[Doz007]

Thanks for all the replies folks, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Eeeps

Have VM give you a fault reference? If they formally accept that there is a fault you can either...

1) expect a reduction in you monthly bill

or

2) give them a reasonable time to rectify the fault (to your satisfaction) and if they don't, request to leave penalty free (if you are within a minimum term).

What you shouldn't do is believe their assurances that it will be fixed by mm/yyyy because most people's experience suggests otherwise.

Yes, they've provided me with a fault reference number but when I asked about an estimated fix date his computer conveniently froze!

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I don't know how best to explain it you, whether you want to think of it as the capillaries and blood vessels in your body, twigs/branches and a tree trunk or streams flowing in to a river. Many houses go in to a street cabinet, many cabinets feed into one big cabinet and that cabinet connects to one of many cards on an CMTS. VM have got the capacity in place further up the network, the over utilisation is purely due to demand on your estate. There will be somewhere around 12 downstream channels available for your area (which is more than just your housing estate) which will run at ~55mbits each and that is 660mbits total for your area. Work out how many houses are connected x 200mbits internet connection and you will see you haven't got anywhere near enough. All those connections aren't going to be maxed out all the time so on an average estate you would probably be fine during the day and only notice some slow down in the evening. The problem you have got is that given your demographic, subscription on your estate may be 100% whereas VM might only plan for 40% of total households. I know in my area because of where I live it is minimal so I get full speed all day every day.

The best way to think of it is that you have divided your blood supply throughout your body and it is being distributed proportionally base on demand (which we know is true). You have now attached another body to your little finger and you want that bodies blood flow to be managed through the blood vessels in your little finger. It just ain't enough.

The only way VM can fix something like this is to completely redesign the network in your area which normally takes about a year of planning and preparation so the only way you can "fix" it is to switch to completely different isp like BT which will use a different network and hopefully have laid some fresh fibre.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, it helps understand my current situation but it only emphasises how poorly thought out VMs network is. The crazy thing is later on in the year they'll announce speed increases!

Originally Posted by Kushan

Just to clarify, have you done a wired speed test or are you experiencing wireless congestion?

This is wired and wireless. On Sunday I factory reset the SH, unplugged everything but the PC from my network and still got the same speeds (1.89Mbps)

Originally Posted by ruddock08

Interesting stuff! So if I have the HomeWorks 300 service.. when I'm using the entire 300mbps bandwidth, I am effectively using just under half of my local area's bandwidth? That's mental!!

Exactly what I was thinking!

This can't be right surely. What happens when ten people in a single area subscribe to the 300Mb service along with all the current people on the lower packages, the network will completely buckle! Absolute madness.

I was hoping that the Homeworks 300Mb package would be the answer to all my problems...