50Mb downloads fast, broswing slow, games terrible.... any ideas...

[Ian-S]

hi guys wondering if someone who knows about these things could tell me if I have a problem, or whether the 50MB service is just not suited to online gaming.

I do a lot of racing on iracing and since having 50MB installed have had loads of problems, disconnections, warping, lots of lag etc. which isn't making me too popular with my fellow wannabe racers.

Here are my up and downstream screenshots from the modem configuration, I never had this problem ever when on the 20MB so am wondering if there's a known problem or whether I should downgrade back to 20MB? Using pingplotter I get a lot of jitter, but no packet loss.

Whatever light you can shed onto it would help greatly, thanks.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9344/upstreamg.th.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9344/upstreamg.jpg)

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9853/downstream.th.jpg (http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9853/downstream.jpg)

Here's a typical pingplot between me and one of the race servers, lots of jitter but no packet loss, I don't understand what effect jitter has on gaming though, I thought only packet loss and ping was important oops.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3853/pingplot.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3853/pingplot.jpg)

There's also a lot of these in the event log, if I looked closer, they'd probably time in with being discoed from the servers:
No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=------------------;CMTS-MAC=---------------------;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Just FYI, I'm not using the wireless, on CAT-5 cables only.

---------- Post added at 10:31 ---------- Previous post was at 09:34 ----------

Here's a pathping that the guy in the 50Meg support line told me to do, of course according to him there are no problems on the network, but can someone please translate this into simple english and tell me what it means, thanks.

1 reig-cmts-04-lback-20.network.virginmedia.net [80.6.138.1]
2 hers-core-1a-ge-018-1295.network.virginmedia.net [80.3.33.45]
3 bre-bb-a-so-110-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.175.37]
4 man-bb-b-as5-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.252.192.90]
5 tele-ic-3-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.163.70]
6 cr1-linx-peer.lon005.internap.net [195.66.224.44]
7 cr2-cr1.lon005.internap.net [77.242.206.130]
8 cr2.bsn006.inappnet.cr2.lon005.internap.net [66.79.158.5]
9 cr1-cr2.bsn006.internap.net [66.79.147.13]
10 mpr1.bsn004.inappnet.cr1.bsn006.internap.net [66.79.145.34]
11 border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.41]
12 69.25.205.241

Computing statistics for 300 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 ian-PC [192.168.15.100]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 35ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% reig-cmts-04-lback-20.network.virg
inmedia.net [80.6.138.1]
0/ 100 = 0% |
2 58ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% hers-core-1a-ge-018-1295.network.v
irginmedia.net [80.3.33.45]
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 31ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% bre-bb-a-so-110-0.network.virginme
dia.net [213.105.175.37]
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 54ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% man-bb-b-as5-0.network.virginmedia
.net [62.252.192.90]
0/ 100 = 0% |
5 56ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% tele-ic-3-ae0-0.network.virginmedi
a.net [212.43.163.70]
0/ 100 = 0% |
6 32ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% cr1-linx-peer.lon005.internap.net
[195.66.224.44]
0/ 100 = 0% |
7 32ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% cr2-cr1.lon005.internap.net [77.24
2.206.130]
0/ 100 = 0% |
8 114ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% cr2.bsn006.inappnet.cr2.lon005.int
ernap.net [66.79.158.5]
0/ 100 = 0% |
9 123ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% cr1-cr2.bsn006.internap.net [66.79
.147.13]
0/ 100 = 0% |
10 141ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% mpr1.bsn004.inappnet.cr1.bsn006.in
ternap.net [66.79.145.34]
0/ 100 = 0% |
11 137ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net
[63.251.128.41]
0/ 100 = 0% |
12 134ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 69.25.205.241

Trace complete.

[Sephiroth]

The only bad I saw in your modem stats is the RxMER. The proportion of uncorrectable codewords seems low to mee and I would have expected it to be higher with only 30dB SNR.

It needs to be at least 35dB for proper behaviour. Do you have a modem event log when you are having problems?

The first port of call with poor SNR is to check that your coax cable is properly screwed in at both ends. If it is then it's an engineer call IMO. But we should see your event log.

[Ian-S]

here's the event log from the Virgin modem, everything started going hellbound around 3pm saturday, I assume this is what you're after, or do you mean the router?

