Extremley Poor Service last 2 days on 50MBit [Archive]

PowerUser

03-07-2009, 12:30

HI.

I'm based in Brighton, I've now tried 15-16 Modem resets with and without a hard wired router..

My connection is so poor today for the last 4 hours that I can't even sustain a stable connection to xbox Live, I keep losing connection to server. Xbox LIVE report no Issues..

Is anybody else having such a bad issue today!..

P.s It took 45 seconds to load the cable forum webpage even after x5 30 second modem resets. It makes no difference.

PowerUser

03-07-2009, 22:03

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5632/unstable.jpg
If anybody uses Newsleecher they will know that this wave form graph is really really bad!.. Has anybody else had a problem this bad

Kymmy

03-07-2009, 22:16

Cant help but I corrected the image link for you :)

PowerUser

04-07-2009, 10:17

Cant help but I corrected the image link for you :)

Thankyou. I was trying to correct it myself, But because of my poor service it timed out and wouldn't save the changes I made..

Toto

04-07-2009, 10:29

Thankyou. I was trying to correct it myself, But because of my poor service it timed out and wouldn't save the changes I made..

Get onto tech support.

PowerUser

04-07-2009, 11:24

Get onto tech support.

Unfortunately talking to people like the indian called Vicrum yesterday did nothing to help. He put me through to what was suppose to be Tech support, But all I get is an automated message saying the service is having problems in my area.

A second phone call 4 hours later talking to another indian called Vic, Hmmm may have been the same guy shortening his name to hide the fact the he was possibly the only person answering the phone and didn't want customers to know that.

He also informed me that there was a problem in my area and it will be sorted out by 8.30PM on that evening. I Waited until 10pm. Still crap, so fuming I went to bed.

Turn on modem this morning, Join xbox live for a chat to my friend only to be disconnected from Xbox Live in mid sentance :mad: !! i did a check and lo and behold it's really poor.

Called again. Now it's not free for me as I don't have a virgin landline. so I spent alot of cash going through the menu's, and finally I get cut off. GRRRRRRRR...

Just what am i Suppose to do!..:(

Kymmy

04-07-2009, 11:43

Newsgroups? they tend to be more on the ball and you're directly through to a 2nd line support person.. Also are you ringing up the standard tech support or the 50Mb tech support ;)

Toto

04-07-2009, 13:15

Newsgroups? they tend to be more on the ball and you're directly through to a 2nd line support person.. Also are you ringing up the standard tech support or the 50Mb tech support ;)

Yes, this is what I thought, I remember reading somewhere that 50Mb support was onshore, with more qualified agents.

Kymmy

04-07-2009, 13:19

Where's Moldova when you need him, he has the 50Mb number tattooed on the inside of his eyelids :p: :D ;)

xocemp

04-07-2009, 13:22

Fear my copy/paste :p:

0800 052 0431

Kymmy

04-07-2009, 13:26

Even better for PowerUser..it's a freephone number :)

PowerUser

04-07-2009, 14:08

Thanks for the number, I spoke to a chap in liverpool. Very helpful.. No problems in my area at all. and it's specific to me.. So engineer coming Tues,

Thanks All.

At least someone is coming to look now.

Milambar

04-07-2009, 14:09

Gotta love how India throws out that "Area problem, bai bai" excuse every time. :)

Glad someone finally listened to you.

frogstamper

04-07-2009, 14:19

Unfortunately talking to people like the indian called Vicrum yesterday did nothing to help. He put me through to what was suppose to be Tech support, But all I get is an automated message saying the service is having problems in my area.

A second phone call 4 hours later talking to another indian called Vic, Hmmm may have been the same guy shortening his name to hide the fact the he was possibly the only person answering the phone and didn't want customers to know that.

He also informed me that there was a problem in my area and it will be sorted out by 8.30PM on that evening. I Waited until 10pm. Still crap, so fuming I went to bed.

Turn on modem this morning, Join xbox live for a chat to my friend only to be disconnected from Xbox Live in mid sentance :mad: !! i did a check and lo and behold it's really poor.

Called again. Now it's not free for me as I don't have a virgin landline. so I spent alot of cash going through the menu's, and finally I get cut off. GRRRRRRRR...

