New STM/Virgin traffic managent confirmed - so that's why it's slow!

[pip08456]

I find it interesting that since a couple of weeks ago, threatening to leave (as a customer since Bolton cable existed) I was contacted by retention and given a £9.00 discount on my 37.00 bill (BB & Phone only). This was on the condition I "Hung on in there" for a month as things would improve.

I even went so far as to configure my torrent client to cut the download speed to only 10kbps during the STM period.

I regularly check my connection speed and over the past 9 months the average has been 7978kbps and the best ever was during the STM period tonight at 12479kbps. Now it is back down to 8756kbps.

ABSOLUTELY brilliant for someone who is being charged for 20Mbps (and yes I do know the difference!).

Now what I would like to know from all the VM lovies out there (you know who you are) is this.

If as advised by tech support I've changed my download habits to suit their STM why am I still not getting what I pay for?

BT wholesale and their resellers have a legitimate answer to this as BT is still on copper from the exchange. NOT so VM.

BE have advised me I should expect a minimum of 16Mbps on their system and what I've read about them I am tending to believe it. It's better than I've had from VM.

I'm off to bed now work in the morning

[Mike45450]

Originally Posted by TraxData

Err no, you get put in the list if you hit STM more than 3 times in a month, actually.

Wait, W-H-A-T?! I'm on 2MB, so does that mean if I download 500MB+ between 4-9pm on 3 seperate days for example, I may be sent a letter?! Please tell me i've gotten it wrong...

[AndrewJ]

Nope your right.

Don't use what you pay for

[broadbandbug]

Originally Posted by TraxData

Err no, you get put in the list if you hit STM more than 3 times in a month, actually.

LOL Ok.. I give up.. no more biting to your dodgy info for me

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by pippincp

If as advised by tech support I've changed my download habits to suit their STM why am I still not getting what I pay for?

Why don't you do the tests that VM Tech Support usually request and copy the results back here or straight to the newsgroup?
You'll find some notes and hints in this post.

[grungernut]

For anybody experiencing slow speeds or ongoing issues heres some tips.

Make sure you call or request support via the news groups and get all the checks done.
Make sure you insist that adequate notes are made on you account regarding the issue.
Once you have identified the fact that there is an issue, call cust care and demand you pay for what you are getting.

The amount of customers I have dealt with that are getting less than half what they pay for and have not demanded a reduction is amazing.

Example, Upgraded to 20Mb,had old dpx100/sb4100 modem,slow speeds for 4 months then new modem ordered. You are owed 4 months of the charge back for the higher speed as the modem is not capable of the speed and sales/cust care will never check this.

VM will never offer you this,you have to ask,often repeatedly.
Never be threatening but always be firm and always demand that a CCCS complaint is raised as this will then generate a follow up, and ask for the complaint reference number or you will just get told it has been done when it has not.

you need to remember that tech support can only diagnose and fix basic stuff,even 2nd line cannot fix an over subscribed ubr,best they can do is move you to a less utilised channel and give you any dates they have for planned work, them giving you a date and a ref number is your proof that there is an issue and is all you need to make that call.

Sorry for waffling on guys,hth.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by ceedee

Why don't you do the tests that VM Tech Support usually request and copy the results back here or straight to the newsgroup?
You'll find some notes and hints in this post.

Just nipped home quickly during my lunch break. Didn't have time to do all the tests but the 4 simultaneous downloads returned at

642kbs
624kbs
443kbs
333kbs

A total of 2042kbs

So according to the recommended test (albeit just one) my speed is about 1/10th of what I pay for.

Before you ask I did exit all programmes accessing the internet first eg mail client, torrent client etc.

Straight after I ran a test at speedtest.net which returned 6559 down 735 up
still well below the supposed 20Mbps being charged for.

Here's a few results going back the last 3 months. I've only edited the IP address


Results History
Test Again
Showing Results For MY CURRENT IP: 81.102.122.xxx - (VIRGIN MEDIA)
Date IP Address Download Upload Latency Server Distance Share
6/5/2008 11:09 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 6559 kb/s 735 kb/s 25 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Close
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6/5/2008 7:56 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 10050 kb/s 388 kb/s 27 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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6/5/2008 12:00 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 8954 kb/s 729 kb/s 43 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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6/4/2008 11:23 PM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 12479 kb/s 728 kb/s 26 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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6/4/2008 7:49 PM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 9625 kb/s 733 kb/s 46 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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6/4/2008 7:48 PM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 10765 kb/s 727 kb/s 47 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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6/3/2008 6:31 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 6222 kb/s 718 kb/s 48 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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6/3/2008 6:21 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 6100 kb/s 721 kb/s 49 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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5/25/2008 1:52 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 6540 kb/s 196 kb/s 37 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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5/25/2008 1:49 AM GMT 81.102.122.xxx 5366 kb/s 226 kb/s 42 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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5/13/2008 12:23 AM GMT 81.102.122.209 6821 kb/s 629 kb/s 45 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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5/13/2008 12:21 AM GMT 81.102.122.209 6075 kb/s 630 kb/s 38 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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3/19/2008 2:32 PM GMT 81.102.122.209 8609 kb/s 726 kb/s 36 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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3/19/2008 2:31 PM GMT 81.102.122.209 8175 kb/s 728 kb/s 47 ms Maidenhead ~ 150 mi Open
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[ceedee]

