Virgin introduce morning traffic caps

Scania · 19 Apr 2009 at 17:29

So were paying for something that we can't get then?

I have always accepted the "up to" part of download speeds, but surely when the ISP is restricting the service, the customer is paying for a service they are being denied?

Virgin 10MB here btw - can't honestly say I'd noticed the cap tbh.

Dist · 19 Apr 2009 at 18:16

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
So were paying for something that we can't get then?

I have always accepted the "up to" part of download speeds, but surely when the ISP is restricting the service, the customer is paying for a service they are being denied?

Virgin 10MB here btw - can't honestly say I'd noticed the cap tbh.

You are getting what you are paying for. You just need to remember you are not paying for a service with no limitations. Most, if not all ISPs have some sort of fair usage policy. VMs policy is to restrict bandwidth if you download excesive ammounts at prime time, which IMO is better then an ISP which will charge extra for excesive bandwidth, or will simply kick you off their service.

EffBee · 20 Apr 2009 at 12:01

Wonder if the business model is wrong.

Currently it's like the water rates - you pay a fixed amount and expect unlimited supply.

Probably should be like the gas and electricity where you pay for the amount of energy (bandwidth) you actually use.

Saltank · 20 Apr 2009 at 12:11

I've run in to the cap problems constantly when downloading xbox 360 game demos. PC demos, and new games from Steam. Also iTunes and Apple TV movie purchases/rentals for HD movies are over 6GB and it's all over the throttling threshold set in place by naughty VM. So yes, even a 20Mbit connection is not "enough" for doing such simple and medial tasks.

Also, here is the best speed test result I've ever had, it's not been possible to replicate it since because of the on going capacity issues:

OCdude · 20 Apr 2009 at 12:11

I've been on the 20Mb package for over a year now and i'm not a particularly 'light' user. I can honestly say i've never noticed being capped or throttled in anyway.

Just the other day i was merrily downloading Windows updates, drivers and applications after a format, all at a steady 2.3MB/sec

Although saying that, I'm currently waiting for an engineer to turn up, after another local install seems to have knackered my own line

But anyway, I can't really complain about VM! No more "oh sorry your line can only handle 2Mb Sir" on ADSL!

Scania · 20 Apr 2009 at 12:33

Dist said:
which IMO is better then an ISP which will charge extra for excesive bandwidth, or will simply kick you off their service.

I agree entirely with that mate - I was previously with BT who frequently charged me for exceeding my miserly 5gb (iirc) per mth allowance.

CK61938 · 20 Apr 2009 at 17:00

I checked the list and those who are on 50Mb (like me

) dont get capped...and I have to admit I have downloaded at different times of the day and my download speed doesnt get affected at all...constantly getting about 5.7mbps download speed

CK61938 · 20 Apr 2009 at 17:01

Saltank said:
I've run in to the cap problems constantly when downloading xbox 360 game demos. PC demos, and new games from Steam. Also iTunes and Apple TV movie purchases/rentals for HD movies are over 6GB and it's all over the throttling threshold set in place by naughty VM. So yes, even a 20Mbit connection is not "enough" for doing such simple and medial tasks.

Also, here is the best speed test result I've ever had, it's not been possible to replicate it since because of the on going capacity issues:

I am tempted to show what my best ever resultst were but I dont want to make you lot cry

Saltank · 20 Apr 2009 at 18:05

CK61938 said:
I am tempted to show what my best ever resultst were but I dont want to make you lot cry

Probably not as good as my friend here!

PS VM wants to give me a new modem, I suppose I will be able to get 50Mbit afterwards.

Yas786 · 20 Apr 2009 at 18:15

JimAroo said:
I couldn't be happier with my Cable connection, always faster speeds than all my friends who are on ADSL. I also get better pings and even if I do hit STM, which I never have since moving to the 20mb tier. I still get faster speeds.

It's all win win in my area. Been with them for 6 years and no trouble.. not many customers can say that about their ISPs.

I could say the same about my ISP..Be...been with them just under a yr i get 18mb download and 2mb upload...i dont get hit by traffic shaping whatsoever...well not as far as i can see and i dont have a cap that i have to watch out for

. Best of all it costs me £20 a month and i couldnt be more happier than i am at the moment...i usually hit 1.8mb on torrents time and time again. My bro has a 20mb virgin line and he gets nowhere close to what i get and hes spent a good few hrs on the phone to Virgin but to no avail. Plus the fact that he gets traffic shaped is funny to say the least whereas i dont. Sure Virgin will roll out 50mb but whats the point if you have a cap that you have to stay within and also your traffic gets shaped during peak hrs :confused:

Plus they charge an absolute arm and leg for it...something like £50 a month just for the line itself lol...

