Thinking going PlusNet from Virgin ADSL

I'm getting just a little fed up with Virgin ADSL. IT's reasonably
reliable, in that I've had no outages (at least not while I'm using it),
but the latency is awful.

I have been getting very good, solid connection speeds for over a year,
exceeding 8meg at times, and seeing a continuous 8meg connect speed in
my router). More recently though this has dropped to 6meg, and I am
seeing more real world slowdowns too.

The most noticeable has been iPlayer, which has been completely
unusable, with the very occasional exception where I've managed to watch
something.

Last week I was at my Mother's, where she has PlusNet (Option 1, which
is all she needs), and I could use iPlayer without a hitch, even between
9pm and midnight. Now I've got home, I also notice how bad newsgroups
are too - I use news.individual.net, and the speed difference is quite
astonishing.

I've also used these at my sister's home, which is on Eclipse, and all
works well there too.

Now, I did fall out with PlusNet a few years ago, over a house move that
went wrong. But, I'm prepared to take another chance, and two people
I've put onto PlusNet setups have had no problems at all now.

I'm actually looking for a complete broadband and telephone package, and
for me I think PlusNet's Option 2 and Anytime + are what I think I need.

I am currently on this:

BT line rental.
Virgin Broadband Bundle 1 (Unlimited/8meg BB, 24/7 calls)
(If PlusNet support guys see this, any problems with a migrate from this
setup?).

My use is mostly Emails, newsgroups (text only), Web browsing,
occasional iPlayer (couple of times a week), iTunes store (might buy an
album a month), and some downloading (mostly OS updates, shareware
apps). Very infrequent P2P (maybe a few a year), and once in a bluemoon
with Skype (again, that maybe because it runs terrible on Virgin), and
the occasional Chat. I also maintain a couple of web sites, but that
might be an upload of 20MB a month.

I'm not working at this time, so not looking to spend more than I am
now, but the PlusNet package could save me a fiver a month - especially
as Virgin have just hiked up their 0845 etc. numbers.

Any thoughts?

Cheers.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

I'm happy + Net User, recently changing to OPT1 /10gb deal.

Suggest peruse here

http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php?board=46.0

On 21 Jan, 21:09, thewildro...@me.com (Andy Hewitt) wrote:
> I'm getting just a little fed up with Virgin ADSL. IT's reasonably
> reliable, in that I've had no outages (at least not while I'm using it),
> but the latency is awful.
>
> I have been getting very good, solid connection speeds for over a year,
> exceeding 8meg at times, and seeing a continuous 8meg connect speed in
> my router). More recently though this has dropped to 6meg, and I am
> seeing more real world slowdowns too.
>
> The most noticeable has been iPlayer, which has been completely
> unusable, with the very occasional exception where I've managed to watch
> something.
>
> Last week I was at my Mother's, where she has PlusNet (Option 1, which
> is all she needs), and I could use iPlayer without a hitch, even between
> 9pm and midnight. Now I've got home, I also notice how bad newsgroups
> are too - I use news.individual.net, and the speed difference is quite
> astonishing.
>
> I've also used these at my sister's home, which is on Eclipse, and all
> works well there too.
>
> Now, I did fall out with PlusNet a few years ago, over a house move that
> went wrong. But, I'm prepared to take another chance, and two people
> I've put onto PlusNet setups have had no problems at all now.
>
> I'm actually looking for a complete broadband and telephone package, and
> for me I think PlusNet's Option 2 and Anytime + are what I think I need.
>
> I am currently on this:
>
> BT line rental.
> Virgin Broadband Bundle 1 (Unlimited/8meg BB, 24/7 calls)
> (If PlusNet support guys see this, any problems with a migrate from this
> setup?).
>
> My use is mostly Emails, newsgroups (text only), Web browsing,
> occasional iPlayer (couple of times a week), iTunes store (might buy an
> album a month), and some downloading (mostly OS updates, shareware
> apps). Very infrequent P2P (maybe a few a year), and once in a bluemoon
> with Skype (again, that maybe because it runs terrible on Virgin), and
> the occasional Chat. I also maintain a couple of web sites, but that
> might be an upload of 20MB a month.
>
> I'm not working at this time, so not looking to spend more than I am
> now, but the PlusNet package could save me a fiver a month - especially
> as Virgin have just hiked up their 0845 etc. numbers.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Cheers.
>
> --
> Andy Hewitt
> <http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

Kráftéé <Kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote:

[..]
> > Any thoughts?
> It really depends on why your service is so 'laggy' if it's
> contention at your exchange then moving to another ISP may not improve
> matters. If there is a problem on your line causing minor problems
> then moving to another ISP would deffinitely not make any difference.

