understanding b/w graphs on 50mb

[fedupstill]

hopefully someone can help understand whats wrong because countless engineers have failed to find the fault and now im being threatend with paying the call out charge becuase they cant see the issue :(

i have 50mb in the ne12 area ubr 13 and its so unstable but it will peak at 50mb but my problem is the connection will just drop making any browsing painfully slow and causing my online radio stream to buffer.
games will play in slow motion and virgin cant see the fault so i installed a bandwidth monitor from bwmonitor.com and when browsing and listening to music the browser will timeout or take ages to load at the same time the radio stream will buffer and my graph shows that the speed has dropped to nothing and then back up to normal for sometimes 10 mins and sometime an hour with no pattern to pinpoint why and how so im hoping someone here can look and pinpoint a possible reason so it can be fixed :)

using the ubuntu 700mb iso file hosted on a virgin server ive taken a screen shot to show the connection drops to zero and then back to normal

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/91.jpg

or

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/92.jpg

if someone can please help me find out why and whats wrong ill be grateful :D

pc runs on xp pro sp3
gbit network card connected to router/modem ( makes no difference ) by ethernet

[Pushkar]

I've found the Virgin server unreliable even on a VM connection, try speedtest.net and see what you get, also try and use a download manager when download large files - it helps max out your connection so much.

[broadbandking]

That won't help as the connection is losing connection, it could be a modem issue call them and ask for a replacement see if thats the issue mate

[fedupstill]

they said the graphs look how its meant to be ??? that my modem and line works fine as my average is ok and its sold as an upto 50mb product and as i can hit 50mb it works ..... i have an engineer booked and if he finds no fault i pay £25 yet as explained before the faults were reported in december i never had timeouts and my gaming worked fine but now i cant play because almost every game plays in slow motion
speedtest they said isnt reliable for 50mb but the results are below using maidenhead and london

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/56.png

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/57.png

thanks for the replys :) tried everything now im ready to quit so hopefully a problem can be seen and then fixed

*Edit*

radio stream buffered and browser timed out so i took a shot of the graph and copied the rates recorder text file

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/90.jpg

03/09/2009 12:30:56 149.1K 5.6K 154.7K
03/09/2009 12:30:57 128.6K 5.2K 133.8K
03/09/2009 12:30:58 132.0K 5.2K 137.2K
03/09/2009 12:30:59 135.0K 5.3K 140.3K
03/09/2009 12:31:00 137.7K 5.2K 142.9K
03/09/2009 12:31:01 109.3K 3.9K 113.2K
03/09/2009 12:31:02 128.4K 5.2K 133.5K
03/09/2009 12:31:03 5.4K 432 5.8K
03/09/2009 12:31:04 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:05 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:06 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:07 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:08 169.6K 6.0K 175.6K
03/09/2009 12:31:09 145.8K 5.7K 151.5K
03/09/2009 12:31:10 193.8K 7.9K 201.7K
03/09/2009 12:31:11 218.0K 7.8K 225.8K
03/09/2009 12:31:12 193.8K 6.9K 200.7K
03/09/2009 12:31:13 242.2K 8.6K 250.9K
03/09/2009 12:31:14 135.6K 5.2K 140.8K
03/09/2009 12:31:15 133.2K 4.8K 138.0K
03/09/2009 12:31:16 186.5K 6.9K 193.4K

[broadbandking]

Call again and esclate the call to a manager or pm a mod and see if there contacts can help

[fedupstill]

Call again and esclate the call to a manager

my issue is being dealt with by a guy named john powell in the CEO office who although polite cant see the importance of stable and says i should be happy with my super fast download speed :( i have no reason for super fast download speed though and if it wasnt for the traffic management policy id be on 4mb or 10mb but we have a few consoles and pc's in the house so cant use them at tea time

cant i limit it to 40mb and make it stable ?
they cant see anything wrong but there is and i cant get them to see that so ive been told if the engineer cant find my fault then virgin will issue ME with 30 days disconnection notice and bill me for the engineer .... if they cant fix they cancel your contract

does anyone know what tests or logs i can show to find the fault ? theres no pattern or set thing that makes it happen its just annoying and i cant do anything to find a fix or proof

[sammyjayuk]

speedtest[.net?] they said isnt reliable for 50mb

That, at least, is probably true. Last November, Virgin Media "tested the testers (http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/speedtesters/)" and found that only one speed test, thinkbroadband.com (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/)'s, could deliver consistent, accurate results.

Sam

[Joxer]

Wired or wireless connection?

Try direct to the modem (reboot the modem) and test again.

When connected to the modem, run ipconfig in a command prompt and find the default gateway. Try pinging that using ping -t (default gateway ip). leave it running and monitor while running the download. Post the result here.

If you don't fancy that you could try pinging the modem - 192.168.100.1 againwhile the download is running to check for local issues.

[fedupstill]

Sam - think broadband results :

Date 10/03/09 01:59:55
Speed Down 31847.16 Kbps ( 31.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 1584.98 Kbps ( 1.5 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.thinkbroadband.com
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/123665035699403218729.html

Joxer - connected wired always but usually through the router (netgear N series) when using other computers ,ive plugged direct to modem and powered off completly before rebooting

ping the default gateway will idle at 4ms TTL=255 but every 8-10 lines jump to 10ms and when downloading jumps to 80ms-103ms with every 8-10 lines showing request timed out

ping the modem is 1ms TTL=64 and even when downloading stays at 1ms

hope that helps and thanks for the replys :)

[graf_von_anonym]

It's fairly clear that something is causing your connection to drop, the problem is identifying it. Since it affects you when you bypass the router I think we can discount that, but you're still connecting via ethernet, so:

Have you ensured that windows isn't power managing your NIC? You can check this in the Device Manager, under either the 'advanced' or 'power management' tabs depending on your software. Further to that, have you updated your NIC drivers at all?

Your modem may not be going offline, it may be that something else is going on, but nonetheless could you post your power levels from the modem configuration page? It's usually 192.168.100.1, and I'd want to see your upstream and downstream power, as well as your snr score. If I recall correctly, you'll have more than one of the downstream values, I think it's three, because of the way the 50Mb platform works. Don't post your MAC address, or your IP address, as it'll just get removed by a moderator for your own privacy's sake.

Could you use the netstat -a command to see how many connections are open on your system. The more that there are the more likely it is that something is being overwhelmed somewhere along the lines.

