Chalk and Cheese - Sky and Virgin Broadband

Qtx · 15-12-2012, 11:23

Here are my Thinkbroadband graphs now that Sky has been installed for a day. No devices were connected to the Virgin hub during this time. Numerous speed tests and downloads were done on Sky totalling about 8GB.

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

Sky:

Not sure if the packet loss on the sky was something I did or not, something I will have to monitor.

Overall impression is that web pages load super fast, as does streaming video.

Pingtest site tests have been consistent at 13ms with no jitter. A FPS game I play (or used to before the virgin connection made it unplayable) gave a constant 19 ping in-game. Much lower than the 35+ I ever got on VM before all the problems.

When downloading on Sky the minimum/average/maximum latency does not seem to shoot up like on the Virgin connection.

My reason for switching all the products from virgin was to get a stable broadband. The graphs show why that was needed and that it was achieved with the move to sky.

thenry · 15-12-2012, 11:53

enjoy

Zee · 15-12-2012, 12:22

you'll be much happier now, even if the speeds are slower...

Qtx · 15-12-2012, 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zee

you'll be much happier now, even if the speeds are slower...

Speeds are twice as fast as my virgin connection. Even faster than that when you consider I often only got half the speed (or less) I was supposed to have with VM. Upload is 10x faster than I had on VM.

But you are right, definitely happier

AdamD · 15-12-2012, 14:32

My virgin graph looks a lot like yours does, there's been problems in the Worthing area for months now, so there's constantly high latency.

It's ironic that my sky ADSL product has a better looking graph than my "super fast, non buffering, fibre optic" Virgin, hehe.

Qtx · 15-12-2012, 22:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamD

My virgin graph looks a lot like yours does, there's been problems in the Worthing area for months now, so there's constantly high latency.

It's ironic that my sky ADSL product has a better looking graph than my "super fast, non buffering, fibre optic" Virgin, hehe.

I wonder if you go through the Croydon network too lol. Crawley isnt far from you and does. Any idea if Worthing used to be Telewest before?

7 months of issues for me and the fix date is still 4 months away.

Seems to be quite a few who prefer the more stable adsl than the jittery vm fibre.

Chrysalis · 16-12-2012, 12:13

Yeah there is no comparison, I am on BT which is probably worse than sky FTTC, and its still light and day difference from VM.

If I saturate the upload, then I get slight jitter

on VM all hell breaks loose and its in the mid 100s (if not already in the mid 100s). If I download no affect on latency at all, and if I download on VM, whatever speed VM is maxing out at even if say a few mbit/sec again all hell breaks loose on latency. Doesnt matter if its 9am or 9pm I will still get max throughput, snappy browsing and good streaming.

The 2am thing dont worry about it, its not looking a constant issue so not really a problem. eg. my line yesterday had a burst of 3000 crc errors at 1am, it wasnt enough to even show on the tbb graph and since then I have had 250 errors in 18+ hours after it which is pretty much nothing.

Qtx · 16-12-2012, 12:27

Yeah had no more packet loss since that graph, so its all good

Even though I have downloaded at full speed on the sky line, I can't seem to get anything like the saturation problems I got on VM. Virgin would increase the latency like crazy even if I used one connection to max the speed out, like an ftp download. Tried a torrent with 100 connections to see if I could get the sky connection to do the same but it hardly registered lol.

Seems we both are feeling a breath of fresh air with the new providers

qasdfdsaq · 16-12-2012, 13:58

That's cause VM are quite literally, the worst ISP in the country for bufferbloat, and frankly the worst I've seen anywhere in the world.

Though admittedly it has been toned down a lot lately...

Horizon · 18-12-2012, 21:31

I think people are seeing the advantage in all the work that was done by BT for FTTC services, ie the fibre is much closer to people's homes than VM's, hence the better figures.

Next year, and FTTP prices dependant, I might even have to jump ship myself. But at the moment, at least at night, I get 66mb from my vm connection.

Chad · 18-12-2012, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qtx

Speeds are twice as fast as my virgin connection. Even faster than that when you consider I often only got half the speed (or less) I was supposed to have with VM. Upload is 10x faster than I had on VM.

But you are right, definitely happier

What are your upload speeds? Just wondering what I may receive when my unlimited broadband gets installed in a couple of weeks. I love 650 metres from the BT exchange so expect a decent connect. SKY's website suggests 11mb to 18mb down, but no info regarding upload speed.

---------- Post added at 22:51 ---------- Previous post was at 22:48 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horizon

I think people are seeing the advantage in all the work that was done by BT for FTTC services, ie the fibre is much closer to people's homes than VM's, hence the better figures.

Next year, and FTTP prices dependant, I might even have to jump ship myself. But at the moment, at least at night, I get 66mb from my vm connection.

SKY fibre is being rolled out where I live in about 14 weeks time. I'm only 650 metres away from the exchange. I'm hoping for some impressive speeds.

thenry · 18-12-2012, 22:59

calculate distance to street cabinet Chad. i got corrected in this thread > http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/63...-infinity.html

Chad · 18-12-2012, 23:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by thenry

calculate distance to street cabinet Chad. i got corrected in this thread > http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/63...-infinity.html

It's outside my house. Maybe about 10 to 15 metres away from where I'm sitting just now.

Qtx · 18-12-2012, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad

What are your upload speeds? Just wondering what I may receive when my unlimited broadband gets installed in a couple of weeks. I love 650 metres from the BT exchange so expect a decent connect. SKY's website suggests 11mb to 18mb down, but no info regarding upload speed.

SKY fibre is being rolled out where I live in about 14 weeks time. I'm only 650 metres away from the exchange. I'm hoping for some impressive speeds.

I'm on the basic fibre. Thought about upgrading to pro but found I don't actually need it. The stable connection is enough.

Expecting the speed to go up a bit but haven't looked any closer at the syncing stuff yet.

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

That ping test is always the same, no matter when I run it lol.

For fibre the distance to the exchange shouldn't matter I think. The actual cabinets do all the processing and the fibre starts there.

---------- Post added at 23:15 ---------- Previous post was at 23:15 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad

It's outside my house. Maybe about 10 to 15 metres away from where I'm sitting just now.

You should be laughing at that distance, ready for 120+ speeds to I would have thought.

Chad · 18-12-2012, 23:20

Thanks for the info guys.