Virgin Media XL With XBOX 360

[GGoose]

Hi guys,

I need some help with my 360 setup, i recently upgraded to the 20mb XL Virgin Media broadband package, but I still experience really bad lagging in games online, usually in those games its only me who is having the lag issues.

When i run tests with speedtest.net i get around 17mb d/l and around 700kbps u/l so i cant understand why this is happening.

I thought it might have been the modem (200 Model) as it was quite old, so VM sent me a new 256 model, but if anything its made the problem worst.

Just wondering if there is a better modem on the market that i could purchase which would perform better than the ones VM supply, and also if there is anything else i can do to optimise my broadband speed?

With regards to hosting games, i cant host anything above 8 players, or everyone will get horrendous lag, yet other hosts online with less than half of the broadband speed i have can host 14 player games without a hitch, can anyone explain why that is, and anything i can do to host larger capacity rooms?

Thanks guys for reading, and any help you can give would be gladly appreciated.

[webcrawler2050]

Hey there

Welcome to CF..

With regards to your problem, tis*can* be sometimes caused byt the server where the game is on.. i.e not at your end.. lag can be caused by a misconfiguration in a router / setting / friewall!

[GGoose]

Thanks for the quick reply, im pretty sure it is me who is lagging and not the host, just because usually im the only person in the room who experiences the lagg.

Is there any way to access those settings you mention and optimize my cable modem speed?

[webcrawler2050]

Well do you have a router / cable or wireless on your VM box...

If so have a play with the firewall settings etc..

if you are on wireless do you have a good signal on the 360?

[Tezcatlipoca]

You can't go out & buy another modem - you have to use what Virgin supply you with.

How do you connect the 360 to the internet?

Do you use a router?

[mcmanic]

xbox Live is P2P service, its bad enough we have to pay for something that we host ourselves and normally lag is on the host end regardless of what the other guy says

[GGoose]

I connect directly to the xbox 360 via ethernet cable, no wireless.

You are correct about the peer 2 peer service, but i still dont understand why with such fast speeds im only able to host 8 player rooms, when people with much slower net speeds can host 14 with little to no lagg.

Seems like a buffering problem handling many connections, is there some kind of RAM contained in these cable modems tha could be casuing the issue?

[frogstamper]

Hi GGoose I too am a fan of xbox live and like yourself connect my xbox direct to my ethernet cable I have the ambit 255 modem and the 4mb speed and dont experience the problems you seem to be having, its baffling!! With a 20mb connection and VMs most up-to-date modem you should be able to host any game. If I were you Id call out an engineer, let them sort it.

[AmAtoL]

Just as an aside, my son is uasually on his 360 upstairs online somewhere, my other son is on the net generally doing stuff (not downloading) and I can be on a game server using the downstairs PC. Now, if all this is going on, which shouldn't be any trouble for the 20 meg package you would have thought, then the lag and loss is horrendous. I just can't imagine how anybody can actually host games, if I suffer terribly just doing this.
We are all wired through a D-Link DIR 655 router.
Roll on 50 meg (he said optimistically).

To get back to your point, I think it is the VM network :P

[webcrawler2050]

Its probably your upstream, online gaming requires a good up stream & downstream doesn't always make a difference!

[GGoose]

Its probably your upstream, online gaming requires a good up stream & downstream doesn't always make a difference!

Upstream is usually around 700kbps on my PC,which should be ample for gaming?

I have added a new ethernet cable between the xbox and the modem, it seems to have made a slight improvement, need to run a few more tests though.

Also spent an hour on the phone to Xbox technical support, and another 15 mins with Virgin technical support.
Virgin blamed Xbox, Xbox blamed the game developers,
so they (Ubisoft) will be my next port of call on Monday when their tech support lines open.
Although i still feel as though there is an issue with the broadband/modem, maybe its a compatability issue.

Would be nice if the xbox 360 had some kind of speedtest so i could verify what connection speed my xbox was receiving.

Thanks for the input guys.