The other option is a command called 'pathping' which is half ping and half tracert. It will attempt to contact every 'hop' between you and a target to see where an issue might start. When your connection is misbehaving, command prompt, "pathping web.site.address", again bbc.co.uk or google.com or similar. If there's loss on any of those hops that can point us in the right direction again.

Other things that might prove useful: You've said you've got multiple PCs there. Does any other computer suffer the drops in connection?

What you've said to Joxer about your packet loss while downloading could put the onus on the operating system. Have you run through the TCP/Optimiser?

[fedupstill]

windows is power managing both pc's NIC

engineers fitted an attenuator with a value of -6 dB to the modem but the logs show :

Upstream
Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 37504000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 2560 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 2 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 53.00 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Downstream
Frequency 315000000 299000000 307000000 N/A
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y N/N/N
Channel Id 62 60 61 N/A
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM N/A
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 N/A
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 3.76 3.67 3.64 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 38.26 37.36 37.36 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 1 4 1 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 283 242 271 N/A

General Configuration
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Baseline Privacy : Enabled
DOCSIS Mode : DOCSIS 3.0
Config File : A,.iyewrkldJKDHSU
Primary Downstream Service Flow
SFID : 6748
Max Traffic Rate : 53000000 bps
Max Traffic Burst : 3044 bytes
Min Traffic Rate : 0 bps
Primary Upstream Service Flow
SFID : 6747
Max Traffic Rate : 1750000 bps
Max Traffic Burst : 3044 bytes
Min Traffic Rate : 0 bps
Max Concatenated Burst : 1522 bytes
Scheduling Type : Best Effort

netstat -a shows the following :
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/86.jpg

pathping www.bbc.co.uk shows 11 hops and all show 0/ 100 = 0% except for the last hop and that shows 100/ 100 = 100%


the other computer is also windows xp pro with sp3 and has the exact same issues and all drivers are updated
TCP optimisers were done during install by the engineer using the speedguide.net site and the TCP optimisers are : Windows 9x/ME/2K/XP/XP-SP2/2k3 | version: 2.0.3 | date: 01/06/2006 | filesize: 596 KB
after downloaded he slid the bar to maximum 20,000 and then clicked optimal settings and apply changes

hope i havnt missed anything but anything else just ask and im grateful for the time and help :)

[cabsandy]

So to be clear here, your not that bothered about hitting the heights of super-fast broadband?-its more stability in terms of latency that allows your radio streaming to work and web pages to work?
When the engineers have called, did they demonstrate to you that it worked on their machine-did they get the speeds, web pages, radio streaming ok?
As for your logs, they show that from the modem point of view,everything is fine.The lack of anything in the T1,2,3 and 4 timers would suggest the connection from the network is pretty solid and the downstream MER's are good as well.

Would it be an idea to use something like Ping Plotter to ping the UBR ( your WAN default gateway) over a day or so and see if you can note any dropouts? It seems to me the speeds are there or thereabouts but it's the stability that is causing you grief
PS-should have mentioned it's quite good for latency as well.

HTH

:angel:

[fedupstill]

speed isnt an issue for me no but with having 2 pc's and 2 consoles in the house used at different times of the day we would often set the traffic management limits off.
pingplotter is now installed but what would you like me to add to test and see whats happening ? is my WAN ip my public ip ? and how would i test the pingplotter ?
its running but nothing happening and the guide says it can be used for different things depending on what info im looking to test
thanks for the replys so far :)

*Edit*

pingplotter installed but whats my WAN ip please ? :)
just as a test i added the default gateway that showed last drops and i have this result and im guessing ive set something up wrong so would someone be kind enough to explain what details to enter thanks

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/84.jpg

[cabsandy]

speed isnt an issue for me no but with having 2 pc's and 2 consoles in the house used at different times of the day we would often set the traffic management limits off.
pingplotter is now installed but what would you like me to add to test and see whats happening ? is my WAN ip my public ip ? and how would i test the pingplotter ?
its running but nothing happening and the guide says it can be used for different things depending on what info im looking to test
thanks for the replys so far :)

*Edit*

pingplotter installed but whats my WAN ip please ? :)
just as a test i added the default gateway that showed last drops and i have this result and im guessing ive set something up wrong so would someone be kind enough to explain what details to enter thanks

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/84.jpg

Okdokay-good start :tu:.

If the PC is connected directly to the modem, then bring up a DOS prompt (Start/Run and then type in cmd and hit return) and type in ipconfig /all. You will see an IP address-the default gateway is your VM hub (UBR) ip-if you put this ip in the "address to trace" box and hit return, you should be on your way.There are some options you can change (packet size is one) but lets keep it simple for now.Leave it running overnight and see how it looks in the morning.Ideally, you should see no red blocks/lines on the graph (this is packet loss) and the scale on the left hand side, at the bottom, should range from 0 to <100ms (hopefully a lot less but you may see the odd spike-what we don't want to see is huge humps of spikes-this would be consistent latency).
If this runs smoothly, then it isn't the VM local network that has the problem-well, not latency anyway. There may be issues in the core (doubtful) or with the sites you use (but you say it was fine on the old service). Post back some pics when you have some stuff.
What is the radio station and games you play?-I can try it from here.

:angel:

[fedupstill]

found my WAN address and its ticking along and has been since 5:30pm and ill grab any times and events that will help find the issue but just to be sure ive set it right heres 2 screens from earlier on and at the times pingplotter shows a spike but while these shots were taken there wasnt anything running or any browser etc open :)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/82.jpg

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/83.jpg

the radios can be anything depending on what mood im in but theres thousands to choose from here http://shoutcast.net/
games can be anything from Cod or Fear or even some basic flash games from the good ole atari and spectrum days

hopefully its recording whats needed and find out whats going wrong
thanks for the help :)

[fedupstill]

*Update*

pingplotter running and it picks up slow moments and the B/W graph shows the connection dropping but overall tonight wasnt bad and fairly quicker than the last 4 months of dial-up or worse :( then about 1am it went back to normal and pages slow and radio was buffering so the screen shots show below what was happening

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/79.jpg

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/80.jpg

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/81.jpg

so what do you do when you have no internet ? you go watch telly and see whats worth watching but no i cant even have that pleasure :( as usual nothing on so ill use catch up and pick something and i get these errors

quote 1051/cancelled when you call.
quote 1051/502 when you call.

where is the fault ? i have 2 pc's with the same problems and my telly wont work

[fedupstill]

still the same and tv hasnt come back yet ( quote 1051/502 when you call )

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/78.jpg

screen shots are during a download so anything more than the google homepage causes packet loss and add browsing and a radio stream together is to much and takes my telly down

anyone got a book i can borrow ?