Just what am i Suppose to do!..:(

I'm having exactely the same problems Poweruser, I'm too down here in Brighton and xbox-live is unusable, I brought Tiger Woods yesterday and cannot stay on-line for longer than ten minuets before first I lose connection to messanger which means I'm kicked out of the party, then I lose connection to xbox-live...talk about infuriating.
This started for me on Thursday night but I left it till today before ring VM, what a soul destroying experience that was, twice I got through to India and politely asked to speak to a person in the UK and was told to ring 151 instead of 150.
This made no difference so after trying to explain this to an Indian woman who insisted that I had a virus on my PC I've given up:mad: if its no different on Monday I'll try once more to get through to someone I can understand if theres no joy yet again I'll be calling retentions.:td::td::td:

xocemp

04-07-2009, 14:48

If/when you call retentions ask to speak to a UK agent and also register your disgust of poor tech support with that retentions agent.

The more people complain about poor support the better. Best do it in writing :)

PowerUser

04-07-2009, 18:11

I'm having exactely the same problems Poweruser, I'm too down here in Brighton and xbox-live is unusable, I brought Tiger Woods yesterday and cannot stay on-line for longer than ten minuets before first I lose connection to messanger which means I'm kicked out of the party, then I lose connection to xbox-live...talk about infuriating.
This started for me on Thursday night but I left it till today before ring VM, what a soul destroying experience that was, twice I got through to India and politely asked to speak to a person in the UK and was told to ring 151 instead of 150.
This made no difference so after trying to explain this to an Indian woman who insisted that I had a virus on my PC I've given up:mad: if its no different on Monday I'll try once more to get through to someone I can understand if theres no joy yet again I'll be calling retentions.:td::td::td:

Tried to send you PM 8 times but keeps timing out completely. hopefully you will get it eventually.

Sooty Baxter

04-07-2009, 21:09

Peter_

04-07-2009, 21:24

We too are having very poor service on the 50Mb cable connection in Brighton. Over the last 2 days it drops every couple of minutes. I've tried rebooting the modem loads of times but it has made no difference. I'll have to get onto the the 151 number tomorrow: hope I can get through to England as the Indian folk find me hard to understand (and the other way around!).:confused:
50Mb support line number.

0800 052 0431

Do not call if not 50Mb as you will be asked to hang up as the is no facility to transfer you to Broadband Support.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post your power levels from your config pages of your modem.

click here
http://192.168.100.1/

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

DO NOT POST YOUR MAC ADDRESS OR SERIAL NUMBER

Sooty Baxter

04-07-2009, 21:45

hi, is this what you need?
Downstream
Frequency 298750000 306750000 314750000 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) 5.86 5.79 6.02 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 38.61 38.61 39.40 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 0 0 0 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 283 247 257 N/A

UPSTREAM
Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 45808000 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) 58.00 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

Thanks
SB

PowerUser

04-07-2009, 21:47

Power Level Downstream (dBmV)

DS-1 6.61
DS-2 5.88
DS-3 7.32

RxMER
(dB)
38.61
38.61
39.40
38.61

Power Level Upstream (dBmV)

DS-1 DS-2 DS-3
47.25 N/A N/A

T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0
T3 Timeouts 36
T4 Timeouts 0

What's this SNR. It's not listed in the config page.

Sooty Baxter

04-07-2009, 22:00

hi thanks
can't see any mention of an SNR on any of the cable modems info pages at http://192.168.100.1/ - I used to see SNR on my old Netgear adsl modem but not on the Virgin one -

nb i'm cabled into the router and on into the modem, not using wifi. The same thing is happening if i bypass the routher and go straight into the modem.
SB

Ignitionnet

04-07-2009, 22:07

Power Level
(dBmV) 58.00 N/A N/A N/A

Network problem, that is too high.

PowerUser

04-07-2009, 22:08

I'm convinced it's an issue with ALL 50Mbit Subscribers in the Brighton area. My 2 friends are on the lower Virgin Media Broadband tiers in Brighton,
and live not more then 5 miles from me, And there both online now with NO issues Whatsoever.

Ignitionnet

04-07-2009, 23:41

frogstamper

05-07-2009, 00:14

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 25
Downstream Frequency : 306750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 8.5 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 42.1 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 1
Upstream Frequency : 45808000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 46.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

These are my specs guys, incidently I'm on the 20mb tier not the 50mb tier, but my problems are exactly the same as poweruser.
If anyone can help I'd be grateful thanks.

