30M : Gaming lag during peak hours

[Chinamanuk]

Hi,

I have been with VM for many years and 4 months ago I upgraded to 30M with the VM super hub. I don't use their TV service, just the phone and internet.

Since the launch of Battlefield 3 I can't seems to play the game with out lag from 6:30pm to 12 midnight. I have gone through the trouble shoot and also endless phone call with VM support.

"high utilisation on your upstream which will be causing high latency mainly during peak hours. This fault is under reference F001801604 is the response and a fix date of 6 Dec 2011"

I have lose all faith with VM30M internet. I also read somewhere that the 10M or 12M is actually better than the 30M??? I have the old modem and I have my old N+ router. Would if solve my problem if I call them and down grade? I use my connection 80% on gaming and 15% on web surfing and 5% on download video clips......

Please help me


Benson

[Chinamanuk]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...8-11-2011.html

This is not good, can't play over the weekend as well

[pabscars]

Your connection is in the crapper because Virgin can't manage their network properly at peak times. Hopefully the fault (ahem) will get sorted on time and not get pushed back, so I would stick it out till then.

If it then get's delayed again you have a few option's,

A. Stay and get your bill's reduced untill it get's sorted.
B. Change ISP's for one that is able to provide you with the puny ammount of bandwidth you need for gaming.

I wouldnt even bother trying to game on a connection as mullered as your's, that graph is terrible

[Chinamanuk]

I read somewhere that the current VM 30M upwards is on a different network than their 10M services is that true? Thats the reason why all the 30M users needed their new super hub to handle the new protocol?

I had ZERO problem in the past 5-6 years with VM since their 2Mb service and modem......I am thinking of downgrade back to 10M, it is pointless having a 30M connection where peak time you can only browse the net, my iPhone 3G gives a better connection then the cable.[COLOR="Silver"]

[buckleb]

That bump in your graph there is evident in a few captures, over all tiers, so I wouldn't immediately blame it on your connection (though of course it could be).

The VM network seems to be a bit jittery lately (pardon the pun), I wonder if its because the upgrades are putting more strain on legacy components or just plain over-utilisation?

[Chinamanuk]

It is like clock works, 6pm onwards lag in game 12pm onward back to normal every day. Weekend is all day lag

[pabscars]

Originally Posted by Chinamanuk

It is like clock works, 6pm onwards lag in game 12pm onward back to normal every day. Weekend is all day lag

For the sake of a week I would be tempted to stay putt and do nothing, (apart from ring up retentions and ask for a discount on your bill)

Finger's crossed Virgin will get your issue sorted on the 6th of December.

[Jon123]

I've noticed the same problems since getting the hub. Was using one of the old modems through a Netgear and pings were fine all day, last night I couldn't find a game on CoD due to my ping. Rebooting the router did fix this momentarily though, so could be a capacity issue...
Give Virgin a ring and show them these graphs, maybe they have an explanation?

Hope this helps

[Milambar]

Originally Posted by Jon123

I've noticed the same problems since getting the hub. Was using one of the old modems through a Netgear and pings were fine all day, last night I couldn't find a game on CoD due to my ping. Rebooting the router did fix this momentarily though, so could be a capacity issue...
Give Virgin a ring and show them these graphs, maybe they have an explanation?

Hope this helps

If you read the OP's original post, they've already told him its a capacity issue, and given him a date for a fix.

"high utilisation on your upstream which will be causing high latency mainly during peak hours. This fault is under reference F001801604 is the response and a fix date of 6 Dec 2011

Not really sure what everyone is expecting VM to do. They've acknowleged an issue. They've stated what the issue is, along with a fault reference. They've stated a fault fix date.

Its not ideal that the fault exists, but I don't think that they can do much more than they are doing at the moment. Maybe if the fix date was to keep getting pushed back as has happened to some in the past, there'd be an issue for concern..

I'd say, give VM their fair chance to fix it.

[Jon123]

Ah yes, I was being blind!

Thanks for clearing it up though. I know what you're saying about Virgin not being able to do anything. The main point is that they're on it and hopefully the usual excellent service will be restored soon

[Chinamanuk]

6 more days I can cope

It is easy to lose faith after posting on their support forum and seeing the amount of users with the same issue and had 6-10 months of same issue. I guess a lot of people are affected but most internet users would only browse web so won't notice as much disruption as gamers like myself and the problem seems smaller than it is for VM.

[Chinamanuk]

Just called 150 and spoke to Agent John, explained the problem is not speed but latency and packet loss affecting youtube and games. Explained this is on going and was told a fix date of 06/12/2011. He reset the hub and ran a few test and said everything is ok....



Of course everything is ok, at 10am kids are at school and people at work. He said there is nothing he could do as I have a good connection at the moment. He told me to call at the time when the connection is not working as it should and I explain that it would be 6pm onwards and support will not be there but operator from India who can't help me.



I told him that I got problem everyday at peak hours and he reply I can see that there are normal traffic level over the last 7 days and it is normal that internet will slow down a bit when that happens.....I am lost for words.

Not using VM is not an option at the moment as my house never had a BT line and it will need to be reconnected and cost ££.

I can see that this is a network problem being too many using the network therefore some of the information request get dropped and therefore I get lag or youtube stop loading. I will be calling them daily and hassle them and log every call but is there another way out?

Something about higher speed connection is on Dosics3 and used to be on 1/2?? Can I get the older type modem and revert back to their legacy part of network and not being on the overcrowded bus?? I rather have a slow connection but good latency as I don't download much.

[Chrysalis]

I have never seen a congestion relief fix get jitter from aweful to good enough for gaming. It doesnt even usually stop visible speed issues, instead the drip feeding will just make the congestion less severe, so eg. peak time speeds of 1mbit/sec may jump to 8mbit/sec. It seems once an area gets to the point of been severely oversubscribed it is chronic barring things like the speed uplift work which even in some cases wasnt sufficient.

When the ASA ruled that VMs gaming performance wasnt good enough for them to claim so, VM had 2 options, either fix the problem or stop the advertising, they did the latter as clearly they unable/unmotivated to fix the problem.

So been brutally honest, if you want good gaming then you need a new isp or need to move house to a better VM area. There is a possibility that waiting it out for a few months and hopeing VMs traffic management v2 may fix the problem but that depends how patient you are.

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

...if you want good gaming then you need a new isp or need to move house to a better VM area...

Apart from being a drastic option moving house will guarantee nothing as a good area can move to dreadful in an amazingly short time - mine did. With the very low capacity local pipes VM use (200down 18up) then just adding one 100Mbps torrent freak can tip you into poor and two will cripple the area completely.