Left Virgin 4 years ago...

Qtx · 05-12-2015, 13:59

...and a number of people in these forums said I would get congestion on Sky fibre too after it got more popular. Figured an update is in order.

Not a single day or hour of congestion in the whole time I have been with them...until now. Check out that evil blip at 3:30am this morning!

In all seriousness though, there was a day outage in December 2013 (2 years ago) when copper thieves ransacked an important exchange and took tons of people offline in the process. Another time there was a 6 hour outage which affected the area.

So to summarize, 4 years of service, 1.3 days down time, no congestion at all, always hit the full download speed, latency has stayed rock bottom and there has never been any jitter issues.

So glad I moved from the horrible Virgin Media broadband which constantly had congestion problems over many years. Also glad the nay-sayers who said I would get congestion on Sky Fibre were wrong

Although it's refreshing not having the stress of bad broadband, I would like to try Andrews and Arnold out as an ISP but wish they were a bit cheaper. My extremely bad VM broadband experience has permanently made me worried about switching provider from one that just works flawlessly day after day though. Scarred for life

So how many of you VM customers who were not suffering before, have suffered their congestion since I left for broadband bliss?

Mick Fisher · 05-12-2015, 17:46

I think I may have left VM for Sky Fibre at around the same time as you.

I am happy to report that I have had absolutely no issues with the service at all.

Yeah it's maybe a little expensive and the supplied Hub is pretty naff but all in all comparing it to the unreliable, congested and traffic managed VM service is like comparing Dell boy's 3 wheeler with a Rolls.

The best move I ever made for sure.

**Hugh** · 05-12-2015, 18:06

Pleased that you have had reliable service.

Sorry to tell you I am not suffering from congestion - oh, occasionally my 200Mb/s drops to 170/180 or so, but I can live with that...

denphone · 05-12-2015, 18:22

Apart from one or two issues in these last 10 years we are perfectly happy with our service and have no intention of jumping from the frying pan into the fire with our broadband.

Stephen · 05-12-2015, 19:07

In 12 years as an NTL/VM customer I have only had a total of 3 days loss of service and my 150Mb connection rarely drops below 154Mb.

adzii_nufc · 05-12-2015, 22:15

I had an absolute nightmare with Sky Fibre and downtime (Speeds were really good though)

Virgin I had from 2mbit to 152mbit over the years and had downtime hours/day but nothing as serious as the trouble I had trying to get Sky Fibre in. Some things just weren't meant to be

I don't think I was ever throttled on Virgin either although I think where I lived played a big part in that, so much that I had an entire cabinet to myself. Was never throttled on Sky either though.

So it works both ways to be fair. Both products do what they're meant to do for the majority. Bound to get complaints for either.

qasdfdsaq · 06-12-2015, 20:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

Sorry to tell you I am not suffering from congestion - oh, occasionally my 200Mb/s drops to 170/180 or so, but I can live with that...

So you are getting congestion, but not "suffering" enough for it to count?

craigj2k12 · 30-12-2015, 18:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

So you are getting congestion, but not "suffering" enough for it to count?

and im sure his tbb graph mirrors Qtx's one above

**Hugh** · 30-12-2015, 18:42

Speaking of latency, took you a while to respond to that...

I have more latency than qtx, but I really haven't got any tosses to give about it - I don't suffer from latency-envy.

I really don't understand the ISP flame-wars that some people like to take part in - it's like the silly Star Trek vs Star Wars fanboi disputes that seeme to be based on the false assumption if you don't like the same as someone, there's something wrong with you.

I am pleased that qtx is happy with his service/supplier, and would hope that is reciprocal.

btw, my speeds returned to consistent 200+Mb/s.

pip08456 · 30-12-2015, 21:25

At the end of the days it depends on what you are using your connection for.

Gamers would love qtx's connection whereas Hugh most likely doesn't do gaming and is happy with the speed and latency.

Horses for courses.

tweedle · 31-12-2015, 00:46

when do you ever need 200mb? Give me examples of when you actually need 200mb?

I know what my internet download speed is, I know how many people live in my house. I know what our connection is used for. I cannot think of 1 time our connection was so maxed out it was unusable.

So 200mb users, what do you need 200mb for?

qasdfdsaq · 31-12-2015, 07:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by pip08456

At the end of the days it depends on what you are using your connection for.

Gamers would love qtx's connection whereas Hugh most likely doesn't do gaming and is happy with the speed and latency.

Horses for courses.

Hugh is a horse and VM is a course?

Or is it the other way round

I'm confused

alferret · 31-12-2015, 18:34

Been with cabled services since Diamond cable in 98/99 and for the last 8 years I've had about 4 days downtime and pretty much zero congestion. 24/7 stability with VM is a blessing.

Pierre · 01-01-2016, 07:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by tweedle

when do you ever need 200mb? Give me examples of when you actually need 200mb?

Why should anyone, who are you the internet speed police?

hedgie · 20-01-2016, 10:09

Well I have had cable since the late 90's with Nynex. When the NTL/VM Broadband started it was good an dhas always been faster than anything else.

Right now though I think speeds are getting to a point where faster doesn't matter anymore but congestion and latency does.

We have a household of six including three teenagers and one nearly teenager, latency = bad gaming = grief for parents.

The last six months with VM have been truly awfull, cataclysmically bad with peak time, which I mean anything from 15:00 to 23:30 , service on my 152Mb connection chugging along at between 2 and 10 Mb. its so slow at times it might as well not be there.

I don't want 200Mb, I just want a fast reliable connection. After constant loyalty to the cable fold I am very close to changing to BT as we can get Infinity 2 and I am confident a stable 75Mb connection will suit our needs better than the peaky unreliable service I have today.

Working from home today and now, when there is no one else around, the connection bumbles along at between 145Mb and 160Mb. Just wish it was 100Mb 24/7
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...0-01-2016.html