50Mb issues

[SOSAGES]

Hello all,
Just thought I would pick your brains. I am having some issues with virgin media after upgrading to the XL (50Mb) service a few months ago. Before that I had the 20Mb and all was fine since day 1.

The problems started the day I got 50Mb but they were intermittent enough not to bother me but lately it’s been getting worse + there is a general “slowness” to the connect (well that’s what virgin media approved speed tests show me)

The problem came to my attention using a newsgroup service to download some files. These generally download as fast as your connection can take and you can still do some light web browsing while all this is going on.
I use Astraweb as my news group provider (came over from giganews, loved giganews just couldn’t afford it)

I use newsleecher as my client.

When i was on 20Mb i used to use the EU SSL astraweb server on port 563 this worked fine for me and always gave me my max download speed all the time without fail and allow me to still work on the pc (browse the web check emails etc)

Since the day i got 50Mb i have had very intermittent results with any of Astrawebs SSL services and none SSL services. At first I thought it was an issue with SSL due to the extra overhead but it was still happening on none SSL newsgroup servers.

When i was on 20Mb i could download at max speed and still do some web browsing, sure it was a little slow but there seemed to be more than enough bandwidth to let me catch up on the various news sites i read.
Since i was on 50Mb a lot of the time when downloading via the speed will cut back down to around 500k and spike to around 1.5MB/s
Also web browsing when this happens is painful.

Now it’s not all the time but it’s enough that I notice it and its starting to get on my nerves. For example did 3 hours of downloading at max speed (roughly 5.80MB/s) and then it went down to 1.6MB/s for the rest of the download regardless of me swapping newsgroup servers (tried EU / US / SSL / NONE SSL / Other providers etc)

So I spent a long time limiting the number of connections but found little difference between 1-20

I tried giganews and same thing

I swapped newsgroup clients (tried 2 on my pc 2 others on a laptop and an embedded one on my NAS) all the same.

It did seem to be that the router got all bunged up with all this data so I swapped routers around I was on a dlink 524 that has served me well and I installed the router virgin give you with the 50Mb service that didn’t seem to make a difference at all..

So I have tried different hardware / software and provider.

Next up was a closer look at my setup.

So bang right away disabled firewalls on router and PC (windows 7)
Disabled antivirus software.
No difference.
Got my laptop (windows vista) did much the same thing still no difference at all.
Removed the router from the equation and connected direct to modem on PC
No difference
Connect direct to laptop
No difference.

Tried various speed tests (did 40 or so) over last few days and noticed not one went over 15Mb/s normally they were around 9Mb/s my upload is fine at 1.5

The slow speed results is a new development as when I first got the connect first thing I did was do a speed test and it was where it should of been.

Have also done various speed tests since when download speeds dropped and everything seemed fine.

So armed with all this info I called virgin and was told there was no faults my modem is fine and that was that.

I said I understand that there is only a certain amount of bandwidth in the world but were talking off peak here and its rubbish. I work from home so use a pc from 7in morning till 2-3 at night and I can say that my download speeds on 50Mb package have been AMAZING but a lot of the time they are naff.

So having been told there is nothing wrong even after explaining I’m only getting 9Mb on speed tests I thought I would ask here.

Help me obi wan. As it stands I’d rather go back to 20Mb that was rock solid and I avoided disappointment

Power levels downstream are
Power Level (dBmV)
Ds-1 = -0.38
Ds-2 = -0.93
Ds-3 = -0.62

Upsteam:
44.25

im in the rg12 area (reading/bracknell) if you need anymore info then let me know.
thanks in advance for any help.

[SOSAGES]

currently started off at 5.67MB/s this morning
lasted 10 mins
now on 1.4MB/s peaking at 2

Outlook informs me it cant find the server
web browsing returns errors.

something is up here...

[SOSAGES]

started off at 6.00MB/s this morning for 1 min then down to below 2.

unless im being silly this seems to be a problem with virgin is there a dedicated 50Mb support line i can contact?

[Peter_]

started off at 6.00MB/s this morning for 1 min then down to below 2.

unless im being silly this seems to be a problem with virgin is there a dedicated 50Mb support line i can contact?
50Mb Support Team 0800 052 0431.

[Lee]

What you have described is identical to the problems I am having.

I rang the 50mb support line, who could not see anything wrong. Luckily at the time I called, the problem was bad, and downloading multiple times from the blueyonder demo games site showed 1 at 1.5MB/s and the other at <50kb/s.

The only thing that support could see (that I suggested) was that one of the 3 download power levels was slightly above 7.

So engineer came out yesterday to fit an attenuator? and now the levels are down to 0, similar to yours.

Its only been a day so far, so can't really tell if the problem is fixed or not, but honestly I'm not hopeful.

I know its difficult for support to identify and fix intermittent issues, but there are quite a few posts here and elsewhere describing exactly the same problem. That suggests to me, that there is a bigger fault somewhere that has not been identified yet :(

[Lee]

Update:

Set off a 30gig download last night before going to bed. When I left it had started at a full 6MB/s.

