Hemel Poor speed in evenings [Archive]

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Chalky

14-03-2012, 08:54

For the last couple of weeks, my download speed has been quite terrible for a 10M connection. Sometimes my upload beats my download on speedtest.net. I have not changed anything on my end, but I have noticed a degradation in the speed. I seem to average out around 2MB.
I have what I presume is the normal cable modem (not a superhub) and this goes into my Cisco router. My PC is using a ethernet connection to the router. The routers wireless is on, but filtered by MAC address. I know for certain that the wireless devices in the house are off and not using the connection. So that rules out anyone stealing my wireless.

I have done the usual checks each time.
Reboot modem \ reboot router \ run AV & malware scan.
I tired the "reset your TCP/ip using netsh"
It seems that nothing is working.

Now I would understand the speed drop IF I had been downloading a massive game patch or something and then I had been throttled. However, I get this reduced service from the start. Downloading a massive patch or streaming iPlayer or using the VirginMedia player is just not feasible. I don't use P2P networks, or have any of those clients installed on my PC.
I also did that check your powerlevel thing and according to the very useful sticky. They are reporting as normal.

So is this normal? Do I happen to live in a congested area all of a sudden?
Is this reduced service because work is going on in Hemel Hempstead for the upgrade?

Either way it's poor timing for Virgin for me. I've stuck with them for many years and raved about their broadband to my family and friends, but now they are letting me down. :(

My neighbour has moved onto BT Infinity and gets an easy 33MB. It certainly is tempting. Plus, I could switch over to SKY and watch the only sport I like, F1. What did I get off Virgin? A £3.50 monthly hike on my bills and a poor broadband speed with the offer of spending another £22.50 a month for watching F1! BTW - They sent me a nice letter stating what a great service I get for my £3.50 hike, but I'm not impressed.
In 2 days time I can see on the BT website how much BT Infinity will cost me and I may even look at ditching the whole TV / Phone thing to and pulling in SKY for those services. I don't mind paying a tiny bit more. Just no point paying for something that you can't use.

Sorry for the long rant. I hope someone has some useful information. If nothing changes I'll be calling up VM next week.

rmwebs

14-03-2012, 09:11

I'm in St Albans and we come through the Hemel lines, and have no issues here. I'd go as far to say that Hemel and St Albans get one of the best connections in the country as mine is always at top speed.

Can you long into the modem and post your upstream and downstream info as its likely a power issue. VM will be able to fix it by either increasing or decreasing the signal strength from the cabinet to your property.

Also with regards to BT's 33mb, dont forget that you'll be getting a speed increase within the next month or two (for the St Albans/Hemel area) that'll take you up to 20meg for free, and trust me - cable is a hell of a lot more stable than anything that comes down a phoneline!

Chalky

14-03-2012, 09:19

I shall post them up later tonight, but when I checked http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/26006-cable-modem-signal-levels.html they seemed to be within the correct levels.

Chalky

14-03-2012, 16:47

I got home early just to check and I'm getting 9.6Mbps down. So working ok at the quiet hours. Just need to check again near peak time around 8pm when I normally use it. Can't be an issue with my setup.

nodrogd

14-03-2012, 19:05

I'm in Hemel. No probs herehttps://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2012/03/31.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Have you tried plugging the modem directly into the PC. This would eliminate the router as the problem.

Igni's parameters sticky above is a bit dated now. A more comprehensive guide can be found on Virgin's community forum (http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Fibre-optic-broadband-cable/POWER-LEVELS-amp-SNR-A-TECHNICAL-PRIMER/td-p/148068). It's a bit more techy, but easy enough to sift through and find what you need to know.

Chalky

15-03-2012, 10:08

Have you tried plugging the modem directly into the PC. This would eliminate the router as the problem.

Well I eliminated the router as a problem when I tested the speed yesterday at "Non-peak" hours at 16:30. Perfectly fine 9.6Mbps.
I had around 5Mbps at 22:30 last night too, that although is around 50% I can still do what I need to do without noticing too much. This is a massive improvement over the previous week where, like I said, I managed to report higher upload speed than download.

It's the frustrating thing about broadband. I've just proved that my poor service was not my setup, but most likely congestion. But, by the time you've gone through all the usual checks it returns back to normal. Hard to prove really to VM that you've got poor service, other than to moan and complain to someone and I hate doing that. In comparison if you were on a train and it ran late at least the train company have a record of it and they can issue a refund or credit for a poor service. Broadband ISPs can sort of get away with it a bit.

I guess, I'll have to keep monitoring and logging it. Like I said in my first post, I'm evaluating the "value" out of my current package at the moment. If I can't use the service I pay for when I need it, then I need to look at what else is on offer, or see if VM can re-adjust my package.

Thank you for all your assistance and I'll check out that link too on the Virgin Community site.

captainwebb

15-03-2012, 11:00

I'm suffering the same problems (in St Albans) as Chalky. I spoke to support, who couldn't find anything wrong except some engineering log of dropouts at the street cabinet in the evening. An engineer came out yesterday afternoon, when service was ~100%. He checked my hub and cable connections, no problems. He relocated my cable to the cabinet. Everything was fine when he left. Around 7 pm, I found download had dropped off to 30%, and continued between ~20% and ~35% until almost midnight, when it went back to nominal.