[Joxer]

Intermittent stuff like this is always a pain to troubleshoot. I am guessing it could be fec errors but it would be worth running tcpoptimiser:

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

[cabsandy]

Ok-just so I'm clear, as there are a lot of screenshots :) , it was ok up till 0100 this morning (11th March) and then started getting worse? Did you, at this point, lose all services (including TV-I saw the ref to CUTV), and this was still the case at your posting of 0934, or did you still have service? If so, how did you manage to post to the forum? There is no way that you doing something on your computers can have an effect on your TV pictures-or are you watching streaming TV on the the PC?
Sorry for all the questions but I'm a bit confused on what is happening :dunce:

[Joxer]

Me? I don't have any problems. I'm just trying to be helpful.

[fedupstill]

I am guessing it could be fec errors but it would be worth running tcpoptimiser:

TCP optimizers were installed during 50mb upgrade by the engineer but the settings have been checked and they are set how its meant to be .
TCP optimisers : Windows 9x/ME/2K/XP/XP-SP2/2k3 | version: 2.0.3 | date: 01/06/2006 | filesize: 596 KB

it was ok up till 0100 this morning (11th March)
it was running perfect all night from 8pm ish when i went on and it was just as i was heading off it went all dodgy with buffering and slow page loading
Did you, at this point, lose all services (including TV-I saw the ref to CUTV), and this was still the case at your posting of 0934, or did you still have service?
not a total loss of service but BB went on a go slow and the tv channels were there but no on-demand services,so its not a complete loss it just seems to stop and then resume again
this morning the on-demand is still off and the BB is its usual where random timeouts and buffering happen when ever they like and i cant predict them or see any pattern :(

*Edit*

when i try speedtest.net at maidenhead i got a ping time of 32ms but the test never started 3 times in a row so i tried london and ping is 78ms with 32174 kb/s down and 1403 kb/s upload and pingplotter shows this below
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/77.jpg

[cabsandy]

Me? I don't have any problems. I'm just trying to be helpful.

Sorry Joxer-wrong quote-apoligies for any confusion

[fedupstill]

just to rule out that its not my pc or equipment i installed pingplotter on the 2nd pc and left them bothing running with a radio stream playing to see how they run or if anything happens and pingplotter shows errors on both pc's so surely i cant be unlucky enough to have 2 broken NIC or 2 bad ethernet cables ...
both connected to the router with ethernet cables and both updated and running on xp pro and both have TCP optimisers set

Screen shot 1 is my pc
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/75.jpg

Screen shot is my daughters pc but same times
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/76.jpg

both clearly have the same fault and the spikes happen around the same time but they also have their own spikes the other pc never shows or dosnt suffer ???

ive also been told and its not from a virgin employee that there are engineers coming to replace something called " a green fin or fins " in the cabinet tomorrow ? anyone know what they are or do ?
i tried ringing the guy dealing with my fault/complaint to confirm this but that was at 5pm and im guessing at 8:30pm now that hes finished for the day or he didnt get the message to call me back, im also told i have engineers coming tomorrow to see the issues im having from my house/pc's but tomorrow is a long day so it would of been nice to have a rough idea of what time tomorrow

it was 79 days ago i reported the fault and since then theres been power shelfs replaced and an attenuator fitted then i paid £31 for a new NIC and fitted ( virgin blamed my NIC before they discovered power issues ) and virgin still say theres no fault on my line or anything that would affect my connection :( im thinking its time to look for a new ISP cause ive been more then patient dont see why i should pay for a service that i have no faith in.

[cabsandy]

just to rule out that its not my pc or equipment i installed pingplotter on the 2nd pc and left them bothing running with a radio stream playing to see how they run or if anything happens and pingplotter shows errors on both pc's so surely i cant be unlucky enough to have 2 broken NIC or 2 bad ethernet cables ...
both connected to the router with ethernet cables and both updated and running on xp pro and both have TCP optimisers set

Screen shot 1 is my pc
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/75.jpg

Screen shot is my daughters pc but same times
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/76.jpg

both clearly have the same fault and the spikes happen around the same time but they also have their own spikes the other pc never shows or dosnt suffer ???

ive also been told and its not from a virgin employee that there are engineers coming to replace something called " a green fin or fins " in the cabinet tomorrow ? anyone know what they are or do ?
i tried ringing the guy dealing with my fault/complaint to confirm this but that was at 5pm and im guessing at 8:30pm now that hes finished for the day or he didnt get the message to call me back, im also told i have engineers coming tomorrow to see the issues im having from my house/pc's but tomorrow is a long day so it would of been nice to have a rough idea of what time tomorrow

it was 79 days ago i reported the fault and since then theres been power shelfs replaced and an attenuator fitted then i paid £31 for a new NIC and fitted ( virgin blamed my NIC before they discovered power issues ) and virgin still say theres no fault on my line or anything that would affect my connection :( im thinking its time to look for a new ISP cause ive been more then patient dont see why i should pay for a service that i have no faith in.

How much upstream bandwidth does the radio stream consume-and did you notice your problems on the stream when ping plotter showed the red lines?

:angel:

[Ignitionnet]

How much upstream bandwidth does the radio stream consume-and did you notice your problems on the stream when ping plotter showed the red lines?

:angel:

It's a UDP stream Andy, it won't consume any upstream bandwidth at all.

[cabsandy]

It's a UDP stream Andy, it won't consume any upstream bandwidth at all.

I'm not Andy, BTW

[graf_von_anonym]

The fact that your TVOD is dropping out intermittently suggests a return path issue, probably that your upstream power level is out of bounds or experiencing variation. I would use the 'Technical Stuff' buttons on your STB to get your upstream power level when you're experiencing problems. Wagering nothing, I'd guess that they are spiking intermittently and causing your connection to drop. That would throw your downloads out because you wouldn't be acknowledging packets received. I say use the TV because it can be a pain to get them from the modem sometimes. Though I see that you have.

