Got 50mb? Read

[Neil1454]

Hi,

After some long drawn out and on going problems with my 50mb install and speeds I wanted to ask if anyone else who has the 50mb service gets the 50mb speeds most of the time?

Here is my problem:
50mb (5.5mb) downloads from Usenet fine then after a while the speed drops between 500kbs to 1.2mb.

I am not a heavy downloader and my account has never been traffic managed.
My UBR which is a dedicated 50mb tier I've been told has approx 8 people on it, so it's very low on utilization.

Speed drops are happening all the time now and I am worse off on the 50mb than what I was using the 10mb connection.
A lad I know over in Scotland (Dundee) also has this exact problem.

I've tried. Usenet (giganews and astraweb EU servers) also VM's suggested speed test sites. When the 50mb speeds are working as they should the speeds are great, but when they go down it effects all of what I have mentioned.

Another problem I have is when the speeds do drop. I am unable to do anything else. For example, if I am downloading a file I can't browse web pages or use MSN. Unless I stop the transfer which might be going at a maximum of 800kbs. When the speed drop is not in effect, everything is fine.

They have checked my modem signals, I've had an engineer come to the house to check everything out and they say there is no problem.

I've tried connecting the modem to another PC and trying that, Same problem. Both PCs I have run Vista.

Is this specific to me and a friend over in scotland or are there others out there that read this forum and have this trend going on with their 50mb service?

Please make a post and let me know.

[leexgx]

its an known issue i guess this thread is an good jump onto

please no one els join this thread to just Rant about how poor virgin service is Please go away and post on other threads for that (the sue thread one good one to jump on if you wish)

the issue seems to be something like this when you download around 1gb at full speed that takes about 5 mins to downlaod that amount at full speed
speed drops to suddenly 4-3mb speeds (500KB/s or lower) for 5-10 mins then after that over an 3-4 min time it stagers back up to full speed agane (it did this as the 50mb tech support was on phone but there was no problem been reported when he checked) when all this is happening there is an mass packet loss going on as well untill speed is restored (web sites and connections will not allways work when this happens)

if you want to test it out your self find an download thats big can give full download speed

i have hopefully going to get an response from virgin in the next 7 days by email or phone i want this thread clean as i am likely going to be pointing to this thread or other clean threads relating to this problem

to me seems like its an router backbone edge problem form virgin to internet backbone as i downloaded ubuntu from one of virgins servers at cool flat 6.4MB/s but 40 connecitons to astraweb and giganews was only doing 500KB ish but untill thay come back to me

[broadbandking]

I can honestly say I have never seen a speed drop on my 50Mb

[leexgx]

me and 3 other have this problem

just fired an download up right now and speed droped below 6mb after been at 46 (this is client reported speed avg but monitoring it in task man as well) and Forced dropped 7 connections (client is reporitng i am loged in to many times) this time it only taken 1 min to do this, then it went back up agane

[Neil1454]

Thanks for the replies leexgx & broadbandking...

leexgx, your problem sounds almost identicle to the problem I have.
Strange eh how it effects quite a few people and yet they won't even look into the fact there might be something they missed.

broadbandking, Do you download allot? Would you say you've used the connection enough to notice it happen?

[broadbandking]

O yeah I have used my connection a lot and have never seen the problem you are having.

[Neil1454]

to me seems like its an router backbone edge problem form virgin to internet backbone as i downloaded ubuntu from one of virgins servers at cool flat 6.4MB/s but 40 connecitons to astraweb and giganews was only doing 500KB ish but untill thay come back to me

I get this exact problem also leexgx

[Pushkar]

I always get full speed, whether it be torrents or http downloads, I don't use usenet (as many people report there is some shaping going on) so unaware of that problem.

[leexgx]

never been any shaping on virgin been on 20mb for long time never had this problem and if it was shaping/throttled i would not be loseing packets or connections been dropped, i never had dropped connections on 20mb before

50mb does not get throttle unless the VM techs say so but this is an connection problem somewhere on virgins network or the Providers that give Virgin the high speed connections to the out side world

i guess i could ask an questons on virgins news group but never done that before

[Master2k5]

same problem here on 50mb

[broadbandking]

Have you got the same problem with torrents?

Because I am wondering if VM are testing app throttling then this could be a possible cause.

[Pushkar]

Have you got the same problem with torrents?

Because I am wondering if VM are testing app throttling then this could be a possible cause.

I think it might just be usenet, as I and loads of other CF members have no problems with torrents.