Originally Posted by pippincp

Just nipped home quickly during my lunch break. Didn't have time to do all the tests but the 4 simultaneous downloads returned at

642kbs
624kbs
443kbs
333kbs

A total of 2042kbs

So according to the recommended test (albeit just one) my speed is about 1/10th of what I pay for.

Before you ask I did exit all programmes accessing the internet first eg mail client, torrent client etc.

Straight after I ran a test at speedtest.net which returned 6559 down 735 up
still well below the supposed 20Mbps being charged for.

Don't think I've ever seen a speedtest report that 'over-estimated' a real download trial by that factor before. I suspect that your connection has serious problems.

Recommend you do the other tests when you've got some free time and post the results.
I'd be very interested to see the power levels from your modem.

"When signal levels are poor but not poor enough to provoke the above symptoms [unusual led activity on the modem], you might observe degraded throughput, or packet loss, or poor latency, or failure to acquire or renew a DHCP lease. But poor signal levels are not the only cause of these symptoms, so some diagnosis is required before you blame the signal levels."

(Source: Cable Modem Troubleshooting Tips)

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by pippincp

So according to the recommended test (albeit just one) my speed is about 1/10th of what I pay for.

That is because they have sold your bandwidth to other customers. and to enable them to sell even more bandwidth to more customers they have to take it off those that have already paid for it

[Sput]

Ofcom has written to ISP's and asked them to stop mis-selling broadband on speed:-

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06...code_practice/

It will be interesting to see what happens especially since Virgin has signed up to obey the new rules!

Personally I would like to have seen Ofcom insist on a MINIMUM speed for each type of service. For example, with a 20 meg service the ISP would be expected to deliver at least 50% of the charged speed ie 10 Meg. Would this be asking too much?

[grungernut]

unfortunately a lot of VM's network cant even supply this,thats why stm was brought in.

[Sput]

Originally Posted by grungernut

For anybody experiencing slow speeds or ongoing issues heres some tips.

Make sure you call or request support via the news groups and get all the checks done.
Make sure you insist that adequate notes are made on you account regarding the issue.
Once you have identified the fact that there is an issue, call cust care and demand you pay for what you are getting.

The amount of customers I have dealt with that are getting less than half what they pay for and have not demanded a reduction is amazing.

Example, Upgraded to 20Mb,had old dpx100/sb4100 modem,slow speeds for 4 months then new modem ordered. You are owed 4 months of the charge back for the higher speed as the modem is not capable of the speed and sales/cust care will never check this.

VM will never offer you this,you have to ask,often repeatedly.
Never be threatening but always be firm and always demand that a CCCS complaint is raised as this will then generate a follow up, and ask for the complaint reference number or you will just get told it has been done when it has not.

you need to remember that tech support can only diagnose and fix basic stuff,even 2nd line cannot fix an over subscribed ubr,best they can do is move you to a less utilised channel and give you any dates they have for planned work, them giving you a date and a ref number is your proof that there is an issue and is all you need to make that call.

Sorry for waffling on guys,hth.

This is a very good explanation of what should be done to resolve broadband price/performance issues. I did something similar a while ago and, whilst my broadband performance did not improve, my costs were cut by £10 per month.

I hope others take your advice and obtain a satisfactory resolution.

[Nicosia]

isent vm going a little far with this?

[damien c]

they basically say that all the people who use there internet just for surfing and for, checking emails are the people they want where as if they were, to try to satisfy the customers that don't just use it for them purposes, they would probably make more money.

i think they are going to far with it they keep offering faster speeds but you just cannot, use it because of the stm rules even downloading legal content gets, you stm'd or even downloading drivers and software that you need for your comp gets you stm'd.

[Nicosia]

Originally Posted by Mike45450

Wait, W-H-A-T?! I'm on 2MB, so does that mean if I download 500MB+ between 4-9pm on 3 seperate days for example, I may be sent a letter?! Please tell me i've gotten it wrong...

i should get my letter soon then ive been over the limit like 6 times up to now within 2 weeks of usage, its so easy to hit the limit without realising it, i hate havingto be acrefull of what i dl for the whole day VMreally needto stop capping users