Came back this morning to find the download not even half completed and running at 400KB/s. Which is exactly what I've seen before.

Web pages such as the BBC are now loading slowly :(

Is there much more the support team can do to investigate these issues?

[Peter_]

Update:

Set off a 30gig download last night before going to bed. When I left it had started at a full 6MB/s.

Came back this morning to find the download not even half completed and running at 400KB/s. Which is exactly what I've seen before.

Web pages such as the BBC are now loading slowly :(

Is there much more the support team can do to investigate these issues?
Call tomorrow after 0800 the 50Mb Support Team 0800 052 0431.

[Pontiac]

Sosages, this is quite a known problem I'm afraid. Many threads about people having wildly varying speeds, I myself have suffered from it. Particularly with usenet. For most, there seems no solution and tech support can't even nail down the problem as it's intermittent.

[soundfader]

hi forum,
well i took the 50mb plunge yesterday, when the engineer was here he told me there are problems with 50mb at the moment due to something called a header, and said i would would get drops in speed on a regular basis until they fixed the problem, not sure when that will be, neither was he. so im tolerating low speeds until thats sorted. ok so here's my query, virgin offer fibre optic broadband for it's customers, im a gadet lover and when the engineer was fitting my broadband i said thats not a fibre optic cable your installing it's coaxial cable, he replies yes thats right, the fibre optic cable goes as far as the junction box 400yrds away, so why aren't customers being given true fibre optic connection as advertised. you cant provide fibre optic connection down a coaxial cable can you?, i feel cheated does anyone know more about this matter and why virgin media are doing this to customers.

[Sephiroth]

hi forum,
well i took the 50mb plunge yesterday, when the engineer was here he told me there are problems with 50mb at the moment due to something called a header, and said i would would get drops in speed on a regular basis until they fixed the problem, not sure when that will be, neither was he. so im tolerating low speeds until thats sorted. ok so here's my query, virgin offer fibre optic broadband for it's customers, im a gadet lover and when the engineer was fitting my broadband i said thats not a fibre optic cable your installing it's coaxial cable, he replies yes thats right, the fibre optic cable goes as far as the junction box 400yrds away, so why aren't customers being given true fibre optic connection as advertised. you cant provide fibre optic connection down a coaxial cable can you?, i feel cheated does anyone know more about this matter and why virgin media are doing this to customers.

The VM cable network is what's known as an HFC network Hybrid Fibre Cable. You can Google HFC and you'll find explanatory articles. This is how it's done in the UK, the USA and elsewhere.

This is generally well understood by VM's client base particularly because with fibre to the street cabinet, you don't have the lottery of how close you are to a BT exchange.

OK?

[Worthy]

I'm getting this problem with Usenet too at the moment. Something isn't right and it's frustrating as hell.

[Lee]

I think the issue is something to do with either the router or modem not liking multiple connections (when the connection is bad).

I can download one single file from the blueyonder gamesfile site at around 3-4MB/s, but open a second or 3rd and if they start, they run at <20KB/s and the first one slows down to around 1.5MB/s.

I see the same thing when web browsing say the BBC site. I can see in the browser status bar each connection being opened for an image (its that slow), yet the main body of the site loads relatively quickly.

Sometimes I can get around 30mins of full speed downloading without and issue, but then it goes slow for hours, with no amount of rebooting helping.

[icecoldcube]

All I have had similar if not indentical porblems since upgrading to 50MB. Watching my download now from Astraweb its peaking at 6.3MBS but dropping down.

Tried all the usual stuff and Giganews with simialr results.

As a I write this it just dropped to 4MBS.

I suppose we just have to see if Virgin get the issue sorted over time.

[abyzz]

Slightly different problem for me if anyone can suggest a remedy.

Upgraded to 50MB, and was using the supplied D-Link DIR-615 router. All working fine, with speedtest.net showing 50/1.5 max.
Now while the DIR-615 seems to be a great little router, the one thing it lacked for my network was Gigabit connection for fast file transfers between PC's.
So i got a DIR-825 which a lot of people say is a great router.
However, I cannot seem to get more that 9MB/s download through this router.
I have tried updating the firmware to the latest version, disabled QOS, disabled everything that wasn't necessary, without any difference in d/l speeds.
Switched back to the 615 and speeds were back to normal.
Looks like I will have to make do with a 100mb LAN unless someone has a bright idea... :)
anyone?

[Pantsu-san]

Switched back to the 615 and speeds were back to normal

Thread is about 50Mb issues and this is obviously a router problem? Networking forum might get you a better response?

Wireless? Sounds like you're not running in 802n/AES on your new router.

[Worthy]

Slightly different problem for me if anyone can suggest a remedy.

Upgraded to 50MB, and was using the supplied D-Link DIR-615 router. All working fine, with speedtest.net showing 50/1.5 max.
Now while the DIR-615 seems to be a great little router, the one thing it lacked for my network was Gigabit connection for fast file transfers between PC's.
So i got a DIR-825 which a lot of people say is a great router.
However, I cannot seem to get more that 9MB/s download through this router.
I have tried updating the firmware to the latest version, disabled QOS, disabled everything that wasn't necessary, without any difference in d/l speeds.
Switched back to the 615 and speeds were back to normal.
Looks like I will have to make do with a 100mb LAN unless someone has a bright idea... :)
anyone?

