Broadband reliability and performance - continued..

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the L8NC tool, I've passed this on to my collegue at the
moment as I'm on holiday.

Though I've installed this myself to monitor my home connection..

....and I'm seeing some pretty interesting results here at home
myself !

I am seeing very marked changes in latency between 7:00am in the
morning and midnight every day.

If I test my broadband speeds outside of these times I get a
respectable 5 - 6 Mbps downstream speed. Quite useable..yawn...

However, between these times I only get around 1 - 2 Mbps, hmm..not so
good.

This is fairly consistent every day.

I know my ISP, Virgin Media, are supposed to throttle serial bandwidth
offenders, though how they can justify punishing people for only using
a service which they have paid for beats me.

I don't download GB's of movies or music every day, so I can't see how
they ought to be applying this to me, that said they are supposed to
notify people if they throttle their connection aren't they ?

I often go onto You Tube now and again, though this is a very painful
experience indeed, unless I go to bed really late or get up really
early in the morning !

If they can't support their customers current bandwidth demands then
surely they ought to bring more bandwidth to the party ?

uh..over-subscribed..what does that mean ?

Perhaps they ought not be allowed to take on new subscribers if their
systems can't cope with the load ?

I can't see this being a contention ratio issue as it would indicate
that everyone in my area all go to bed and rise at exactly the same
times every day...then again perhaps they do ;-)

My PC's are often turned off before midnight every day and aren't on
at all most mornings so I can't see this reflecting my particular
broadband usage.

Anyone else on Virgin Media ADSL MAX ( Up to 8 Mbps ;-) ) service
seeing the same thing as me on regular PPoA ? or cable for that
matter..

Perhaps It's time to think about changing ISP's ?
I've been a Virgin Net subscriber since it's conception many many
years ago, though I'm aware they aren't the same comapny that they
used to be.
And why should I get all sentimantal about an ISP ?

Anyone any recommendations ?

regards

Jim.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi Guys,
>
> Thanks for the L8NC tool, I've passed this on to my collegue at the
> moment as I'm on holiday.
>
> Though I've installed this myself to monitor my home connection..
>
> ...and I'm seeing some pretty interesting results here at home
> myself !
>
> I am seeing very marked changes in latency between 7:00am in the
> morning and midnight every day.

I've found that L8NC gives pretty consistent results for my 8 Mb line.

But DMT, monitoring my router, tells a very different story. Over a 24-hour
scan, I found that I was getting LOS (loss of sync?) maybe 15-20 times and
the ES (what's that) was gradually creeping up. This was even at times when
I didn;t experience any problems using the connection for browsing and
email.

There were less frequent times when the router permanently became
disconnected: rapidly-increasing CRC error count, rapidly fliering DSL light
on router, no IP connectivity, L8NC failing to ping my router - that's why I
was monitoring the router in the first place. But that only happened evey
few days - although sometimes several times with a few minutes in between.

Want to se a snippet from Virgin Media's reply to me ?

>>
Dear Jim,

Thanks for your email

I would like to inform you that the initial test on your phone line
indicate that your telephone line can not hold the broadband speed of
more than 2 Mbps, so I would suggest you to downgrade your broadband
speed to 2 Mbps to get the stable connection and speed.

You can click on the below link to check the maximum speed that your
telephone line can hold:

http://www.btwholesale.com/get_broadband/index.html

Here, you need to enter your telephone number and click on Go.

Please note that it is not possible for us to process the downgrade of
your broadband speed to 2 Mbps service via email or Postal mail. Due
to the nature of query and limitation of technical support via email,
I would request you to contact our Technical Support Department on
0906 217 0001, they will be more than happy to assist you.
>>
OK so how come my IP profile is set to 6 Mbps ?

And how come my performnce is fine and in excess of 5 Mbps outside 7am-
Midnight window ?

Ho hum..

Jim.

In message <(E-Mail Removed). com>
at 09:59:11 on Sun, 12 Aug 2007, (E-Mail Removed) wrote
>I would like to inform you that the initial test on your phone line
>indicate that your telephone line can not hold the broadband speed of
>more than 2 Mbps, so I would suggest you to downgrade your broadband
>speed to 2 Mbps to get the stable connection and speed.
>
A similar sort of thing happened to me. Was previously perfectly fine
on Orange ADSL Max - speeds of 4000kbps. Was LLU'd @6000kbps and the
speeds were awful. Since then I have been put on 2000kbps and am fine
now, although I would like my old speeds back
--
Mike News

Oh dear oh dear..

I've just bit the bullet and decided to call up Virgin Media Support
line..

One thing I can say for the guy I spoke to ..he was very honest..

My suspicions about over-subscription seem to be right on the nail.

