50M : When should I start to worry about speed?

[otguk]

Hi, just had 50meg BB installed on the 12th.

As a whole, when should I worry?

I can have speeds as slow as this;
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1591095320.png

but with a ping of this;
http://www.pingtest.net/result/50536683.png

Then better and liveable;


With again good pingtest.

But speed tests are not really a good way of testing speed, so using http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html

With 1GB downloading, best speed is 2.1MB/sec, is that around 25meg? (5MB/s=50meg!) (the hosting site has to be able to serve is at 50meg+, right?)

Then if you try three D/L's at once best it will pull is 1.2/1.6 for each three d/l's, which is good as its getting close to 50meg.

Am on a 1GB network card, wired to superhub. Win 7 OS, Updated network driver. Firewall set up right, as in no special rules. Clean PC. (get same speed on Ubuntu set-up, if not worse but am no expert on Linux)

Tech remoted on and set-up modem per your sticky other day.

Wireless speed I can live with at around 20/30meg or less.

So am I normal or should I start to worry am slower than most. Most family members say they get 42meg ish.

Do I need help or should I wait a week ish and see if things get better and yes I understand its up to 50meg

(Now where is the TV/tivo section, blocky picture grrr)

[kwikbreaks]

There is no settling in period for cable so you'll get whatever you are going to get straight away. If you are happy with it fine if not you have a satisfaction guarantee on new installs (but apparently not on upgrades iirc).

There is no "typical" cable user as performance is very localised and can change rapidly. The majority will usually see speedtests on a wired connection close to the package rating from a decent tester (I've found speedtest.net London and Birmingham servers to be fine in the past). N/A to you but IMO if you only ever use wireless there's not a lot of point taking 50Mbps unless you are right on top of the Superhub or are prepared to buy your own AP or router with better range.

[otguk]

Wired x2 PC/x2 Xbox's. As you say, I can live with any speeds on wireless devices. Just not 100% sure as to why am only seeing 30MB/s ish on wired!

Yes this is an upgrade, as I had 10meg before getting the rest of the packages. What are VM saying, if your a customer we know your not satisfied :lol:

So if my area is fully subscribed I should expect to get slower speed? I only say that cos I think I can remember someone saying they read in local paper my area is BB bad spot, to many ppl have it, just thought it was a joke to wind me up :-(

[kwikbreaks]

When I spoke to retentions to get my 50Mbps downgraded to 10Mbps because their projected fix date for congestion problems was 3 months away they told me that there would be no penalty for downgrading while still in contract as that is permitted. Of course if you do take that route you'd need to argue the toss with them about any activation charge you may have paid. Plus your problems may not be congestion although I'd guess that they probably are.

====

The local paper won't carry stories on cable BB speed. It may be a bad area for ADSL and they might mention that.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by otguk

(Now where is the TV/tivo section, blocky picture grrr)

Hmm pixellated TV pictures - signal problems affecting both perhaps?

[kwikbreaks]

You don't have much faith that...

Originally Posted by otguk

Tech remoted on and set-up modem per your sticky other day.

... would mean levels would have been checked then?

As an aside would correct levels on 10Mbps mean they'd normally be correct on 50Mbps too or can the different kit run at different levels?

[otguk]

"levels would have been checked"

Seemed more interested in un-ticking boxes and changing 300mps to 145 mps for wireless. I looked other day and they were on the high end on the scale but inside the limits. If I was reading it right.

As for TV it would seem like am the only one that can see it...

Its like the difference between 480 and 720 HD to me any way but I have look into the TiVo box video settings and now have three picked, is it of the top of my head 540, 720, 1080i so am hoping the program picks the best one and uses that.

Where would I start to find info on my congestion if that's what it is?

At least the xbox 360 seemed to work OK together on MW3...

I want to complain but just cant put my finger on what about, there's something wrong, it liveable but its just one push away from going pear shaped. I like to be three or four away from that



I would expect this speed for 30Mb/s...

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by otguk

Where would I start to find info on my congestion if that's what it is?

You probably won't. If you've ruled out connection issues and used reliable sources for your tests then wildly varying speeds are most likely pointers to local congestion issues. If you ask about this on the VM community forum http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...band/bd-p/50mb they will check the utilisation for you although you'll need to post up modem stats or they'll just ask for them.