Sooty Baxter

05-07-2009, 09:36

Peter_

05-07-2009, 11:23

Downstream Receive Power Level : 8.5 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 42.1 dB

Upstream transmit Power Level : 46.5 dBmV

Your power levels are within spec so any issue must be elsewhere so a call to Tech Support may be in order.

PowerUser

05-07-2009, 12:07

Brighton problems. Update
My connection seems to be better this morning - perhaps it needed a rest! I've managed to watch streamed tv for about half-an-hour and it hasn't yet dropped. I haven't tried the stress test of downloading 3 or so games from Blueyounder yet though.

Same here from 9.20am til 11.45am, But now it's completely unusable again.
I've lost connection to my friends on xbox Live everytime i reset and rejoin. And my web browsing times out every few mins.

I get the Flashing tick symbol on the modem happen twice this morning and then have to power off each time.:td:

frogstamper

05-07-2009, 17:42

I found it a bit better this morning, but from one o'clock I'm losing connections and timing out, this means yet another call to CS...why on earth can't I get someone like Moldova to speak to when I call instead of yet another Indian who insists I have a virus?

Sooty Baxter

05-07-2009, 18:09

Well I spoke too soon. Very frustrating intermittent service this afternoon and evening. Time to fight my way through CS I think. Is it best to go straight through to 0800 052 0431? It's interesting that others in Brighton are having similar difficulties.

Electric Warrior

05-07-2009, 18:15

This is not just the 50Mbit service in the Brighton area that is affected. I'm on the 20Mbit service in Portslade area of Brighton, and it's been intermittent with lost connections and slow browsing since Thursday, and it's bad again now on Sunday afternoon. I've made at least 8 calls to Virgin since Thursday, and at first they denied it was an area problem, but last night they acknowledged that it was, and that they were still working on it. I also have an engineer booked for Wednesday, although I'm sure there's nothing up with my modem etc.

HSp8

05-07-2009, 22:31

I'm in Brighton on the 50Mb, and been having this problem for a few days

been away for the last 36 hours, but when I got back this afternoon the problem is still there - goo dto know it's not just me

Here are my details

Downstream
Frequency 298750000 306750000 314750000 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) 7.33 7.53 7.39 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 38.61 39.40 39.40 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 0 1 0 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 280 928 333 N/A

Upstream
Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 45808000 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) 57.25 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 34 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Peter_

05-07-2009, 22:53

Power Level
(dBmV) 57.25
That Upstream is on the high side and if you are having any connection issues then I would recommend calling up tomorrow morning after 0800 and here is the 50Mb support contact number below.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
50Mb support line number.

0800 052 0431

Do not call if not 50Mb as you will be asked to hang up as the is no facility to transfer you to Broadband Support.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HSp8

06-07-2009, 09:49

That Upstream is on the high side and if you are having any connection issues then I would recommend calling up tomorrow morning after 0800 and here is the 50Mb support contact number below.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
50Mb support line number.

0800 052 0431

Do not call if not 50Mb as you will be asked to hang up as the is no facility to transfer you to Broadband Support.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

thanks Moldova - will call today.

Is there any point me calling them when I'm at work and so no access to modem/router?

PowerUser

06-07-2009, 10:12

New Readings this morning From Brighton.
Look Even worse to me.

Cable Modem Downstream
Power Level
(dBmV) 7.40 6.64 8.20 N/A

RxMER
(dB) 38.61 38.61 39.40 N/A

Cable Modem Upstream

Power Level
(dBmV) 48.50 N/A N/A N/A

T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 73 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

73 Timeouts !!!!!.....:shocked: is that normal
And power levels for downstream are even higher

xocemp

06-07-2009, 10:22

PowerUser have you called this number 0800 052 0431 ?

PowerUser

06-07-2009, 10:31

PowerUser have you called this number 0800 052 0431 ?

