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Old 12-10-2008, 19:05   #11
broadbandbug
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: XL 20 mbs not yet!!- how to get it fixed?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stanch View Post
Hello,

I have recently subscribed to the full XL package and over the past 8 weeks or so have yet to have a 20 mbs service. I have made numerous calls to VM support (India) and have produced daily statistics of the speeds I have. Last time they even commented how I had registered many calls with them over the low speed issue.
I thought something was going to happen a couple of weeks ago when I was instructed to disconnect the cable modem from the cable and switch it off for 2 hours. Then reconnect my PC via ethernet cable directly to the cable modem (Ambit). I was assured after this process all would be O.K.
Unfortunately, it's still the same. I've had no follow up from VM support. Yesterday, I reconnected the wireless access point as I needed the link.
My connection speed varies throughout the day (and through the week).
Usually ( not always so, sometimes worse, very rarely better) I find around 6 a.m. I get around 18mbs. as the day progresses it falls. By 5 p.m. it will be around 4 -5 mbs. One Sunday afternoon it was around 25Kbs!!
(I also find occasionally changing TV channels and searching TV listings can be very jumpy and somewhat unresponsive).

I have spent a lot of time on the phone and sending emails to VM. Is there a better way of getting VM to do something. I partly switched to VM due to their advertising "the mother of all network connections " - they can say that again!! Prior to VM I had PlusNet ADSL and happily had a 6.2mbs connection which was pretty steady, certainly no more than a 15% drop during presumably heavy use. There is no way the "20mbs" VM link is faster than my old ADSL link.
Where does a customer stand legally when the service is sold as a 20 mbs service and yet, often, the link is below 1 mbs?

My usage is, normally, surfing the web, dowloading patches and upgrades and very occaisionally downloading an .iso newer linux image. I do not play games or stream video.

I am based in central Swindon, Wiltshire.

I am an IT Network engineer of over 20 years. My home PC is a Intel Core Duo PC with 3 Mbs Ram, 1Gb network card running XP Pro SP3 fully patched.
The pc is scanned daily for malware and virii.

All I can think of is to contact VM billing and suggest they bill me for a lesser service. I so regret losing the bandwidth I had.

Any ideas how best to go forward?

Rgds.

Stan Chelchowski
Hi Stan, To be honest you will be lucky to get 20Mb/s in Swindon at the moment.
For a start, due to the architecture that has been built there the majority of the network is limited to QAM64 Downstream Ports. In plain terms this means that the downstream pipe that you are using is only 27Mb/s.. Obviously this means contention ratio's of above 60:1..

There is work underway to improve things.. But it is going to be a few months before you will see the improvements.
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