[broadbandking]

It could be usenet that is the problem has anyone contacted there usenet provider, I havent had any issue with torrents apart from the one morning and it wouldnt connect to any tracker

[leexgx]

(i have 2 providers that i am using 1 of them has an US server as well does the same thing, Giganews auto redirects you to the Best server close to you not mater witch one you use)

going to find out if i can make other things do it as well torrents are little hard to do as they cant really max 50mb out never mind 10mb as well maybe stack 30 torrents mite do it or some ubuntu iso torrents or other linux files

this problem never happened on 20mb before only when i moved to 50mb this happened did it on the first day been on 50mb for 2-3 weeks now and it is still doing it the usernet is SSL or not still does the same thing

i have bit more of an play when i get back tonight

[blenky]

I have already started a thread on this very issue

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

[Neil1454]

btt

[guvvie]

Also having issues, what client are you using? Because Newsleecher is being a pain in the butt, using grabbit or Newsbin speeds seem fine, but when using Newsleecher I get the symptoms you describe.

[Neil1454]

Also having issues, what client are you using? Because Newsleecher is being a pain in the butt, using grabbit or Newsbin speeds seem fine, but when using Newsleecher I get the symptoms you describe.

Hi,

OK hmm... with newsleecher though did you ever see the 50mb speeds with a good usenet provider? or was they always low for you?
Today for example, so far 50mb all day.

[guvvie]

Hi,

OK hmm... with newsleecher though did you ever see the 50mb speeds with a good usenet provider? or was they always low for you?
Today for example, so far 50mb all day.

Sometimes I would get full speed all day and at other times the speed would drop down to around 10mb and web pages would take forever. I started a download about an hour ago and Newsleecher was going at 21mb, so i disconnected and started the same download using the same giganews SSL connection and I got the full 50mb.

[Neil1454]

Sometimes I would get full speed all day and at other times the speed would drop down to around 10mb and web pages would take forever. I started a download about an hour ago and Newsleecher was going at 21mb, so i disconnected and started the same download using the same giganews SSL connection and I got the full 50mb.

For me trying any way of connecting did not work.
I have access to Giganews and Astraweb both with SSL and neither of their servers offered me any faster speeds.

I've emailed Neil Berkett, Virgin Media CEO as I am not happy with how I'm been 'fobbed off' with tech support even at level 2.

[guvvie]

For me trying any way of connecting did not work.
I have access to Giganews and Astraweb both with SSL and neither of their servers offered me any faster speeds.

I've emailed Neil Berkett, Virgin Media CEO as I am not happy with how I'm been 'fobbed off' with tech support even at level 2.

What client are you using?

[xocemp]

News for you buddy, the CEO may escalate it to 2nd line/level 2. So whatever they 2nd line/level 2 have told you, you'll be told again.

I know no one likes to even think it maybe their equipment, but:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/34753104-post37.html

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

Got another PC to try, can you borrow a laptop?

[fedupstill]

I know no one likes to even think it maybe their equipment, but

if it was equipment id replace it and 1 pc is brand new and virgin tech also said to swap the other to make sure it was Full duplex only and thats what i did :)

same problems above here > http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33646918-understanding-b-w-graphs-on-50mb.html

3 pc's - 3 ethernet cables - 3 NIC - 3 modems and 2 different OS ( vista & xp )

speed will easy max but when it does it comes crashing back down and back up again :(

netstat -s -p tcp showing 2400 segments retransmitted and growing
i also have something listed as FIN_WAIT_2 but havnt worked that out yet but along the lines of packet loss and ping time from what ive read so far

i know from time to time people have issues but my service has always been good and stable even when traffic managed it was slower but still very stable and now its not and more and more are seeing that but only lately reading through post/reply dates past and new here

[xocemp]

The post wasn't aimed at you fedupstill.
A greater extent of diagnostics is always worth doing and posting of those diagnostics so we know what has and has not been tried, such as your post, thanks.
Could a passing mod merge the two threads?

[PowerUser]

ok, Here's a couple of things to try that i'm trying out at the moment,,

First DON'T use netgear just for this test.. I found using Giganews with newsleecher without the router gave me a boost.. I was getting 47Mbit with Netgear, now I get full 50Mbit without it....3MBit lost through the Router ALL the time !!!..

Secondly if your using newsleecher set the maximum speed to 75% of 50MBit.. So set top speed to around 6200KB/s..

I tried this and the dam thing held out with a loverly consistant speed for a whole 10mins without probs..

However when I tried again and let the speed hit around 50Mbit for just a few seconds I lost any kind of speed and stability,,It seems to me it doesn't like maxing out for long.. I will try Grabit soon and post results.. But please try what I suggested and let me know..

[guvvie]

ok, Here's a couple of things to try that i'm trying out at the moment,,

First DON'T use netgear just for this test.. I found using Giganews with newsleecher without the router gave me a boost.. I was getting 47Mbit with Netgear, now I get full 50Mbit without it....3MBit lost through the Router ALL the time !!!..