Try setting up a TBB monitor - http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/monitors.html You'll probably need to delve into the Superhub advanced settings to tell it to respond to a Wan ping (might be called ICMP). If it looks like a mad punks hairdo with loads of blue and yellow then that's bad news although you may want to post it here to get somebody to interpret it (there's a thread dedicated to them)

[otguk]

Will do this later tonight/morning. Xbox live playing up today but I think that's just MS not getting it right for the MW3 servers.

Thanks.

*edit*
Signed up and have the monitor running, I think, now. So when I get back I should have some info to see.

[pabscars]

Originally Posted by otguk

Will do this later tonight/morning. Xbox live playing up today but I think that's just MS not getting it right for the MW3 servers.

Thanks.

*edit*
Signed up and have the monitor running, I think, now. So when I get back I should have some info to see.

Don't base any assumption's on how well MW3 is playing at the moment, the game is still in it's infancy and has some major issues, mostly I think to the "Lag Compensation" that's been incorrectly applied.

Running the TBB Ping Monitor will paint a better picture of what's going on with your connection but be aware that your own internet activity may skew the result's, so for an reasonably accurate reading try letting it run at peak time without you using it, if at all possible

From memory I always found Sunday evening's to be the most crippled by peaks in utilisation.

---------- Post added at 12:35 ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 ----------

Feel free to have a mooch on this thread to get an understanding of the differences in TBB results

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12...ults-post.html

[7031]

I would say those speeds almost certainly point to a contention issue.

If you can live with this, stay with them, otherwise I'd recommend downgrading back to 10Mbps or so (it depends by area, but some areas use DOCSIS 1 for 10Mbps, others use DOCSIS 3, so if your area uses DOCSIS 1 for 10Mbps then you may find that the contention issue no longer affects you.

For reference, here is a speedtest I got just now on 50Mbps:

[otguk]

First couple of hours while I was out, ppl having been on xbox live, so...



Looking ok to me but then again I really don't know what am looking at other than there is very little red...

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by 7031

If you can live with this, stay with them, otherwise I'd recommend downgrading back to 10Mbps or so (it depends by area, but some areas use DOCSIS 1 for 10Mbps, others use DOCSIS 3, so if your area uses DOCSIS 1 for 10Mbps then you may find that the contention issue no longer affects you.

That was my reasoning when my area went bad. Unfortunately what I hadn't realised was that my modem - VMNG300 - will only do DOCSIS 3 so I'm still on the same congested pipes. Not sure if the Superhub which the OP must have would do DOCSIS 1 but I suspect not. At least I'm only paying for 10Mbps now though and most of the time I get it.

The OP's monitor looks similar to mine right now and VM have recognised a problem and opened a fault. Be interesting to see what it looks like in the evening.

[pabscars]

Below is one of mine when I was on 50Mbps and you can see it ramp up at peak time which made gaming painfull




---------- Post added at 16:55 ---------- Previous post was at 16:49 ----------

And another bad one

[otguk]

http://www.gamershell.com/top_downloads.html

Two files d/l total is around 3.2 Mb/s...


Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 10 ms 17 ms 10.108.132.1
2 19 ms 36 ms 31 ms pete-core-1b-ae1-1335.network.virginmedia.net [8
1.100.32.209]
3 18 ms 30 ms 20 ms popl-bb-1b-as6-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43
.163.221]
4 171 ms 29 ms 21 ms glfd-bb-1a-ae4-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.159.61]
5 18 ms 20 ms 35 ms glfd-bb-1b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.172.6]
6 17 ms 23 ms 52 ms glfd-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.159.46]
7 49 ms 41 ms 20 ms tcl5-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
185.78]
8 30 ms 38 ms 18 ms 212.58.239.249
9 36 ms 23 ms 51 ms 212.58.238.149
10 25 ms 18 ms 30 ms virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131]


Trace complete.

Were do I find these on the new hub;
The Downstream and Upstream Power Levels and Downstream SNR/RxMER taken from the modem/hub Configuration Pages.

Does it look like this;

LockedQAM25624055616000 Kbits/sec298750000 Hz 5.1 dBmV43.6 dBHybrid

LockedQAM25624155616000 Kbits/sec306750000 Hz 5.0 dBmV44.0 dBHybrid

LockedQAM25624255616000 Kbits/sec314750000 Hz 4.8 dBmV43.4 dBHybrid

???

Is it maintenance, connection?

Sorry am just going to add to this post as and when I do stuff from said virgin pages. In the first 5sec it jumped to 5Mb/s but drop fast :-(