Home News Forum Articles
  Welcome back Join CF
You are here You are here: Home | Forum | 500 meg inconsistent

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most of the discussions, articles and other free features. By joining our Virgin Media community you will have full access to all discussions, be able to view and post threads, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own images/photos, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please join our community today.


Welcome to Cable Forum
Go Back   Cable Forum > Virgin Media Services > Virgin Media Internet Service

500 meg inconsistent
Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 19-07-2019, 14:40   #1
david_w2k
cf.addict
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 230
david_w2k is on a distinguished roaddavid_w2k is on a distinguished road
500 meg inconsistent

Hello
Long time no speak (although I still do follow this forum!). I decided to go for the £99 ultimate oomph bundle and upgraded from 200 - 500.

Previously I would always get 200-220 on a speed test but I have found that the 500 service is more inconsistent. I run it and get 540 and a few minutes later might get 250. In practical terms I have noticed everything is snappier, downloads are fast and had no issues.

Out of interest I was wondering if anyone else has similar outcomes?
david_w2k is offline   Reply With Quote
Advertisement
Old 19-07-2019, 21:14   #2
roughbeast
cf.mega poster
 
roughbeast's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Coventry
Services: Vodafone/City Fibre Gigafast 900
Posts: 1,781
roughbeast has reached the bronze age
roughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze age
Re: 500 meg inconsistent

Quote:
Originally Posted by david_w2k View Post
Hello
Long time no speak (although I still do follow this forum!). I decided to go for the £99 ultimate oomph bundle and upgraded from 200 - 500.

Previously I would always get 200-220 on a speed test but I have found that the 500 service is more inconsistent. I run it and get 540 and a few minutes later might get 250. In practical terms I have noticed everything is snappier, downloads are fast and had no issues.

Out of interest I was wondering if anyone else has similar outcomes?
Yes and No.

Yes, because unlike when I was on 350Mb, I occasionally get something close to the advertised speed rather than the much faster I usually get. On a 350Mb connection I got 386Mb/21Mb 24/7.

No, because most times I will get 556Mb / 36Mb, but not 24/7. This doesn't seem to be related to time of day or who is using bandwidth in the house. Oddly, after an under-par test, if I do a retest it is likely to be normal speed.

Naturally, like you, I have wondered why. Is it that perhaps, the speed tester itself is struggling with higher speeds? Probably not, because I get the same inconsistency with a variety of testers. Perhaps the greater speed is putting the shared cable between Node and Street box under pressure. Probably not, because it doesn't make a difference whether it is at peak time or in the small hours. I had thought that the inconsistency is due to the capacity of my processor. This can cause instability during a test. My processor is an i5-6600 CPU @ 3.30GHz. It's not that then. So maybe it is that the nearer we get to 1Gb bandwidth my motherboard, network card and Cat5e ethernet sometimes struggle. It won't be my Asus RT-AC88U.

That's all that I can think of right now. Anyway, it isn't of great importance, because variations of 20-30Mb hardly affect the service we get, but it is interesting. Will connections of 1Gb give similar or worse inconsistency in tests.



Tests with two teens gaming in their rooms!





URL=https://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk][/URL]

The dslreports tester was too erratic to be reliable. It ranged between 300Mb and 600Mb during the test. That is often a symptom of a struggling processor.
__________________
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Coventry
Services: FACTCO/CityFibre 1GB FTTP; Asus GT-AX11000 +3 iMesh nodes; Humax 2Tb TV boxes x2; Synology DS920+ used as Plex server

Last edited by roughbeast; 19-07-2019 at 21:31.
roughbeast is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 25-07-2019, 11:22   #3
kev445
cf.member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 78
kev445 is on a distinguished roadkev445 is on a distinguished road
Re: 500 meg inconsistent

With this being a new service, I’m sure Virgin Media will find ways to tweak the service. I believe the problem may stem from the service being bonded and out of order packets.

Bonding is great; however, it can introduce out of order packets. The solution is to create a buffer on the modem, so it can reorder the packets back into the correct order. If this buffer is too small, it will be unable to correct the order of packets and the result is speed tests and downloads will be variable, due to retransmissions.

It sounds like the buffer is just a tiny bit too small, I’m sure they’ll adjust it up over time, like they have done previously.
kev445 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-07-2019, 09:25   #4
ShaneC
cf.addict
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Paignton, Devon
Age: 52
Posts: 193
ShaneC has a spectacular aura about themShaneC has a spectacular aura about themShaneC has a spectacular aura about themShaneC has a spectacular aura about them
Re: 500 meg inconsistent

Just in case you've not seen it, I use fast.com for speed tests, they generally return the most consistent results for me.
ShaneC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-07-2019, 14:24   #5
Joedm45
cf.geek
 
Joedm45's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Beyond The Sun
Posts: 707
Joedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of QuadsJoedm45 has a fine set of Quads
Re: 500 meg inconsistent

I'm in a similar situation.

Recently upgraded from 200 to 500Mb, installed the new router and the best I've ever seen is 280Mb on the Speedtest app on my phone. Normally I get between 180-220Mb depending on the time of day

Does broadband still take time to bed in? It's been 10 days or so. Or am I thinking of the old days again

I'll probably give them a call but the T's & C's on the 500Mb are shocking, it implies no point in complaining unless it is below 258Mb
Joedm45 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-07-2019, 15:12   #6
roughbeast
cf.mega poster
 
roughbeast's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Coventry
Services: Vodafone/City Fibre Gigafast 900
Posts: 1,781
roughbeast has reached the bronze age
roughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze ageroughbeast has reached the bronze age
Re: 500 meg inconsistent

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShaneC View Post
Just in case you've not seen it, I use fast.com for speed tests, they generally return the most consistent results for me.
How consistent did you say Fast.com is? I just got this result.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhlpLoG7kfyGpqUU9D9a_GW2Q3HmRg
__________________
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Coventry
Services: FACTCO/CityFibre 1GB FTTP; Asus GT-AX11000 +3 iMesh nodes; Humax 2Tb TV boxes x2; Synology DS920+ used as Plex server
roughbeast is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 17:14.


Server: osmium.zmnt.uk
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.