Sleepy Virgin Broadband

Does anybody have the cure for a connection that slowly goes to sleep?

I pay for a 512k virgin connection but when i start to download anything
the speed reduces from 40k/sec down to about 10k/sec in a minute then just
hangs. It's driving me mad as i've tried tweaking lots of things but can't
get any sustainable download rates.

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 16:18:14 +0000, matthew harney wrote:

> Does anybody have the cure for a connection that slowly goes to sleep?
>
> I pay for a 512k virgin connection but when i start to download anything
> the speed reduces from 40k/sec down to about 10k/sec in a minute then just
> hangs. It's driving me mad as i've tried tweaking lots of things but can't
> get any sustainable download rates.


Does this happen no matter where you download from. Sone download servers
do this to discourage large downloads. That means the first couple of
files will come down OK then it will begin to progressivly throttle the
connection to allow other 'less greedy' users get the fastest service.

This can also be used at an ISP level to restrict bandwidth hogging but
will allow fast, short burst use, like browsing to work file.

graham

No Problem with Virgin ADSL here.

130MB file downloaded at full Throttle from a good site.

But busy sites it can be a lot less than 50K/s. Are you sure it is Virgin.
Have you contacted their free support by e-mail?

--
Paul Woodsford
Remove ****NOSPAMPLEASE**** to Reply
"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 16:18:14 +0000, matthew harney wrote:
>
> > Does anybody have the cure for a connection that slowly goes to sleep?
> >
> > I pay for a 512k virgin connection but when i start to download
anything
> > the speed reduces from 40k/sec down to about 10k/sec in a minute then
just
> > hangs. It's driving me mad as i've tried tweaking lots of things but
can't
> > get any sustainable download rates.
>
>
> Does this happen no matter where you download from. Sone download servers
> do this to discourage large downloads. That means the first couple of
> files will come down OK then it will begin to progressivly throttle the
> connection to allow other 'less greedy' users get the fastest service.
>
> This can also be used at an ISP level to restrict bandwidth hogging but
> will allow fast, short burst use, like browsing to work file.
>
> graham
>
>


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.535 / Virus Database: 330 - Release Date: 01/11/2003

the degredation happens from every site. i'm lucky now if i get over 20k/s
from any speed test. I'm wondering if it was because i picked up the phone
whilst the engineers were doing the whoosh tests (maybe they've limited me
to 128k or something? Can i phone bt and ask them?). I can't dowload any
file over 10meg either before it hangs

I've sent an email to virgin support but just get an automated reply saying
'Were having problems - wait 2 weeks' kind of message... So i suppose i
should just sit and wait - shame though as i'm paying for 512 and getting
less than half that.

Anybody else have problems with virgin.net in Manchester?

Your lucky, I can hardly get to any web-site and even the email times out.

The only support is the standard "we are crap at the moment you have to wait
2 weeks" crap but it
been about a month now (they first blamed those worms).

I just emailed them for a refund for the last month due to hardly being able
to use it ( worth a try :0) )

I expected problems along the line but this is a joke......


"matthew harney" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:dlapb.404$(E-Mail Removed)...
> the degredation happens from every site. i'm lucky now if i get over 20k/s
> from any speed test. I'm wondering if it was because i picked up the phone
> whilst the engineers were doing the whoosh tests (maybe they've limited me
> to 128k or something? Can i phone bt and ask them?). I can't dowload any
> file over 10meg either before it hangs
>
> I've sent an email to virgin support but just get an automated reply
saying
> 'Were having problems - wait 2 weeks' kind of message... So i suppose i
> should just sit and wait - shame though as i'm paying for 512 and getting
> less than half that.
>
> Anybody else have problems with virgin.net in Manchester?
>
>

