broadband hell drops to 1meg after 6pm

[lolwaine]

i have recently had vm broadband installed and had to phone india for 3 nights in a row to get activated.i have 4meg broadband which i run my pc and xbox through.it works great in the day time but after 6pm i have to unhook my pc through the router to get onlline with my xbox 360 because the speed has dropped.has anyone else got this problem????? please help

[ultimate]

A lot of us here is suffering from this problem, including 20M liners getting <1mb. There isn't much we can do but moan and groan. Basically we have too many people on the servers.

[lolwaine]

Originally Posted by ultimate

A lot of us here is suffering from this problem, including 20M liners getting <1mb. There isn't much we can do but moan and groan. Basically we have too many people on the servers.

but whats the point most people work all day.they should put it on there adverts with ruby wax saying 4 meg broadband available until 4pm but don't hold your breath after that.......

[Rone]

I work from home, during the day is the only time i get anywhere near [upto of course] 20 meg.

[lolwaine]

so what we are finding is it's great for people working from home and people on the dole.........they should put that in there next advert.

[RedDragon]

The problem with the internet is that ISP's and websites are starting to offer services that the infrastructure is struggling to keep up with. If some guy builds a web site selling HD movies to download for a good price he doesn't care that his business is putting a strain on other ISP's bandwidth usage, his customers won't complain to him about the speed of downloading, it's always the ISP who is to blame for not providing consistent bandwidth. VM is upgrading it's networks but it takes time and money. Most customers get close to the speeds they are paying for but there are areas where the customers are their own worst enemies, one of these are student accommodations. Drive around a student area with a wireless laptop and you will find many unsecured networks, there may be 4 or 5 students in a house using a single modem but if the router is not secured there are probably 4 or 5 other users nearby, this means that a lot of the modems in a student area are downloading almost constantly. Now when the networks were originally built it was expected that only a certain percentage of a street would have cable modems and that they would not all be downloading all the time(contention),most systems are built like this, if everyone went for a drive now they wouldn’t get past the end of the street, if everyone picked up the phone now the exchanges couldn't handle it, but the internet is now expected to be an always on service, and customers expectations and the content available are growing faster than the ISP's can buy and install the equipment needed to keep up. I think VM is trying to deliver the service you want and for the majority they succeed, but when they don’t its not always their fault.

Originally Posted by RedDragon

The problem with the internet is that ISP's and websites are starting to offer services that the infrastructure is struggling to keep up with. <snip>, but when they don’t its not always their fault.

Lots of snippage, but I thought that was an really good summary.

- "not always their fault" may be true in some cases - the expectation of 24/7, full speed up & downloads, VOD, etc being one, but using words like 'unlimited' in their advertising without truly stating the limitations, doesn't help either, in my opinion ...

[RedDragon]

How open in it's advertising can a company be before it starts losing customers to a company who is not so open, its a balancing act which, I agree, can annoy people who don't get the service they think are paying for. At the end of day it's the customers who are paying towards the upgrades.

Sorry about the snippage didn't see it when I posted.

[Spleeny]

Hi (long time lurker first time poster)

I also found that interesting, but have another take on it. I have enjoyed my 4mbit broadband quite happily for over a year... full time, constant, 3800mbps.... until recently. I am now experiencing exactly the phenom described - the 6pm peril! The change came about quite suddenly, so I am a little reluctant to believe that its a bandwidth problem. Now I struggle to stream videos!! What goes through my mind is that it is costing me £25 a month, when I could get an equally poor service from the ADSL crew for 'free'-ish.

To be fair to VM, I have just had the company of an engineer for over an hour (we even went out to the street to poke around in the kiosk). Unfortunately, he is at a loss to explain my problem (so was 'dave' the bloke the engineer rang on the phone at broadband support). Surely they wouldnt be wasting man hours like that if they KNEW they had a problem with bandwidth?

Out of curisity... how many of the folk experiencing problems are receiving the £25 Loyality / Sky One debarcle credit? Or am I just too cynical?....

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by RedDragon

The problem with the internet is that ISP's and websites are starting to offer services that the infrastructure is struggling to keep up with. If some guy builds a web site selling HD movies to download for a good price he doesn't care that his business is putting a strain on other ISP's bandwidth usage, his customers won't complain to him about the speed of downloading, it's always the ISP who is to blame for not providing consistent bandwidth. VM is upgrading it's networks but it takes time and money. Most customers get close to the speeds they are paying for but there are areas where the customers are their own worst enemies, one of these are student accommodations. Drive around a student area with a wireless laptop and you will find many unsecured networks, there may be 4 or 5 students in a house using a single modem but if the router is not secured there are probably 4 or 5 other users nearby, this means that a lot of the modems in a student area are downloading almost constantly. Now when the networks were originally built it was expected that only a certain percentage of a street would have cable modems and that they would not all be downloading all the time(contention),most systems are built like this, if everyone went for a drive now they wouldn’t get past the end of the street, if everyone picked up the phone now the exchanges couldn't handle it, but the internet is now expected to be an always on service, and customers expectations and the content available are growing faster than the ISP's can buy and install the equipment needed to keep up. I think VM is trying to deliver the service you want and for the majority they succeed, but when they don’t its not always their fault.

