Extremely slow (~0.1M) speeds after 9.5M+ previously

[JoelP]

VirginMedia Location: Dudley, West Midlands

Hello all,

I'm currently on the L 10Mb Virgin Media package, and from installation up until around March/April 2011, everything has been pretty much perfect. I have always had full 9.5-10Mb download speeds and maximum upload speeds.

However, since March/April, download has struggled to be any faster than 0.1Mb, which as you can understand is completely unacceptable for a "broadband" package. It's got to the point where I cannot stream any sort of online video, and pages are extremely slow to load. My upload speed remains constant at its maximum 1Mb, and my ping is still the same as before (~15ms).

A couple of speedtests from before problems have been occuring:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/44.png
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/45.png

A couple of speedtests from after problems occuring:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/46.png
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/47.png

I understand VM throttle users on the 10Mb package, however these speeds are constant throughout the day, whether it be 3am, 7am, 5pm, etc. Is there a simple explanation for this, or is anyone else experiencing the same issues? As far as I can work out it must be area specific/Virgin Media's fault rather than any broken equipment here. Is it simply because the area has become overloaded with people on Virgin Media?

Additionally would upgrading to 30Mb or even 50Mb packages guarantee me higher speeds? From what I can see on these forums everyone on the 50Mb package is getting 50Mb (what they paid for).

Many thanks for your time & help, I'm interested to see whether other people are having the same problems before I tackle Virgin on the phone.

Joel Pearson

[7031]

Hmm, that is very strange. I'd suggest problems with contention in your area, but your pings seem to be OK.

Also, with the 30Mbit and 50Mbit packages, in most (but not all) areas they actually run on a different network, so in theory, yes, you could expect to get much better speeds from them, however I cannot guarantee this.

Your best bet really at this point would be to call up Virgin Media's support.

Saying that, seeing your modem's stats wouldn't hurt, although I can't imagine that overnight they would suddenly cause problems.

[qasdfdsaq]

Modem stats?

[Wick3d]

I had the same problem, it took me 2 weeks to sort it out. I had tech come in and he is useless, he was trying to make it out it was my computers fault, I put the idiot in his place. In the end I got the problem fixed quite easily by calling VM and telling them that's it I'm quitting and suddenly I was put through to a department who offered me the best customer services in the world, nice chap as well. :)

All they did was send me a new modem and hey presto my problem was fixed. :)

[JoelP]

Hello again,

Thanks for the replies. I phoned Virgin on Friday and initially they claimed my connection was perfect and that there were no problems at all, and that I should be getting the full 10Mb service. After resetting the modem over the phone etc, the lady set me up a ticket for the experts to have a look and claimed it would be fixed within 5 to 10 hours.

Funnily enough, the next day it had been fixed and I was getting 10M speeds and the connection was once again perfect:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/21.png


I took the opportunity to download Mac OS X Lion, getting the full 10Mb throughout the download (around 4GB). However, as soon as this had finished it was almost as if a flip had been switched and I am now back to 0.1-0.2Mb. It appears Virgin is excessively throttling if a large file is downloaded however I cannot be sure this is the case. What is annoying is it seems to get un-throttled you need to ring customer support?


What's really interesting is my speeds to different servers on speedtest.net:

Manchester:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/22.png

Kingston Upon Hill:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/23.png

Gloucester:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/24.png

Birmingham:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/25.png

The actual speed I am experiencing is the Birmingham speedtest - I cannot stream a 360p YouTube video so I am definitely getting 0.2Mb.



I will be ringing customer support again in the next few days. I am not sure how to provide Modem Stats - if you could let me know how I shall post them here.

Thanks,