Our signal levels and other issues

[ileikcaek]

We've had a lot of trouble with Virgin media so they have given us an upgrade from 10Mb to 20Mb for the next 4 months (no extra cost) and are sending us the new 'N' router as compensation.

I'm no techie when it comes to how cable works but our speed fluctuates quite a lot... maybe partly due to load in the evenings but our 20Mb speed has gone right down to about 5 - 7Mb this evening... we're not being shaped as nobody has downloaded any wheres near enough for that to happen since being reconnected at about 13:00 today.


Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 1
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : -1.7 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 36.9 dB

Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 1
Upstream Frequency : 25800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 52.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

Cable Modem Operation Configuration
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled

We're in Dover, that is an ex NTL area.

anything abnormal there?

Thanks, Ricky.

currently:

earlier:

[Ignitionnet]

Nothing abnormal apart from the load. Wish the numpties would stop upgrading people to 20Mbit in congested areas it is likely to not improve speeds at peak times.

[ileikcaek]

Thanks, I agree.

We are being compensated because our paper billing has been screwed up by them, we have been with them for about 8 months now and have only ever received two bills, this leads to us ending up being cut off nearly every month.

on 10Mb we were getting 10Mb all the time... maybe 7Mb in the evenings but now on this 20Mb (compensated) package it's all over the place. Crazy IMO.

20Mb should be sufficient enough to use iplayer HD but not for me, constant buffering most times of the day, was the same on 10Mb so there must be serious load issues around the area.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by rickymallory

on 10Mb we were getting 10Mb all the time... maybe 7Mb in the evenings but now on this 20Mb (compensated) package it's all over the place. Crazy IMO.

That's the bit I don't understand - when they put you on 20 you just notice the congestion more as instead of losing maybe 20 - 30% going 10 to 7 you're losing 65% or more going from 20 to 7.

Oh well!

[ileikcaek]

This evening seems to be even worse here, had nothing but a degradation in service since mid afternoon




it will stick like that until Midnight ish when load calms down.

To me this seems like a poor service (20Mb) should I resort to the newsgroups and report it?

cpc2-dove1-0-0-custxxx.asfd.cable.ntl.com

[Sephiroth]

I've been on 20 Mbps for some years. In the evening, I experience exactly the same as you. You are potentially lucky, looking at the speed stats. If anyone in your family games, then the maintained upstream speed is a boon. It means there's no upstream congestion and your speed could fall to c. 1 Mbps and the game's fps won't suffer.

The speed tests suggest a degree of downstream congestion - people downloading stuff, in essence. You could be one of those people. It's likely to be local to you i.e. centred on your street (single trunk passing the houses) or street box (capacity back to the regional head end from several streets).

People with real problems are those who report (e.g.) 0.01 Mbps upstream and/or 1 Mbps downstream during peak times.

Virgin have pre-identified on their web site their peak times and the effect on performance. The advantage you have with the 20 Mbps upgrade is the higher speed during non-peak times and the higher throttle threshold (try saying that).

With the above information and that offered by Broadbandings, you can decide whether or not to report the matter to support. I haven't done so.

HTH.

[broadbandking]

Its best that you report it, as the more people who report means that it gets sorted alittle quicker, Virgin can't fix's things if they aren't reported.

[chrisntl]

I have the same speed issues that at peak times the 20 Mb tier just drops from 18-19 Mb to well anything below 10 really.When I was on the 10 Mb tier I could get 9-10 Mb any time.Please report your problem on the VM newsgroup as the techies will then take note and hopefully the VM network will be upgraded to give us the speed at all times of the day.

Chris

[roughbeast]

Originally Posted by rickymallory

This evening seems to be even worse here, had nothing but a degradation in service since mid afternoon




it will stick like that until Midnight ish when load calms down.

To me this seems like a poor service (20Mb) should I resort to the newsgroups and report it?

cpc2-dove1-0-0-custxxx.asfd.cable.ntl.com

Be aware that speedtest.net is not known for its reliability. Some servers are better than others. The tests are Java based, so results may have more to do with the speed or your PC / laptop than your internet speed. You can get a better indication of speed by downloading muliple large files from a games site such as Virgin's Games Demos. Pick 3 or 4 files over 500 mb. Download them all at the same time. Add up the total download speed. Only do this when your PC processor or internet connection are not busy.

Virgin also offer speed test and improvement info here.

My favourite Java based test is here.

I find it the most reliable of all.

http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/11542231.png

[ileikcaek]

I reported the problem to the news group and an employee has replied saying it's a utilization issue on the UBR and it will be monitored for the next few days.

Thank you for the links Roughbeast

[ileikcaek]

Apparently this is still being monitored.

It's getting worse every day, no lie, it's currently struggling to get even near to 1Mb in the evenings. and now even upload is starting to be affected with rather high pings.

They say if it increases in frequency it will be passed onto the networking team who will work out something to alleviate the issues. It's getting beyong a joke now and I'm not holding my breath.

Power levels have changed, not sure these are still ok.


Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 1
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 0.6 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 37.5 dB

Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 3
Upstream Frequency : 34000000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 50.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

[Peter_]

The is no issues with your power levels so the fault must be network related.

[ileikcaek]

The modem rebooted just after midnight by the looks of it, our connection string now shows:

cpc1-dove2-2-0-custxx.1-2.cable.virginmedia.com

To me it looks like they may have upgraded something. I will find out later if the speed still gets saturated. It's looking good at the moment though.

why the 1-2 in the string? it used to say cpc2-dove1-0-0-custxxx.asfd.cable.ntl.com

but at the moment we have internet and the ready light is blinking away on the modem :/

[Ignitionnet]

You just got moved to a shiny new piece of kit. The 1-2 in the string is a reference to the DHCP / TFTP servers you use now. You've moved from Ashford's servers to the shiny new centralised ones.

The ready light blinking is a cosmetic bug between the modem and the piece of equipment, a Motorola BSR 64000, you now connect to at Virgin. You were previously on a Cisco uBR 7426VXR. Don't worry about it.

[ileikcaek]

Thank you for the in depth details! Seems pretty exciting.

It's 3:18pm... Usually at this time the speed was struggling to get near 10Mb but it's still zooming along at 19.5Mb/s. We will see if it grinds to the 2.xMb/s we were getting in the evenings before the move. But it's looking unlikely if we are on the new kit now.