Is Virgin at it? - Page 2

losepete · 23-10-2009, 03:12

I have a lowly 10Mb connection.

Speed tests rarely report anything above 3Mbps and usually lower.

If I get a good download speed going ie > 500Kbps then the cable modem stops working within a few minutes.

All cat5e cabling has been replaced, the router has been replaced and the above problems persist.

Of course it could be cable modem or VM network issues but anytime I contact support and ask there is no problem with their network or the cable modem.

Maybe it is something to do with the number of people hanging off the same cable section(?) - or whatever the terminology is.

My finally arrived at point is that I do not see the connection speed I am paying for.

But VM tell me there is no problem...

bomber_g · 23-10-2009, 10:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by gianipower

Any comapny that provides something that is excellent rarely has a queue in their support room but with VNM you need to wait 30 minutes plus what does that say?.

Good luck.

they're short staffed? maybe their was an epidemic of 24hour flu

---------- Post added at 10:01 ---------- Previous post was at 09:11 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by losepete

If I get a good download speed going ie > 500Kbps then the cable modem stops working within a few minutes.

there's always the possibility your saturating your connection and the 'cable modems stops working' bit is just that you have no more bandwidth left.

Quote:

Of course it could be cable modem or VM network issues but anytime I contact support and ask there is no problem with their network or the cable modem.

your right it could be

Quote:

Maybe it is something to do with the number of people hanging off the same cable section(?) - or whatever the terminology is.

interface - again, could be right. Are you in a densely populated area, and do other people in the area complain about the same thing?

losepete · 23-10-2009, 16:10

Hi bomber_g

What does "saturating your connection" mean?

I maybe should have stated that this occurs even if only 1 system is active here so there is only 1 download of any sort going on - no other connection at all.

That is not exactly a case of over-straining a connection.

Regards

Pete

Sephiroth · 24-10-2009, 09:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve1888

The power levels were fine, they didn't change in any significant way during the low speed indications and the high speed.

Granted about the accuracy of the speedtests, and if these had been random then I would have simply dismissed the results. What perked my interest was timing of the less than random changes in the test results.

You can't be too paranoid... well maybe.

Just climbed into this thread without reading all the responses. But I hope what I've got to say is helpful.

You obviously know what you're doing, especially spreading your tests around different servers. As I've said in other threads, Speedtest.net is unreliable IMHO.

I did what you did and in a c. 1 minute period did three tests at Maidenhead, London & Rome followed by two more tests immediately at Rome. (I'm on a 20 Mbps servive using a Homeplug bridge which keeps me down to c. 15 Mbps).

Maidenhead: 3.2 Mbps
London: 9.8 Mbps
Rome: (1) 13.2 (2) 10.9 (3) 7.9 Mbps

This told me what webcrawler250 has already told you. Namely (but in other words) that on the internet, anything could be happening at any time anywhere in terms of linbe or server contention.

I noticed also that my ping time to Rome was the same as to London (same number of hops).

This is a common pattern. One of the constants in this is the uselessness of the Maidenhead server. It always depresses results and that is why you were completely right in spreading your tests.

The wise men here correctly say that downloading a very large file or even two concurrently will provide a better picture over a longer snapshot period. These longer periods will more typically represent the instant changes that occur across the internet and the VM system.

It is clear to me from what you'gve written that you are "victim" of this instantaneous change when you call VM - a few seconds later, and the picture could have been entirely different.

So Speedtest.net and its ilk might be a tempting starting point but the acid test and basis of decision for clling VM when you think things are going slowly is to measure the time it takes to download a large file (say > 250 MB) and then to do it at least twice at different periods of the say. Sort of thing.

foxtrot_yankee · 25-10-2009, 19:53

Tried to numerous servers and this is the best result. I'm on 20Mbit...

Is this weekend throttling in action?

Downstream Receive Power Level : 0.7 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 37.3 dB

Sephiroth · 25-10-2009, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrot_yankee

Tried to numerous servers and this is the best result. I'm on 20Mbit...

Is this weekend throttling in action?

Downstream Receive Power Level : 0.7 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 37.3 dB

You would be throttled only if your activity was below the throttling threshold described on the VM web site.

What about real downloads and web experience? Speedtest.net is notriously unreliable.

foxtrot_yankee · 25-10-2009, 22:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

You would be throttled only if your activity was below the throttling threshold described on the VM web site.

What about real downloads and we experience? Speedtest.net is notriously unreliable.

When downloading earlier, it seemed to be capped at 5Mbps.

As for hitting the threshold, I know I definitely haven't reached it on the PC anyway. I have been playing a lot of PES2010 PS3 online though, but I wouldn't have thought that would be bandwidth intensive... surely?