Upstream power level of 53.00 is on the high side. It might even be borderline. It's usually 55.00 for standard connections, and if memory serves they're more narrow on 50Mb. If you can catch variation, then something can be done.

[Ignitionnet]

I'm not Andy, BTW

Ooops :blush:

[fedupstill]

Day 80 since fault reported - 21 engineers - 16 seperate visits :( still broke

RF return things ( fins ? ) replaced in cabinet - modem replaced - all home connections checked and replaced - attenuator -6 dB sill fitted

next door neighbour has 50mb fitted (attenuator -8 dB fitted) and was kind enough to let me install the bandwidth graph and pingplotter as hes also having issues and the results are exactly the same with slow browsing and showing packet loss but still no fault found yet .... my on-demand service worked though so luck or working in the right direction ive no idea
since the modem has been installed though it seems worse and pingplotter graphs agree ??? how can it get worse but if anyone can see a change between the old modem stats page 1 and now below can they try and see why i cant do anything :(

Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 37504000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 2560 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 2 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 54.75 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 1 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Frequency 299000000 307000000 315000000 N/A
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y N/N/N
Channel Id 60 61 62 N/A
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM N/A
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 N/A
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 0.05 -0.74 -0.46 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 37.36 37.09 37.94 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 1 0 0 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 308 939 892 N/A

Item Status Comments
Acquired Downstream Channel 299.001343 MHz Primary Downstream Locked
Ranged Upstream Channel 37.504002 MHz Success
Provisioning State OK Operational
Ethernet Link Status Up 100 Mbps/Full duplex

modem was installed 2hrs ago and shows 2 T3 timeouts in the event log and this pingplotter shows my connection has got worse than before they came :( does anyone know anything else i can use to see whats wrong and why ? ill try anything now im so fed up
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/73.jpg

[cabsandy]

The fact that your TVOD is dropping out intermittently suggests a return path issue, probably that your upstream power level is out of bounds or experiencing variation. I would use the 'Technical Stuff' buttons on your STB to get your upstream power level when you're experiencing problems. Wagering nothing, I'd guess that they are spiking intermittently and causing your connection to drop. That would throw your downloads out because you wouldn't be acknowledging packets received. I say use the TV because it can be a pain to get them from the modem sometimes. Though I see that you have.

Upstream power level of 53.00 is on the high side. It might even be borderline. It's usually 55.00 for standard connections, and if memory serves they're more narrow on 50Mb. If you can catch variation, then something can be done.

Although it's a bit high, the upstream TX power is not the problem

---------- Post added at 21:17 ---------- Previous post was at 21:02 ----------

Day 80 since fault reported - 21 engineers - 16 seperate visits :( still broke

RF return things ( fins ? ) replaced in cabinet - modem replaced - all home connections checked and replaced - attenuator -6 dB sill fitted

next door neighbour has 50mb fitted (attenuator -8 dB fitted) and was kind enough to let me install the bandwidth graph and pingplotter as hes also having issues and the results are exactly the same with slow browsing and showing packet loss but still no fault found yet .... my on-demand service worked though so luck or working in the right direction ive no idea
since the modem has been installed though it seems worse and pingplotter graphs agree ??? how can it get worse but if anyone can see a change between the old modem stats page 1 and now below can they try and see why i cant do anything :(

Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 37504000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 2560 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 2 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 54.75 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 1 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Frequency 299000000 307000000 315000000 N/A
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y N/N/N
Channel Id 60 61 62 N/A
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM N/A
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 N/A
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 0.05 -0.74 -0.46 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 37.36 37.09 37.94 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 1 0 0 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 308 939 892 N/A

Item Status Comments
Acquired Downstream Channel 299.001343 MHz Primary Downstream Locked
Ranged Upstream Channel 37.504002 MHz Success
Provisioning State OK Operational
Ethernet Link Status Up 100 Mbps/Full duplex

modem was installed 2hrs ago and shows 2 T3 timeouts in the event log and this pingplotter shows my connection has got worse than before they came :( does anyone know anything else i can use to see whats wrong and why ? ill try anything now im so fed up

One thing I notice is that the DNS name is osr1newc that you are pinging-is this what you get every time you put in your default gateway in Ping Plotter? The 10 address before it is a private IP so I'm guessing this is the actual UBR-but if you try to ping it, it wont respond and shuffles you onto the OSR-which must be some sort of "big" main router. I wonder if this is the problem?

[fedupstill]

One thing I notice is that the DNS name is osr1newc that you are pinging-is this what you get every time you put in your default gateway in Ping Plotter?

the osr01newy is the UBR i think ? ( newy is newyork or silverlink to locals and the UBR for the area ) its what i was given when asked to ping my WAN ? ive no idea on half of this so if you can give pointers ill get the info needed :)
ipconfig shows the default gateway as 192.168.1.1 so ive added that to pingplotter and the results are below and thanks for the help aswell im at the point of giving up now its definatly worse today than its been :(

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/72.jpg

[graf_von_anonym]

Although it's a bit high, the upstream TX power is not the problem

I quote you here because it's variable even from post to post. It was seen at 53, then at 54.75. If it's affecting a neighbour and on-demand services then I'd say it's probably network, but UBR or cabinet I know not. That many techs out to a particular incident screams to me that something is being overlooked, but I've no idea what. There's no doubt the connection is intermittent, but without identifying the cause, no idea.

I'd check through the newsgroups at this point, and see if somebody on 2nd line could look at the Flap Count, specifically the power adjustment. It could be laser clipping or something not directly visible at the modem.

[cabsandy]

I quote you here because it's variable even from post to post. It was seen at 53, then at 54.75. If it's affecting a neighbour and on-demand services then I'd say it's probably network, but UBR or cabinet I know not. That many techs out to a particular incident screams to me that something is being overlooked, but I've no idea what. There's no doubt the connection is intermittent, but without identifying the cause, no idea.

I'd check through the newsgroups at this point, and see if somebody on 2nd line could look at the Flap Count, specifically the power adjustment. It could be laser clipping or something not directly visible at the modem.

A variance of 1dB is not significant and modems themselves have a tendency not be exact reporters of power level. Trust me, its not the upstream power level that is at fault here, although you are right to bring it up.
I don't know (yet) what is causing this latency either.He is not going offline and he has no T4 counter increments so the actual modem is staying on the network fine. It is a weird one,I'll give you that!

