50M : Virgin broadband is driving me crazy

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by octatonic

Yeah pretty much the same situation with me.

Had a record of my call but no callout booked.
I asked the guy twice to clarify the time yesterday.

Not sure what I will do if they fail to turn up on Wednesday.

Check to see if they recorded the call that might help you, Additionally call them back tell them you are recording the call and then when they acknowledge that you are recording the call ask them to confirm an engineer is booked and what time slot they gave you. If you get a good agent you should not have to do any of what i just suggested. I hope you get it fixed

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by octatonic

I lost a days wages because of it (around £250).
So now they have another booking for Wednesday- I lose another £250.
Their response was to credit me a whole £30.
Well, thanks a lot guys, but that is a pretty insignificant amount of money.

If you made £250 a day you wouldn't be moaning about it on an internet forum as, well, that's an insignificant amount of money.

[Sephiroth]

From a technical perspective, is your upstream stable at 51 dBmv or does it fluctuate - especially towards 55?

You see, it's unusual for there to be high downstream power and high upstream power. One can account for high downstream power - you're close to the cabinet or the amplifier is over-amplifying (or indeed both but I just think it's one of them).

But then I'd expect the upstream power to be lower because there's less attenuation between your CM and the first active node (the large street box with a 240V sticker). But your upstream power is high indicating attenuation somewhere.

We didn't see the full stats nor the event log. So we don't know if there's upstream noise affecting you.

Turning to the Speedtest result you've shown. Blank. Is that right?

With regard to the AE - the Modem Mode in the SH is the only way to run that wretched thing, IMO. Only then can you be sure that no other functions are slugging your connection. If it ran even slower in Modem Mode, that was just an unrelated circumstance, due either to poor upstream (we'll check that when you post full stats & event log) or downstream difficulties due to high power received at the SH.

In summary, I believe you have more than one problem (subject to sight of full stats and an answer to the upstream power question). The upstream power, if stable, is not out of spec. But if the upstream attenuation is high, then I wouldn't like to think what your downstream power would be if it was attenuation in your coax to the street box.

Finally, It may well be the street box amplifier that's playing up. They're making all sorts of changes at the VM end and this generally needs a rebalancing of outputs at the amplifier as lasers are renewed and so on. The visitng engineer will slap 10 dB of forward path attenuation on and it'll be worth seeing what performance difference that makes. But if you have an upstream issue, the engineer is usually unable to fix that and would have to refer matters to Networks.

Hope that helps.

[octatonic]

The speedtests results seem to have disappeared in the last few days.
They were there beforehand.

I was getting 2-4 meg download, then it would sometimes ramp up to 30-40, then back down.

A Virgin engineer turned up today.
We swapped out the power supply for the SH (apparently the power supply for the old modem was being used previously) and he put a 10db attenuator on it.

It is more stable now but I still have a lot of packet loss.
My cable connection is currently split off my neighbours junction box- he said it looked like a bit of a bodge job done by the guy who installed it.
He's put in an appointment for me to be moved directly to the road connection and this should clear that up he reckons.
They can't do it for a month though.

Here are the current readings:



Upstream power has remained a constant 51.5 dBmV throughout- hasn't fluctuated towards 55 at all.

Thanks for your help.

---------- Post added at 11:30 ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 ----------

Hmmm.... new problem.
Running the Superhub in modem mode cuts my speed from roughly 40-47meg down to 12-30.

[Sephiroth]

Is that speed drop true if you wire a PC directly to the modem output port?

I'm not blessed/blighted with the SH right now, so is there a setting (like Autodetect) on either the AE or the SH that migh be wrongly specified? That really shouldn't happen.

Tapping off a neighbour would produce instability. Normally you'd get a pull straight to the cabinet. Is the cabinet close by?

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Is that speed drop true if you wire a PC directly to the modem output port?

I'm not blessed/blighted with the SH right now, so is there a setting (like Autodetect) on either the AE or the SH that migh be wrongly specified? That really shouldn't happen.

Tapping off a neighbour would produce instability. Normally you'd get a pull straight to the cabinet. Is the cabinet close by?

I haven't tried running a direct connection from the SH in modem mode to my Mac.
It isn't the easiest thing in the world to do as I'd need to move the Mac tower downstairs.
Worth doing, do you think?

My other computer is a Macbook Air which has't got an ethernet connection- wifi only.

The cabinet is at the top of the street.
Apparently they have to run a new cable form the junction box to my house which is why it will take a month to do.

[Sephiroth]

It's just a process of elimination. What is your topology? The first thing to do is eliminate the VM network and your AE as a cause. So you'd need to be wired direct to the Hub in Modem Mode. Then do the speed tests (if speedtest.netwon't display correctly try another one). Try to avoid the tests in peak time so that you can get some consistency.

Then add the AE and ensure it is set up correctly (I'm thinking of the port connection - you should be on 1 Gig between the SH & AE). If you need help there let me know but I won't be able to troubleshoot the AE till this evening (peak time!).

Your speed test should be the same as the directly connected device, for which the ethernet port should also be set to Autodetect.

With Wireless, anything can happen, although the AE will serve you better than the SH.

Incidentally, I'm sure that your high upstream power is due to the fudge with the neighbour's connection - and you may be picking up noise there which would affect your downstream speed.