Buy a GB switch and hook it up to your router?

Astraweb is fine for me tonight. Maxxed out and it doesn't seem to be dropping so far... fingers crossed. :)

[SOSAGES]

i still get this problem regardless of time of day.
having changed routers and even removed the router from the setup i still get the issue.
tried 2 different network cards on my pc and tried my laptop (wired) and still get it.

if it was always doing it id be able to phone up and say something but its a bit random but it does it often enough that i notice it.

started a download last night at 1 in morning went to 6MBs then after 5 mins that dropped to 2 or so :(

having changed providers for newsgroups its not astraweb.

i also get slow (compared to what my line should do) from other sources and speed tests always come in at under half teh speed it should be.

i was much better off with 20meg service

[merlintt]

Been on the 50 meg for a couple of months.I only use the connection for xboxlive and I`m plugged straight into the modem.I have just downgraded back to 20meg.

Since going onto 50 meg I`ve had nothing but problems with online gaming,problems that did not exist on the 20 meg connection.

[SOSAGES]

did/do you have to pay your contract out to downgrade? im thinking of going back to 20meg just started a download and then it all went slow again no point in paying for 50 meg and getting 1/5 of that if im lucky.

[pabscars]

Ive noticed on and off, online gaming has been a bit of a lottery for the last few weeks, the last time I complained on the newsgroups it was mentioned that the UBR I,m on had too many FEC errors and within a few days it was back to being great.

So last night I complained again via the same route so hopefully tonight when I check there might be an update.

As frustrating as it is, I,m not getting my knickers in a knot, because in 2 months my contract expires and if these issues aren't sorted by then, then I,m off regrettably.

One question I would like to ask anyone in the know is, are the issues various people are experiencing with their 50Mbps tier nationwide or typical of an area, or is it typically contention causing gaming traffic to suffer.

I would'nt mind staying with VM if normal decent service resumes but if this is to become the norm or in theory get worse as more people clamber onto the docsis 3 network.

I appreciate its a broad question but just looking for some light at the end of the tunnel.

[Sephiroth]

Reading between the lines on the forums, there was one important iece of information somewhere - I forget where - but it was significant.

Motorola have been called in to debug and fix sofware in their shiny new CMTSs that serve the 50 <bps community. Again I forget whether it was Glasgow or Manchester that was the focus for this - but if this is thus a common cause fault, when fixed in one place, the software can be rolled out everywhere else.

I'll leave you to search this forum or the VM forum on the keywords Glasgow Motorola or Manchester Motorola.

EDIT: I've searched and can't for the life of me find it - but my info's good!

[merlintt]

I was not charged to downgrade,they were ok about it,you get left with same modem so if u ever wish to upgrade they can do it over phone.

I like the service vm provide,tv,phone,broadband-not the 50meg for gaming though.If the problems with the 50 meg clear up I will consider going back on it.

[pabscars]

Reading between the lines on the forums, there was one important iece of information somewhere - I forget where - but it was significant.

Motorola have been called in to debug and fix sofware in their shiny new CMTSs that serve the 50 <bps community. Again I forget whether it was Glasgow or Manchester that was the focus for this - but if this is thus a common cause fault, when fixed in one place, the software can be rolled out everywhere else.

I'll leave you to search this forumn or the VM forum on the keywords Glasgow Motorola or Manchester Motorola.

Thanks Seph, I was kinda hoping this was the case, might sound daft but when the 50Meg tier is running sweet its awesome, so would like to think that progress is being made.

I wonder how long the teething troubles get out clause will be used until its sorted.

That nice shiny new kit will be going rusty at this rate before its running sweet :D:D:D

[richardc1983]

Also having the same issues, that seemed to fix itself over xmas, but now were crawling along again on newsgroup downloads.

Run a normal speedtest though and hit full 50mb!

[SOSAGES]

Well i have ignored it for a while now but no more :)
downloads are still very slow @ 1.50 MB/s (ish)
speed tests come in at around 11Mbps but ranges normally from 5-14 Mbps.

Everytime i call up i am told no errors on line
modem is fine
please turn off modem for 30 mins also turn off router and then turn it on again.

i just sigh......
Everytime i say i kinda know what im doing 3 different PC's, 4 different network cards, lots of network drivers, 3 different OS's, lots of different network cables, no firewalls, 3 different routers, no AV software.
Changed newgroup provider 3 times
changed newsgroup client 3 times
Not a lot more i can change really and the worst thing is the XL (20meg) service was perfect and at 20meg all the time the XXL for me is rubbish and has been since day one yet i have to pay out my contract to downgrade...eek!

[Sephiroth]

You don't have to pay out your contract to downgrade if you get the negotiations right. Look at clause J5 of the contract and work from there via retentions. You can also report VM to the IPSA (www.ipsa.org.uk) under clause 2.5 of their charter.