[fedupstill]

is the upstream and downstream meant to fluctuate ? cant say ive ever paid much attension so can you view history in any logs because its changed again now

Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 37504000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 2560 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 2 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 56.25 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 3 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Frequency 299000000 307000000 315000000 N/A
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y N/N/N
Channel Id 60 61 62 N/A
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM N/A
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 N/A
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 0.04 -0.87 -0.50 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 37.09 37.09 37.94 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 2 9 6 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 308 939 892 N/A


also after running pingplotter for hours and viewing the WAN and default gateway there is a pattern showing but i could just be seeing things now so do any experts understand these results and why is the pattern reversed between my pc and my daughters ?

my pc shows 4 rises and 4 packet loss red lines
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/69.jpg

my daughters pc has 3 rises and 3 red packet loss red lines
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/70.jpg

this screen is from the guy next door who also has 50mb but uses vista and is having a similer fault but the big red spike (12-03-09 12:30pm) is from yesterday dinner time when the cabinet was having parts fitted so the huge loss is them but the patterns i have show in his pingplotter aswell as the big red lines

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/71.jpg

[fedupstill]

well its time to give up :( ive tried to find the fault but it cant be found so now im off to another but slower but stable provider .... can anyone recomend any ? i need tv package - phone line and stable broadband :)

thanks to everyone whos helped and spent time in trying to find the fault though im grateful for the effort :) but after 81 days and so many hours on the phone and days and days of engineer visits and installing apps to monitor and reading posts its now time to quit and give up and move from my broadband provider of over 3 years ( misses the 4mb telewest line )

should anyone ever find a way to fix this or if virgin can stop massive packet loss making it unusable to the point its not worth having on the 50mb service ill change my email addy ( no @BY.co.uk soon ) and keep upto date with it
time to lose the " fastest broadband in britain " and try copper for the 1st time ...

many thanks and cheers :)

[Neil1454]

sound all to familure fedupstill

Have a read here..

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33647155-got-50mb-read.html

[graf_von_anonym]

That variable power level still puzzles me, but there's no point in prolonging your misery to satisfy my curiousity*. Good luck with your next connection.

* I was going to write something here but then I figured I'd save the Moderators the trouble of deleting it.

[fedupstill]

there's no point in prolonging your misery to satisfy my curiousity
i dont mind finding out whats wrong so while im sorting a new isp name the test and ill try it and before my new service ill be wiping all the old stuff so no b/w apps or tcp optimisers etc anyways :)

Good luck with your next connection.
have to get a phone line installed 1st as my line now is virgin and because i cant get a speed test without activating a bt line ive no idea what ill get until its to late :( its going to cost me more to get less

this is bugging me but ive no way to test where the issue lies cause virgin engineers wont take the results of 3rd party apps like pingplotter or the b/w graph but 3 seperate pc's have the same issue and thats tested with 3 different NIC - 3 different ethernet cables - 3 different modems (ive had 2) - 2 different OS (xp and vista) with or without the router and all wired not wireless.
how do i trace the fault or what can i use that proves without doubt there is a massive issue slowing every bandwidth using app and that its not me ?

it worked perfect in december and all the months before then and on a 20mb line i was hitting 22mb but then it went unstable and has been like this ever since and i reported the fault december 22nd so it was proberbly like that 2 or 3 days before i reported the fault and put it down to temp issues

anyway to findout if any changes were made on the ubr or what happened around that time that would affect my connection ?

i know my browsing habbits havnt changed and i use the same sites and programes and everything else that ive used fine for a long time

since i reported the fault they have changed a power shelf somewhere and replaced the "fins" in the cab at the top of my street and ran so many tests but the engineers messure speed and i have hit 50mb and more a few times so to them its great but any use results in massive packet loss to the point pages wont load in browsers and games play in slow motion and a 128 kb/s radio stream buffers
to virgins credit they have spent fortunes in trying to fix it and they replaced all my connections so in theory i should have the best connection and 95% of the countless people ive spoken to were good but they cant find a fix for a stable line and the slightest thing using bandwidth will cause stability loss so any use is pointless :(

[Mr Angry]

fedupstill,

Do you have a plasma TV / light dimmer switches anywhere near your pc / modem?

i dont mind finding out whats wrong so while im sorting a new isp name the test and ill try it and before my new service ill be wiping all the old stuff so no b/w apps or tcp optimisers etc anyways :)


have to get a phone line installed 1st as my line now is virgin and because i cant get a speed test without activating a bt line ive no idea what ill get until its to late :( its going to cost me more to get less

this is bugging me but ive no way to test where the issue lies cause virgin engineers wont take the results of 3rd party apps like pingplotter or the b/w graph but 3 seperate pc's have the same issue and thats tested with 3 different NIC - 3 different ethernet cables - 3 different modems (ive had 2) - 2 different OS (xp and vista) with or without the router and all wired not wireless.
how do i trace the fault or what can i use that proves without doubt there is a massive issue slowing every bandwidth using app and that its not me ?

it worked perfect in december and all the months before then and on a 20mb line i was hitting 22mb but then it went unstable and has been like this ever since and i reported the fault december 22nd so it was proberbly like that 2 or 3 days before i reported the fault and put it down to temp issues

anyway to findout if any changes were made on the ubr or what happened around that time that would affect my connection ?

i know my browsing habbits havnt changed and i use the same sites and programes and everything else that ive used fine for a long time

since i reported the fault they have changed a power shelf somewhere and replaced the "fins" in the cab at the top of my street and ran so many tests but the engineers messure speed and i have hit 50mb and more a few times so to them its great but any use results in massive packet loss to the point pages wont load in browsers and games play in slow motion and a 128 kb/s radio stream buffers
to virgins credit they have spent fortunes in trying to fix it and they replaced all my connections so in theory i should have the best connection and 95% of the countless people ive spoken to were good but they cant find a fix for a stable line and the slightest thing using bandwidth will cause stability loss so any use is pointless :(

[fedupstill]

Do you have a plasma TV / light dimmer switches anywhere near your pc / modem?


normal tv and roughly 10 meters from the pc and normal on/off light switches - nothing has changed in my house or garden and the connection splits before the tv box so i dont think that could interfere with it if that broke as it usually does

[Mr Angry]

normal tv and roughly 10 meters from the pc and normal on/off light switches - nothing has changed in my house or garden and the connection splits before the tv box so i dont think that could interfere with it if that broke as it usually does

OK, I suggest that you and Mrs Fedupstill switch off the lights and cuddle up to watch some tv. It wont fix your broadband issues - but there's a very real chance you'll both feel better about it in the morning.

