speed test on 50mb virgin, slow or ok

[peahead]

hi i have been with virgin 50mb service for about 2 months now. Was very happy with download speeds between 1.5mb/s and 2.5mb/s. Was just reading forums and people are saying they can get 6.5mb/s.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/124490177591925424715.html

that is a speed test result with thinkbroadband and this one with speedtest.net

http://www.speedtest.net/result/494975026.png

as its shows ping is very high also. am connected wireless windows vista home and all updates installed.

any help would be greatly appreciated.:)

[Welshchris]

try running the test wired and see what u get, theres been a few complaints about the wireless routers causing problems.

[Jazz]

http://ubuntu.virginmedia.com/releases/

What is your download speed from one of those files? That is a better speed test supposedly.

[peahead]

thanks for the quick responses,
http://www.speedtest.net/result/494986228.png

wired test.

test on ubuntu was transfer rate 3.6mb/s

[GazCBG]

Hi,

On 50mb you are meant to get over 40mb you are getting around 18mb on speedtest.net
If I was you I would phone Virgin Media support and asked to be put through to the 50mb Team

[Peter_]

hi i have been with virgin 50mb service for about 2 months now. Was very happy with download speeds between 1.5mb/s and 2.5mb/s. Was just reading forums and people are saying they can get 6.5mb/s.


Post what modem you have and your power levels from your config pages of your modem.



If using any other modem click here
http://192.168.100.1/

What I want you to post is the Downstream power levels including the Rxmer and the Upstream power levels for me thanks.

DO NOT POST YOUR MAC ADDRESS OR SERIAL NUMBER

[peahead]

hi,
power level ds-1 -9.32 ds-2 -9.84 ds-3 -9.88

rxmer 34.77 35.42 35.42


upstream us-1 53.71

the modem i dont know what its called but it is the modem virgin supply 50mb

[Peter_]

hi,
power level ds-1 -9.32 ds-2 -9.84 ds-3 -9.88

Your downstream is low for 50Mb and may be causing issues with your connection, so a call to Tech Support is in order so they can run some checks on your connection.

Monday after 0800 maybe your best option but you could try tonight or tomorrow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tech Support is open 24/7 on the numbers below.

For help with your TV or Phone and for Broadband Technical Support:

Call Product Support/Faults on 151 option 3 from your Virgin Media Phone. It's absolutely free.

Or call 0845 454 1111 from any other phone line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[peahead]

thanks will phone on monday

[Peter_]

thanks will phone on monday
keep us updated.;)

[Jazz]

test on ubuntu was transfer rate 3.6mb/s

Even that site isn't fast enough, I tried it now and was getting similar but on rapidshare I'm getting the full 50MB.

[king000000]

speeds running slow even after getting signal levels fixed. get 30mb to 35mb max on http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/ is there still upgrades to be done? as the network in aylesbury doesnt seem to be able to do any where near 50mb yet.

[peahead]

hi just off phone with virgin and an engineer is coming out tomorrow, they did some tests and i have packet loss so hopefully everything will be sorted

thanks

[Simcut]

Yeah if your getting 18mbit and paying for 50mbit and they cant do anything about it, get them to lower you to the 20mbit package :)

[shuja_khan]

Hi,

Some one told me to do the following to test 50 MB. I am also 50MB user, & had similar issues, slow speed, broken downloads etc. I was not satisfied user of 50 MB.

I followed these instructions for one week & in different times of the day & night & I got the answer.

Following are the steps.

Download torrent client any I used uTorrent from http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/

Then I went to CentOS web site & select download the DVD ISO image via a torrent, it s big 4 GiG file from the university of Warwick Site.

Question is? using Torrent why University of Warwick, because two of their servers are feeding these ISO images in peer mode. so you will get the pipe of 10GiG, if one had the download capacity.

Following is the link for university of Warwick

http://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/centos/5.3/isos/x86_64/

Select the torrent for DVD download of the ISO image, this is just for test only, you can delete the ISO image later on after testing the download speed.

