Slow 10 MB broadband every evening - Swindon, SN4

[mjpartyboy]

Every evening our internet slows to a crawl. I've contacted the VM support line to no avail, you can only get so far following a script, and I've tried various router configurations, but have noticed the slow speeds happen regardless of settings.

We came to VM's fibre optic broadband from TalkTalk's ADSL broadband on the back of my experience with NTL/VM's service at my parents', they've got 10 MB too, but instead of getting a stable high speed like my parents' do at all times at SN5, we consistently get poor speeds in the evening at SN4. As it currently stands we would have been better off staying with TalkTalk who were able to provide us with a constant and stable 5 MB, and good enough upload speed, compared to getting unacceptable speeds with VM.

I've checked our modem's details and the down- and upstream seem to be in normal ranges:

Down
Downstream Receive Power Level: 5.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR: 36.5 dB

Up
Upstream transmit Power Level: 38.0 dBmV

We use our internet for general browsing and online videos such as the iPlayer, YouTube and NBA.com, it gets heavy use with Xbox 360 online gaming and occasionally PS3 online. The PS3's online performance is quite poor on VM compared to TalkTalk.

When we're not at home to use the net the speeds are what you expect from VM's L package, but when we actually are home to use it the speeds are poor. Last night at 10:48pm we were getting speeds of around 1 MB and the total amount of WAN download traffic for the entire day to that point was 669 MB, so no where near the evening download cap.

What do you need from me to be able to check our connection and account? I say account too, because it's as if we're getting throttled from a certain time without going anywhere near the download limit, like there's a flag on the account or something.

[psyfur]

Hi Mj,

I'm by no way as skilled as half the people on this forum at helping with vm issues however is it possible that you are being traffic managed? On a 10mb line you are allowed 1.5 gigs of data between 4pm and 9pm, go over that and vm will slow the connection down (250kbps) for 5 hours.

http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php

Edit - you clearly state you don't go over the limit. Sorry

Edit 2 - hmmm do you watch i player on your ps3 or on a computer - two or three shows will put you over the limit

[pip08456]

When we're not at home to use the net the speeds are what you expect from VM's L package, but when we actually are home to use it the speeds are poor.



This bit has me baffled-however can you post the full stats from the modem, U/stream, D/stream config and log files?

[mjpartyboy]

hmmm do you watch i player on your ps3 or on a computer - two or three shows will put you over the limit

I mentioned iPlayer as an example of some of our browsing habits. I'm aware of VM's traffic management and have yet to go over 1.5 GB for an entire day's use, let alone just the evening, since having it at the new location.

I find it funny that they claim the throttling only affects "the top 5% of customers who are downloading and/or uploading an unusually large amount," because you may have never gone near your package's limit and then one day decide to download an Xbox 360 demo from the Marketplace, which could easily be over 1.5 GB, and then get throttled because it's over the limit. Why should that get you branded as one of the top 5% under this circumstance, surely this should apply to the customers that are constantly reaching their limit.

This bit has me baffled

Because on days off when I'm able to use the net in the day the speeds are what you expect, usually 9+ MB, but when the evening comes along it's slow time.

[chambohambo]

sounds like your UBR is being hammered in the evening pointless getting on to virgin media about it as they wont do a thing virgin would only do something about it if it was getting hammered 24/7

[eckuk]

When did Virgin provide 10MB internet? That's a crazy big step forward from just 50Mb.

[mjpartyboy]

sounds like your UBR is being hammered in the evening pointless getting on to virgin media about it as they wont do a thing virgin would only do something about it if it was getting hammered 24/7

I've suspected this.

I've noticed something interesting with the D-Link DIR-615 D2 supplied by VM, if I install DD-WRT on it and download from http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com I quite often get a 1+ MB per second, still poor evening speeds though, but with 1.00VG the downloads start off high and then plummet to around 200 KB/s. What's up with this D-Link firmware and why can't you disable CTS Mode?

[Chrysalis]

sounds like your UBR is being hammered in the evening pointless getting on to virgin media about it as they wont do a thing virgin would only do something about it if it was getting hammered 24/7

even 24/7 there is only a chance. At that point they acknowledge and are happy to give discounts but as far as upgrading goes I have yet to see evidence of it.

[pip08456]

sounds like your UBR is being hammered in the evening pointless getting on to virgin media about it as they wont do a thing virgin would only do something about it if it was getting hammered 24/7

It is still worth reporting it if only to get a bit of a rebate. Not reporting anything means there isn't even a slim chance of it being resolved. Best do it on a day off so you have a chance of UK support.

[mjpartyboy]

If the UBR is the problem, what are the chances of being put on a different one if we changed from the L to the XL package?

[mjpartyboy]

I've had a response from the VM forums and it doesn't look like there's anything I can do other than put up with rubbish speeds in the evening:

I have checked and utilisation has increased in the evening. This will cause slow speeds during peak times. We shall continue to monitor this and if it gets worse or increases we shall pass it to our planning team to investigate.