Yes, They have told me that the issues in my area have been resolved.

xocemp

06-07-2009, 12:52

Then you need to call again because both the upstream and downstream are poor.
And if the 50Mbit team tell you otherwise then they clearly need retraining.

chamelion

06-07-2009, 12:59

hey guys,

whats the acceptable power levels for upstream/downstream?
I upgraded to 50meg, i get quite a variance in service levels from 20mbit (what i had) up to 40mbit, haven't seen above 40mbit really.
Here are my levels:

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9853/downstream.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3209/upstream.jpg

xocemp

06-07-2009, 13:35

+7 to -3 dBmV.
Closer to 0 the better

Upstream

Upstream signal levels (from the modem) should be between 35 and 54dBmV.
40 would be ideal

chamelion

06-07-2009, 13:42

+7 to -3 dBmV.
Closer to 0 the better

Upstream

Upstream signal levels (from the modem) should be between 35 and 54dBmV.
40 would be ideal

odd. my downstream parameter is fine, but that's where i suffer most. upstream i'm below your range yet i get a perfect uplink...

frogstamper

06-07-2009, 17:29

Hi guys, after a terrible start to the day with numerous dropouts I rang CS "again" and they eventually agreed to send a engineer out on Wednesday, this was about 10.30am.
Since 13.00 my connection has been good, no dropouts can maintain a connection to xbox-live and browsing is back to normal speeds...sods law this should happen as soon as I get confirmation an engineer is coming out!!
Anyway fingers crossed for the rest of you Brightonians who are suffering out there, hopefully whatever was wrong is or has been fixed.
I'll wait to the morning and if its still fine I'll ring and cancel the engineer.

PS Whilst waiting for CS on the phone the automated voice did say there were problems in the BN14 area of Brighton, that was at about 11.00, I'm not sure where abouts that is in Brighton, but maybe by fixing that it has hopefully helped us all.

Sooty Baxter

06-07-2009, 19:40

The connection has been fine this afternoon (Brighton) but went down to an unusable state again at about 5pm. Phoned 0800 052 0431 and "James" told me he could see that my modem had dropped connection about 150 times in the last few days! My event log lists a number of T3 time-outs and No Ranging Responses...but not 150. The outcome is that I have a tech coming on Wednesday evening - he,no doubt, will find no problem! I wonder if it could be the modem - also, my upsteam is 56.75 dBmv - this is a little high I think. They have already fitted a 3Db filter to the line. We shall see!

frogstamper

07-07-2009, 00:04

Well midnight now an entire evening on Xbox-live and no dropouts:) fingers crossed it stays this way.

PowerUser

07-07-2009, 08:22

HI Guys

Even though My internet browsing seems fine and xbox Live seems stable at the moment. I've got even higher power levels today.

Power Level
(dBmV) 8.31 7.63 9.03 N/A

I thought that nearer to 0 the better..!!!..
At least there are no timeouts logged today!..

I still have an enginner coming around, I can't take the chance. I still feel that the infrastructure in my area is really poor. I've had dropouts/timouts before the Whole of Brighton had this incident.

If they find nothing wrong. Then I'm only left with the option of leaving Virgin Media. Which I don't want to do as I'm too far from the local telephone exchange to get any kind of reasonable service. The CS Guy in liverpool suggested I make all of the problems I've had over the last 4 weeks made clear to the engineer. Then maybe, just maybe they will look at the infrastructure/equipment further down the line.

Who knows..If enough people from Brighton Used this site and got together over our god awful infrastucture then maybe the higher powers at VM may just listen and look into it.

UPDATE: Just had my first Timeout at 8.29am and it screwed up my Xbox Live connection..

Weeee.. Here we go, Here we go. Here we go.. Heeerrr wee Gooooo :(

pesty

07-07-2009, 14:08

I also am in the brighton area southwick/portslade boarder and have had the same problem as you lot.It started last friday and has continued since although i did phone netgear teccy and he told me to change my channel setting to 6 and use wep as security and it's been a lot better.the worst has been xbox live i dont get dissconected any more since but do now and again get dropped from a game.especially at nights and the lag is just awful at times.this morning i had a 30 min go and it seemed alright but will see tonite i do have a tech guy comming tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 14:07 ---------- Previous post was at 13:33 ----------

Just spoken to a teccy guy and he gave me an number to ring to check if there are problems with the broadband in our area and there is in the bn1 bn2 and bn3 areas and says that they are working on it.

---------- Post added at 14:08 ---------- Previous post was at 14:07 ----------

Just spoken to a teccy guy and he gave me an number to ring to check if there are problems with the broadband in our area and there is in the bn1 bn2 and bn3 areas and says that they are working on it.