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

It's just a process of elimination. What is your topology? The first thing to do is eliminate the VM network and your AE as a cause. So you'd need to be wired direct to the Hub in Modem Mode. Then do the speed tests (if speedtest.netwon't display correctly try another one). Try to avoid the tests in peak time so that you can get some consistency.

Then add the AE and ensure it is set up correctly (I'm thinking of the port connection - you should be on 1 Gig between the SH & AE). If you need help there let me know but I won't be able to troubleshoot the AE till this evening (peak time!).

Your speed test should be the same as the directly connected device, for which the ethernet port should also be set to Autodetect.

With Wireless, anything can happen, although the AE will serve you better than the SH.

Incidentally, I'm sure that your high upstream power is due to the fudge with the neighbour's connection - and you may be picking up noise there which would affect your downstream speed.

Topology is as follows:

VM Cable is split going to the TIVO and the Superhub.
Superhub is connected using a Cat 6 cable to an Airport Extreme (living room).
Airport Extreme (living room) as a 30m cat6 cable running to another Airport Extreme (studio) in my recording studio.
I have a backup 30m cat6 cable run in case the first one stops working for any reason.

The AE's are configured with the same wifi network name and password.
I did a lot of research on this and it seemed the best way to run the network.

In the living room I have an Xbox 360, Apple TV plugged into the Airport Extreme (living room).
In my studio I have a Mac Pro plugged into the Airport Extreme (studio).

I'll wire the Mac Pro up directly to the modem and report back with speedtest now.

---------- Post added at 13:03 ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 ----------

Ok, I ran two speedtests from my studio Mac Pro directly connected to the SH in modem mode and then running through the Airport Extreme.
They were close enough it makes no matter- both in the high 40mb's.
Looks like it is a non-issue and just a bad speedtest, which could still be down to the fudge with the neighbour connection or some other factor.

I guess I just need to persevere with what I have now until I get the Virgin guys out next month.

Is there any specific setting for the AE that I should be aware of when the SH is in modem mode?

[Sephiroth]

Good. To answer your addedum first, the living room AE must not be in Bridge Mode to the SH.

The AE in the studio would presumably be in bridge mode with the AE in the living room. So with that unusual (but obviously reasonable) topology, one does need to move outward from the modem and take measurements (as your addendum states you have done - all the way to the studio AE?).

One thing bothers me about the wireless. You say you've got the same wireless network name. Which physical wireless is being picked up by the MAC AIR? and are the frequencies the same in which case there'll be conflict.

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Good. To answer your addedum first, the living room AE must not be in Bridge Mode to the SH.

The AE in the studio would presumably be in bridge mode with the AE in the living room. So with that unusual (but obviously reasonable) topology, one does need to move outward from the modem and take measurements (as your addendum states you have done - all the way to the studio AE?).

One thing bothers me about the wireless. You say you've got the same wireless network name. Which physical wireless is being picked up by the MAC AIR? and are the frequencies the same in which case there'll be conflict.

Yes the Studio AE is in bridge mode, the living room one is not.
I have the Studio AE set to a different channel for wifi but it is mostly used for wired connections.
I found an webpage that went through all the different configs for running multiple AE's and this was the one most recommended.
The MBA lives in the living room, not the studio.

---------- Post added at 15:47 ---------- Previous post was at 15:31 ----------



Taken from the Mac Pro just before.
Speed seems fine now.
Ping/Jitter aren't as impressive:

[Sephiroth]

So it looks like you've got all bases covered. If it works OK ever, then your setup is clearly fine.

So we now have to monitor stability, particularly when they pull your own cable and depart you from the lash-up they've mad.

Cheers

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

So it looks like you've got all bases covered. If it works OK ever, then your setup is clearly fine.

So we now have to monitor stability, particularly when they pull your own cable and depart you from the lash-up they've mad.

Cheers

I really appreciate your help- hopefully it is mostly sorted now.

[octatonic]

Nope, it isn't sorted at all.
Just had an hours outage and the unhelpful response from Virgin was 'yes we know it is a fault in your street, we hope to have it fixed by the 25th of October, but it might be a month after that.

My downstream stats are:

Downstream Channels
Lock Status Modulation Channel ID Max Raw Bit Rate Frequency Power SNR Docsis/EuroDocsis locked
Locked QAM256 200 55616000 Kbits/sec 306750000 Hz 11.2 dBmV 41.5 dB Hybrid
Locked QAM256 199 55616000 Kbits/sec 298750000 Hz 11.7 dBmV 41.8 dB Hybrid
Locked QAM256 201 55616000 Kbits/sec 314750000 Hz 11.0 dBmV 41.2 dB Hybrid

This is with a 10db filter in line.
So annoyed... actually more than annoyed but I know there is a swear filter here so I've resisted the urge to vent.
Virgin are an absolute joke.

[octatonic]

The saga continues.

Got a call yesterday (prerecorded) from Virgin saying 'The issue you reported has been fixed and the call out, if you had one, has been cancelled.

Since then I've had the worst network performance in the whole ordeal.
Getting 1-2meg the whole time- I should be getting 50meg.

Rang virgin, they said to disregard the phone call.
I'm so done with this company.
I have 3 more months with the contract but actually going to contact OFCOM and do what I can to get out of the contract.
This is absolutely the worst broadband I've had in years- Virgin don't know their ass from their elbow when it comes to managing a network properly.

[LaineY]

I would have thought the Downstream Power Levels are too high for 50MB,

I'm sure they are mean't to be below +7