whats happened to my 10mb?

[crunchiepants]

I've had a good 10mb connection for the last 3 years but something strange has happened.
I went to speedtest.net, that tells me my max download is 5500Kb/s, I tried Dan ellwells speed test and that also states that I'm only getting around 5500kb/s.
I phoned technical and the 1st person in India told me it was spyware, although I knew this not to be the case he insisted it was.
Phoned Technical again this morning (still seem to be getting 5500Kb/s on the speed tests), he told me to try downloading two files at the same time from gamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk and sure enough when you add the rates together I'm getting my 10MB/s Download, what an earth is going on?

[jailhouse]

crunchiepants, i believe the problem is "contention ratios" where there are to many users on one pipe, and individuals are downloading masses of info, therefore hogging the bandwidth (try asking Virgin what the contention ratios are for your area, i'll be surprised if you get an answer). I am in the same boat as you, 10Mb connection, regularily scan for spyware, virus's, etc, keep my system upto date, but still get slow\dropped connections.

Off topic. I am so fed up with the crap service from Virgin i am going to cancel as soon as this contract is up. I wish i had taken up the offer RB had offered "anyone wishing to cancel their contract can do so without penalty up until the 30th March 2007" but i hung on (after speaking to Virgin about exciting new things that are about to happen) incase the promises from the Branson crew materialised, now i am stuck as they will not deliver anything better. Lost two channels from the Premier Movies, now got a "Double Repeat channel 1 hour later, is this something they have learned from Virgin with their answer to the loss of Sky One, put in Virgin Central in 119 and 120 Channel!!!? What a great service, give less and still charge the same.

Shame really, BY\Telewest were great, but i do not think that for £90+ per month for the services i am getting is money well spent. What does anybody else think.

jh

[crunchiepants]

I hear ya brother

I was a very big telewest fan, but even I am getting to the end of my tether.
What hacked me off was the Indian call centre who's job seems to be to try to place the blame on you! they must go through a check list headed 'pass the buck blame the customer', the chap I spoke to got me to type Netstat -a to see what was connected to my PC, I had 6 established TCP connections, he didn't have a clue what they were, all he said was 'your infected with spyware you have to scan your computer'.
After I got off the phone to him i shut down MSN and IE and all the established TCP links were gone, he didn't want to know that it was a clean install of Windows XP, from the day before or that I was running zone Alarm and Nod32, no basically I was losing half my Download speed to spyware.

I don't want to go but I'm not paying £35 for a 5mb service.

[Hex]

Out of curiosity, did you try running with Zone Alarm shut off, it has been knows to cause speed issues. I know it's a long shot, but still worth a try. If it's still slow with ZA off, it's probably over subscription in your area.

[crunchiepants]

yeah tried it with it on/off, booting into windows with 3 different hard drives ive got, all with the same low speed I'm afraid. Disconnected the router, ran anti-spyware programs (in which no spyware was found).

Looks like over subscription doesnt it, really annoyed about this because I had a great connection and low ping rate......not anymore

[dafry]

Originally Posted by crunchiepants

yeah tried it with it on/off, booting into windows with 3 different hard drives ive got, all with the same low speed I'm afraid. Disconnected the router, ran anti-spyware programs (in which no spyware was found).

Looks like over subscription doesnt it, really annoyed about this because I had a great connection and low ping rate......not anymore

i am having the same problem and at 8.00pm last night i was running at less than 1 meg, on a 10 meg connection which was running at 9.6 during the day
could you please put the link you used for speedtest

[Hex]

Originally Posted by dafry

could you please put the link you used for speedtest

Always take results from speed test sites with a pinch of salt, I saw countless people complain about low speeds one day, problem was found, the test server was hammered and couldn't supply the full bandwidth for the tests, nothing wrong with peoples connections on that occasion. The best test is a download from a source server you know can supply the speed, such as a Usenet server.

That being said, the speed test link on this forum is usually pretty reliable.

[awibble]

Originally Posted by crunchiepants

I've had a good 10mb connection for the last 3 years but something strange has happened.
I went to speedtest.net, that tells me my max download is 5500Kb/s, I tried Dan ellwells speed test and that also states that I'm only getting around 5500kb/s.
I phoned technical and the 1st person in India told me it was spyware, although I knew this not to be the case he insisted it was.
Phoned Technical again this morning (still seem to be getting 5500Kb/s on the speed tests), he told me to try downloading two files at the same time from gamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk and sure enough when you add the rates together I'm getting my 10MB/s Download, what an earth is going on?

I went though this, and yes in the end i had to get a friend to come round with their laptop, at which point i was told that both laptops must have spyware, unlucky for them he happens to be a MCP and its as a vanilla install of XP SP2 and the first time it was connected to the internet was when we connected it to the modem and did the speed test they asked us to do.

Try testing it when most people are at work, you tend to get the best speeds then.

[crunchiepants]

Always take results from speed test sites with a pinch of salt, I saw countless people complain about low speeds one day, problem was found, the test server was hammered and couldn't supply the full bandwidth for the tests, nothing wrong with peoples connections on that occasion. The best test is a download from a source server you know can supply the speed, such as a Usenet server.

HEX this is the problem, I can say download 2 files at the same time and will get a total download speed of 10MB/s, but I've tried 2 speedtests now and both are showing me at 5500KB/s, surely two different speedtests won't use the same download location? Although I'm not saying your wrong

www.speedtest.net thats the easiest to use and also Dan elwells BB speed test (google search for that one )

[Hex]

Sorry, that was more a general speed test comment than one aimed specifically at your situation. The fact that with 2 connections running you can achieve 10mb shows there is not a problem with your connection as such, but the amount of bandwidth available, probable cause, over-subscription in your area.

As Awibble said, try again during off-peak and see if there is any improvement.

[jailhouse]

Try checking your ping rates.

Use ping on bbc.co.uk -t

this will give you more pings than the normal four as this wont show much, when you think you have enough pings, press Ctrl C to finish. Copy and paste them on here and let some of the Techies have a look.

My connection is fine(ish) during the day (getting 7mb from a 10mb connection - using the speed test from this site) but come 2 - 3 pm drops to as low as 1mb. In my opinion, definitely the contention (overload) ratios.

jh

[crunchiepants]

Phoned Technical support again today, basically it boils down to that because I can download two files and add both download speeds together to make the 10MB/s, that's fine with them and I have no problem.
It doesn't matter that a few days ago I could download one file and get that speed, maybe then when I'm upgraded to 20MB/s I will have to download 4 files to make that speed up......now I've just got to find the 4 files I want to download at the same time
My pings seem fine not a problem, and this 5.5MB/s cap I have doesn't alter at any point during the day or night, I'm just stuck at 5.5MB/s, but hey Virgin media says I haven't got a problem I haven't got a problem.
I miss Telewest, I never thought I'd have to shop around for another ISP, shows you how much I know.

[jailhouse]

crunchie, i hear what you say.

Maybe you have spyware That is top of the tech support replies

I hope you find a better service, i am stuck with bloody VM for the next 10 months as i waited to see what these great "new programmes" were going to be.

Oh, and best of luck with a 20Meg connection, they are that incompetent they cannot manage my 10Meg connection, at leat TW offered a guaranteed speed!

Bloody VM, long live TeleWest. Amen

[Hom3r]

I wouldn't panic speedtest.net is pants at the moment, it's saying I get up to 400KB on my 10Mb connection, my upload is far metter 480KB.

LMAO You guys kill me. Can I ask what is the point in moaning on a forum bout vm speed issues. why not just leave and let it lye