General : Does everyone have very variable speeds with cable?

[eightace]

I am moving to a cabled area and can potentially get the 300Mb option. Very tempted as moving from an area in the sticks with 1-2Mb ADSL!!!

I keep seeing problems with Virgin cable and oversubscribed areas and speeds dropping dramatically in peak times.

Is that the norm? Is it very annoying or just a little bit? Is there a way of knowing if I will be in a heavily subscribed area?

If I see that can I cancel within my 14 days cooling off period?

I have no wish to get into a fruitless discussion with Virgin tech support and me telling them things aren't ok and them telling me they can't see a problem so if it is likely there is great variability in speeds I will go with fibre and a good ISP.

Thanks

[Kymmy]

I live in a village with the only choice being ADSL @ 12-16 mpbs or VM @ 200 Mbps

My VM is rock stable, Usenet comes in at 200+. Very few if any out lying areas suffer from congestion.

PS..welcome to the forum, which area are we talking about?

[JordanTheToaster]

I rarely ever drop bellow 300, mostly sticking around 312-314 but i'm pretty lucky with my area.

[techguyone]

In my experience you either get full speed or nothing because it's broken. No in between (unless you've been temp capped if they still do that)

[MUD_Wizard]

Originally Posted by eightace

I keep seeing problems with Virgin cable and oversubscribed areas and speeds dropping dramatically in peak times.

Is that the norm?

It's the norm for some cables in some areas, while other cable's in the same area can be fine. Usually big student areas are to be avoided.

My area in Glasgow has always been rock solid on download speed, whichever tier I'm on. Currently I'm on 70/5.



There are known blackspots. Searching the forum using your postcode may give an idea. Though you won't really know until you try it, as I said some cable nodes even in badly affected areas are fine. You can always cancel if it's not great.

Avoid Wolverhampton at the moment as they're doing upgrade work on the hub site.

Originally Posted by eightace

Is it very annoying or just a little bit?

Being in an over-utilised area would range from mildly irritating to damn-right impossible to use. Thankfully my area has always been ok. If your area has never been over-utilised, then it's unlikely to become over-utilised.

Originally Posted by eightace

Is there a way of knowing if I will be in a heavily subscribed area?

No. Other than searching the community forum community.virginmedia.com for reports of faults. It's just a case of try it and see.

Originally Posted by eightace

If I see that can I cancel within my 14 days cooling off period?

Yes, you still have rights depending on how you purchase and the contract terms.

The good thing is you get the speed you get from day 1 and unless your power levels are majorly out on the hub or there's a temporary SNR fault, things won't change from there. So you should know on day one where you stand.

Originally Posted by eightace

I have no wish to get into a fruitless discussion with Virgin tech support and me telling them things aren't ok and them telling me they can't see a problem so if it is likely there is great variability in speeds I will go with fibre and a good ISP.

Thanks

Any technical problems, post here or on the community forum and someone will help. Much better than calling in.

One thing to check before hand: That your devices are capable of over 100Mb. Can't tell you how many times I've seen people on 200Mb claiming they're getting 50Mb on an iPad1 or laptop only to find its their devices at fault.

[eightace]

I am soon to be in Jesmond in Newcastle which has a lot of students so I expect things will be pretty choked up but I'm not keen on getting things set up if it constantly disappoints. Anyone able to comment on the 14 day cooling off period?

[MUD_Wizard]

Originally Posted by techguyone

In my experience you either get full speed or nothing because it's broken. No in between (unless you've been temp capped if they still do that)

There's been no traffic management on the downstream for well over a year now.

The upstream is still traffic managed on all regular tiers, except for the 300Mb homeworks add-on, which is semi-business add-on for residential customers on 200Mb and a special case.

https://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-m...hresholds.html

http://store.virginmedia.com/discove...homeworks.html

---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:06 ----------

Originally Posted by eightace

I am in Jesmond in Newcastle which has a lot of students so I expect things will be pretty choked up but I'm not keen on getting things set up if it constantly disappoints. Anyone able to comment on the 14 day cooling off period?