He can't tell me whether I'm being traffic managed as he doesn't have
access to that data but he suspects that I am from the information
that I have given him.

The great news is once you get on their traffic management detail you
are on their for a week as punishment.

As a loyal customer of Virgin Net for over ten years I find this very
insulting to say the least.

As an IT support tech, my data download is at least 500MB most days,
on heavy days sometimes 2GB a day.

He seemed to indicate that Virgin are expecting figures more in the
region of 500MB during the peak time 4pm to midnight periods

With the advent of streaming video on 4OD and BBC iPlayer which I've
just subscribed to this seem to be a joke.

Looks like I'm gonna have to change ISP's.

If you want to download half a dozen e-mails a day and check the news
and weather and not much else then it looks like Virgin Media are the
chappies for you !

Jim.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Oh dear oh dear..
>
> I've just bit the bullet and decided to call up Virgin Media Support
> line..
>
> One thing I can say for the guy I spoke to ..he was very honest..
>
> My suspicions about over-subscription seem to be right on the nail.
>
> He can't tell me whether I'm being traffic managed as he doesn't have
> access to that data but he suspects that I am from the information
> that I have given him.
>
> The great news is once you get on their traffic management detail you
> are on their for a week as punishment.
>
> As a loyal customer of Virgin Net for over ten years I find this very
> insulting to say the least.
>
> As an IT support tech, my data download is at least 500MB most days,
> on heavy days sometimes 2GB a day.
>
> He seemed to indicate that Virgin are expecting figures more in the
> region of 500MB during the peak time 4pm to midnight periods
>
> With the advent of streaming video on 4OD and BBC iPlayer which I've
> just subscribed to this seem to be a joke.
>
> Looks like I'm gonna have to change ISP's.
>
> If you want to download half a dozen e-mails a day and check the news
> and weather and not much else then it looks like Virgin Media are the
> chappies for you !
>
> Jim.
>

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Oh dear oh dear..
>
> I've just bit the bullet and decided to call up Virgin Media Support
> line..
>
> One thing I can say for the guy I spoke to ..he was very honest..
>
> My suspicions about over-subscription seem to be right on the nail.
>
> He can't tell me whether I'm being traffic managed as he doesn't have
> access to that data but he suspects that I am from the information
> that I have given him.
>
> The great news is once you get on their traffic management detail you
> are on their for a week as punishment.
>
> As a loyal customer of Virgin Net for over ten years I find this very
> insulting to say the least.
>
> As an IT support tech, my data download is at least 500MB most days,
> on heavy days sometimes 2GB a day.
>
> He seemed to indicate that Virgin are expecting figures more in the
> region of 500MB during the peak time 4pm to midnight periods
>
> With the advent of streaming video on 4OD and BBC iPlayer which I've
> just subscribed to this seem to be a joke.
>
> Looks like I'm gonna have to change ISP's.
>
> If you want to download half a dozen e-mails a day and check the news
> and weather and not much else then it looks like Virgin Media are the
> chappies for you !
>
> Jim.

And very many other ISPs too.
I get by quite happily with a 2 Gig per *month* service (not from Virgin, I
hasten to say).
It would appear from your occupation and usage that you really ought not to
be thinking of a "mass-market" ISP?

George

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> And how come my performnce is fine and in excess of 5 Mbps outside 7am-
> Midnight window ?

What did you expect from Virgin ?

Didn't I previously suggest you get a competent ISP ?

Graham

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> As a loyal customer of Virgin Net for over ten years I find this very
> insulting to say the least.

Your big mistake is to imagine 'customer loyalty' means zip these days. It
doesn't. No sector of the British economy equates any value with such
old-fashioned notions any more.

Graham

George Weston wrote:

> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> >
> > As an IT support tech, my data download is at least 500MB most days,
> > on heavy days sometimes 2GB a day.

So, 20-30GB pcm average ?


> > He seemed to indicate that Virgin are expecting figures more in the
> > region of 500MB during the peak time 4pm to midnight periods
> >
> > With the advent of streaming video on 4OD and BBC iPlayer which I've
> > just subscribed to this seem to be a joke.
> >
> > Looks like I'm gonna have to change ISP's.
> >
> > If you want to download half a dozen e-mails a day and check the news
> > and weather and not much else then it looks like Virgin Media are the
> > chappies for you !
>
>
> And very many other ISPs too.
> I get by quite happily with a 2 Gig per *month* service (not from Virgin, I
> hasten to say).
> It would appear from your occupation and usage that you really ought not to
> be thinking of a "mass-market" ISP?

Exactly George. He needs a professional outfit.

I will as ever put in a word for IDNet.
http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/res...3905&v=2041220

Graham