So i can heartily say that moving to Be from Pipex has been an utter godsend.

CK61938 · 21 Apr 2009 at 10:42

Saltank said:
Probably not as good as my friend here!

PS VM wants to give me a new modem, I suppose I will be able to get 50Mbit afterwards.

DUDE!!! NO SWEARING HELL!!! Where is your friend located? I think I want to move

R.O.S.S.I · 21 Apr 2009 at 10:57

So glad I jumped ship when I did. Beyond a joke now VM. O2 has been flawless for me and i get a constant 20MB down.

sargatanas · 21 Apr 2009 at 15:47

These things don't affect me much at all and I use a fair bit of bandwidth. However is Phorm kicks in I will leave that very day.

ViRuS2k · 21 Apr 2009 at 16:27

if you download your heavy amounts of files ect between the hours of 12:15am untill 9:00am then you will never get capped.

I download about 300+ gig a month with virgin adsl, and i have never had issues.

though if i download 300-500meg between the hours of 10:00am untill 4:30pm then i will be capped at around 6:00pm to about 50kb down lol

arknor · 21 Apr 2009 at 17:38

i dont see why the caps are really a concern why do people try to get around the caps instead of just downloading through the caps? surely you get your files quicker even if you hit the cap.

even caped your connection should be more than good enough for gaming and browsing the web.

i remember gaming on 512k cable with an 8ms ping in CS

OVC · 21 Apr 2009 at 18:00

CK61938 said:
DUDE!!! NO SWEARING HELL!!! Where is your friend located? I think I want to move

Um you run your test during peak time which would give you a lower reading. the best time to run a test is between the hours of 06:00 and 08:00 in the morning when the network is at it's best. Please also take into account that depening on what your connection speed is and the distance you are away from a UBR and distance from the main Head End would have to be taken into consideration.

XL packages are not capped. Enything below XL is capped.

KillBoY_UK · 21 Apr 2009 at 18:06

ill be fine if the said packages were advertised as 2MB with 20mb at night but no there advertised as 20mb unlimited with the capping and shaping in the small print.

Back in the day when i on my frist 512k Adsl i loved it but i was'nt downloading an little gaming (as a lot of on-line games did'nt work well with 56K) but now with have mmo's ,youtube , HD video , steam , torrents , large patchs and demo's (and so on while in therory the connection now are fine for this kind of useage i don't want o have to worry about watching a stream of the latest ep of FMA and my connection capping half way though , or have to diside weather to play wow or download the latest demo because of a bandwidth cap of shaping.

I can see the point of caps but they should be more like 200GB and not 20 or 2GB

Dist · 21 Apr 2009 at 18:51

KillBoY_UK said:
I can see the point of caps but they should be more like 200GB and not 20 or 2GB

You think they should allow people to download 200GB a day before getting capped? Are you insane? With caps like that basicaly no user would reach them, meaning it might as well be unrestricted 20Mb, in which case at prime heavy users would negatively effect other users.

The point of a cap is that it is meant to be restrictive to some users, if you change it so doesn't restrict enough then more heavy downloaders could negatively impact the network.

KillBoY_UK · 21 Apr 2009 at 18:58

Dist said:
You think they should allow people to download 200GB a day before getting capped? Are you insane? With caps like that basicaly no user would reach them, meaning it might as well be unrestricted 20Mb, in which case at prime heavy users would negatively effect other users.

The point of a cap is that it is meant to be restrictive to some users, if you change it so doesn't restrict enough then more heavy downloaders could negatively impact the network.

Last time i checked ISP do caps per month rather than daily which what i had in mind when i mentioned the above figures . but i do agree 200GB A DAY would be insane even if it was doable ,which is not and wont be for some time yet , just would want fairer caps rather than the very low ammounts you normaly see , as im sure IPS's would love to cap use to 2/3gb a month and charge us more when we go over beucse we did a little more than looking at plain text web pages , twitter and msn

Saltank · 22 Apr 2009 at 02:25

Sometimes I download and re download gigantic game demos and MMO trials just for fun, I want to see them introduce proper capacity and stop treating customers with curfews.