Sat Nov 21 16:37:08 2009 Sat Nov 21 16:37:08 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 16:45:47 2009 Sat Nov 21 16:45:47 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 16:46:56 2009 Sat Nov 21 16:46:56 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 16:49:27 2009 Sat Nov 21 16:49:27 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 18:03:18 2009 Sat Nov 21 18:03:18 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 18:15:14 2009 Sat Nov 21 18:15:24 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 18:28:20 2009 Sat Nov 21 18:46:52 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 18:47:04 2009 Sat Nov 21 19:44:50 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 20:09:18 2009 Sat Nov 21 20:09:18 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 20:17:39 2009 Sat Nov 21 20:17:39 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 20:18:52 2009 Sat Nov 21 20:42:58 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 20:59:40 2009 Sat Nov 21 20:59:40 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 21:24:58 2009 Sat Nov 21 22:20:40 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 22:27:21 2009 Sat Nov 21 22:27:21 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 22:28:22 2009 Sat Nov 21 22:49:56 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 23:05:44 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:05:44 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 23:10:27 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:13:48 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 23:14:28 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:15:32 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 23:18:32 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:18:32 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 23:24:23 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:24:23 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat Nov 21 23:25:04 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:25:04 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 00:45:23 2009 Sun Nov 22 00:45:23 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 00:46:16 2009 Sun Nov 22 00:58:22 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 00:58:22 2009 Sun Nov 22 00:58:22 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 01:06:58 2009 Sun Nov 22 01:06:58 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 03:16:03 2009 Sun Nov 22 07:30:40 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 07:39:56 2009 Sun Nov 22 09:56:04 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 11:24:59 2009 Sun Nov 22 11:45:15 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 11:45:18 2009 Sun Nov 22 11:55:34 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 11:55:55 2009 Sun Nov 22 11:55:55 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Nov 22 12:22:02 2009 Mon Nov 23 09:20:46 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 09:36:31 2009 Mon Nov 23 09:36:31 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 11:13:04 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:01:49 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 12:07:01 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:07:01 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 12:09:43 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:14:55 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 12:15:18 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:15:29 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 12:16:56 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:30:00 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 12:30:43 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:30:43 2009 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Nov 23 12:31:05 2009 Mon Nov 23 12:32:10 2009 Warning (5) TEK Invalid - Invalid Key Sequence Number;CM-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CMTS-MAC=XX:xx:XX:xx:XX:xx;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;



I will go check the cables, Thanks.

[Sephiroth]

Yes - that's pure bad news. Have you called the engineer and told them about the T3 timeouts and low SNR?

[Ian-S]

yes the guy told me it was normal and not their problem.
If anybody here can help I'd really appreciate it, if I have to ring the 50MB helpline again I may not be so polite and that won't get me anywhere.

I wasn't very impressed with him tbh, he came out with all sorts of BS, managed to get his name though so I can avoid talking to him again.

[Sephiroth]

Well, report him when you next call the dedicated help line. The odd T3 is normal - what you've posted is unserviceable.

Of course my remarks are tempered by whatever's happening now of which we on the forum know litkle.

[Ian-S]

I'll give them a buzz in the morning thanks, I think I'll neglect to tell them that I do a lot of gaming, that seemed to tip him off onto one, he gave me a 5 minute lecture about the merits and workings of online gaming, of which most were wrong LOL

[Sephiroth]

Gaming is totally reasonable and puts not much load onto the network. The difficulty gamers face is that their packets are discardable (UDP) whilst the streamers and downloaders are guaranteed their packets (TCP).

So contention from streamers and downloaders is what you're facing IMO save for a possible fault on your line - say at the street box.

[Ian-S]

I never had this when I was on 20MB :(

[Sephiroth]

You're on a different circuit from node. Go back to 20 Mbps. Your experience is one of the reasons I haven't moved to 50 Mbps.

[Ian-S]

think I'll be doing that sooner rather than later lol.

although to be fair, I've had pingplotter running for the last hour and the only packets lost have been once the route leaves the virgin network.

[pazor]

I have sort of the same problem. When i download using my Europe newserver i get full 50mb if i change that to any other the speeds are terrible. Browsing the internet slow and forget about trying to stream any video file ie youtube, updating patches through microsoft terrible often the patches are corrupt anyway, PS3 online stuff is a joke takes ages to view anything although for some reason xbox is better. This dont really help you but just thought id put my 2 cents in.

[ezay]

Hello ,

If you are getting speed issues pazor please post your Tracert to the network.

Thanks

[bomber_g]

think I'll be doing that sooner rather than later lol.

although to be fair, I've had pingplotter running for the last hour and the only packets lost have been once the route leaves the virgin network.

at what point does packet loss start to occur?

[Ian-S]

at the point where it goes Virgin > Internap
The Virgin part of the network has a lot of jitter (15-20%), but all the packets are lost once it's one or two hops into the Internap part of the link.

When I spoke to the guy in tech support yesterday he explained this wasn't part of the Virgin network so not their problem, although they would sometimes contact the provider to tell them there was a problem if they saw it, so I gave him the details, he run a test his end and said it didn't happen for him so he wouldn't do anything and to contact him back if it continued.

Interestingly (for me) I was NOT being routed via the Internap link last week, when everything was clear and fine, BUT friends on BT were and they were having problems like we are now, this week they're being routed differently, and not having issues.

So moral or story, Internap have problems, we're suffering as a result.

[die5el]

Have you got a router in line ? if so have you portforwarded your ports (for your games) i game on my ps3 and my pc and got no issues gaming on 50meg maybe i am one of the lucky ones though ?

[Ian-S]

that wouldn't explain why the packets are being lost elsewhere in the network though would it?

[bomber_g]

at the point where it goes Virgin > Internap
The Virgin part of the network has a lot of jitter (15-20%), but all the packets are lost once it's one or two hops into the Internap part of the link.