Secondly if your using newsleecher set the maximum speed to 75% of 50MBit.. So set top speed to around 6200KB/s..

I tried this and the dam thing held out with a loverly consistant speed for a whole 10mins without probs..

However when I tried again and let the speed hit around 50Mbit for just a few seconds I lost any kind of speed and stability,,It seems to me it doesn't like maxing out for long.. I will try Grabit soon and post results.. But please try what I suggested and let me know..

Already tried it mate, hopefully you will get the same results as me and find Newsleecher is a pile of pony. There are alot of people with fast connections moaning on their forums about the problems we are having, hopefully they will sort it out in the next release as I like supersearch.

[Fatec]

Already tried it mate, hopefully you will get the same results as me and find Newsleecher is a pile of pony. There are alot of people with fast connections moaning on their forums about the problems we are having, hopefully they will sort it out in the next release as I like supersearch.

Funny, i dont have a problem pulling 100Mbit down with newsleecher and i've not ever heard of this problem either...cant find many threads on their forums...

[PowerUser]

Already tried it mate, hopefully you will get the same results as me and find Newsleecher is a pile of pony. There are alot of people with fast connections moaning on their forums about the problems we are having, hopefully they will sort it out in the next release as I like supersearch.

Supersearch is good, But I much prefer Newzbin..only 30p a week I think.
at least on there people tell you if it's crap before you waste your bandwidth

Best indexing service around

[Ignitionnet]

Funny, i dont have a problem pulling 100Mbit down with newsleecher and i've not ever heard of this problem either...cant find many threads on their forums...

I've been able to pull close to 100Mbit on Newsleecher, this was 3 years ago when the PC in question was virtually dying decoding the stuff.

It's certainly not a Giganews issue, they are the biggest customer of the biggest Internet Exchange in the world, they have more external bandwidth in their European site than most if not all UK ISPs do and never congest it.

[HSp8]

count me as another who doesn't get brilliant speeds with Astraweb and Newsleecher

use Homeplugs, and yesterday was getting a constant/very level 25Mb

closed-reopened & paused/unpaused Newsleecher, and it was back to the usual 43Mb for a while

also get the 'Newsleecher has paused as items are being downloaded faster than can be written to disc' (doesn't matter whether I am writing to internal hard drive or a near-empty 1TB external drive) - other users also seem to have this

again, the pausing/unpausing can sort this out (not a Virgin Media problem I know)

tried Alt.Binz but speeds there were all over the place

[Neil1454]

News for you buddy, the CEO may escalate it to 2nd line/level 2. So whatever they 2nd line/level 2 have told you, you'll be told again.

I know no one likes to even think it maybe their equipment, but:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/34753104-post37.html

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

Got another PC to try, can you borrow a laptop?


I have two pcs. Both are Vista Ultimate., one is 64bit and other is 32bit versions.

Both are fairly new and I know for sure they are not crammed with Spyware or virus.

Specs are...

PC 1:
Asus P5Q Deluxe
Quad core 2.4
Corsair Dominator 1066 (4gb)
ethernet is 100/1000 (Dual ethernet)

PC 2:
Asus Maximus Formula SE
Quad core 2.4
Crucial Ballistix 1066 (4 gb)
ethernet is 100/1000 (dual ethernet)

Laptop:
Dell XPS Gen 2 gaming laptop
10/100 ethernet
Windows XP Pro (tweaked to allow 50mb)


All the above PCs have get 50mb speeds but suffer the speed drop.

Also I have tried booting into Safemode with networking to ensure there is Nothing stopping the speed. Problem still existed on both pcs.



---------- Post added at 15:07 ---------- Previous post was at 15:02 ----------

Funny, i dont have a problem pulling 100Mbit down with newsleecher and i've not ever heard of this problem either...cant find many threads on their forums...

I have a dedicated server in UK and Germany. One has 100mb full dup and other has 1GB. Both I've used Newsleecher on it... speeds fly,, scary infact :)

[Neil1454]

OK 2nd line support (who is IBM based not VM) rang me today and after checking they simply found that my line SNR signals are low. Mine are at around 26db when they should be 29db minimum for 50mb.
He was able to see allot of packet loss (noise on line) due to this and has booked for an engineer to come and look at where the problem is. The tech guy mentioned that there might be a need for a re pull from the road or it might be something as simple as a splitter or internal cabling.

[blenky]

Also having issues, what client are you using? Because Newsleecher is being a pain in the butt, using grabbit or Newsbin speeds seem fine, but when using Newsleecher I get the symptoms you describe.

I think blaming Newsleecher is a red herring. Just had half an hour reduction in speed reducing from about 48 Mbit to 18 Mbit. This reduction was wether I used Grabit or Newsleecher. Speedtest.net also showed same reduction in speed.