Oh indeed. However, iPlayer has *never* worked here, even when I was
getting better connect speeds.

> A little bit of investigation would really need to be done before a
> deffinite answer could be given, but if you do a traceroute from your
> mothers your sisters & your circuit at around the same time (maybe
> give them a crib sheet so that they can do them themselves ) & then
> compare the three you may be able to find out where the problem lies &
> then be able to make a decision based on facts, not to diatribes which
> so often break out about x being so much better than x & v being the
> absolute pits. All ISPs havbe problems it's what they do about them
> which counts.

Well, my exchange is about 700m away, so I know it's not distance, and I
currently connect at about 6meg. My sister's line is some miles away,
and she gets a very iffy 2 and a bit meg (along with lots of noise on
the line). Yet iPlayer works fine there.

I can't test at my Mum's now, as I was there helping her move house, and
hasn't even got a line connected at the new place yet.

I'm sure we know that Virgin do secret traffic 'shaping', and of course
we know that PN do too, but are open about it so we know what to expect.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

"Andy Hewitt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1itx60l.1c8vptzq9wa7gN%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Kráftéé <Kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote:
>
> [..]
>> > Any thoughts?
>> It really depends on why your service is so 'laggy' if it's
>> contention at your exchange then moving to another ISP may not
>> improve
>> matters. If there is a problem on your line causing minor problems
>> then moving to another ISP would deffinitely not make any difference.
>
> Oh indeed. However, iPlayer has *never* worked here, even when I was
> getting better connect speeds.
>
>> A little bit of investigation would really need to be done before a
>> deffinite answer could be given, but if you do a traceroute from your
>> mothers your sisters & your circuit at around the same time (maybe
>> give them a crib sheet so that they can do them themselves ) & then
>> compare the three you may be able to find out where the problem lies
>> &
>> then be able to make a decision based on facts, not to diatribes
>> which
>> so often break out about x being so much better than x & v being the
>> absolute pits. All ISPs havbe problems it's what they do about them
>> which counts.
>
> Well, my exchange is about 700m away, so I know it's not distance, and
> I
> currently connect at about 6meg. My sister's line is some miles away,
> and she gets a very iffy 2 and a bit meg (along with lots of noise on
> the line). Yet iPlayer works fine there.
>
> I can't test at my Mum's now, as I was there helping her move house,
> and
> hasn't even got a line connected at the new place yet.
>
> I'm sure we know that Virgin do secret traffic 'shaping', and of
> course
> we know that PN do too, but are open about it so we know what to
> expect.
>
> --
> Andy Hewitt
> <http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>


You are 700m (linear?) from the exchange, but how far by cable?

Is the exchange main or a local slave/filler?

Is the main exchange a big city one or a small town?

What is the situation re the above at the other two locations?


My gut feeling, as the other contributor said, is that this is an area
and not an ISP issue. You might do better asking your neighbours,
irrespective of ISP.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

Woody <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

[..]
> You are 700m (linear?) from the exchange, but how far by cable?

Not sure, but looking at the map, I wouldn't expect it's much more.

> Is the exchange main or a local slave/filler?
>
> Is the main exchange a big city one or a small town?
>
> What is the situation re the above at the other two locations?

Not sure, it's certainly not a main town centre exchange, I live in
Scarborough, and the exchange is the Cayton Bay one, serving the homes
on our estate. However, both of the other locations are in similar
circumstances, i.e. villages outside the main town. In fact my sister's
exchange is in the next village, some 2 miles away.

> My gut feeling, as the other contributor said, is that this is an area
> and not an ISP issue. You might do better asking your neighbours,
> irrespective of ISP.