[fedupstill]

lmao and the last time i tried to watch it theres nothing on and catch up never works its a bit like reading a book with pages missing you wont get it all

[fedupstill]

well as i had nothing to lose i thought id go back to 20mb and see how that runs and its still the same :( ive tried everything possible and still the same issues
changed dns to open DNS - lowered RWIN - flushed my dns and cashe - reset the modem - tried with and without the attenuator with no luck so i asked a mate whos a pc/network engineer to take a look and he says its bad routing and theres 2 ip's giving me trouble thats causing delays and that has a knock on effect to the other hops

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/65.jpg

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/66.jpg

has anyone else noticed theres a massive increase of posts here with 50mb issues all the same with hitting max speed but then dropping to nothing or the connection drops ?

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33647213-going-constant-50-mb-3-10-a.html

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33647155-got-50mb-read.html

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33646598-strange-drop-in-speed-of-50mb.html

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33647255-do-these-levels-look-ok-50mb.html

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33647254-upstream-transmit-power-level.html

why is 50mb so unstable and after 50mb is installed in the area it affects all other BB speeds ? its not just me and the more people/areas taken 50mb the more posts and issues are found
i had a perfect and reliable service until 4 weeks before 50mb was available in my area so im now convinced its not my 2 pc's or my neighbours pc at fault and that virgin have changed some thing thats killing the stability in exchange for massive speed bursts

[gcc]

Hi fedupstill,

I have been having exactly the same problem since Sept-Oct 2008 in Cambridge. I get random dropouts of the connection for 1-5 minutes every few hours. I only have a 10mbit connection (L size).

At first they insisted that my old modem (Surfboard 3100) was "incompatible" with the service, despite the fact that I had been using it for 8 years, so they sent me a new modem (Ambit 256). This did not resolve the problem.

Then they sent an engineer who luckily arrived at exactly the time that a fault occurred. He plugged a tester into my coax and immediately decided that the problem was not with my system (not sure, why, perhaps signal levels?) and that he was going to move my connection to a different circuit (UBR?) for testing by the Cambridge office. The problem then disappeared for about two months and has just started reoccurring this week.

As I always use SSH to access remote machines and IMAP for email, any kind of interruption is extremely annoying, as I'm sure it is for you. Although I run Linux and not Windows, so NTL has been worse than useless on the phone (I actually had to lie to them about my OS at one point to get any help at all), I have been able to see by leaving pings running that when the service goes out, I can ping my cable modem just fine, but not my default router. That implies that the local CM service is down, not my network card.

Unfortunately the CM itself does not show any signs of the outage in its logs, e..g T1 counters etc. and gives minimal diagnostic information. I have been graphing the stats that I can get from it (upstream and downstream power level, and downstream SNR) for about 6 months, and you can see the results here:

http://top.qwarx.com/docsis-year.png

I think in mid-January, when the upstream power level dropped massively, was when I was connected to their diagnostic centre, and recently (late Feb) they moved me back to the usual connection without telling me.

If you look at a shorter-term graph you can see that my upstream power went up to 58 dBmv at 1800 yesterday. I've read elsewhere that this is an indicator that the CM cannot supply enough power to make the signal reach the upstream successfully.

http://top.qwarx.com/docsis-day.png

While the outages happen, using a packet sniffer I can see packets arriving from the Internet, and occasional outgoing packets (including ARP requests for the default router), but no replies arrive, which makes me think that my outbound packets are not making it to the UBR and so it's the upstream and not the downstream that's faulty. Presumably the CM has no way to detect this by itself, so it requires the UBR to do it, and NTL appear not to know or care about any issues with my connection detected by the UBR

Right now I'm on the point of leaving NTL and switching to ADSL as at least it should ensure a stable connection, but with other ISPs implementing worse caps than NTL and the fact that I'll lose my phone number, I've been reluctant to do this.

Unfortunately the outages are short enough that I can't usually get through to customer services in time to report the problem while an outage is in progress. Normally when I get through, they tell me that my connection is fine, which by that point it is.

Can anyone see anything suspicious about the upstream power levels? Has anyone else experienced random dropouts of their connections for a few minutes?

[gcc]

I just managed to get through to NTL while my connection was down for an extended period (about 10 minutes until I rebooted it).

I was speaking to an Indian call centre and I don't entirely trust them, but the guy said that my modem was online. I don't believe this as I could not ping my default gateway but I could ping the modem, and its sync and ready lights were on. He said that my signal to noise (SNR) ratio was very low (8.5) and he booked an engineer visit (my second so far).

He claimed that it was the downstream SNR that was low, but I checked the modem myself and its reported SNR was 39.9, so I reckon he was reading upstream SNR. He told me that there was a fault in my area. From what I've just read, most CMTS don't report the SNR of individual modems, only an average for a single coax, so presumably the average for all users sharing my coax was low. The minimum SNR for QAM16 (which is what my CM is using for upstream) is supposed to be 18 dB, so 8.5 dB is really low.

I asked him to log the low SNR on my account and will bring it up with the technician when he comes on Tuesday. As usual, rebooting the cable modem restored the service. I think this recalibrates the upstream power.

I did get a critical error about ranging in the CM log when the connection was down, but unfortunately when I rebooted the modem it disappeared.

Let's hope that on Tuesday they find and fix whatever's causing the low SNR. But given your experience, I don't have high hopes :(.

[xocemp]

A tech would only be needed for downstream SNR, as you have said there would be no report for a single modems upstream SNR, that would be for the card. Also if as the agent had told you there was a area fault then what is that service tech coming to your house going to do? :erm:

[gcc]

I don't know. Perhaps he was outright lying to me and my modem was really offline. Perhaps my modem is lying to me about its downstream SNR. Perhaps he's going to confiscate my modem for being a difficult customer. Perhaps they're going to start tracing the fault back from my house. Perhaps they always send out an engineer when they can see a problem but they don't have a clue what it is?