[guvvie]

I think blaming Newsleecher is a red herring. Just had half an hour reduction in speed reducing from about 48 Mbit to 18 Mbit. This reduction was wether I used Grabit or Newsleecher. Speedtest.net also showed same reduction in speed.

Possibly, next time it happens I will try and switch clients again and see if the speed goes back up again, I suppose it could be just the fact that I am disconnecting and waiting a few minutes that sorts it. Had it happen again earlier where my speed dropped to 7mb and webpages were slow, problem was I was on the way out the door to pick the kids up so couldn't test anything.

[blenky]

Possibly, next time it happens I will try and switch clients again and see if the speed goes back up again, I suppose it could be just the fact that I am disconnecting and waiting a few minutes that sorts it. Had it happen again earlier where my speed dropped to 7mb and webpages were slow, problem was I was on the way out the door to pick the kids up so couldn't test anything.

I can't pin it down to anything. The engineer who came couldn't explain it either. It not a major problem (at the moment) as it never seem to last too long. Just odd. Seems to be common issue though.

[Neil1454]

My problem is STILL on going.

Speeds still dropping and I've been through the mills with VM.

I've made a post here to hopefully get the attention of the people who was having 50mb speed issues also. If so please look here..

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33651913-virgin-media-50mb-speed-drops-effects.html

Thanks

[Ben B]

perhaps get this thread merged with your other one?

[Neil1454]

Hi,

I've posted here before and 15+ weeks after I had the service installed I still have the problem with my 50mb dropping its speed.

Issue:
Downloads start great at 50mb speeds. The speeds then drop down to really low speed which is commonly between 500kbs and 1.2mb.

After many techs and also principle techs and managers and also their complaints dept getting involved, I'm still waiting for them to sort out the service.

Connections been tested on various PCs in my home and all have same results.
The speed does eventually pick back up, but the time it takes for the speeds to drop and also improve are erratic, meaning it is making this more difficult to pin point.

Where I Download from:
I use Usenet. I don't download allot and have never been traffic managed.
I use premium services like Giganews and also Astraweb, both of which offer super fast constant maximum speeds without question.
I am able to test either of the above at any time and find that the speed drop effects both respectively.
There has also been occasions where the speed will be terrible from the off start, where I won't be able to obtain a good download.
Another issue is when the speeds do drop, while the download is continuing at the low speed, browsing web pages and using other services is near on impossible.

What I need to know:
When I was here before there was numerous people who had the identical problem to what I have described above.
Virgin Media are now telling me I'm the only one who they have not resolved this problem for, which I find hard to believe.

Do any of you still have this issue?
Did any of you abandon the 50mb service due to the fact they was not willing or able to resolve the issue?

I'd like to hear from anyone who is in the same boat. They seem to want to blame by equipment lol
I have 5 Pcs scattered around the house and with the modem wired into any of them directly, this problem exists... how can it be a PC issue. Some with Vista 64 and some with XP.

I can't find words to describe how crazy this situation has got now.

Here are my previous thread:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33650129-att-vm-techs-question-about-snr.html


And threads of others I'd also like to hear from:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33649285-50meg-installed-today-issues-already.html

(http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33649312-50mb-service-fault-virgin-admitted-s.html)
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33647947-50-crap-down-to-3meg-capped.html


If you have problems with 50mb.. please let me know.

Thank you.

[blenky]

Hi,


What I need to know:
When I was here before there was numerous people who had the identical problem to what I have described above.
Virgin Media are now telling me I'm the only one who they have not resolved this problem for, which I find hard to believe.

Do any of you still have this issue?
Did any of you abandon the 50mb service due to the fact they was not willing or able to resolve the issue?


Thank you.

I've had this problem from day 1 - now been on 50 mb service since March. I called and an engineer came round to reduce something or other on the modem. Made no difference. I haven't pursued it since because:
a) a lot of the time it runs pretty fast.
b) By the time I can get through to somebody in Tech Support it usually has jumped back up.

The speed is very erratic but I can put up with it as its generally OK. much faster than 20 MB and (so far!) not traffic managed.

BTW I also d/l form newsgroups (Newshosting) and found a massive difference in speed if I'm downloading something recent (usually good speeds) or something from say 150 days ago (very slow)

[Neil1454]

I've had this problem from day 1 - now been on 50 mb service since March. I called and an engineer came round to reduce something or other on the modem. Made no difference. I haven't pursued it since because:
a) a lot of the time it runs pretty fast.
b) By the time I can get through to somebody in Tech Support it usually has jumped back up.

The speed is very erratic but I can put up with it as its generally OK. much faster than 20 MB and (so far!) not traffic managed.

