I am in Lincoln as well and everything has been alright for the most part. I downloaded some stuff from torrents this morning and had no problem pulling 1.5mb/sec. The only thing i did notice is that when i used the newsgroups my speed kept dieing to 30k/sec all morning. It went up to 600k/sec early afternoon and then back to normal (2.2mb/sec). Apart from the newsgroups it has been fine all day for downloading and gaming.
This is my first post although I have been reading stuff in this forum for years. I just want to add that despite problems people have with their connections all the time with speed and reliability, I have always had ntl's/vm's top BB package and i have always been able to get my max speed. I guess I am one of the lucky ones and live in the right area
The only thing I am always happy to moan about is their tech support. I end up ringing them once a year when my connection dies and instead of just saying that they are either doing maintenance or have a problem, the muppets on the phone tell me that it is my pc at fault. In the end I give up arguing with them and give them a couple of hours to fix the problem and everyone is happy.
Apart from that slight niggle, I am a happy customer (waiting to be stm free on 50mbit)
---------- Post added at 02:01 ---------- Previous post was at 01:56 ----------
Btw, my levels for my modem are nearly exactly the same as yours so i don't think anything is wrong with yours. My modem has always worked alright and I have always been able to get my max speed.