When they say "if it gets worse," what's worse than already experiencing speeds of 1 MB on a 10 MB line at SN4 knowing that my parents' at SN5 are getting what they pay for?

Who would have thought fibre optic would be worse than ADSL. :td:

[mjpartyboy]

Another day of rubbish speeds, rendering the iPlayer pretty useless on the PS3.

I thought fibre optic broadband was touted as being better than ADSL, yet we managed to get consistently better speeds and a much a more stable service with ADSL.

I will not recommend Virgin Media broadband to anybody and the sooner we get rid of it, the better.

[mjpartyboy]

Check out last night's performance:

Sun, 02 May 2010 19:10:05 GMT

Test 1: 1024K took 6376 ms = 160.6 KB/sec, approx 1323 Kbps, 1.29 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 4968 ms = 206.1 KB/sec, approx 1698 Kbps, 1.66 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 5418 ms = 189 KB/sec, approx 1557 Kbps, 1.52 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 12423 ms = 164.9 KB/sec, approx 1359 Kbps, 1.33 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 1484 Kbps, 1.45 Mbps

Sun, 02 May 2010 20:47:09 GMT

Test 1: 1024K took 9025 ms = 113.5 KB/sec, approx 935 Kbps, 0.91 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 8589 ms = 119.2 KB/sec, approx 982 Kbps, 0.96 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 9209 ms = 111.2 KB/sec, approx 916 Kbps, 0.89 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 10998 ms = 186.2 KB/sec, approx 1534 Kbps, 1.5 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 1092 Kbps, 1.07 Mbps

Sun, 02 May 2010 21:08:09 GMT

Test 1: 1024K took 14167 ms = 72.3 KB/sec, approx 596 Kbps, 0.58 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 13438 ms = 76.2 KB/sec, approx 628 Kbps, 0.61 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 8843 ms = 115.8 KB/sec, approx 954 Kbps, 0.93 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 22486 ms = 91.1 KB/sec, approx 751 Kbps, 0.73 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 732 Kbps, 0.71 Mbps

Various other speed test sites also backed this up.

I can't believe in the year 2010, with all the technology developments every year, and how long NTL/VM have been running cable broadband, that we're unable to receive 10 MB broadband down a fibre optic cable. I wouldn't mind if the speed was as least as quick as our former ADSL service, so there wasn't a drop in our broadband experience, but we're lucky if we can get 1 MB rendering it worse than when there used to be a 2 MB service years ago. Browsing might be acceptable at these speeds, but you can forget about the iPlayer, Xbox Live Marketplace and the PSN Store. We came to VM because of my past experience, so how can the service have gone down hill so much. It's such a shame, a huge disappointment and very frustrating.

[mjpartyboy]

I'm getting really poor speeds in the evening and have had another reply from VM:

I have checked your local router (UBR) and can see that there are periods of high load which will cause your speed to slow. If this load continues to increase this will be passed to our network teams to look at ways to alleviate some of the load.

How can getting 1 MB every night not be a good enough reason to pass this on. I dread to think how much slower it could get "if the load increases." I understand it's advertised as an "up to" service, surely it can't be acceptable going from over 9 MB to 1 MB when it's busy. How can it not be possible to service users with this higher speed at all times of the day on a fibre optic infrastructure. Getting less than 1 MB is as good as not having broadband at all, because it makes a lot of online features unusable.

Please do something with the UBR we're on!

[Chrysalis]

I agree down to 1meg is not acceptable, my understanding is VM arent proactive on capacity, the indication is they will wait until the capacity is flatlined maxed out (not for short periods) and/or when complaints get high enough.

[mjpartyboy]

We've got a whopping 2 MB tonight. I don't know what to do with nearly double the speed than normal!

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:09:03 GMT

Test 1: 1024K took 5574 ms = 183.7 KB/sec, approx 1514 Kbps, 1.48 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 3301 ms = 310.2 KB/sec, approx 2556 Kbps, 2.5 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 3532 ms = 289.9 KB/sec, approx 2389 Kbps, 2.33 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 9889 ms = 207.1 KB/sec, approx 1707 Kbps, 1.67 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 2042 Kbps, 2 Mbps

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/06/30.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

I love our 10 MB broadband. :rolleyes:

[deadman_uk]

That's the sort of speeds I get (in Norfolk) every evening (apart from my upload is half that). I am also on 10MB... not right.

[mjpartyboy]

Awesome:

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:21:24 GMT

Test 1: 1024K took 3053 ms = 335.4 KB/sec, approx 2764 Kbps, 2.7 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 9346 ms = 109.6 KB/sec, approx 903 Kbps, 0.88 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 8975 ms = 114.1 KB/sec, approx 940 Kbps, 0.92 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 18929 ms = 108.2 KB/sec, approx 892 Kbps, 0.87 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 1375 Kbps, 1.34 Mbps

Edit: I wondered why I was lagging in Bad Company 2 whilst the rest of my party wasn't. How did I not think about it being VM's rubbish broadband!