BTW I also d/l form newsgroups (Newshosting) and found a massive difference in speed if I'm downloading something recent (usually good speeds) or something from say 150 days ago (very slow)

Thanks for replying mate.

[diablo]

had 50mb since march 3rd and I ALWAYS get random speed drops.....starts of full speed....then maybe goto as low as 5meg......stays there for an hour or so...then back upto full speed.......rang virgin...all tests coming back fine......

I know Moldova thinks there is nothing suspicious but I beg to differ on this one.....far too many people are suffering.....

If my connection had a prob then surely it wud never max out......But mine does......for a while anyway....then the drops start after ive grabbed so many gig....

Im pretty sick of it actually.......

[Neil1454]

had 50mb since march 3rd and I ALWAYS get random speed drops.....starts of full speed....then maybe goto as low as 5meg......stays there for an hour or so...then back upto full speed.......rang virgin...all tests coming back fine......

I know Moldova thinks there is nothing suspicious but I beg to differ on this one.....far too many people are suffering.....

If my connection had a prob then surely it wud never max out......But mine does......for a while anyway....then the drops start after ive grabbed so many gig....

Im pretty sick of it actually.......

Sounds VERY familure.

Thanks very much for replying. It will be interesting to see what VM say about the fact that this problem is not isolated to me.

If there is anyone else out there reading this that would not mind making a reply here,,, please do. The more people with this same problem or close to it, that reply the better.

Thanks.

[Zheez]

Yeah I have exactly the same problem. Got my 50mbit installed at the end of April, saw speed dips within the first hour of having it installed. I can start off downloading at 6200KB/sec then it'll drop to anything between 500KB/sec and 1200KB/sec and stay there.

I've got ADSL2+ as well, so when the speed goes down like that I just switch my default gateway over to my ADSL connection and use that. I last tried the 50mbit connection on Thursday last week and managed to download about 1GB before the speed went rubbish. I tried it again last night to find the speeds were horrific right from the start - I'm now not even getting a chance to download anything at full speed anymore, even after rebooting the modem.

As with everyone else seeing this issue I'm also seeing major packet loss while downloading at the pathetic speeds. This in turn means that while I'm downloading at such rubbish speeds, I also have problems even just browsing web pages because the connections keep timing out.

I'm reading far too many instances of this issue happening and VM keep fobbing people off with useless responses. I've posted on the newsgroups and nothing is happening. I've completely given up with it due to the fact that I've not read of one single person having this issue fixed - instead all I am seeing is people reporting that they've had the issue for months and VM are just fobbing them off. Unfortunately I've had it for too long to be able to cancel it now, but I'll just be downgrading it to the cheapest package possible and buying my way out.

[Argy1]

Same problem (still) with me too!
random and sudden speed drops, very selfish of me but from reading everyone else with same problem have come to the conclusion that it's a VM issue, and getting a tech out to
change the cabinet>street cable>external/internal wall conections>ethernet cables>VM BB Modem etc all to find like everyone else with the problem that it made no difference,but to make me lose a day's pay when I take time off work for tech to come out and swap everyrthing

I use newsleecher (have set properties to 10 conections)
used Giganews, had the slow downs
swapped to Astranews, made no difference,still suffer from slowdowns

is the common denominator the fact that we are all using usernet??

[Zheez]

It's not just usenet - I'm getting rubbish speeds even downloading from web servers too. For example, if I now kick off a reasonably large download - like Vista SP2 from MS - I'll see rubbish speeds there and also the same packet loss issue making it very difficult to do anything else with the connection.

Pretty pathetic really. I'd rather have the 10mbit connection with STM than this mess. Luckily I get a good speed off ADSL2+ so I don't have to worry too much.

[Neil1454]

It's not just usenet - I'm getting rubbish speeds even downloading from web servers too. For example, if I now kick off a reasonably large download - like Vista SP2 from MS - I'll see rubbish speeds there and also the same packet loss issue making it very difficult to do anything else with the connection.

Pretty pathetic really. I'd rather have the 10mbit connection with STM than this mess. Luckily I get a good speed off ADSL2+ so I don't have to worry too much.

Also very much identical to my issues. Something that VM don't appear to be taking me seriously over any more.
The fact here for me though is I have 5 possible machines to test this connection on. All of which suffer the same issue.
It feels that they are pushing this in the direction to blame MY equipment.

Only one pc is ever connected at any one time so it is not as if there is anything to complicate things...

Here are my 3 main ones. As I won't have them saying its my equipment, here is an idea of the set ups.