I got the sustain speed of 4693kbps which is 46.93mbits/s ish (+/- 1mbits/s)

You have to try it at different times of the day during the seven day test.

I got 53.71mbp/s on weekends between 1am to 6am.

My speed test @ www.speedtest.net is almost during those times is never above 39mbp/s ever, so I can not relay on these tests.

Share your results what you got.

Kind regards

-

[peahead]

hi

engineer has been and gone, he found on his meter that one of the signals was very low and was saying "ltl"

from street it was fine so he was saying the problem was in my house and that maybe the person who first installed the cable probably used crappy wires and the box in my house might be throttling my speeds.

does that sound right? and if so would it be better for me to get new cable put in?

the speeds i am getting now are better but still not as good as some people on here eg http://www.speedtest.net/result/496725354.png

and the university of warwick test i get transfer speeds about 2.5mb/s


thanks for your help

[Pushkar]

I would have thought that the cables are all the same, and really if you don't know what speeds you should get with 50mb, then I don't really see you with any real use with it, downgrade to 10mb or 20mb really and save some dosh.

[Peter_]

hi

engineer has been and gone, he found on his meter that one of the signals was very low and was saying "ltl"

from street it was fine so he was saying the problem was in my house and that maybe the person who first installed the cable probably used crappy wires and the box in my house might be throttling my speeds.

does that sound right? and if so would it be better for me to get new cable put in?

the speeds i am getting now are better but still not as good as some people on here eg http://www.speedtest.net/result/496725354.png

and the university of warwick test i get transfer speeds about 2.5mb/s


thanks for your help
You probably require a repull, so call to get it booked as degraded cables will cause issues with the connection.

[peahead]

sorry i forgot to point out that there was a splitter at ground level with 2 wires saying 3.5db, the engeineer took this out and the speeds increased but did say that the box on wall where the cable enters the house could be the problem.

he said once i get access to that room to phone and he could do a meter reading from that cable to find where the problem occurs.

to tailz, i was only asking what speeds i should be getting because some people on this forums say i should be getting up to 6.5mb/s transfer rate, i am more than happy with getting about 2.5mb/s because it was alot better than my old cable connection and can download 1.39gb movies in 10mins:)

thanks for all of your help:angel:

[die5el]

it was alot better than my old cable connection and can download 1.39gb movies in 10mins:):You should be able to get a 1.39gb movie in a lot less time than 10mins if you use newsgroups. speedtest sites and torrents are really not a way to test your 50 meg bb. Speedtest sites give me around the 20 meg but if i then go and start up my newsgroup reader i get the full 50meg as for torrents theres so many factors involved how many seeders how many in the swarm ect.

[peahead]

Would you be able to tell me how newsgroups work please

[systematic]

Ok im connected Wirelessly but not through the Router Virgin provide.

When downloading with the VM Netgear Wireless Router, my speeds weren't too good via newsgroups.

I then purchased me a DLink DIR-855 and KABOOM - I can pi5s on 5.2mb/s constantly. 9 times out of 10 I can get between 5.4 - 5.9mb/s. Rarely I get 6.0 mb/s +

Although im connected via a good router, the Dongle Im using is the one Virgin provided - Netgear WN111. Both are paired via the 2.4ghz band.

However, I just found out that my new DLink DWA-160 dongle has arrived!!

This should now pair up better with the router and I should be able to operate 2.4/5ghz mixed mode.

Going forward, my PC and should be paired with my router on the 5ghz band wheras my brother's PC should be connected on the 2.4ghz band.

The Samsung TV and PS3 are hard wired into the gigabit ports on the router.

Prior to putting the router to mixed mode, Im gonna record it's performance operating in 5ghz mode only. This will obviously mean my younger bro will lose internet connectivity.

I'll check my speeds from newsgroups and then see what mixed mode offers me. If 5ghz mode offers better download speeds than mixed mode, ill just buy my bruv a wireless 5ghz dongle.

