10mbit Trial (From 4mbit)

[EdwardTobia]

As the tital says, Virgin have offered me a free 1month trial of the 10mbit service.

They told me that the service would be active within 20minutes. Now its been 2days and my connection is still stuck at 4mbit, but i see that my upload speed has increased to 512kbps?

I have called them twice and each time they tried telling me i had spyware on my system, which i dont because i always maintain my systems.

I just got off the phone to one of the guys and he told me to try a proxy server which he provided me with, now im getting around 5.5mbit to 6mbit...but still not 10mbit, plus i shouldnt have to manually use a proxy...they are not helpful at all so im coming to you guys for help...

What can i do to try get my 10meg speeds?
Atm the modem is connected via USB, could this be the problem? Would ethernet increase the speed?

Thanks.

[morrk]

Yes it certainly would. As far as I remember usb caps speeds at around the 5 meg mark.

[Hex]

You would be best using Ethernet if you have a spare port on your computer, USB does tend to cause a bottleneck, hence slow the connection down.

[dannyoneill]

USB also eats processor power, ethernet all the way, a card will only set you back a couple of quid from ebuyer.com

[Nikesh]

USB is not capable of 10Mb, you need to plug it in by ethernet if you want to achieve them speeds.

[Bill C]

Dump the usb connection simple as that. You will NEVER achieve 10 meg if you are on USB.

[rossco555]

Is it possibly caused by your modem? I've recently upgraded from 4 to 10 meg, and can't get above 5.5 meg using ethernet on an NTL/Ambit Home 100 SACM, whatever time of day. Leaving it to settle down for a couple of days, but will chase up if no improvement.
Rossco

[Web-Junkie]

USB is not capable of 10Mb, you need to plug it in by ethernet if you want to achieve them speeds.

What about Hi-Speed USB @ 480 Mbps :) I think what you mean is the USB interface on the modem is probably the older obsolete 1.1 USB interface and not able to cope with 10 Mbps, even if your PC has Hi Speed USB ports!

[goughy000]

maplin do a cheap ethernet card too for under a fiver when i got one for a friend

www.maplin.co.uk

[Druchii]

Is it possibly caused by your modem? I've recently upgraded from 4 to 10 meg, and can't get above 5.5 meg using ethernet on an NTL/Ambit Home 100 SACM, whatever time of day. Leaving it to settle down for a couple of days, but will chase up if no improvement.
Rossco
The NTL:100's are reported to fall down when trying to do 10mb/s i'd ring and try for a new modem... Without it costing you.

[rossco555]

I rang 0800 052 9403 which was Customer service in Wearside to get upgraded......would I use the same number for a modem change, or is there a number for Technical please?
Rossco

[Nikesh]

What about Hi-Speed USB @ 480 Mbps :) I think what you mean is the USB interface on the modem is probably the older obsolete 1.1 USB interface and not able to cope with 10 Mbps, even if your PC has Hi Speed USB ports!

Yeah, that's what I meant... ;) :p:

[EdwardTobia]

The modem i currently have is an NTL:100...

I now am getting the 10mbit speeds via ethernet cable...but now my networked systems are not getting any internet...i am using a 10/100mbit 8 port switching hub...
Only 1 system can establish a connection at a time for some reason, i think it could be due to IP and DNS configuration....

The setup used to work on this setup:
Modem installed on PC1 and connected via USB
PC1 connects to switching hub via ethernet
PC2 connects to switching hub via ethernet
Internet connection sharing worked

This is how my network setup works because i do not have an extra ethernet card to create the same type of setup as above:

Modem connects directly to 8 port switching hub via ethernet
PC1 connects to switching hub via ethernet
PC2 connects to switching hub via ethernet
Now sharing does not work, only 1 system can access the modem at a time
only 1 pc can establish a connection at a time though, the other system will say limited/no connection available, i tried setting both systems to use the same IP but an error come up sayin IP conflict and it wouldnt work....

How can i get my internet connection sharing working again?

Thanks

[Hex]

A hub is not an ideal solution when connecting multiple machines to the modem, you'd be better off with a router.

[EdwardTobia]

yea i will most likely purchase a router tomorrow afternoon, would that fix my problem though?

I could share it through the hub only if the modem connection showed in the My Network Places folder when connected by ethernet, it only shows in that folder when connected by USB....

[hclark]

Absolutely.

1) All of the devices connected to a hub must have a different IP address.
2)The modem expects to have exactly one device connected to it.

So by connecting several, the modem gets very confused as to which one its the "host" machine.
The router provides this. Its WAN connection to the modem has exactly one host in it, so the modem is happy.
The LAN connections (there's usually 4, but you could cascade that hub on one of the connections) are all connected to a special host in the router that announces itself as a "default gateway". This means each PC gets told that that is the only way to the Internet.

IMPORTANT POINTS:
1) Enable "Obtain an IP address automatically" for all the PCs. The router will do this for you.
2) If the router supports "MAC Address cloning", enable it from the PC that used to plug straight into the modem. Then you won't have to re-register on the modem.
3) Read the Friendly Manual for the router ;)

[EdwardTobia]

bought and installed the router, took a while to get it configured, it kept assigning the wrong IPs but now all is good...everything seems perfect now thanks ppl.

Regards,
Edward Tobia