1st System:
Asus P5Q Deluxe mainboard
Intel: Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz (Quad Core)
4GB DDR2 RAM @ 1066
Western Digital HDD in Raid 0 (double speed)
and several 1tb HDDs (all 7200rpm)
Air cooled.
Windows Vista Ult 64bit
(idle load 2%, Newsleecher load with 20 threads and background work 15 - 22%)

2nd System:
Asus Maximus Formula se Mainboard
Intel Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz (Quad Core)
4GB Ram DDR2 @ 1066
Western digital Raptor (10,000RPM)
Water cooled.
Windows Vista Ult 32Bit
(idle load 1%, Newsleecher load with 20 threads and background work 9 - 20%)

3rd System: (build 1 week ago)
Gigabyte UD5 mainboard
Intel i7 920 @ 4.2Ghz
6gb Ram DDR3 @ 1600
4 x WD in Raid 10 (double speed)
Water cooled.
Windows 7
(idle 0%, Newsleecher load with 20 threads and background work 2 - 5%)

So I think that proves that my systems are not some low spec low end set up. Which as you can imagine really gets annoying when they start blaming that.

[roger_chef]

Also very much identical to my issues. Something that VM don't appear to be taking me seriously over any more.
The fact here for me though is I have 5 possible machines to test this connection on. All of which suffer the same issue.
It feels that they are pushing this in the direction to blame MY equipment.

Only one pc is ever connected at any one time so it is not as if there is anything to complicate things...

Here are my 3 main ones. As I won't have them saying its my equipment, here is an idea of the set ups.

1st System:
Asus P5Q Deluxe mainboard
Intel: Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz (Quad Core)
4GB DDR2 RAM @ 1066
Western Digital HDD in Raid 0 (double speed)
and several 1tb HDDs (all 7200rpm)
Air cooled.
Windows Vista Ult 64bit
(idle load 2%, Newsleecher load with 20 threads and background work 15 - 22%)

2nd System:
Asus Maximus Formula se Mainboard
Intel Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz (Quad Core)
4GB Ram DDR2 @ 1066
Western digital Raptor (10,000RPM)
Water cooled.
Windows Vista Ult 32Bit
(idle load 1%, Newsleecher load with 20 threads and background work 9 - 20%)

3rd System: (build 1 week ago)
Gigabyte UD5 mainboard
Intel i7 920 @ 4.2Ghz
6gb Ram DDR3 @ 1600
4 x WD in Raid 10 (double speed)
Water cooled.
Windows 7
(idle 0%, Newsleecher load with 20 threads and background work 2 - 5%)

So I think that proves that my systems are not some low spec low end set up. Which as you can imagine really gets annoying when they start blaming that.

6gb Ram DDR3 @ 1600 - thats your problem, u need at least 16gig

[cabsandy]

OK 2nd line support (who is IBM based not VM) rang me today and after checking they simply found that my line SNR signals are low. Mine are at around 26db when they should be 29db minimum for 50mb.
He was able to see allot of packet loss (noise on line) due to this and has booked for an engineer to come and look at where the problem is. The tech guy mentioned that there might be a need for a re pull from the road or it might be something as simple as a splitter or internal cabling.

If its downstream SNR then worry-if its upstream SNR (which if they are quoting noise I assume it is) 26 is fine.Where are you anyway?

[Zheez]

Yeah I've tried it with a variety of PCs too, all are fairly high spec:

My own PC (An i920 at 4GHz and 6GB RAM)
My girlfriend's PC (with a Q6600 at stock and 6GB RAM)
My work laptop (Core 2 Duo T7200 and 2GB RAM and also it's a company build which of course aren't always the best, but at least VM can't blame viruses or spyware on that)
My own laptop (Core 2 Duo T7250 and 4GB RAM)

All have had OS reinstalls pretty recently. I've tried with my own hardware firewall (a Juniper Netscreen 5GT) which is more than capable of providing 50mbit throughput and beyond, which is proven by the fact I can sometimes see full speed and I have also tried with the VM-supplied Netgear router. In addition I have of course also tried every one of the PCs in my house plugged directly into the cable modem.

VM can deny it all they want, but there is absolutely no chance that 4 systems in my house are causing my speeds to drop to 500KB/sec, when the same 4 systems are all giving me 2200KB/sec constant on my ADSL2+. In addition, when I had 20mbit cable the speeds then were absolutely spot on also.

Also my cable modem's stats all seem to be exactly what they should be - which the newsgroup support guys have confirmed. I can't remember what the stats are off-hand as I can't be bothered to change my gateway back over to the cable router to get access to it ;) However I can remember that my SNR was around 35dB, upstream transmit level was around 45dBmv and the downstream receive power level for all 3 channels was around 3dBmv. All pretty much spot on.

[diablo]

if you goto the EVENT LOG section on the modem config page..i keep seeing under the priority section:
NOTICE
CRITICAL
WARNING.....

then the sequence repeats...anybody else seeing that....
not sure if thats affecting my speeds or not

[Peter_]

if you goto the EVENT LOG section on the modem config page..i keep seeing under the priority section:
NOTICE
CRITICAL
WARNING.....

then the sequence repeats...anybody else seeing that....
not sure if thats affecting my speeds or not
Be careful of reading modem logs, because what happens when you reboot your modem is that every single update for that modem is received at the same time giving you those worrying logs.

