How fast should my speed be?

[dust]

Hi all

I've recently had some friends (who are also on Virgin) appear rather surprised when I've told them how slow my modem speed is these days. I thought it was pretty quick (when it's not being throttled so much that it's nigh-on unusable, a bit like right now while I'm typing this) and the fastest speed I've ever seen it go is downloading things at 1mb a second. It's NEVER gone above that. However, checking my statement, I'm on the "L" package which is supposed to give me downloads of up to 10mb. What gives? Have I somehow been left behind on an old package?

I've checked other posts on this forum and so run disagnostics to come up with this info...

Cable Modem Information
Cable Modem : DOCSIS 1.0/1.1/2.0 Compliant
MAC Address : xxxxxxxxxxx
Serial Number : xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Boot Code Version : 1.1.2c
Software Version : 2.111.1002
Hardware Version : 1.9
Cable Modem Status
Item Status Comments
Acquire a Downstream Channel 402750000 Hz Locked
Connectivity State OK Operational
Boot State OK Operational

Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 0
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5056.941 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 1.4 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 33.3 dB

Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 2
Upstream Frequency : 22200000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 43.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

Cable Modem Upstream Burst
Req
Init Maint
Per Maint
Short Data
Long Data

(1)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)


Modulation Type QPSK QPSK QPSK QPSK QPSK
Differential Encoding Off Off Off Off Off
Preamble Length 64 128 128 100 80
Preamble Value Offset 396 6 6 396 396
FEC Error Correction (T) 0 5 5 3 9
FEC Codeword Information Bytes (k) 16 34 34 78 232
Scrambler Seed 338 338 338 338 338
Maximum Burst Size 0 0 0 35 254
Guard Time Size 8 48 48 25 134
Last Codeword Length Fixed Fixed Fixed Short Short
Scrambler on/off On On On On On

Cable Modem Operation Configuration
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled

Cable Modem Event Log
First Time Last Time Priority Description
Mon Jan 18 21:22:07 2010 Mon Jan 18 21:22:07 2010 Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response
Fri Dec 18 05:49:14 2009 Fri Dec 18 05:49:14 2009 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Mon Dec 14 21:22:06 2009 Mon Dec 14 21:22:06 2009 Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response
Mon Dec 07 17:53:33 2009 Mon Dec 07 17:53:33 2009 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Fri Dec 04 09:22:02 2009 Fri Dec 04 09:22:02 2009 Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response
Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Information (7) locked and synced to rescue CMTS...all is well!
Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Information (7) Locked on the rescue CMTS ds. try to re-acquire ds sync...
Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Tue Nov 24 22:56:36 2009 Information (7) Downstream lock ok
Tue Nov 24 22:56:35 2009 Tue Nov 24 22:56:35 2009 Information (7) Downstream lock failed
Mon Nov 23 21:22:10 2009 Mon Nov 23 21:22:10 2009 Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response
Fri Nov 13 18:35:33 2009 Fri Nov 13 18:35:33 2009 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Fri Nov 13 09:22:01 2009 Fri Nov 13 09:22:01 2009 Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response
Wed Nov 11 00:22:07 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:07 2009 Information (7) The s/w filename specified in the config file is the same as ...
Wed Nov 11 00:22:07 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:07 2009 Information (7) A software upgrade filename was specified in the config file.
Wed Nov 11 00:22:07 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:07 2009 Information (7) Authorized
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) Registration complete!
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) We registered with a DOCSIS 1.0 config file!
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) Received a REG-RSP message from the CMTS...
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) Sending a REG-REQ to the CMTS...
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) CableModem SNMP configure complete
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) IP init completed ok
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) CableModem TFTP init ok
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Information (7) CableModem DHCP client init ok
Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Wed Nov 11 00:22:06 2009 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Beginning initial ranging...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) downstream time sync acquired...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) starting ds time sync acquisition...


It's all gobbledygook to me! Can anyone help? :)

cheers

Darren

[Tony.]

Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000

Your on 10 meg HTH

[broadbandking]

The max download should be around 1200Kb/s, what speed are you getting from gamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk, try downloading four files from the FTP and add up the speeds.

Make sure you haven't gone over your STM limits.

Find the STM limits here http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

[dust]

so, how come I can never get more than a 1mb download speed? :(

[Peter_]

so, how come I can never get more than a 1mb download speed? :(
Click this link and follow the instructions.http://www.virginmedia.com/testmyspeed/manual.php

[dust]

ok, just did that. I got a total download speed from all 4 large files of 300kb/second...

[Peter_]

Sounds like traffic management as that would be around 2.5Mb as per the link that was posted above.

[broadbandking]

ok, just did that. I got a total download speed from all 4 large files of 300kb/second...

Go to www.speedtest.net (http://www.speedtest.net) and post back what your upload speed is and then we will find out if your are STM'd

[dust]

Download = 9.59 mb/s
Upload = 0.43 mb/s

I know I'm definitely getting traffic-managed. Every night at 7pm, it slows right down for a few hours. What bothers me though is, when it's all "normal", I'm still only getting a 1mb/s speed....

[Sephiroth]

Download = 9.59 mb/s
Upload = 0.43 mb/s

I know I'm definitely getting traffic-managed. Every night at 7pm, it slows right down for a few hours. What bothers me though is, when it's all "normal", I'm still only getting a 1mb/s speed....

Nearly 10 Mbps according to the speed test.

Anyway, in the evenings is peak hours and anything can happen to performance as people get busy in your area. You's know if you were capped because your speed would be around 2.5 Mbps most of the time.

[zing_deleted]

10 Mbps = aprox 1MB so perhaps the op is seeing fugures of 1MB just a thought

[dust]

10 Mbps = aprox 1MB so perhaps the op is seeing fugures of 1MB just a thought

Ah, so it's probably me just being thick and reading the not-so-small print a bit wrong? :)

So, can anyone on the "L" package confirm, is 1mb/sec the fastest speed you normally get during normal hours when you're not getting traffic-managed..?

[Ignitionnet]

10 Mbps = aprox 1MB so perhaps the op is seeing fugures of 1MB just a thought

Shush zing let people keep over-analysing this issue. It is I'm quite certain that OP is confusing bits and bytes and got STM'd at some point and the service is just fine though.

---------- Post added at 00:23 ---------- Previous post was at 00:21 ----------

So, can anyone on the "L" package confirm, is 1mb/sec the fastest speed you normally get during normal hours when you're not getting traffic-managed..?

1 - 1.2MB (big B not little b it should say on the download screen) per second is fine.

[danielf]

Just to be clear: 1 byte = 8 bits. 1MB (megabyte, big B) = 8 mb (megabit, little b). Your line speed is 10 mb (bits), but some software reports bytes, so you wouldn't expect it to report more than 1.2 MB. Take away a little for overheads, and you get 1 MB.

[dust]

So, all is normal then. Case closed. :D