Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I could be wrong, but both traces are going through nrth-bb-1b-et-xxx.network.virginmedia.net so I'd say that's where the issue is. Someone better qualified than I can comment though.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yeah, pretty obvious core network congestion.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Well here is my 120/12 in modem mode on the Super Hub 1

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...14-10-2013.png

Here is my speetest, also watching Twitch.tv and playing world of tanks at the same time

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2013/10/19.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Made a post on the official forums, see what they have to say. Funnily enough around midnight things returned to normal as if a switch had been flicked. Be interesting to see how tonight turns out :erm:

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

It's entirely possible it's not congestion but either a routing or a configuration issue. The fact that it disappeared exactly at midnight leans towards this. If it was congestion, I'd expect to see a decline over a couple of hours as people go to bed.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I tend to agree Kushan, the fact Snoop and I were both affected at the exact time with similar Pings supports that too.

Ignore the on the hour spikes thats just SamKnows running.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I had the same issues, and a smaller peak the night before.

CM21 area (near Harlow, Essex)

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

That's exactly how congestion works. Congestion is caused by load. Midnight, people go to bed. Load goes down, congestion goes down. Things return to normal.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I too had the smaller spike the previous night too, obviously a problem within our area.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Disagree. This has been seen many times before, this is exactly how core congestion manifests. It does not decline gradually over a couple of hours. Big pipes do not see gradual changes in latency. All the way up to around 95% load latency is perfectly normal, and between 95% and 100% you get a big, sudden jump.

Also it's obvious from the graph it did not disappear exactly at midnight. It was declining throughout the period from about 10:15pm to 11:45pm. Funny how people go to bed at around that time...

Finally, routing and configuration issues are the most common causes of congestion

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

well I agree with qas, it doesnt go down instant like the flick of a switch description says.

it goes down in a sharp slope, the pattern expected from peak time traffic easing congestion.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Apologies it was just a figure of speech, will update the thread once I have an update from VM. :)

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2013/10/14.pngAnd its back!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yes back here too, it has started at 6pm today instead of around 3pm.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Exactly the same as mine.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Nothing here mine has been ok all night, i am on the Cosham Ex

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Your along way from East Anglia so it's expected.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

true but i still go via Guildford (x2) and nrth-bb-1b-ae4-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.163.178]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yeah, I hadn't seen the graph, I would agree with qasi now about it being congestion of some kind.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Is it usual for such a large geographic area to be hit by congestion though? What I find strange is how its just started happening suddenly.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

It will likely clear up suddenly too i hope.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I will let you know once I have an update from the support forum mate.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Have you got a link to the post and i will add some weight to it if it is on the VM forum?

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

well as stated, you're both routing through the same node at some point so yeah, it's no unexpected. It's entirely possible that there's a fault there, this can be known to cause a significant drop in available bandwidth as the modulation drops down - but I've only ever seen that on the customer end.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...2021652#M30946


Thanks for explaining Kushan, wait and see for VM 2nd line to comment now then and hope tonight doesn't become round 3!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Thanks i have posted on the VM forum.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Same again tonight, just noticed someone on the official forum from CB2 complaining too.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yes same again here too.

I have just posted over there again to keep the thread going, hopefully someone from VM will reply.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Very interesting....... Same problems as us....


http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...2020252/page/2

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I posted on your thread over at VM to hopefully get a reply from VM.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Thanks, let's hope they get it sorted ASAP as it's clearly affecting a large area.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

That, again is exactly how core network congestion works - core links cover customers over large areas, from entire cities at the smallest to regions or whole counties. From my observations of similar past events on VM, if it's not outage causing it usually takes them 2-6 weeks to fix.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Can you reply on your thread on VM mate and say your graph is the same as mine to put them back on track as VM seem to be ignoring my posts on there and they're saying they have checked your connection and it is fine lol? What has your connection got to do with it when your graphs are identical to mine and we live 54 miles apart. hehe

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Done, at work on a iPad so limited what I can do until tonight!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Did anyone else get a lovely 4 hour plateau last night, starting almost exactly at midnight?

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

No i didn't apart from the congestion issue i have had the last 4 nights.

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

So looks like this is starting up again.

Not had it in Uddingston yet.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...a0fccac5f.html

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Maybe? Can you check for me?

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2013/11/8.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Can't see what's wrong, Martin. What were you objecting to in the TBB graph?

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

No humping here but somewhat erratic.↓↓↓

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Plenty of humping there (in conjunction with your avatar), Kush!

None in RG41.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I've been seeing the same trouble here in Harlow – much reduced download speed and more than doubled minimum latency during every evening peak period – since it started suddenly at about 9:20 pm on Saturday.

Saturday:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...12-10-2013.png

Sunday:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...13-10-2013.png

Monday:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...14-10-2013.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Here we go again, I can't believe 2nd line are not seeing this link between all of us who are affected.

Ignore the spike, that was me unplugging my AirportExtreme to run off the SH2 in modem mode just to go through the motions with 2nd line support.

