Intermittent connection issues

[Lumb]

Location: Kent
Service: 20mb

Hi all,

I've been suffering from intermittent connection loss for about a month now on my Virgin Media internet service. What usually happens is, everything will be fine and then out of nowhere the connection will drop for maybe 10 seconds or less. Usually this isn't noticable, but it is when gaming and i've confirmed it by pinging bbc.co.uk for an unlimited amount of time, noting numerous "request timed out" messages throughout the vast sea of replys. Sometimes i'll get maybe 5 request timed outs in a row, sometimes only 1 every so often and then sometimes it will completely cut off for 10 minutes.

Oddly enough, it can go up to 2 days at a time without problems, and then will cut off at least once every 5 minutes for an entire day.

Note: I have called tech support on multiple occasions, generally they seem to be as helpful as possible but the problem is yet to be identified. I have tried going directly through the modem to my laptop as they suggest, and the problem still persists.

I am on a 20mb connection, downgraded from 50 recently because we weren't happy with the service. One thing to mention is that they seem to have isolated a problem where my modem was not responding correctly from the downgrade which would explain the loss of service, however the problem started long before I upgraded to 50mb. They are sending a replacement modem out which should arrive on wednesday and then have said we can go from there.

Any other insight would be appreciated,

Thanks

[ro53ben]

When your area gets upgraded to 50meg, they install DOCSIS3 kit. This is used for new 50meg customers and, after a few weeks, for 20meg customers.

So whether you go 50meg or not, you end up on the new DOCSIS3 kit if you are on the 20meg service.

Did your problems start around the time of the 50meg upgrade?

[Lumb]

Nope, prior to the 50meg upgrade. I actually thought I may aswell try and hit 2 birds with 1 stone, and maybe a 50meg upgrade would fix the problems I was having aswell as giving me faster speeds.

Unfortunately it didn't, and we decided to downgrade again to 20mb for various reasons.

[ro53ben]

I read what you posted originally.

I'm talking about when your area was upgraded to 50meg, NOT when you personally got 50meg.

[Lumb]

Oh, I see. Sorry. I wouldn't actually know how to check when my area was upgraded specifically, any ideas?

[ro53ben]

This thread might help:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33644902-50mb-areas.html

[Lumb]

Looking at that thread it seems possible that my connection issues coincided with when my area was upgraded, yep.

[Lumb]

Still happening. I've noticed something odd though. I'll be pinging bbc.co.uk whilst on skype with a friend, then I see it start timing out and he can no longer hear me - yet I can still hear him saying "Hello?" "Are you there?" etc, until it completely goes off.

Could this be some sort of throttling?

[Lumb]

Still happening, an engineer has been round my house to check the signal levels and we even replaced the modem - yet the problem still persists. I have also replaced the router with a brand new Belkin. Someone advised me to do a test on this website which might help my find out what's going on:

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2542524

Does this mean anything?