When I spoke to the guy in tech support yesterday he explained this wasn't part of the Virgin network so not their problem, although they would sometimes contact the provider to tell them there was a problem if they saw it, so I gave him the details, he run a test his end and said it didn't happen for him so he wouldn't do anything and to contact him back if it continued.

Interestingly (for me) I was NOT being routed via the Internap link last week, when everything was clear and fine, BUT friends on BT were and they were having problems like we are now, this week they're being routed differently, and not having issues.

So moral or story, Internap have problems, we're suffering as a result.

sounds like it - if it's a peering issue it should still be reported to the network management guys as it affects Virgin customers, they will investigate and contact the 3rd party as required

- It might be an idea to run and MTR to one of the internap IP's and post it on the official support forums

anyone care to put a link here for the OP? i don't know where the official forums are :/

---------- Post added at 16:57 ---------- Previous post was at 16:53 ----------

I've just run this myself and it seems clear

are you still having problems?
Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev

3. man-bb-b-as7-0.network.virginmedia.net 0.0% 43 6.3 6.8 6.2 28.9 3.5
4. tele-ic-3-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net 0.0% 43 12.8 12.7 12.6 13.3 0.1
5. cr1-linx-peer.lon005.internap.net 0.0% 43 13.1 13.1 12.9 13.3 0.1
6. cr2-cr1.lon005.internap.net 0.0% 43 13.0 13.0 12.8 13.4 0.1
7. cr2.bsn006.inappnet.cr2.lon005.internap.net 0.0% 43 96.1 96.1 95.8 97.0 0.3
8. cr1-cr2.bsn006.internap.net 0.0% 43 96.0 96.2 95.7 100.3 0.9
9. mpr1.bsn004.inappnet.cr1.bsn006.internap.net 0.0% 43 96.0 96.1 95.8 96.9 0.2

[Ian-S]

yep it cleared up this morning.
I think it was the weather tbh, I'd be willing to throw Virgin a bone unless it becomes a regular feature of weekends.

[bomber_g]

yep it cleared up this morning.
I think it was the weather tbh, I'd be willing to throw Virgin a bone unless it becomes a regular feature of weekends.

lol, it's more likely a number if people have complained to their own ISP and internap have fixed the problem with their kit :)

[Ian-S]

yep that's what iRacing said LOL

[Ian-S]

just to bump this back up, after being kicked from the server for the five hundred billionth time last week I rang up C/S and after some arguing, they agreed to downgrade me back to 20MB.

So I highly recommend, if you play games, do NOT upgrade to 50Mb/s service as it's not suitable for it.

[bomber_g]

just to bump this back up, after being kicked from the server for the five hundred billionth time last week I rang up C/S and after some arguing, they agreed to downgrade me back to 20MB.

So I highly recommend, if you play games, do NOT upgrade to 50Mb/s service as it's not suitable for it.

Sorry to be a buzzkill, but the issue stated in this thread was off-net - it was a problem in Internap's network, not Virgin's...

[Ian-S]

well I ran pingplotter for half hour either side of downgrade, when on 50Mb/s approx 20% of packets were being lost, after downgrading to 20MB/s 0% are lost, the route to the server was identical in both tests.

I have also been in 9 races so far this week and not been kicked from one, I also went into a race immediately after the downgrade and had no issues, when just before the downgrade I was still on 50MB/s and was kicked twice within the space of 10 minutes.

My issue was never the speed, it was always top quality and never dropped below 48Mb/s, my issue was the quality of the connection and I'm afraid for me, that is more than pure coincidence, there is something different on the 50Mb/s service and whatever it is, it's not suitable for gaming during UK peak times.

[merlintt]

^^ exactly the same for me,have just called vm and been downgraded back to 20 meg,I think virgin need to look at the "super fast gaming on 50 meg" claim.

[Stuart]

In my experience ,Games don't actually send/recieve a lot of data during gameplay. They place some strain on the network, but mainly because the little information they do need to send or recieve needs to be sent quickly, and they may need to send lots of bursts of info. A few milliseconds delay won't make much difference to downloading, browsing or emailing, but can mean the difference between a player dodging a bullet in an online shooter and being hit by it.

In fact, the only time I think a higher bandwidth connection makes any difference is if you are downloading patches or use an online games purchasing and download service (such as steam).

[die5el]

So I highly recommend, if you play games, do NOT upgrade to 50Mb/s service as it's not suitable for it. I got 50 meg bb and i get no problems playing or hosting games online with the ps3. Some of my friends also got the 50meg they also have no problems hosting or playing games online with the xbox360 or the ps3 SO the 50meg bb IS suitable for online gaming.Just because you have had problems with your 50 meg bb conection not everyone will :rolleyes:

[merlintt]

I am pleased for you but by the same measure,just because you have no problems doesn`t mean its a great service.

Go to epic game forums and you`ll see post`s by other vm 50 meg users having problems,look round this forum and you`ll see the same,wether they will admit to it or not there is a problem that affects online gaming.

[Ian-S]

Perhaps I should have been more specific, if you use the iRacing service, then don't subscribe to the 50Mb/s service, there are a lot on there that have experienced the same issues.