ADave, you need to get over to the official forums too as clearly 4 of us complaining isnt enough. Out TBB graphs are more or less identical at the high congestion levels.

I am already down to 50Mbps speeds and its not even 7pm yet.

Using my Three HTC One to tether my other laptop!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Its definitely congestion, those two graphs (Sunday and Monday) couldn't be more persuasive evidence if you tried, the times line up perfectly and everything :D

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Added my graphs to the official forum...
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...2024348#M31055

Could almost be identical!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

It is like banging our heads against a brick wall on the VM thread, even when presented with tbb graphs that show the exact same problem they still want to treat us all separately and keep checking our modem stats which is obviously pointless, i feel like i am talking to offshore support, so i give up as i don't want them to book me an engineer visit for something i know is not the issue! grrrr

I know it'll get fixed soon enough but how can they be so blind after all the evidence!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I know what you mean, I have tried to paint it clearly in my post this evening but didn't want to come across as rude! If this continues for much longer I am going to have to look else where for my broadband as I need it for work and amongst many other things.

I can get BT Infinity 66Down and 19Up so I can live with that. Don't really want to leave but when you can't even get a serious response from a support forum I don't see we have any other option. We appear to know more than them at the moment.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I refuse to believe the VM networks team genuinely don't know about a section of their core network being on its knees for the busiest part of the day.

Actually...

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

They are finally acknowledging that we do have a problem

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...2025020#M31081

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Thanks for the heads up, i havent got time to do what they ask though as i work shifts and will be installing Windows 8.1 in the morning before work, maybe i will have time on Saturday.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Snap, I'm on four late shifts too now so won't be able to complete the tests either until Monday. On the positive at least I'm not at home in the evenings to get frustrated with my connection. Fingers crossed others can assist so they can identify the problem ASAP.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

To be honest it'll probably take BT longer to install Infinity than it takes VM to sort out this debacle.

---------- Post added at 12:19 ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 ----------

Their core network has hundreds, if not thousands of sections. To be fair it's probably been flagged up somewhere, but we all know how good VM are at getting departments to talk to each other...

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Been there before with vm, it is so frustrating and you would expect the forum staff to be a bit more clued up too. Even more frustrating is the time I identified an oversubscribed UBR issue and then spent months sending out their top network guys, did repulls and all sorts, only to conclude it was the UBR being oversubscribed which they couldn't fix so moved me to another one which was fine. So I feel your frustration :p:

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I flagged this up behind the scenes at VM. Whether or not Ralph's reply was a result of that I don't know.

It is disappointing that in this case the VM techs never looked beyond the end of their noses.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Thanks Seph, let's hope they can fix it quicker than they've acted so far!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

humpy over here... again

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2013/11/8.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

=D

Actually the system Virgin uses to communicate between departments is one of the better tools they have. The problem is that certain departments utterly refuse to believe that they have an issue. I'm sure someone has tried to raise this as an issue, only to have it punted back to them as an NFF. This always happens with degraded service, because it is working after all.
I remember having full on arguments with CNMC (Who I believe don't exist anymore) about what priority a ticket should be. The difference in priorities will dictate how long until it's fixed - the difference between hours or days.
Degraded service has the lowest priority because people are still getting a service, but at what point would you say the service has degraded so much that it may as well not be a service at all? You'd think that'd be when you can't use your connection for its intended purpose (gaming, streaming, etc.) but oh no, according to some folks if the connection is intermittent and it takes 3mins to load google, it's still a working service.

It didn't help that their bonus system was based around how quickly they got things fixed. Lower priorities gave them longer fix times so they'd use any excuse they could think of to keep priority as low as possible.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Heh, well I'll concede you probably know way better than me how those things work on the inside. I've just seen plenty of stories about different departments telling people completely different things and everyone seems to put it down to poor communication. I've seen it plenty of times myself as well...

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

A little flurry of *something* but no large hump tonight....

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Same here, just checked mine from work!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

That explains a lot. Makes me wonder what levels they have even lower than lowest priority, as the fix date for my problem was a year :p:

Edit: Checking forum posts for my old area, it seems they really did take up until the end of April/beginning of May this year to fix that oversubscribed UBR, right around the quoted fix date

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Their "fix" being "wait for the next round of scheduled upgrades that we're putting in anyway for the 120Mb rollout"

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yes first evening in nearly a week that looks normal other than that little spike.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Just got in myself and my connection is working as per normal, will be interesting to see if they comment on what was the problem as clearly there was one.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

sounds about right.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Sounds about right. To be honest, capacity issues always took months and months and months to fix, but Virgin had a habit of giving an estimated fix of about 2 weeks away, but every time you phoned up, it'd always be 2 weeks away, or "some time next month". I wouldn't be surprised if the average lead times on those really was in the tens of months. It seems to have gotten a bit better these days and from he sounds of it, they're giving more realistic fix dates - about time. It's not right to tell a customer that an issue will be fixed if there's no chance of it any time soon. Quite honestly, I found most customers to be incredibly reasonable if you told them the truth, it's when the two week window came and went for the 3rd or 4th time that they get extremely irate.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Here mine:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...16-10-2013.png
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...17-10-2013.png
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...18-10-2013.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Had my date moved about 6 times for one fault number and only on the last one did they then give a realistic date of 6 months away, instead of the usual 2 to 4 weeks random time. Think you guys know how irate that can get someone :LOL:

Been almost a year with sky now and the broadband is as good as the day it was installed. Same low latency and no downtime at all.