It's only this weekend I've noticed it.

Steve1888 · 28-10-2009, 19:59

Well the past few days speedtest has been consistantly reporting the previous low connection speeds, just to make sure I checked the other test Virgin ask and began downloading 200Mb+ files from the gamefiles.virginmedia.com site.

When I checked this during the last bout with Virgin's support the first downloaded at a little over 1Mb/s, trying two other files at the same time brought the same download rate for all three; three downloading at just over 1Mb/s each.

Checking the past few days hasn't shown anything like this. Tonight the there downloads were: 158kb/s, 167kb/sec and 168kb/s.

The modem has the following downstream figures:

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 6
Downstream Frequency : 331000000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 2.9 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 39.6 dB

Upstream hasn't been an issue, its always about the same, here are the figures anyway:

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 1
Upstream Frequency : 18800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 47.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

Peter_ · 28-10-2009, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve1888

Downstream Receive Power Level : 2.9 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 39.6 dB

Upstream transmit Power Level : 47.0 dBmV

No issues there so any problem is either with your equipment or the network.

Steve1888 · 28-10-2009, 21:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moldova

No issues there so any problem is either with your equipment or the network.

That's what I figured. Problem is that the equipment has all been replaced (both the router and modem) and Virgin deny there's any network issues.

Testing on pingtest.net shows no packet loss, Rome is 65ms, Milton Keynes is 25ms.

Two Windows 7 PCs and 1 Mac Snow Leopard laptop are all showing pretty much the same results.

Download speeds remain very poor though for a 20Mb line. Not sure where to go after this.

Sephiroth · 28-10-2009, 22:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve1888

.....When I checked this during the last bout with Virgin's support the first downloaded at a little over 1Mb/s, trying two other files at the same time brought the same download rate for all three; three downloading at just over 1Mb/s each.

Checking the past few days hasn't shown anything like this. Tonight the there downloads were: 158kb/s, 167kb/sec and 168kb/s.

...

Are we talking kb or KB in your downloads?

Also if 1 file downloads at rate X and if each of three concurrent downloads from the same source work at the same rate X what does that tell you? That the source is oversubscribed? Network problem? You're half duplex?

Steve1888 · 28-10-2009, 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Are we talking kb or KB in your downloads?

Also if 1 file downloads at rate X and if each of three concurrent downloads from the same source work at the same rate X what does that tell you? That the source is oversubscribed? Network problem? You're half duplex?

The downloads I mentioned are kb/s

To answer your second question(s): Like I said the issues are the same whether wireless or wired, Mac or Windows. The router and modem have been replaced and no network problems are reported in any of the tests I've tried, or in the system logs of the individual systems.

I've checked various download sources at various times. On Sunday morning for example, the Virginmedia games site had the following download speeds:

D3Demo.exe running at 173kb/s
CallofDutyDemo.zip 194kb/s
Third download ran at 194kb/s

All remained constant. When I checked this while troubleshooting with Virgin support the speeds were over 1Mb/s, that's what I should be getting according to them.

Microsoft Technet was running at 50kb/s

Since there seems to be such a disagreement about the reliability of various tests and methods, is there somewhere, someone or something that can give an accurate connectivity reading?

Sephiroth · 28-10-2009, 22:39

I suspect you've got your Mb and MB confused. A 10 Mbps line equates to c. 1 MBps (8 bits per byte + overheads).

If that's the case, 173+194+194 = 561 Mb/s.

It could be, as I said, that the games site is overloaded with people downloading; or the network is busy with people downloading stuff like mad.

Can we sort this Mb/MB thing out please?

Steve1888 · 28-10-2009, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I suspect you've got your Mb and MB confused. A 10 Mbps line equates to c. 1 MBps (8 bits per byte + overheads).

If that's the case, 173+194+194 = 561 Mb/s.

It could be, as I said, that the games site is overloaded with people downloading; or the network is busy with people downloading stuff like mad.

Can we sort this Mb/MB thing out please?

Hi,

As I said, I'm on a 20Mb line, 20Mbits/s (well up to anyway). The downloads experienced from the virgin games site during checks with Virgin support were 1Mbits/s each for the three concurrent downloads. checking over the past few days has shown lesser speeds, typically the 173kbits/s - 194kbits/s for the same. The speeds have been around the same at Sunday morning as they are this evening.

I hope this has answered your questions.

Sephiroth · 28-10-2009, 23:11

The problem is that you said in post #27: All remained constant. When I checked this while troubleshooting with Virgin support the speeds were over 1Mb/s, that's what I should be getting according to them.

You should be getting more than 1 Mb/s so what did VM mean? Very confusing and we've only got your story to work on.