The area fault wasn't accounced on the phone message when I called. I can only surmise that either the agent I spoke to detected a new fault (perhaps poor upstream SNR, but if so why don't they monitor this and correct it themselves before customers complain?) or else he was lying about the fault to make me feel better, that I wasn't being targeted personally by NTL or God.

[Ignitionnet]

IHe said that my signal to noise (SNR) ratio was very low (8.5) and he booked an engineer visit (my second so far).

FYI there is no way your modem will be online with an upstream SNR that low. You do certainly have an upstream fault though, power jumping all over the place isn't good.

A fault on a single cable isn't going to be on the announcement line else the messages would go on for ages.

fedupstill your mate is wrong there's nothing wrong with the routing, your upstream transmit power is however too high at 56.5dBmV so you need to get in touch with Virgin to get this resolved.

FYI both - Virgin are rushing their backsides off to get the 50Mbit out to keep the marketing people happy, issues like this are what happens.

[fedupstill]

your upstream transmit power is however too high at 56.5dBmV

virgin have closed the fault :( 56.5 dBmV is ok but borderline they said after adding 4 ? what the 4 is im not sure but they said i dont have any faults after 21 engineer visits

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/63.jpg

the red line is my mac addy

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/64.jpg

why cant they see the issues ?

[fedupstill]

wooo hooo :) next door had an engineer visit for his fault and i managed to grab him and hes seen both houses have a fault and unlike other engineers he says you cant dispute CLI netstat and agrees there is a huge fault some where.

the above netstat shot was done at 9:26am and ive done another now and the packet loss is huge and jumped 3000 during his 10 min visit

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/62.jpg

09:26 - segments retransmitted = 2495
13:58 - segments retransmitted = 20366

in 4 hrs 30 mins theres 17,871 resent segments and its actully been ok'ish so see what happens later when it goes its usual unstable ways :(

at least finally virgin has admitted that 3 seperate pc's in 2 houses cant be user error :)

[graf_von_anonym]

As we've said, there's no dispute that there's an issue, the trouble is finding evidence for it and then convincing VM of it. Sadly, even if you get a tech on the phone who knows what they're doing the message that gets sent to a tech who comes out is a wee block of text that goes in a text message, or one of the new-fangled PDA units. Most of those in the field have no idea what systems those in the call-centres use, and the reverse.

Still, at least first line agents can send technicians out, even if it doesn't always work properly. Trying to get BT to put a pair of boots on the ground is almost Sisyphean.

[gcc]

The tech who came to my house today did not appear to be one of the ones who "knows what they're doing." He said my downstream signal strength was too high (he measured it at +5 dB) and fitted an attenuator. He also replaced the modem. I tried to argue with him about the upstream signal strength and a potential return path problem and he said he couldn't measure that and there was nothing he could do about it. I fully expect my problem to keep happening.

Fedupstill, I hope they fix the problem in your case.

[fedupstill]

Fedupstill, I hope they fix the problem in your case.

they have ... well not perfect but im more than happy and its a sigh of relief :)

about 10pm last night it changed and seemed odd *insert technical term* so i rebooted and when it came back its far better and works perfect so far but the cost is speed

when unstable and not worth having i was easy hitting 6.3 mb/s down before dropping but now its a stable 3.5mb/s using the virgin media hosted ubuntu file and pingplotter isnt recording as many packet loss so its definatly better and the drop of speed dosnt bother me so im happy :) both pc's the same and ill check with my neighbour when i see him
netstat showed resent segments at 65000 yesterday but its only at 163 now so its bizzare and slower but better and its plenty for me

if any virgin media people can see what happened last night at the newyork ubr 13 around 10pm it could shed some light on whats happened
ill take slower and stable over fast and unusable anyday :) i hope it lasts


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/56.jpg

[fedupstill]

guess i spoke to soon :( i hoped id been capped at 30mb and all was well but nope im back to full speed and thats when im getting problems

3.5mb/s is a nice smooth download with very little variation and no packet loss 3.4-3.6mb/s :)

anything faster is a mess and jumps between 3mb/s and 6mb/s with packet loss :(

perfect and stable :)
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/53.jpg

faster is a nightmare :(
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/54.jpg


i seem to be on 1 speed some of the day and then faster at other times .... why would it change ? modem hasnt been rebooted and pc still running and no changes happened but its fast and no use then later slows and becomes usable
all this has happened in the last few days so hopefully virgin are working towards a fix :) slow and stable suits me fine for my needs but because of multiple pc's we need 50mb or we set the 20mb restrictions off for using bandwidth at tea time

* EDIT *

neighbours pc also doing the same ... slow is ok fast is a nightmare

[shiwayb]

I have exactly the same problem.

Just came off the phone and the guy i spoke to said he found 6 problems on the Network.

He said he has flagged it to the network team who will work to sort it out.


I suggest you contact VM and ask about this.

[cabsandy]

The tech who came to my house today did not appear to be one of the ones who "knows what they're doing." He said my downstream signal strength was too high (he measured it at +5 dB) and fitted an attenuator. He also replaced the modem. I tried to argue with him about the upstream signal strength and a potential return path problem and he said he couldn't measure that and there was nothing he could do about it. I fully expect my problem to keep happening.

Fedupstill, I hope they fix the problem in your case.

What a load of baloney-+5dBmv is fine and well within the install/service limits :dunce:

[gcc]

What a load of baloney-+5dBmv is fine and well within the install/service limits :dunce:

That's what I thought as well :)

Today I had an issue where I was getting 50% packet loss for about half an hour, between 16:10 and 16:40:

http://top.qwarx.com/Gateway_last_14400.png

I managed to get through to VM tech support while this was happening and I spoke to someone with a Birmingham accent. Initially he told me that there was nothing he could do since I wasn't on site, but eventually I persuaded him to ping the machine and he told me he could see the packet loss too. He also told me that my upstream SNR was 9 dB, which matches with the 8.5 dB the other tech told me when I spoke to him on Sunday during my total outage then.

Unfortunately he still refused to book an appointment for me as I won't be at home for the next two weeks, although I could make sure that someone else was available to meet the engineer. He told me he would add (yet another!) note about it to my file. Hopefully when I do get an engineer to visit, they will be able to do something about it this time.

fedupstill, did you ever manage to get through to VM during one of those outage periods? If not, it might help you if you can, so that they can see if there is a problem with the upstream SNR. I suspect that that's the issue with your connection as well.