Done tons of downloading the last 24 hours but you can still see the connection is as good as originally posted a year ago:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...18-10-2013.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Is there a reason why you are covertly pimping an affiliate link in your sig Qtx?

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Not very covert at all! Incidentally I'm finding fttc far more reliable than VM was even when working. No more than 60 seconds of total downtime in over a year, and my line had been up continuously for 5 months, having only gone down due to me moving the modem onto ups

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I have had no humping recently; time to have an affair perhaps.
Ignoring the massive blips, entirely due to me running uTorrent and Livedrive without reins, my graph has been looking pretty good.

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

I appear to live in a low contention and updated area so I only usually get problems when there is a regional or national issue.

Here's the graph for Monday 13th.

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

That is 1 of the best VM graphs i have seen in modem mode.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

That surprises me. Surely other areas that have been re-segmented and re-carded will be getting similar profiles.

Here are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from last week. Any blips or reboot lines are due to my activity.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...08-10-2013.png

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...09-10-2013.png

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...10-10-2013.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I think you have alot less yellow, although i think my connection is great apart from the 5 day issue last week. :)

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I also must be in a low utilisation area, last nights big jump was me getting some stuff via torrent.

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Is that with a SH2 in modem mode?

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

No thats the SH1 in modem mode and Asus RT-N56U router running Padawan firmware.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

To be honest I don't think there's a lot of difference between SH1 and SH2 in modem only mode. It is the WiFi that is the problem with the SH1.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yes that is true which is why i am glad i was on the trial for a SH2 so got 1 free as i have no use for a separate router. :)

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Depends what you want to do with a router. SH2 will do they basics very well.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

But only the basics.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Well heres my fine piece of modern art for today...

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2013/11/8.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Obviously not standard congestion. I take it a reboot of the shub starts the hill at a lower latency again? Is this a shub or UBR/Chasis bug? Or something to do with signals/frequencies being multiplied/collided/anything else i'm clueless with. Almost reminds me of a memory leak, but with network packets...

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Seems all I can get from it after consultation from Seph is that it is congestion on the upstream causing the upstream buffer to fill up at the modem (causing the router resources to be consumed while BPI is working overtime) - of course just a theory but in my eyes seems the most likely, i've been at my office all day and no-one has been in, so that's all with zero usage at my end. ill do a power cycle now and see what happens.

Ultimately, if my theory is correct, its technically a firmware bug, but if VM were to keep utilisation at acceptable levels it would be a non-issue, but this is VM we are talking about!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Craig,

As I mentioned earlier an exhaustive set of controlled tests were performed and reported here.

Although there was much postulation, and this ramping was shown to occur irrespective of user load, there was no conclusion as to cause. Turning firewall off, turning wireless off all reduced latency. But the matter was not resolved.

Ravenstar's SH2 did not display this ramping, and my SH1 never did either.

So now to further speculation taking into account what QTX has just said. In the SH2 trial, Ravenstar's SH2 suffered from the BSR incompatibility issue associated with BPI/TEK. I don't know if TH at Crawley is on a Motorola BSR and what Craig#s CMTS is. But if it is a BSR and we can chase all the other users who have reported the ramping and get the question reopened.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

cpc9-staf8-2-0-custXX.X-X.cable.virginmedia.com

I still think it is what I mentioned

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Yeah - but is it a Motorola BSR? Someone will know but prolly neither of us two.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I'm pretty sure this is an ex-ntl area. Not sure if that helps, I do have some odd downstream frequencies if that helps?

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I'll ask behind the scenes for a list of local hubs that have BSRs.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

How do I find out my UBR again?

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Hit the CONNECTION link towards trhe top of this page. A popop-up will display information and what I've highlighted in red is your UBR/CMTS.

cpc8-rdng24-2-0-cust828.15-3.cable.virginmedia.com

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Ahh cheers so Maidstone which is off the Basildon head end?

cpc14-maid5-2-0-cust162.basl.cable.virginmedia.com

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Maidstone is your local hub where the CMTS lives; core functions (where Time Servers, TFTP servers, etc reside) are provided from the Basildon head end.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Nice one, thanks for the info.

So what is happening here? My latency has just gone massively up?

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...19-10-2013.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

I wouldn't call that massive, it's barely changed at all

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

It's doubled!

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

New house, no FTTC (yet). Not the worst VM ping graph I've ever seen, if you ignore the early bit where I was dicking around with a powerline adapter.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...72dbe35464.png

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

5% is hardly double

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Erm, maximum was around 25ms latency and now it is about 50ms so double.

Re: Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)
 

Average has barely changed, that's the point.