[ian_uk]

the cables can be different quality as they do degrade and some people have older cables (say 10yr old) but new modems! the sheilding on the coax in the cables (from box on wall to your modem) has vastly improved in the past 5 or so years but underground cables can degrade (if really old) and other problems is if they was cut buy someone digging your front garden and not having a 100% water tight seal. a re-pull of cable might be the best idea...

the other way to test if the problem is in your house or in the street is to put the modem on the cable on the wall.. if it works well then a simple suggestion is to use a small patch lead from that wall cable to the modem then run a long cat5 to your router,
i hope that helps

[peahead]

thanks ian that was going to be the next thing i should try. hopefully it wont take too long to sort out but the house is over 15 years old and i have no idea when the cables were installed.

thanks for all the help:)

[raiders]

same problem with download speeds,they fixed broken cable but still only getting 25 to 30 kbs download on 50mb sick of speaking to them they said it is the new server they have put the 50 on which i beliieve is pure rubbish all i ask for is proper download speeds my 20mmb did not have this bother wish i had of kept it but they say if i go bak to 20 speeds will be worse

[synner]

Hi,

Some one told me to do the following to test 50 MB. I am also 50MB user, & had similar issues, slow speed, broken downloads etc. I was not satisfied user of 50 MB.

I followed these instructions for one week & in different times of the day & night & I got the answer.

Following are the steps.

Download torrent client any I used uTorrent from http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/

Then I went to CentOS web site & select download the DVD ISO image via a torrent, it s big 4 GiG file from the university of Warwick Site.

Question is? using Torrent why University of Warwick, because two of their servers are feeding these ISO images in peer mode. so you will get the pipe of 10GiG, if one had the download capacity.

Following is the link for university of Warwick

http://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/centos/5.3/isos/x86_64/

Select the torrent for DVD download of the ISO image, this is just for test only, you can delete the ISO image later on after testing the download speed.

I got the sustain speed of 4693kbps which is 46.93mbits/s ish (+/- 1mbits/s)

You have to try it at different times of the day during the seven day test.

I got 53.71mbp/s on weekends between 1am to 6am.

My speed test @ www.speedtest.net is almost during those times is never above 39mbp/s ever, so I can not relay on these tests.

Share your results what you got.

Kind regards

-

Sorry, but I've got to disagree..

Just tried the link you provided, download speed 30Mb.


Tried a couple of traditional speedtest sites (speedtest.net & mybroadbandspeed.co.uk) straight after and got this:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/02/24.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
Download Failed (1) (http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk)

I don't think that site you linked to is providing the bandwidth needed...

Bri

[shuja_khan]

Sorry, but I've got to disagree..

Just tried the link you provided, download speed 30Mb.


Tried a couple of traditional speedtest sites (speedtest.net & mybroadbandspeed.co.uk) straight after and got this:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/02/24.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/15807761.png (http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk)

I don't think that site you linked to is providing the bandwidth needed...

Bri









To be more precise, would that be possible to adopt few more steps to get a more clear picture.

1. download bandwidth monitor from below site trial/free version.

http://www.paessler.com/bandwidth_monitor

Install the network monitor for localhost.

2. Download wget for windows from below its an open source tool from sourceforge.

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm

select the windows version, download & install.

3. after installing wget for windows, open dos windows & type following on dos command to add path for wget to work in dos window & this change is temporary, when you restart your windows, path statement will be reset to default.

set path=C:\PROGRA~1\GnuWin32\bin;%PATH%

copy past above line into dos window

4. create a temp directory for download, such as abc, you must have atleast 10GB approx space free because it is going to download whole DVD source of approx 4.7+ data size, just for safe side, when test is finished, you can just delete it.

5. switch to newly created directory, in my case I will create a directory abc

6. before you kick start download test, you must check one message on the source server that I would like you to read carefully, it is about speed.