[fedupstill]

the guy whos dealing with it is on holiday so rather than start the full process again with someone else im waiting but speed seems to be the issue for me ... ran more tests and so long as the speed dosnt exceed 3.5mb/s then i dont get packet loss but when it rises i get issues and packet loss


slow is good for me :)
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/42.jpg

fast is unusable :(
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/43.jpg

for some reason when its slow its ok and has been last few days but now it wont rise above 30mb and its not me messing or changed settings because ive give up trying to show its not 3 pc's at fault but virgin and at different times of the day it seems to change speeds
more and more posts and people getting the same fault and virgin blame user error :(
what could you possibly do to cause this many resent segments ? but virgin wont read 3rd party apps and that includes netstat from cli

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/44.jpg

hopefully monday ill get a call and its getting better last week compared to the nightmare ive had last 4 months :( fingers crossed

[cabsandy]

In a paragraph, what % of time in a 24 hour period is your service "ok?"-because mine has it's "moments" but it doesn't bother me that much-I go away and have a cup of tea. I'm not trying to dilute the problem but you now seem to be focusing on the performance itself, rather than using it-similar to the way an audiophile would say he cant hear notes at a certain frequency, rather than just enjoying the music. Because this thread is now so long, can you just summarise what you do with the speed/bandwidth (gaming as an example?) and how it impacts you.
The above may very well be loss in the upstream but "it" happens-you will get bursts of noise on a RF network now and again.You could use the same methology for any customer in the UK cable network and they will have issues but overall, it is neglible.
In no way am I trying to play down your problems, and I will continue to help, but I'm still not sure the impact of this problem is having on your normal daily use.

[gcc]

I get probably 5-10 minutes per day on average of downtime. That's maybe 0.3% per day. That may not bother you but it irritates the hell out of me. I expect better from an internet provider and VM did deliver until 6 months ago, but no longer.

It's not random packet loss because it's not just a packet here and there. It's 5 to 10 minutes where the characteristics of the connection change totally. At least 50% packet loss and usually 100% during that time. Then it's fine again.

I have a suspicion that either the new 50Mb head end is buggy or not 100% compatible with the older 10/20 Mb modems, or else some of the new 50 Mb modems are interfering with the older ones. All this trouble started in September for me.

[cabsandy]

I get probably 5-10 minutes per day on average of downtime. That's maybe 0.3% per day. That may not bother you but it irritates the hell out of me. I expect better from an internet provider and VM did deliver until 6 months ago, but no longer.

It's not random packet loss because it's not just a packet here and there. It's 5 to 10 minutes where the characteristics of the connection change totally. At least 50% packet loss and usually 100% during that time. Then it's fine again.

I have a suspicion that either the new 50Mb head end is buggy or not 100% compatible with the older 10/20 Mb modems, or else some of the new 50 Mb modems are interfering with the older ones. All this trouble started in September for me.

OK-fine.I feel your pain :p: So just I'm clear, your on the new Ambit 300 50Meg service-they haven't downgraded you or given you another modem?
Or your still on the 20Mb DOCSIS 1.0 service-if so, what sort of modem-Ambit, Moto,SA?

cheers

[fedupstill]

In a paragraph, what % of time in a 24 hour period is your service "ok?"

last few months 1% but lately getting better and last week mostly fine :) it seems to change several times a day and when it has its bad moments its crap but when running fine its the usual stable and fine service ive always had.

VM did deliver until 6 months ago, but no longer.

was 4 months for me when it changed :( went from perfect service to rubbish and thats whats so annoying when nothing changed my end but the blame gets shifted to the user.

my 4mb was perfect then my 10mb was perfect and 20mb was always 22mb and perfect :D along comes 50mb and the new doc 3 and it died and is only now slowly getting better so im hoping maybe it was the upgrade and as time goes by its slowly getting tweaked and made to work better and stable but if thats the case why dont VM say that ? they instead choose to send 22 engineers wasting so much time and money trying to shift the blame to the paying customer :(
if all 3 pc's were broken why or even how can they magically fix themselves at certain times and then break again ? my pc and hardware dont change but the VM network does and if they were honest about it id understand and wait until it was upgraded and running smooth :) its a new product and teething troubles happen but they will not admit that.

[gcc]

cabsandy, I'm on 10mbit service. They don't even offer 50mbit in my area. I have an ambit 256.

[fedupstill]

as if by magic its now fine and seems great again :) no idea what the magic fix is but now all is good ... couple of odd moments over the weekend but put that down to busy periods and compared to the past few months its perfect
next door also says its so much better but no idea if hes still recording tests and my on-demand worked when i tried it so hurrah its working

speed tests confirm its ok and pingplotter shows no packetloss during downloads and just to really add some pressure i set 2 downloads away at the same time and no loss at all before, during and after :)

http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/03323015.png

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2009/03/34.jpg

big thanks to everyone whos helped to find a cure for the problems or try to find them :) bookmarked this place its a hidden gem

its a shame virgin sent 22 engineers wasting everyones time and money and the £30+ i spent changing the other pc's NIC and new cables not to mention time off work and loss of wages :( but network issues happen and the new doccis 3 is new and takes time to settle and work right but for some reason virgin wont admit it and insist on putting the blame on the customer

just out of curiousity and because the VM tech didnt know either but what does this error mean in the cable modem logs ?

TLV-11 - unrecognized OID

[fedupstill]

*Update*

its finally fixed :D after the last post above it went back to being crap and finally after an extra 15 engineers looked 1 of them finally checked and found the issue .... faulty tap in the pit 6 doors up and as soon as he swapped it over the power levels dropped and have been stable ever since so 8 months and 8 days with 35 visits and it was a simple tap to replace

i really hope i never ever have to ring up again :( give me indian call centers over the CEO any day with the exception of 1 person Tim ward i thank you very much :)

should really list a hall of shame but i know they read these so i wont

[cabsandy]

*Update*

its finally fixed :D after the last post above it went back to being crap and finally after an extra 15 engineers looked 1 of them finally checked and found the issue .... faulty tap in the pit 6 doors up and as soon as he swapped it over the power levels dropped and have been stable ever since so 8 months and 8 days with 35 visits and it was a simple tap to replace

i really hope i never ever have to ring up again :( give me indian call centers over the CEO any day with the exception of 1 person Tim ward i thank you very much :)

should really list a hall of shame but i know they read these so i wont

glad to hear it