Two things, it's not the subs fault if VM are too incompetent to manage their network and if VM can't supply it they shouldn't sell it.

[lolwaine]

Originally Posted by RedDragon

The problem with the internet is that ISP's and websites are starting to offer services that the infrastructure is struggling to keep up with. If some guy builds a web site selling HD movies to download for a good price he doesn't care that his business is putting a strain on other ISP's bandwidth usage, his customers won't complain to him about the speed of downloading, it's always the ISP who is to blame for not providing consistent bandwidth. VM is upgrading it's networks but it takes time and money. Most customers get close to the speeds they are paying for but there are areas where the customers are their own worst enemies, one of these are student accommodations. Drive around a student area with a wireless laptop and you will find many unsecured networks, there may be 4 or 5 students in a house using a single modem but if the router is not secured there are probably 4 or 5 other users nearby, this means that a lot of the modems in a student area are downloading almost constantly. Now when the networks were originally built it was expected that only a certain percentage of a street would have cable modems and that they would not all be downloading all the time(contention),most systems are built like this, if everyone went for a drive now they wouldn’t get past the end of the street, if everyone picked up the phone now the exchanges couldn't handle it, but the internet is now expected to be an always on service, and customers expectations and the content available are growing faster than the ISP's can buy and install the equipment needed to keep up. I think VM is trying to deliver the service you want and for the majority they succeed, but when they don’t its not always their fault.

i know your saying certain areas but i can see the vm building from my bedroom window or do i need to be closer ???

[Rone]

Originally Posted by lolwaine

i know your saying certain areas but i can see the vm building from my bedroom window or do i need to be closer ???

Only if your using normal weapons, a rocket launcher should be adequate.


"so what we are finding is it's great for people working from home and people on the dole.........they should put that in there next advert".

Yes, thats about it, it makes me laugh that if you download nothing, speeds are still horrendous when everyone gets home and logs on, if i have any reservations about 50meg, this just about proves what a bad idea it would be.

[lolwaine]

Originally Posted by Rone

Only if your using normal weapons, a rocket launcher should be adequate.


"so what we are finding is it's great for people working from home and people on the dole.........they should put that in there next advert".

Yes, thats about it, it makes me laugh that if you download nothing, speeds are still horrendous when everyone gets home and logs on, if i have any reservations about 50meg, this just about proves what a bad idea it would be.

what i have found in the last few days is that it does'nt matter what speed you are on be it 2meg or 20meg after 6pm we are all as one.is'nt that a nice warm feeling......

[RedDragon]

Two things, it's not VMs fault if the subs are too incompetent to manage their network (routers) and if you don't like it you shouldn't buy it. As soon as VM or any ISP try to manage their network by, for example, restricting heavy and unfair use, people start crying ' unfair, I want to have as much as I want when I want it',.Like it or not the internet is not the free ride it used to be, it's now a business model, the money for upgrades comes from us the customers,charge a cheap rate for the service and upgrades will happen very slowly, charge an expensive rate and customers will jump ship so a balance has be made. I'm not saying VM and other providers don't get it wrong sometimes, they do, but it's not as black and white as some seem to think and I'm just trying to give a balanced view against what seems to be a hate campaign by some posters.

[lolwaine]

Originally Posted by RedDragon

Two things, it's not VMs fault if the subs are too incompetent to manage their network (routers) and if you don't like it you shouldn't buy it. As soon as VM or any ISP try to manage their network by, for example, restricting heavy and unfair use, people start crying ' unfair, I want to have as much as I want when I want it',.Like it or not the internet is not the free ride it used to be, it's now a business model, the money for upgrades comes from us the customers,charge a cheap rate for the service and upgrades will happen very slowly, charge an expensive rate and customers will jump ship so a balance has be made. I'm not saying VM and other providers don't get it wrong sometimes, they do, but it's not as black and white as some seem to think and I'm just trying to give a balanced view against what seems to be a hate campaign by some posters.

i know this thats why i got 4meg and not 2 meg so at least if it dropped i could still connect my xbox live but i am unable to as it drops to about 760k.i am not getting up a hate campain but if you filled you car with petrol and only got 5 miles out of it before you had to fill it again would you be ok with that ?