To check current load level on heanet nodes, go to following url using browser, you can also check connection stat & aggregate traffic. click on both links one by one to see in more details there are graphs for more options.

http://ftp.heanet.ie/

type following in dos window

ftp ftp.heanet.ie

when you press enter following below message will be displayed, just for your ref:

Connected to ftp.heanet.ie.
220-
220-Welcome to the HEAnet mirror site, ftp.heanet.ie
220-------------------------------------------------
220-
220- NOTE: All connections and transfers are logged; if this is disagreeable,
220- please disconnect now.
220-
220- * ftp.heanet.ie is located in Dublin, Ireland and operated by HEAnet, the
220- Irish National Research and Education Network.
220-
220- * This is a four node cluster with 60 terabytes of storage and 10 Gigabit
220- access to the HEAnet backbone.
220-
220- * Please contact mirrors@heanet.ie with any operational queries.
220-
220 FTP server on ftp.heanet.ie
User (ftp.heanet.ie:(none)):


when you type following on dos window inside that newly created temp folder for test

ftp ftp.heanet.ie

the above ref: message will be displayed, just press enter to get out of that message, you will be prompted with ftp prompt, just type following below on ftp prompt to exit from ftp prompt than press enter to exit back to dos command window.

bye

press ent & you will be back on windows.


7. now we have to visit one more url it is hosted on heanet.ie servers to see what you are downloading for test. site address is given below.

http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/centos/5.4/os/x86_64/

above url is for CentOS entire DVD 4.7GB+ in size.

8. plz disable all firewall & antivirus software for the time being so PC is fully dedicated to this process, plz do not do any other web related activity in 1st test, in 2nd test, use internet for email & browsing to add the stress, go to google, yahoo & msn etc. Do your normal stuff while doing the download as well, side by side keep an eye on network monitor as well to see your utilisation level.

9. Now start the download process in that dos windows, I am assuming that you have already installed & set the monitoring of localhost bandwidth usage.

wget -r http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/centos/5.4/os/x86_64/

-r switch will recursively download all folder & sub folder in the tree

You will see a lot of activity in that dos window, just don't worry open windows explorer & start checking size of that temporary folder after 5 to 10 minutes, to see if the size is growing & in the mean while open network monitoring tool to see live bandwidth utilisation.

Why I am telling this bit complicated process, because, the uni servers are in pear mode feeding to heanet servers, there speed is the same as of heanet, but because I have no other way to prove it, I have to request this more detailed process to confirm the speed of the backbones.

I also want to make it clear that I am not associated with heanet in any case, I am just a one ordinay sysadmin in a company based in london. so I have to download these stuff to keep company linux & windows servers.

WGET is a site replication tool, plz use it wisely, or you can get a letter from your ISP for excessive usage.

heanet backbone is one of the three biggest edu backbones in UK & IE

Plz share your result after test for at-least twice, I mean both tests.

After test plz make sure that you don't forget to enable your firewall & antivirus.

Regards.

[torma1985]

hey there,

Im on 50 Mbit as well, right now im downloading a movie from filesonic with premium account with not less than 135.8 kb/s. if im really lucky it goes up to 2.5MB/s than it falls back...before the download ends the speed almost always decreases...i dont get it really.

can anyone have any idea why this is??

Attila

[Ignitionnet]

It's the copyright police, they are wanting you to pay for movies rather than downloading them from Filesonic.

Anyway more seriously premium account or not dodgy sites are dodgy, zero guarantee of top performance or any kind of performance. I managed to comfortably stream Harry Potter from Zune last night in 1080P, check something like that out.

[torma1985]

It's the copyright police, they are wanting you to pay for movies rather than downloading them from Filesonic.

Anyway more seriously premium account or not dodgy sites are dodgy, zero guarantee of top performance or any kind of performance. I managed to comfortably stream Harry Potter from Zune last night in 1080P, check something like that out.


Yes i get what you're saying... this Zune you mentioned, is not available for mac. do you know any other thingy like that for mac? i searched a bit but maybe was lookin the wrong way.
Also, what do you think about Usenext? is it more stable than filesonic?

Thanks, Attila.

[pip08456]

Usenext is still classed as filesharing and will be throttled as will any service you use to get things free that should be paid for!