It's not guaranteed to be bad.

Jesmond and NE2 seems ok from what I can see on the community forum (assuming the search is working right).

Most reports are from 2012 in that area.

You'll just have to try it.

Seems to be other parts of Newcastle that are bad.

[Chrysalis]

As others have said some areas are fine others are chaotic.

Since VM allow you to cancel without penalty "after" installation it might be worth a punt.

A competitor tried to highight this in advertising by saying VM average peak time speeds are lower but the ASA banned the AD so as things stand the congestion issues dont affect VM's marketing so no motivation for them to fix the bad areas.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by eightace

I am moving to a cabled area and can potentially get the 300Mb option. Very tempted as moving from an area in the sticks with 1-2Mb ADSL!!!

I keep seeing problems with Virgin cable and oversubscribed areas and speeds dropping dramatically in peak times.

Is that the norm? Is it very annoying or just a little bit? Is there a way of knowing if I will be in a heavily subscribed area?

If I see that can I cancel within my 14 days cooling off period?

I have no wish to get into a fruitless discussion with Virgin tech support and me telling them things aren't ok and them telling me they can't see a problem so if it is likely there is great variability in speeds I will go with fibre and a good ISP.

Thanks

I am on Virgin cable 100 Mbs and always get 106 Mbs solid.

[InsaneNutter]

I've been with Virgin, formerly NTL for the since the dial up days in 2000ish.

99.9% of the time you will get the advertised speeds with no problems, that said Virgin have been down or on a go slow here more this year than the last 15 years combined.

With an idle internet connection this is the best ive got for the last 4-5 days now:



That happened for a few weeks in November last year also, however eventually sorted it's self out.

[MUD_Wizard]

Originally Posted by InsaneNutter

I've been with Virgin, formerly NTL for the since the dial up days in 2000ish.

99.9% of the time you will get the advertised speeds with no problems, that said Virgin have been down or on a go slow here more this year than the last 15 years combined.

With an idle internet connection this is the best ive got for the last 4-5 days now:



That happened for a few weeks in November last year also, however eventually sorted it's self out.

Most likely an SNR fault, which happens at least twice a year on VM.

[vm_tech]

Originally Posted by MUD_Wizard

Most likely an SNR fault, which happens at least twice a year on VM.

SNR issues affect a nodal area. So to say it happens at least twice a year is completely wrong, it's pot luck. In my 2 and a half years as network engineer I was responsible for Approx 330 nodes. Some nodes I went to multiple times, others I didn't visit at all.

---------- Post added at 08:57 ---------- Previous post was at 08:55 ----------

99 times out of 100 caused by loose connectors or dodgy home ran cable

[MUD_Wizard]

Originally Posted by vm_tech

SNR issues affect a nodal area. So to say it happens at least twice a year is completely wrong, it's pot luck. In my 2 and a half years as network engineer I was responsible for Approx 330 nodes. Some nodes I went to multiple times, others I didn't visit at all.

Yeah. I don't actually remember making that post, I was so drunk last night.

Paying for it now though.. Whisky and red wine, bad combination.

[23prince]

Originally Posted by JordanTheToaster

I rarely ever drop bellow 300, mostly sticking around 312-314 but i'm pretty lucky with my area.

LOL you've had it a few days man. When it's a few months/years then use it as an example

:P

---------- Post added at 23:11 ---------- Previous post was at 23:10 ----------

Originally Posted by eightace

If I see that can I cancel within my 14 days cooling off period?

Virgin give you 28 and as such they bill for 2 months at a time at the end of the second month. Or always did for people I know who were on it.

[Kymmy]

Here's a small graph of the ip using dslreports, first test was November last year, middle two were January this year and the fourth test was 5 minutes ago.