[Hatchet]

It depends what area your in I guess, some people have no complaints while others have alot of complaints, at the moment speed tests are showing me to have 3mb download and 700 k upload. Done all the usually checks of plugging one computer straight into the modem with same results. Although you in your top post said 17 mb down and 700 up this seems more than enough for gaming but there is one more thing that does not usually show up normal speed tests. Packet loss! I would say this is one of the biggest problems you could have in online gaming as it causes information being sent by you or the server to be lost which causes lag/warping/disconnects/bullets dispearing (on fps's). To check this you could try pinging the server manys times pr even just a website to check if your getting package loss. The command I usually run in windows cmd , dos thingy is : ping -n 50 www.bbcnews.co.uk

you can change the website to something different or even server ip I think, this will ping the server 50 times and will tell you if any of them have been lost and give you percentage at the bottom ;)

[AmAtoL]

Aye Hatchet, that is exactly what happens, it can do it on servers with a good ping too ie. sub 20.
Only last night I was saying on comms that my bullets weren't working at all, I could use a full clip (40) to take down an enemy, it could in theory take 3 shots. That is down to the connection not my aim, and it is the Devils own job to actually prove this to the satisfaction of VM.
I'm in fact tired now of stating this occurrence.
I hope 50 meg is better.

[GGoose]

Just ran that test Hachet, said 50 packets had been sent and 50 recieved. None lost.

Im really starting to think its some form of compatability issue with the modem and the xbox, i mean all the broadband tests i do on my PC seem A1 perfect, yet as soon as i log in with the xbox, it all goes to ****!

[AmAtoL]

Yeah GGoose, that is what happens, read my post again, I can play for 2 hours and only have a decent connection for half that, yet all the ping tests say it is ok.
It is not ok, and unless you game you will never appreciate how dodgy the connection is some times. Pingplotter highlights the poor servers, and they are all NTL.


Yawn

[GGoose]

Yeah GGoose, that is what happens, read my post again, I can play for 2 hours and only have a decent connection for half that, yet all the ping tests say it is ok.
It is not ok, and unless you game you will never appreciate how dodgy the connection is some times. Pingplotter highlights the poor servers, and they are all NTL.


Yawn

Yes pherhaps there is a few things going wrong,
because there is a very noticable difference in the type of lagg and errors i get between the 2 modems.

Pherhaps one of them just deals with the errors better than the other, in any case ill be contacting the game developers tomorrow in search or some more answers, if they have a solution ill be cancelling my contract with VM.

No point paying £37 for a service like this, if indeed VM are to blame.

Can anyone recommend any other reliable broadband providers that offer unlimited bandwidth and a decent upload rate?

[Hatchet]

Did you just ping the same website though? Your best pinging the the server you actually play on as routing to that place/country may be bad. Maybe you could even try a tracert to the server?

[British1983]

For the longest time, I have wondered why I have bad connections with people on Xbox live, and hosting games, I have 20MB virgin media package, with a DIRECT Connection to the xbox 360,

I found that I couldnt be in a party more than 4 people, and if i talked on the headset nobody could hear me or it would cause the game to lag or for me to be disconnected from the game.

If i switched the connection to my pc and did a speed test I would see that im connected at average download of 18-19mb/s and an upload of 700kbps, i couldnt figure out the problem but yesterday I found this information which you can find here... it also has pictures of what the cables look like..

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/support/xbox/connect/faq/default.htm

"What kind of cable should I use to connect my Xbox to my broadband modem? Ethernet, network cables (straight-through), or crossover cables. What's the difference?

Normally, we recommend using a Category 5 (Cat 5) straight-through Ethernet cable to connect your Xbox directly to your modem (Category 6 will not work).

Most broadband modems on the market use a standard straight-through connection. However, some broadband modems have crossover connections, meaning you need a crossover cable. (The Xbox System Link cable is a crossover cable.)

Crossover and straight-through cables are both RJ-45 network cables. It can be difficult to tell the difference between a standard straight-through Ethernet cable and a crossover cable since they look virtually identical from the outside and neither cable is always clearly marked.

The easiest way to tell the difference between a crossover cable and a straight-through cable is to hold both ends of the cable with both ends facing up (copper connectors showing) and look at the order (left to right), of the coloured wires in the clear plastic connectors. A standard "straight through" Ethernet cable will have the wires in exactly the same order at both ends. In a crossover cable, the order of the coloured wires is different on each end."

So what i found is that Xbox 360 uses a "Crossover cable" and my PC-> modem cable is a "Straight-through" connection cable. So I used the straight through ethernet cable, and it fixed all my problems, i was able to talk in a 6 player party and everyone could hear me clearly, i have not tried to host any games but i imagine that it would be the same.

If this is correct, the xbox's ethernet cable doesnt work properly with virgin media's modem, so if you think you got connection and online gameplay issues, please can you try this method and post any improvements here.

