just dont tell me to delete my cookies! :afire: )
---------- Post added at 17:37 ---------- Previous post was at 17:35 ----------
....and in typical style I've just seen this, so I guess that's a good start..........
" http://www.virginmedia.com/customers...setting-up.php
and you will need to post on virginmedia.support.broadband.cable"
:welcome:
You appear to have covered the basics, so it would seem an over subscribed uBR is the issue, unless there is any advice to the contrary....sorry :(
should get close to 20mb depending on where you are downloading from or if your are using an download manager that splits the file into 8-10 parts to download at the same time (ie7pro works well for IE, firefox not sure as i use opera for norm browsing and IE7for downloading at full speed with ie7pro {works with ie6 as its an addon for IE} when opera not giveing me more then 1MB/s)
seems more like an problem with the line or modem you should not be getting poor speed all the time easy fix is to tell them to replace your cable modem, do you have the new black one virgin modem or the older blue or silver one (assuming ex c&w/NTL postcode ex Blueyonder use brick modems some with power buttons on them or orange lights)
if that fails you most likely need to get VM tech gui out (replacing the modem would likely get an engineer call out any way)
to talk to some one useful seems to be pure luck when ringing them up as if the computer say OK then the india tech support will not help you, just do 151 first thing in the morning when they accept tech support calls you should get connected to an UK based tech support as it seems to be load based uk get calls first then india call centers once all the uk has been in calls some are usefull most are not (soon as they start talking about clearing cookies out messing with IE id say 100% the time it is not the problem they are just reading an computer screen) in the end any way they still blame the pc, going to cancellations should work as they norm have more power to give you some useful to talk to
not tryed the news groups before tho
Rather boringly, I have a spreadsheet recording the whole thing! :erm:
hehe, I done that too when I was having oversubscription issues. It helped pad out my letters to them, of which the biggest was 22 pages long.
Here's one of the summary pages about download speeds:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=17707&d=1234344496
As regarding speedtest website: Test your download speed by downloading two simultaneous large files from http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blueyondergames/demos/. Just add up the transfer rates together and this will be your download speed.
should look like this: (picture shows four simultaneous downloads, but now tech support say to do two downloads or sometimes three).
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=17708&d=1234345942
Well you have already mentioned the best way yourself to contact tech support - newsgroup support, let them check your connection / status of the UBR out. If you do get it confirmed that its oversubscription, then is the time to start to talk or write letters too customer service about reduction in monthly subs for your troubles.
Does anyone have any advice, short of driving to Virgin's UK HQ and hammering on the door, of any way in which I might contact a sentient being at Virgin to raise my issues? A direct phone line perhaps? An e-mail address so I can bore them to death with my spreadsheet?
Good luck with that.
I've been trying everyway possible for the last 4 months, even resorted to royal mail. Lots of confirmations, no responses.
The only way you'll get any relevant information is via the newsgroups, but with oversubscription it seems they're in the dark as much as anyone else.
I've been trying everyway possible for the last 4 months, even resorted to royal mail. Lots of confirmations, no responses.
After getting my issues with oversubscription confirmed by newsgroup support, I just sent letters via Royal Mail recorded service, as I was getting nowhere ringing. Every letter I sent (six in total) to VM customer services has had a response, written in the first instance (box standard letter confirming receipt), then a followed up phone call within 10 days or so. I personally can't fault the UK staff end of customer services.
recently, last 4 months , i have had EXACTLY the same issue as you in the end i resorted to faking a faulty modem by giving the indian tech guy false info about the modem status when i rang. I did this after i heard somewere (can,t remember were) that the old motorola modems don,t handle 20mb to well .My connection is passable now 10-15mb but i remain convinced that oversubscription is the main cause
After getting my issues with oversubscription confirmed by newsgroup support, I just sent letters via Royal Mail recorded service, as I was getting nowhere ringing. Every letter I sent (six in total) to VM customer services has had a response, written in the first instance (box standard letter confirming receipt), then a followed up phone call within 10 days or so.
Mine was sent on 16/12/2008, got a confirmation in the post a couple of days later, no reponse other than the confirmation. Seems to reflect the same standard with webform and emails.
I personally can't fault the UK staff end of customer services.
That is entirely at odds with my experience.
How annoying ;)
How annoying ;)
It is if they don't treat all customers in the same way. I suppose it's hit or miss when writing in too then, as it is with ringing.
@ Pappa-d, what model Motorola modem do you have? some arn't 20Meg compatible
Thanks all for some great feedback and some good ideas there.
Like your charts and screen shots Noggo! :D
Just been and checked the Modem. The Modem is actually a Black Virgin unit. Looking on the underside its a Foxconn E08C013.00 - if that helps?
I already ditched the free Netgear router I was originally given when I first signed up as I used to find that crapped out the internet connection completely if I did a server list refresh in certain online games. Trying to get that many connections to servers so I could pick a game had the same effect as a DOS attack!!
I'm going to try again this weekend through a couple of different channels - I'll let you know how I get on! ;)
Thanks all for some great feedback and some good ideas there.
Like your charts and screen shots Noggo! :D
Just been and checked the Modem. The Modem is actually a Black Virgin unit. Looking on the underside its a Foxconn E08C013.00 - if that helps?
I already ditched the free Netgear router I was originally given when I first signed up as I used to find that crapped out the internet connection completely if I did a server list refresh in certain online games. Trying to get that many connections to servers so I could pick a game had the same effect as a DOS attack!!
I'm going to try again this weekend through a couple of different channels - I'll let you know how I get on! ;)
Does it look like this
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/05/4.jpg
If so then it is either an Ambit 255 or 256.
Yep. That looks like the boy!
I have exactly the same problem as you dropping to less than a meg, I have called india 10 times plus and each time they do exactly the same rubbish. I've had a tech out(who did'nt know how to opena webpage) who replaced my modem and said it's still slow butwill be ok in the morning this was over a week ago. Tonight I rang the cancellation line and the guy there put me thru to the English tech team who were much more helpful and could actually try to explain, He mentioned that i am on a over subsribed line but that would only drop me to 10meg at peak times and is sending another tech out to fix a booster so he tells me. If this works i'll let you know. If it dont i expect a free upgrade to 50 meg for the same price i think it's the least they can do after this problem (2 months now)
I have exactly the same problem as you dropping to less than a meg, I have called india 10 times plus and each time they do exactly the same rubbish. I've had a tech out(who did'nt know how to opena webpage) who replaced my modem and said it's still slow butwill be ok in the morning this was over a week ago. Tonight I rang the cancellation line and the guy there put me thru to the English tech team who were much more helpful and could actually try to explain, He mentioned that i am on a over subsribed line but that would only drop me to 10meg at peak times and is sending another tech out to fix a booster so he tells me. If this works i'll let you know. If it dont i expect a free upgrade to 50 meg for the same price i think it's the least they can do after this problem (2 months now)
It will still cost £80 to get 50Mb installed.
I bet you it does'nt
Ring up and try as no one else offers 50Mb so who has control you or the vendor, you pay the price you get the product, its sellers market, plus Virgin know if one person gets it for free they will be inundated with complaints.
Nedkelly
13-02-2009, 11:55
Got a point there .They might give you a deal on what you have got .
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