100M : Just signed up for VM 100mb - Is there a way to anticipate possible congestion?

[PJLFC]

Hi all,

Yesterday we decided to sign up for VM broadband and phone after getting bored of waiting for Fibre to be installed (it was originally supposed to be installed in 2012 and was delayed, delayed and delayed again, finally being delayed in March this year until (supposedly) March 2016.

So we took out VM's 100MB service yesterday, received a good deal (£9 + Line Rental for 8 months, then standard £22.50 + LR for the last 4 months, 12 month contract). I made sure to check with work colleagues and friends who were on VM how their service was, and everyone had good things to say about them besides my brother who's at uni with them and says the connection isn't great despite engineer visits.

We put this down to being in a busy student area, which our home isn't, so decided to go with it. However I then started reading round sites such as here and saw reports of congestion and online gaming lag - this has me a bit worried to be honest!

I don't do much online gaming these days, prefer single player - as long as I can watch Netflix and download from Steam at a reasonable rate when needed, that suits me fine. My brother does play online quite a bit though, so is he likely to have a bad experience?

Are there any sites or resources for checking possible congestion in our area, or is it just a case of "wait and see" when we get it installed? My grandparents live nearby and are on VM, whenever I'm there browsing and video streaming is fine, but I haven't tried gaming - so this I see as a positive given they're on the same exchange as us.

If it helps anyone to provide an answer we're on the Prescot exchange, BT cabinet 27 (presumably VM cabinet is different though?).

To rub salt in things a bit, Plusnet and BT appear to have started offering fibre today despite them not emailing us to say so and BT's ADSL checker site still saying it'd be 2016... I think we're going to stick with VM for the year though and see how they are, unless this thread is filled with horror stories as to what we could expect!

Edit: For context I should add, we're currently on Sky ADSL unlimited getting around 6.5mb-7mb speeds, downloads top out at ~1meg/s.

[Parlyboy]

Looking at what you're currently on I don't think you'll get many issues, if anything you'll see a huge improvement.

If you do think there is an issue you can ask VM to do a congestion check for you.

Like most shared services it's a bit of a lottery and is very much dependant on where you live and the usage habits of others. It really is a case of wait and see, but then this wouldn't be any different with any of the other suppliers.

[Kushan]

The only way to gauge how your area will be is to ask a neighbour how their connection is. Congestion can vary from street to street, nevermind area by area.

All I can say is that a few years ago, the network was in a bad, bad way but these days it's much better. Congestion does still happen but they're a bit better than they used to be. All you can do is try and see.

[PJLFC]

Thanks both, think we'll wait and see how the connection is when we get it installed - I don't anticipate any problems given our normal usage currently, beyond online gaming, but hopefully that won't be affected too badly.

Looking forward to a good speed/download increase, at least!

[japitts]

Originally Posted by Kushan

The only way to gauge how your area will be is to ask a neighbour how their connection is. Congestion can vary from street to street, nevermind area by area.

All I can say is that a few years ago, the network was in a bad, bad way but these days it's much better. Congestion does still happen but they're a bit better than they used to be. All you can do is try and see.

Having suffered congestion on TiVo and currently on broadband, I've been left with the feeling that VM are currently not nearly as proactive or quick at dealing with congestion as they need to be.

Mind, I don't know what a typical lead-time is!

[ianch99]

Kushan is right, you only really know when you are checking the speeds in your locality, ideally your street.

We have a long running issue with utilisation (3yrs+) but I think nowadays we are in a distinct minority. Most VM customers get a good service I believe.

On the day of installation, make sure the Engineer shows you your (Cable Modem) power levels. It is important this are within certain ranges otherwise you will get problems, as a reference here are the levels you need to have: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...4/td-p/2271297

Last thing: I think you have 28 days (?) to opt out of the contract if you are unlucky and find you are in a over utilised area. I do think you should be ok though ..

Last last thing: make sure the Engineer gives you the Superhub 2 AC. I think these are std kit now but double check ..

[PJLFC]

Originally Posted by ianch99

Kushan is right, you only really know when you are checking the speeds in your locality, ideally your street.

We have a long running issue with utilisation (3yrs+) but I think nowadays we are in a distinct minority. Most VM customers get a good service I believe.

On the day of installation, make sure the Engineer shows you your (Cable Modem) power levels. It is important this are within certain ranges otherwise you will get problems, as a reference here are the levels you need to have: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...4/td-p/2271297

Last thing: I think you have 28 days (?) to opt out of the contract if you are unlucky and find you are in a over utilised area. I do think you should be ok though ..

Last last thing: make sure the Engineer gives you the Superhub 2 AC. I think these are std kit now but double check ..

Thanks very much, I'll make sure I have those reference levels to hand on the day of installation (currently scheduled for June 3rd so a while to wait yet!) and double check we get a Superhub 2 AC. It's especially good to hear about the 28 day cancellation window - that should give us plenty of time to test it out over the course of a couple of full weeks use and see if there are any drawbacks to the service in our area.

As said above though, considering I'm currently on 1meg/sec download I think pretty much anything will be an improvement!

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by japitts

Having suffered congestion on TiVo and currently on broadband, I've been left with the feeling that VM are currently not nearly as proactive or quick at dealing with congestion as they need to be.