GGoose - Try to use the ethernet cable you use to connect your modem to your PC, and use it to connect to your xbox 360 and post your findings

[mcmanic]

whats worse is when you have and pay for 20meg and your the host yet due to naff caps and STm's it can really hamper the whole expericence. Also PS3 users who use VM have really bad download speeds, me included. TBH i think VM is slowly going down the plug hole and all VM want you to do is browse the internet. Its getting to be not much better than dialup and tripple the costs

[GGoose]

For the longest time, I have wondered why I have bad connections with people on Xbox live, and hosting games, I have 20MB virgin media package, with a DIRECT Connection to the xbox 360,

I found that I couldnt be in a party more than 4 people, and if i talked on the headset nobody could hear me or it would cause the game to lag or for me to be disconnected from the game.

If i switched the connection to my pc and did a speed test I would see that im connected at average download of 18-19mb/s and an upload of 700kbps, i couldnt figure out the problem but yesterday I found this information which you can find here... it also has pictures of what the cables look like..

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/support/xbox/connect/faq/default.htm

"What kind of cable should I use to connect my Xbox to my broadband modem? Ethernet, network cables (straight-through), or crossover cables. What's the difference?

Normally, we recommend using a Category 5 (Cat 5) straight-through Ethernet cable to connect your Xbox directly to your modem (Category 6 will not work).

Most broadband modems on the market use a standard straight-through connection. However, some broadband modems have crossover connections, meaning you need a crossover cable. (The Xbox System Link cable is a crossover cable.)

Crossover and straight-through cables are both RJ-45 network cables. It can be difficult to tell the difference between a standard straight-through Ethernet cable and a crossover cable since they look virtually identical from the outside and neither cable is always clearly marked.

The easiest way to tell the difference between a crossover cable and a straight-through cable is to hold both ends of the cable with both ends facing up (copper connectors showing) and look at the order (left to right), of the coloured wires in the clear plastic connectors. A standard "straight through" Ethernet cable will have the wires in exactly the same order at both ends. In a crossover cable, the order of the coloured wires is different on each end."

So what i found is that Xbox 360 uses a "Crossover cable" and my PC-> modem cable is a "Straight-through" connection cable. So I used the straight through ethernet cable, and it fixed all my problems, i was able to talk in a 6 player party and everyone could hear me clearly, i have not tried to host any games but i imagine that it would be the same.

If this is correct, the xbox's ethernet cable doesnt work properly with virgin media's modem, so if you think you got connection and online gameplay issues, please can you try this method and post any improvements here.

GGoose - Try to use the ethernet cable you use to connect your modem to your PC, and use it to connect to your xbox 360 and post your findings

Well when i was having the problems, i tried many different ethernet cables, i also tried going through a wireless router using it as a bridge, no joy though.

Anyhow i have solved my problem, i switched to BE Broadband and i can now host 14 player rooms without a single problem, basically some games on the 360 are more bandwidth hungry than others, and so the 700kb upload you get with 20mb VM service just wasnt enough.

I now get 1.5 mb upload with BE and it operates much smoother, people can hear me in the rooms and its a lot more stable when im hosting.

I will still consider switching back to Virgin once the 50mb service is live, but the upload will have to be at least 2mb or it wont be worth changing back.

So the moral of the story is if you want to solve online gaming problems, ensure you have a healthy upload speed, 700kb will be ok for some games, not all, especially a lot of the new ones coming out.

[xShaDowZz]

i HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM WTH MY vIRGIN MEDIA CONNECTION.
At first i thought it was my Router so i bought a new one that cost me over £100, this made no difference at all then my m8 told me to buy the same router as him which was a Belkin wireless g plus around £50 this does the same thing as my other router.
Everytimei do my connection tests i get amazing speeds 19mb Download and 730kb Upload which is great for gaming.
I had BT before and they gave me 350kb upload and i could host 4v4 and mre up to 12 player games.
Virgin wont let me host on Gears or any other game. Connection interupted as soon as some1 joins or something. Its really annoying me as im paying a lot for this service and im not getting what i was hoping to get out of it.
I tried doing the cable thing that some1 suggested, that worked fine for a while then went back to how it we b4 when people joined i got connection interupted.

If any1 knows what i should do or who to call or something that i could do to fix this problem.