Currently, it's OK, but I'm about to call support again to report that yesterday's intervention didn't cure the problem. If anything emerges, I'll post again.

Chalky

15-03-2012, 15:25

What Broadband speed are you captainwebb? Are you on either 10MB or 20MB?
I'm only asking as in this thread http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33686049-speed-in-al7-page-2.html the poster was experiencing the same on the 20MB service that was on DOCSIS 1.x. Then once they went up to a superhub they moved to DOCSIS 3 and the problems went away.
Maybe this is what I am experiencing. Too many people in Hemel and St. Albans on the DOCSIS 1.x causing conjestion in the evenings?

captainwebb

15-03-2012, 16:13

I'm on 10Mb. I have the VMDG280 Hub, not superhub; it was put in when my old VM modem went belly-up, and has been running really well until recently. I asked the engineer yesterday if there had been any local new sign-ups to cause congestion, but he said no.

I'm not sure about DOCSIS status - how / where do I identify it?

BTW, I did call support around midday - got India, which was worse than useless. I explained the problem had been reported, suggested he read the log. After a few minutes silence, he said "try contacting us when the problem is there".

Chalky

15-03-2012, 16:21

From what I can gather from reading these forums and from the modem config page, it should state for the 10MB modems that you are using DOCSIS 1.x.
DOCSIS 3 is required for the faster 30MB (Superhub) and upwards. Therefore the user in the other thread resolved their congestion issue when they were migrated effectively off the DOCSIS 1.x (20MB service) and onto the DOCSIS 3 (30MB Service). It's a theory anyway. Maybe coincidental, but then I'm no expert.

captainwebb

15-03-2012, 16:40

Thanks. If I ever get through to someone knowledgeable, I'll ask about DOCSIS as possible cause.

captainwebb

16-03-2012, 10:33

Had a conversation with very pleasant lady, Rita, last night while download was at 3 - 5 Mb. She ran a Rescue session, but didn't find anything specific. She concluded that the Hub must be faulty, and ordered me a new one.

I remain to be convinced; I watched the Rescue session carefully, and didn't see any test which identified the actual rate of data delivery. The tests seemed to be based on the wireless aspects of the kit, and since the wifi wasn't in use ...

I'll await the new box with interest, and I'll post the outcome ASAP, sometime next week.

BTW, it seems that, unlike RMWEBS above, my service comes through Luton, not Hemel. Leastways, that's what tracert indicates. So it's not just a Hemel problem.

nodrogd

17-03-2012, 11:21

captainwebb

24-03-2012, 15:18

As promised, update on slow speed problem.

VM sent me a SuperHub to replace my Hub. (Hubba Hubba?). It installed OK, except that it had ZERO download from VM. A quick call resolved that one. No speed increase, still on 10Mb.

The first few days were iffy, but it does seem to have settled down, except that WiFi appears less reliable. Most of the time it's fine, but it drops down to very low speeds at unpredictable times and for varying short periods. Cable speed remains good, as indicated on my Ethernet machine, but WiFi goes so low that speedtest.net won't complete. It is a very intermittent problem (I assume - does anyone know of a continuous, logging status monitor?), and so difficult to attack.

I did drop the Wireless speed from 300Mb to 145Mb, to eliminate channel bonding, and things look a bit more solid.

I will continue to keep an eye on this, but at least the dowload speed issue seems improved.

craigj2k12

24-03-2012, 15:23

I did drop the Wireless speed from 300Mb to 145Mb, to eliminate channel bonding, and things look a bit more solid.

thats not channel bonding

and the superhubs wireless is known to be crap, your best getting a separate router and putting the superhub into modem mode

qasdfdsaq

24-03-2012, 17:15

thats not channel bonding

Yes it is.

craigj2k12

24-03-2012, 22:09

Yes it is.

well technically, but its not called that. Wasnt sure if getting mixed up with downstream channel bonding :)

rmwebs

25-03-2012, 18:45

Click on the connection tab at the top of this page and it will identify which UBR you are connected too. This should confirm whether it's Luton or Hemel. Mine used to be Luton until last year, now it's Hemel.

Yeah ours used to be via Luton until about 2 years ago. We've never really had noticable issues ever. I know that in our relatively small road, we've got two VM exchange boxes, maybe we've just been wired up better. It's been the same since Cable & Wireless fitted everyone in the road years ago.

I'm on 50meg and on a bad day I'll get 40 meg.

Chalky

26-03-2012, 10:42

Update for you on my connection: I'm also now with a SuperHub as I upgraded to the 60MB service. I have turned off the wireless on my Superhub and I connect everything through my Cisco router. No problems with speed now. Speedtest gave me around 58 / 59 so it's now working great. Although even if it did drop to 50% of what was promised I would still have the bandwidth to stream via iPlayer and I probably would not notice.

I'm not sure the wife is impressed with the size of the SuperHub though. It's not exactly something you can easily hide. :)

nodrogd

27-03-2012, 18:29

Yeah ours used to be via Luton until about 2 years ago. We've never really had noticable issues ever. I know that in our relatively small road, we've got two VM exchange boxes, maybe we've just been wired up better. It's been the same since Cable & Wireless fitted everyone in the road years ago.

I'm on 50meg and on a bad day I'll get 40 meg.

Not Cable & Wireless, they took over Jones cable in Watford. St. Albans is ex Telecential & then Comtel before NTL took over.