XBOX Live / HALO 3.. Serious LAG on Virgin BroadBand

Davey · 27-01-2009, 21:21

For the last two weeks most XBOX live games have been unplayable.. I've been on the phone to virgin who say everything is fine but my speed keeps dropping to less than 1mb! They say I should upgrade to 10mb and that will fix the problem... Well I dont really think that is a fair statement as it never lagged before the begining of last week

Does anyone else have a problem with XBOX live and VBB?

I can be in the middle of a game of Halo3 for example and then suddenly it starts lagging like hell!

tomjleeds · 28-01-2009, 13:36

Upgrading won't help, the problem is most likely an overloaded UBR. Have the exact same problems here, though there have only been a few occasions where it's been completely unplayable (yes, I partake in a spot of Halo from time to time). Low speeds don't tend to be the issue, it's once you start getting unreliable pings and packet loss that it all gets messed up.

Davey · 28-01-2009, 13:44

A fellow Halo addict

lol..

Last night they 're-added' my modem to the network and for 15 minutes it was perfect (1.9meg) and a clean connection but it quickly dropped back down to less than 1meg and became un-usable.

Its doing my head in

If the network is over-subscribed I suppose I'm doomed

dafry · 28-01-2009, 14:08

if you get a chance guys have a look on here

http://forums.xbox.com/25193791/ShowPost.aspx

all is explained in the first post, it wont help fix your problem instantly but could help in the long run

Davey · 28-01-2009, 14:16

Posted

dafry · 28-01-2009, 15:15

nice one davey...

i have responded over there and dont want to untidy this forum so keep an eye on that thread

Noggo · 28-01-2009, 22:31

Quote from the xbox forum link quoted above.

Quote:

so i plugged the 20 meg back in and had the usual problems, which are that i simply cannot host a room of more than 6 people on vegas2 without serious amounts of lag for everyone in the room..

You want a lot from your 768 kb/s upload speed (which will probably be around 90 KB/s with overheads). Unsure what network server settings are available in game to limit client side connections, but my bet is around 15KB/s or so for each player connecting which in your case 6, 6x15=90 opps no more available upload left to play with, LAG.

dafry · 29-01-2009, 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noggo

Quote from the xbox forum link quoted above.

You want a lot from your 768 kb/s upload speed (which will probably be around 90 KB/s with overheads). Unsure what network server settings are available in game to limit client side connections, but my bet is around 15KB/s or so for each player connecting which in your case 6, 6x15=90 opps no more available upload left to play with, LAG.

if only it was as simple as that ...i know people with half the upload speed that i have that can host 16 people on the same game with np's

gaming has/is and probably allways be a nightmare..but this problem goes a little bit deeper than the usual upload / ping / modem etc etc issues that are normally the case.

believe me if you read the whole thing we have tested nigh on everything. and when i went to the virgin hub (the place with all the servers, think its called a hub lol) i managed to host a room of 10 on a 2 meg connection!!

dont mean to poo poo what you are saying at all.

Davey · 30-01-2009, 19:09

Well I've 'upgraded' to 10meg as suggested by Virgin and its still a lag fest! NOT HAPPY! Its got to be massive packet loss issues!

dafry · 31-01-2009, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davey

Well I've 'upgraded' to 10meg as suggested by Virgin and its still a lag fest! NOT HAPPY! Its got to be massive packet loss issues!

i bet

davey can you please post this on the xbox thread, i cant seem to find your original post on there?

as i believe i said i didnt think it'd matter what speed you went to for some reason the problem would be the same, if i were you i would downgrade and keep an eye on that thread

Davey · 31-01-2009, 19:00

My new 10meg line is AMAZING:

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/res...9642&v=6154718

NOT!

cook1984 · 01-02-2009, 00:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noggo

You want a lot from your 768 kb/s upload speed (which will probably be around 90 KB/s with overheads).

Ha, try more like 50k.

The problem is down to the way VM does queuing to limit your speed. Anything over about 50k/sec and your latency is going to start rocketing. A router with advanced traffic shaping can help somewhat, but even then you will only get another 10k more.

That is all assuming your UBR is no overloaded, of course. It sounds like the OP's is, so he is basically stuffed until VM decide to upgrade it.

Stabhappy · 01-02-2009, 00:07

Proper QOS will help massively, being able to saturate the upload and simultaniously maintain low pings.

Noggo · 01-02-2009, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by cook1984

Ha, try more like 50k.

The problem is down to the way VM does queuing to limit your speed. Anything over about 50k/sec and your latency is going to start rocketing. A router with advanced traffic shaping can help somewhat, but even then you will only get another 10k more.

That is all assuming your UBR is no overloaded, of course. It sounds like the OP's is, so he is basically stuffed until VM decide to upgrade it.

So it's even less upload bandwidth than I thought

.

and yep, time to get high TX load confirmed by newsgroup support and speak to CS and get a reduction in price.

sparxy1968 · 01-02-2009, 18:41

Hi Davey

Where abouts are you in Berkshire? I am having HUGE issues with my BB service in the Bracknell area at the moment and have invested a lot of time and effort speaking to Tech Support, CS and more to resolve the matter.

Essentially I have discovered the following...

The UBR I am on (don't have the name handy but I think it's one in Winnersh Traingle near reading) has been confirmed as over subscribed. An engineer I spoke to also confirmed that he could see that it was over subscribed by about 140%. He also searched for any plans for a new UBR and could not find any in his database. This means he could not resolve my problem, end of discussion.

To give you an example of what I have been suffering.

I had a 20 meg line and would nightly test this. I found that commonly I was receiving about 1.5 megs but this would regularily drop to 500k. This has been happening since September 2008. I also have packet loss in the region of 10 - 25% at the worst times.

I have complained several times by phone and was told to submit a complaint online. When I did I received an email asking me to write to them.

It looks to me as if they are holding back on a new UBR for 20meg and under services while they focus on the 50meg fibre services which frankly sucks.

Let me know if this all sounds horribly familiar.....