Mind, I don't know what a typical lead-time is!

Unfortunately, bad areas do still exist

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by PJLFC

However I then started reading round sites such as here and saw reports of congestion and online gaming lag

If you do some googling I am sure you will find hundreds of threads on this site regarding congestion, but as Kush said, that was 4-5 years ago. The network used to be a joke but VM have done a lot of work over the last couple of years and it is so much better now. You will still see the odd thread going about congestion but tbh I don't think you are going to notice it at all. Your 100mbit connection is analogous to going from dialup from broadband; the difference is going to be phenomenal. The important thing to remember (and you don't need to worry about the technicalities) is that cable is a shared service by design and if you run speed tests you won't get 100mbits 24/7. It might drop down to half speed, 50-60mbits, during the evening and weekends but that is still 10x more than what you are used to.
Cynicism aside, my connection has always been great because I live in an excellent area for utilisation. I do game a lot and always have done (first person shooters online) and get great pings and no lag. My steam downloads blast away at 16MB/sec and I have no problem streaming stuff.

Going by the previous posts it sounds like you are preparing for the worst but you should be excited and look forward to it. I am sure your connection will be great and will definitely be a million times better than what you had before.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

If you do some googling I am sure you will find hundreds of threads on this site regarding congestion, but as Kush said, that was 4-5 years ago. The network used to be a joke but VM have done a lot of work over the last couple of years and it is so much better now. You will still see the odd thread going about congestion but tbh I don't think you are going to notice it at all.

A more accurate, consistent, and long term idea of how congestion on VM has changed would be looking at OFCOM's broadband speed figures for the past half decade.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by PJLFC

If it helps anyone to provide an answer we're on the Prescot exchange, BT cabinet 27 (presumably VM cabinet is different though?).

To rub salt in things a bit, Plusnet and BT appear to have started offering fibre today despite them not emailing us to say so and BT's ADSL checker site still saying it'd be 2016... I think we're going to stick with VM for the year though and see how they are, unless this thread is filled with horror stories as to what we could expect!

Prescot cab 27 went live for FTTC from BT on the 14th of April.

Check via https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

I would suggest you order from VM, and if it sucks use their guarantee to leave the contract before 28 days and go with BT's fibre product

[PJLFC]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

If you do some googling I am sure you will find hundreds of threads on this site regarding congestion, but as Kush said, that was 4-5 years ago. The network used to be a joke but VM have done a lot of work over the last couple of years and it is so much better now. You will still see the odd thread going about congestion but tbh I don't think you are going to notice it at all. Your 100mbit connection is analogous to going from dialup from broadband; the difference is going to be phenomenal. The important thing to remember (and you don't need to worry about the technicalities) is that cable is a shared service by design and if you run speed tests you won't get 100mbits 24/7. It might drop down to half speed, 50-60mbits, during the evening and weekends but that is still 10x more than what you are used to.
Cynicism aside, my connection has always been great because I live in an excellent area for utilisation. I do game a lot and always have done (first person shooters online) and get great pings and no lag. My steam downloads blast away at 16MB/sec and I have no problem streaming stuff.

Going by the previous posts it sounds like you are preparing for the worst but you should be excited and look forward to it. I am sure your connection will be great and will definitely be a million times better than what you had before.

Absolutely! I think the reason I'm trying to downplay my expectations of it is I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than expect too much from it and be disappointed if the connection doesn't perform as well as I expected across the whole week. As long as it works for either concurrent Netflix/online gaming/general browsing or 2 video streams & general browsing though at the same time, at any time of the week, I'll be happy with it.

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

I would suggest you order from VM, and if it sucks use their guarantee to leave the contract before 28 days and go with BT's fibre product

That's my plan I made sure to screenshot the VM page with the 28 day guarantee in case it's updated, and I'll test it out for a couple of weeks to see how consistent the performance is. If we do need to move at the end of the month, at least the installation of fibre has finally happened which gives us more options.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by PJLFC

That's my plan I made sure to screenshot the VM page with the 28 day guarantee in case it's updated, and I'll test it out for a couple of weeks to see how consistent the performance is. If we do need to move at the end of the month, at least the installation of fibre has finally happened which gives us more options.

Screenshot and print everything. I've had VM remove/change offers in the past and call me a liar when I called up to complain they hadn't been honoured. They shut up pretty quickly when I pointed them to a Google cache of their own website, but that was just a matter of luck.

[japitts]

Originally Posted by japitts

Having suffered congestion on TiVo and currently on broadband, I've been left with the feeling that VM are currently not nearly as proactive or quick at dealing with congestion as they need to be.

Mind, I don't know what a typical lead-time is!

Hate replying to my own post, I've now had the review date for my utilisation pushed back another 4 months. I think a couple of extra downstreams were added last week and initially there was a noticeable improvement. But it took 5 or 6 days for speeds to start slipping again.

I can't decide if that's poor planning or some other factor.

[broadbandking]

Congestion on VM network is really bad in some area's and trust me its not a easy or quick fix and VM don't seem to rush these jobs and plus they wait for the area to become bad before deciding to fix it then it can take another year for the problem to be sorted.