[powercool]

don't worry i am on ps3 it does exactly the same thing the connection is great if i join a game but if i host (cod4) a game more than 8 people at the time,it just lags and stop the game.
i am on 20 meg xl package.that s for sure not the router because even if i use the ethernet cable from the cable modem it does the same thing .
before that i was with orange 8 meg had no issues online playing.

[Bonglet]

It does it on pc gaming too vm's network with the profiling kit in place is the pits atm all those random redirects for file sharers and gamers every game i play nowadays is usually terrible 20mb isnt even a gaming connection anymore strange how back in the day even of 2mb it wasnt this bad or NOTICABLE.

[xShaDowZz]

All of this leads me to think that there is something wrong with the Virgin end of the Deal and Possibly the Virgin Modem itself cant handel the packets of info being sent by consoles.

[GGoose]

I swicthed over to Be Broadband around 4 months back,
i opted for their fastest service which promised a 2.5 mb upload speed,
as the upload is supposed to be the critical number for hosting games.

So once i was all setup with Be Broadband it turned out that the fastest speed they could give me was 1.4 mb upload, and this was due to my distance from the exchange.

Anyhow, i can host perfectly now with Be Broadband, 1.4 mb upload.
I have thier "Unlimited" service.

There have been talks for quite some time that Virgin would be introducing 50mb broadband, that would also have a chunky uipload speed as well, ill give them another try when it does, but for xbox gaming, id avoid the 20mb service of VM.

[powercool]

it s not about virgin upload because we are on 765 kb,i was with orange before which was 400 kb upload and i could host with no issues it is just virgin itself i guess i really hope they can sort it out.
regards

[blade85]

Its probably your upstream, online gaming requires a good up stream & downstream doesn't always make a difference!

i disagree...im on the 4 meg connection (has a 380 something kb upload)

and i never get any lag on my games (PS3..using wireless with a 40% reception and my gaming PC..connected directly through the wireless router) even when myself and my brother are playing on both systems at the same time.

im really not sure what the issue might be unfortunately :confused::confused:

the only thing i can think of is that u might be connecting to american/jap/ausy servers..so the high pings will cause u to lag.

---------- Post added at 14:19 ---------- Previous post was at 14:15 ----------

also, have u referred to this thread?

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33634283-my-virgin-media-20mb-connection-problems.html

[powercool]

are you on virgin media too?? what version of your cable modem have you got?

[73arm3]

Im struggling like hell on xbox live tonight...and its the night I have recieved my 4mb to 10mb upgrade...I dont understand it, 4mb was fine..no lag, games ran smooth...tonight before/after the upgrade, I cant play nothing on live without faults.

Euro2008 laggin like hell in 30 seconds intervals..
texas holdem...no matter what (unless I quit table)..I finish 8th?

[TTD187]

Hello, your problem isn't your router, it's not the host of the games, it's not the server the games are running on, it is simply Virgin Media.

I used to have the 10MB package, I payed £25 each month, I got less than 1MB when I tested my connection, I know numerous people on XBL with virgin and most of them have lag issues with lag.

Both of my friends can't play Bad Company 2 which ****es me off and one is so ignorant, he's always saying "Trust me, it's not my internet" even though it's quite obvious.

I suggest switching to sky, I get 20MB D/L speed for between £10-15 plus I think the phone is free (+ Line Rental). I never have lag and I'm running my Xbox with a single pronged wireless adapter.

Virgin is just terrible, they are a disgrace, if you're ever approached by a Virgin employee, don't walk away, just tell them how disgraced you are with their dispicable "connection."

[pip08456]

Hello, your problem isn't your router, it's not the host of the games, it's not the server the games are running on, it is simply Virgin Media.

I used to have the 10MB package, I payed £25 each month, I got less than 1MB when I tested my connection, I know numerous people on XBL with virgin and most of them have lag issues with lag.

Both of my friends can't play Bad Company 2 which ****es me off and one is so ignorant, he's always saying "Trust me, it's not my internet" even though it's quite obvious.

I suggest switching to sky, I get 20MB D/L speed for between £10-15 plus I think the phone is free (+ Line Rental). I never have lag and I'm running my Xbox with a single pronged wireless adapter.

Virgin is just terrible, they are a disgrace, if you're ever approached by a Virgin employee, don't walk away, just tell them how disgraced you are with their dispicable "connection."

You dorealise you are answering a 2 year old thread?

[qasdfdsaq]

And the OP doesn't even use this forum anymore...

[pip08456]

And the OP doesn't even use this forum anymore...

That as well!