Sooty Baxter

07-07-2009, 16:10

HSp8

07-07-2009, 16:15

Our service remains flakey. Sometimes it seems to fly along - but then stop and pause for a bit. It feels like it will only work in small bursts. If you are lucky you might just catch a burst when you need it - otherwise just wait or resetting the modem seems to help for a short while.

This is from the Fiveways area of Brighton.

I'm Fiveways myself and have same problem - it was definitely better this morning though

What normal speeds do you get Sooty? I normally get around 44Mb, but don't know if I should be getting 50Mb - is it something I should take up with somebody, or just be glad with what I've got?

pesty

07-07-2009, 16:38

Actually it is at the moment back to normal i've been playing on xbox live this afternoon with no problems at all for about the last two hours and not even any sign of the bad lag i had.hopefully it's fixed. my normal download speed is 49/50 mb and upload around 1.66.and that is what i,ve been getting all day today.

Sooty Baxter

07-07-2009, 16:41

Hi HSp8. I'm not sure what normal is as we have only had the service for a month. But using speedtest.net and other speedtest sites we are getting 40 - 50 Mbps and 1.4 -1.5 upload - with a ping of about 38-40ms. Sometimes the speedtest sites give stupidly high returns of 110Mbps! So their accuracy is debatable. I would be happy to have anything above 40 so long as it is reliable. We used to be with Zen and while we only had about 3 - 4Mbps it was always working. When it's working properly VM 50 is fantastic...and the TV iplayer is amazing...the phone is ok (sadly, no Caller ID in this area though).

pesty

07-07-2009, 21:02

did everyone else in the Brighton area on the 50 meg broadband find everything running fine as from today.

frogstamper

08-07-2009, 04:11

After ringing up CS today to cancel the engineer for Wednesday, VM are now advertising on the faults menu that "there is" a area problem with BB in the BN1 to BN14 areas.
This was at about 13.00 Tuesday lunchtime, at least they are now acknowledging it, unlike the two Indian CS people I spoke to who insisted that the reason my computer and "x-box" was slow and dropping out was because I had a virus!!
Anyway fellow Brightonians at least we now know that its not our equipment at fault but a local network problem, as for myself my connection has been good for over 24 hours now, and not a single problem on Xbox-live, btw I'm in the Withdean area.
Also I've just noticed on the VM status page that Brighton has been removed:) hopefully that means Brighton's back up and running as it should be.:tu:

pesty

08-07-2009, 09:40

Yep no problems atall since yesterday and my xbox live is also working well.Did try to cancel the engineer early this a.m but he still may turn up yet.

Peter_

08-07-2009, 11:20

Yep no problems atall since yesterday and my xbox live is also working well.Did try to cancel the engineer early this a.m but he still may turn up yet.
If you have called in and asked for the engineer to be cancelled then he should not turn up as the job will be cancelled on the system.

HSp8

08-07-2009, 11:24

yep - my speed is looking pretty solid this morning

Sooty Baxter

08-07-2009, 15:45

yep - my speed is looking pretty solid this morning

I've just rushed home because I have an engineer coming in response to India telling me my modem must be faulty, to find my system is running ok... Perhaps he will swop the modem anyway! If all is well I could get him to repair the damage the installers did to my front door frame when they used a blunt masonry bit to drill through the wood to run the telephone cable in! (;)

Sooty Baxter

09-07-2009, 21:33

I've just rushed home because I have an engineer coming in response to India telling me my modem must be faulty, to find my system is running ok... Perhaps he will swop the modem anyway! If all is well I could get him to repair the damage the installers did to my front door frame when they used a blunt masonry bit to drill through the wood to run the telephone cable in! (;)

Update. The engineer came and 'increased the power at the tap plate' (or somesuch and then put an 8db attenuator on the cable directly behind the modem. I did a multiple file download from a virgin speed test site - not Ashford, one of the others - and managed about 2.9 MBps. The modem stats now say
Downstream
Power Level (dBmV) 9.09 9.26 9.54 N/A
RxMER (dB) 38.61 38.61 39.40 N/A

Upstream
Power Level
(dBmV) 52.25

I'm still getting occasional pauses - but generally it seems more stable. Fingers crossed,