I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't entirely explain why I
can run iPlayer programs at my sister's, which has only 2meg connect
(although they are paying for an 8meg connection) speeds, and an audibly
noisy line, where I can't on a relatively clean line at 6meg. They even
have to reboot their modem freqently due to the errors.

Skype with video chat is the same, I can use iChat through Google chat,
and it works fine, but Skype is terrible, even the audio.

I'll try and do some more testing anyway, although the BB speed isn't
*all* of my concern.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

Woody wrote:

> My gut feeling, as the other contributor said, is that this is an area
> and not an ISP issue. You might do better asking your neighbours,
> irrespective of ISP.

Even better, the OP could run a BT speed test.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
15:04:55 up 48 days, 17:17, 2 users, load average: 0.02, 0.06, 0.07
Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise

alexd <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Woody wrote:
>
> > My gut feeling, as the other contributor said, is that this is an area
> > and not an ISP issue. You might do better asking your neighbours,
> > irrespective of ISP.
>
> Even better, the OP could run a BT speed test.

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Your DSL connection rate: 5216 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 384
kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP profile for your line is - 4500 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4182 kbps

Nothing like as good as I was getting earlier last year, but still twice
the speed I get with my sister's broadband.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

Kráftéé <Kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote:

[..]
> > I'll try and do some more testing anyway, although the BB speed
> > isn't
> > *all* of my concern.
>
> Could it be that your ISP is blocking ports (deliberately or
> otherwise). I do know from personal experience that changing from
> cable to DSL increased speeds with certain apps due to the infamous
> Inktomis (? spelling).

Yes, that was what I suspected in the first place. Many forums seem to
suggest this with Virgin (and others) too.

I remember the Inktomi proxy servers well, I used to live in Luton, and
those were notoriously bad (about the worst in the country IIRC). There
were ways around them though - bogus proxies, or forcing proxies in
other towns.

It's the sporadic nature of the service that points to it being Virgin,
rather than a local BB fault.

Things like browsing, Emails and plain FTP seem OK. Even video chat on
some services is fine, but not on Skype. BBC iPlayer is unusable, yet
the ITV Watch Again player works perfectly.

Cheers.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

Kráftéé <Kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote:

[..]
> > I remember the Inktomi proxy servers well, I used to live in Luton,
> > and those were notoriously bad (about the worst in the country
> > IIRC).
> > There were ways around them though - bogus proxies, or forcing
> > proxies in other towns.
>
> Arrr the heady days of pulling out the national list & picking which
> one to try first........Oh happy days......._NOT_

Oh indeed.

Well, I've found the cause of one issue, the overall speed. I had been
using a different router recently, as I have an Airport wireless setup
here, I was using a plain modem. I had changed it for a four port box I
had when I first got BB (back in the 512k days), which seemed to work
OK, and I needed to give me a couple of extra Ethernet ports.

It seems that wasn't working so well with the Virgin system, I've now
reconnected with my basic modem, and it's back up to just under 8meg
connection again, although an online speed test is still poor, and
iPlayer still doesn't work. And now I can't access my account either.

I have nothing to lose by changing to PlusNet at this time, and save a
little too, and I can get my Mum another pound off per month for
recommendation too.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>

Alex Brown <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

[..]
> >Things like browsing, Emails and plain FTP seem OK. Even video chat on
> >some services is fine, but not on Skype. BBC iPlayer is unusable, yet
> >the ITV Watch Again player works perfectly.
>
> Hi Andy
>
> We don't block ports other than the NetBIOS ones. If you want to drop
> me an e-mail (reply to is valid) with some details I'm happy to get
> one of the DSL support guys to look into your issues further and get
> in contact to help.

Thanks for the reply Alex. It might be worth looking into, although this
isn't the only issue I have at the moment, another part is the telephone
costs as well. Virgin are currently charging siginificantly more than
others for mobile, and 0870 and 0845 numbers. I'm also looking at the BT
line rental too, and I can save a couple of pound a month there as well.

I'm not working at the moment, so all these little odd pound or twos add
up.

Cheers.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>