"Mrint" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:40bpb.1014$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Your lucky, I can hardly get to any web-site and even the email times out.
>
> The only support is the standard "we are crap at the moment you have to
wait
> 2 weeks" crap but it
> been about a month now (they first blamed those worms).
>
> I just emailed them for a refund for the last month due to hardly being
able
> to use it ( worth a try :0) )
>
> I expected problems along the line but this is a joke......
>
>
> "matthew harney" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:dlapb.404$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > the degredation happens from every site. i'm lucky now if i get over
20k/s
> > from any speed test. I'm wondering if it was because i picked up the
phone
> > whilst the engineers were doing the whoosh tests (maybe they've limited
me
> > to 128k or something? Can i phone bt and ask them?). I can't dowload any
> > file over 10meg either before it hangs
> >
> > I've sent an email to virgin support but just get an automated reply
> saying
> > 'Were having problems - wait 2 weeks' kind of message... So i suppose i
> > should just sit and wait - shame though as i'm paying for 512 and
getting
> > less than half that.
> >
> > Anybody else have problems with virgin.net in Manchester?
> >
> >
>
>

Can you ping the sites you're having trouble with ?
This may be an MTU problem.

eric

--
Remove the dross to contact me directly

Hi

No I can't, I sent a email with all the ping times to virgin showing sites I
can't get to (these change with hardly any of them working in peak hours)
even virgins own site can't be reach most times. Some times I can connect
and it works fine for a while (very rare).

The only site that works nearly all the time is google.

It all started when those worms hit and performance of virgin over a week
went from very good to very poor, they replied saying the service was poor
due to these and said the were cutting off people with infected machines.
But it never improved and now they are "aware of a performance related
issue" and require 14 days for sort it out.

The only reason I'm still with them is I had 10 months of good BB
connection.

"Virgin.net would like to thank our customers for their continued
patience" - running out of that now :0)


"Eric Parker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Blbpb.1034$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Mrint" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:40bpb.1014$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Your lucky, I can hardly get to any web-site and even the email times
out.
> >
> > The only support is the standard "we are crap at the moment you have to
> wait
> > 2 weeks" crap but it
> > been about a month now (they first blamed those worms).
> >
> > I just emailed them for a refund for the last month due to hardly being
> able
> > to use it ( worth a try :0) )
> >
> > I expected problems along the line but this is a joke......
> >
> >
> > "matthew harney" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:dlapb.404$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > the degredation happens from every site. i'm lucky now if i get over
> 20k/s
> > > from any speed test. I'm wondering if it was because i picked up the
> phone
> > > whilst the engineers were doing the whoosh tests (maybe they've
limited
> me
> > > to 128k or something? Can i phone bt and ask them?). I can't dowload
any
> > > file over 10meg either before it hangs
> > >
> > > I've sent an email to virgin support but just get an automated reply
> > saying
> > > 'Were having problems - wait 2 weeks' kind of message... So i suppose
i
> > > should just sit and wait - shame though as i'm paying for 512 and
> getting
> > > less than half that.
> > >
> > > Anybody else have problems with virgin.net in Manchester?
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
> Can you ping the sites you're having trouble with ?
> This may be an MTU problem.
>
> eric
>
> --
> Remove the dross to contact me directly
>
>

- my virgn BB has shot up to 46kb/s now. I guess the fixes they are doing
are working... (yey!)

I've changed my mtu and rwin to 1400 13900.. maybe i can tweak a bit more to
try and get above 50kb/s mark.

"matthew harney" <matthew.harney!!no_spam!!@virgin.net> wrote in message
news:6Mspb.312$(E-Mail Removed)...
> - my virgn BB has shot up to 46kb/s now. I guess the fixes they are doing
> are working... (yey!)
>
> I've changed my mtu and rwin to 1400 13900.. maybe i can tweak a bit more
to
> try and get above 50kb/s mark.
>
>
>
>

Matthew

Mine works fine with a MTU of 1456.
I found this value by adding 28 to the largest working obtained by running
ping in a command window.
For me
ping -l 1428 www.bbc.co.uk
worked
but
ping -l 1430 www.bbc.co.uk
didn't.

The value 28 is the overhead on a packet.

eric

--
Remove the dross to contact me directly