Virgin also disable most of the updates as they are not required so making it look even worse.

[Neil1454]

Anyone else having 50mb speed issues with inconsistency that is driving you batty?

With members permission I'm feeding info back to a lad at their complaints dept.

They don't seem to recognize this issue. The more that come forward the better.

Thanks

[Argy1]

Anyone else having 50mb speed issues with inconsistency that is driving you batty?

With members permission I'm feeding info back to a lad at their complaints dept.

They don't seem to recognize this issue. The more that come forward the better.

Thanks


you can add me to your list,have PM'ed you want personal details etc

[HowardCanning]

I've had 50Mb installed this morning and so far it's been pretty solid 5.5-6mbyte/sec (from sources that can provide such bandwidth, of course).

I do wonder if half the people who are having speed issues with this are using Wifi? :)

[Xan]

Had the 50mb for nearly 2 weeks and it has been great,just hope they dont start using Traffic management.

[Neil1454]

I've had 50Mb installed this morning and so far it's been pretty solid 5.5-6mbyte/sec (from sources that can provide such bandwidth, of course).

I do wonder if half the people who are having speed issues with this are using Wifi? :)

Me personally, nope and never have.

[HowardCanning]

Can you get the full 50mbit throughput on your wifi? If so, share the secret please ;)

[HSp8]

I think I'm still getting this problem, but when I start my downloads, I tend to leave the computer and let it get on with it.

Is there a program out there that can record/graph my speeds over a period of, say, 6 hours, so I can see what's going on?

I used to use Newsleecher for downloads which had a graph showing speeds over a short period, but are now using Newsbin Pro for usenet.

[Mustard]

Can you get the full 50mbit throughput on your wifi? If so, share the secret please ;)

When I can saturate the connection I can get 6.2MB/s through wifi.

Secret is a 17" MacBook Pro with SSD and an N only wireless network ;)

[HowardCanning]

Perhaps the Netgear dongle that VM provided is just crap then :cool:

[nuttyslack]

similar problems here, you can download for a day or two at full speed then it drops to around 5mb, it normally comes back to full speed after 30mins or so, never had this much trouble with 20mb

[Phil-ntl]

Well what can i say, only had 50mb installed since sunday, so early days but up to now, not a single issue. Its been rock solid since the word go. Having said that, apparantly I'm the first on the service in the Clifton area of Nottingham and at the time there were no more installs booked in. If things change as more people move over to the service, i guess only time will tell.

Phil

Download Failed (1)

[nuttyslack]

Well what can i say, only had 50mb installed since sunday, so early days but up to now, not a single issue. Its been rock solid since the word go. Having said that, apparantly I'm the first on the service in the Clifton area of Nottingham and at the time there were no more installs booked in. If things change as more people move over to the service, i guess only time will tell.

Phil

Download Failed (1)

you are one of the lucky ones. my speed is back up to 48500Kbps now its strange that when you either ring up or leave a message on the support newsgroup the speed goes back up

[James1989]

I get this issue, but I also have a lot of pings not responding even on very low utilization.

I use astraweb and it probably isn't their servers as I got straight 20MBytes/sec at university when our halls internet got unthrottled by accident.

[Neil1454]

similar problems here, you can download for a day or two at full speed then it drops to around 5mb, it normally comes back to full speed after 30mins or so, never had this much trouble with 20mb

Did you get a tech out ? What I have learned is that after 3 techs or so, if they ain't sorted it by 3 techs forget it. There probably cluless and chances are your in for a long stretch of weak attempts to resolve the issue costing you time and lots of patience. Could do with a free virgin holiday.

A major point here is that from day 1 of me speaking to 2nd line the SNR has been really low and no where near where it should be for 50mb specs.
Techs and still even of recent 2nd line mention about the SNR but there network dept says it's 'within' spec and they won't do anything about it.
Seems that the problem is stairing them right in the
face. It's just pathetic really.
They say they are still ironing out the issues with 50mb and bear with them, so why on earth don't they take a leaf out of their own book and try
the blommin SNR to see if the problem is fixed!!

Their complaints dept is about as usless as well, once they start giving you money back it all goes quite. Very little contact from them in the way of updates. As I'd they are thinking you got what you wanted and there is no proffit here, well VM fix the issue and I will more than gladly pay the money.

Can anyone please give me any info on what I should do with regards
to getting 3rd party organisations involved?
Tel numbers pref please and I will make a call on Monday.

---------- Post added at 11:48 ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 ----------

I get this issue, but I also have a lot of pings not responding even on very low utilization.

I use astraweb and it probably isn't their servers as I got straight 20MBytes/sec at university when our halls internet got unthrottled by accident.

Hi,

I know for sure it's not astraweb as I've also used giganews and VMs own groups and it happens on all 3.
I've also got good contacts with the owner of astraweb as they sponsor my own forum and there has been no EU service issues.
But I've had VM isolate newsgroups on the phone saying that if the
problem occurs only with usenet then there is nothing they can do.
The fact is, it's not only usenet VMs own Linux distro sites with 3-4 downloads also i see the speed drop.
Also if VMs own usenet service shows the speed drops does that mean this should not be looked at either and should be put under their statement of ' we can't do anything if it's newsgroups'.

---------- Post added at 11:50 ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 ----------

I get this issue, but I also have a lot of pings not responding even on very low utilization.

I use astraweb and it probably isn't their servers as I got straight 20MBytes/sec at university when our halls internet got unthrottled by accident.

Hi,

I know for sure it's not astraweb as I've also used giganews and VMs own groups and it happens on all 3.
I've also got good contacts with the owner of astraweb as they sponsor my own forum and there has been no EU service issues.
But I've had VM isolate newsgroups on the phone saying that if the
problem occurs only with usenet then there is nothing they can do.
The fact is, it's not only usenet VMs own Linux distro sites with 3-4 downloads also i see the speed drop.
Also if VMs own usenet service shows the speed drops does that mean this should not be looked at either and should be put under their statement of ' we can't do anything if it's newsgroups'.

---------- Post added at 11:57 ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 ----------

you are one of the lucky ones. my speed is back up to 48500Kbps now its strange that when you either ring up or leave a message on the support newsgroup the speed goes back up

Well one thing is for sure they read this forum, there are
in my opinion way to many identical cases of speed drops for this to be dismissed as an issue that is effecting more
customers than they are willing to admit to.

As far as it picking back up when your on the phone, I've had that many many times which is where it gets frustrating.
I personally won't give up with this issue as I want the service.
I am willing to go to out sources and have them pick this up on my behalf if possible.

Advisers please?

---------- Post added at 12:05 ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 ----------

I think I'm still getting this problem, but when I start my downloads, I tend to leave the computer and let it get on with it.

Is there a program out there that can record/graph my speeds over a period of, say, 6 hours, so I can see what's going on?

I used to use Newsleecher for downloads which had a graph showing speeds over a short period, but are now using Newsbin Pro for usenet.

Hi,

not sure if you want a speed monitor purley for your own information or to provide to VM. Personal experiance again....
I've had graphs, screen recordings of the issue, screen shots of really low SNR etc, when offered to either 2nd line, techs, principle techs and even complaints they don't want to know, it's totally dismissed.
I've even had them ask me to do tests and record evidence and on the next convosation i've mentioned it and the offer of the results have been dismissed as something else is been mentioned.

Totally ridiculas.

[nuttyslack]

got a tech coming out, as you said there are loads of people with the same sort of problems, having looked at the logs the past few days, its when you get a T3 upstream timeout that the speeds drop.

[Neil1454]

got a tech coming out, as you said there are loads of people with the same sort of problems, having looked at the logs the past few days, its when you get a T3 upstream timeout that the speeds drop.

Good luck mate.

Lets hope they don't mess you around.

[nuttyslack]

tech is booked now for monday morning, hopefully I will get someone who knows what they are doing

[alanasomething]

Did you get the 50MB modem sent with your install yeah?

[Jabbs]

Well what can i say, only had 50mb installed since sunday, so early days but up to now, not a single issue. Its been rock solid since the word go. Having said that, apparantly I'm the first on the service in the Clifton area of Nottingham and at the time there were no more installs booked in. If things change as more people move over to the service, i guess only time will tell.

Phil

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/bimages/11101847.jpg

I was the first in my area but i still had issues, my only one i get now is i lose internet and have to unplug the modem then it works fine, some days i have to do this up to 5 times a day apart from that its perfect.

Had engineers out and everything is perfect here, signal etc is good had new modems all good up the street they can't say what is causing it, speed wise though its perfect.

[ro53ben]

I was the first in my area but i still had issues, my only one i get now is i lose internet and have to unplug the modem then it works fine, some days i have to do this up to 5 times a day apart from that its perfect.


I get this issue and we've found the cause - they don't have a cure though. It's been going on for months now and I'm becoming increasingly frustrated.

[sorrowuk]

Whats the cause ?

[Jabbs]

I would says VM's network is the cause and not being ready/up to the job.

[Rik]

Absolutely no problems with my 50Mb speed on any protocol, Solid 50Mb 24/7 here and NO drops when using Usenet.