Can someone put Virgin's "Traffic Management System" into plain english for me.

asim18

asim18

asim18

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I'm on virgin's 20meg service. HERE it says it's only from 10am to 9pm. I say "only" but that's pretty much the whole ****ing day gone, rendering the connection completely useless :rolleyes:.

I managed to go over the limit of 3.5GB at about 6pm and they've limited me to 5MB/s since that time.

I thought it was untill 9pm, why is it still limited?

I'm finding this utterly ridiculous tbh. What's the point of fast internet if you can only use it how they want you to and when they want you to. :mad:
 
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The throttling on Virgin can be quite a pain that's why I usually set large downloads for during the night. The way it works is that if you download between 7GB of data between 10AM to 3PM your connection will be capped to 5MB from the time you went over your 7GB limit, if you have reached over 7GB at 2.30PM your connection will be capped till 7.30PM. It is the same with the evening management from 4PM - 9PM accept your limit is the 3.5GB as you explained about.
 
Ok simple terms

Between 10am & 3pm you can download 7GB before your connection is throttled down to 5mb for 5hours

Between 4pm & 9pm you can download 3.5GB before your connection is throttled down to 5mb for 5 hours

Between 3pm & 8pm you can upload 1.4GB before your connection is throttled down to 5mb for 5 hours

If you hit one of those limits at say 8:59pm your connection will then be throttled for 5 hours. It doesn't matter if it is 9pm the throttling will stay until the 5 hours are up.


This was one of the major reasons I changed from Virgin to Sky as it was really quite annoying!
 
Its enforced between 9 or 10am until about 9 or 10 pm

When you go over the limit you are limited for another 4 hours, so if you go over at 8pm, you will remain capped until midnight. Whereas if you go over at 10am, by the time 9/10 pm comes you will start going at full speed again.

I tend to all my downloading at night. Think thats what they want as well so it doesnt affect their business customers much.
 
You can download 7GB between 10am and 3pm, as much as you want between 3pm and 4pm, and 3.5GB between 4pm and 9pm. If you go over, you get cut to 1/4 speed for 5 hours, if you go over the limit at 9pm, you will be throttled until 2am. :/
The last bit is the most annoying thing, i wouldn't mind so much if all the thottling was cancelled at the end of the restriction period. That said, i still think cable internet is fantastic.
 
Virgin are a joke. Why roll out 50 meg speeds then use traffic management? People take the 50 meg package to be able to download at 50 meg. If you are just going to look at web pages (not you tube etc) then you don't need anywhere near 50 meg connection.
 
ennogs said:
Virgin are a joke. Why roll out 50 meg speeds then use traffic management? People take the 50 meg package to be able to download at 50 meg. If you are just going to look at web pages (not you tube etc) then you don't need anywhere near 50 meg connection.
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I don't think there's any STM on 50 meg yet, but I'm happy to be corrected. That aside, your point is more than valid for the other packages. I mean, what's the point of having 20 meg cable and having to do your downloads overnight? Unless you're nocturnal, it surely doesn't matter if you're downloading at 5 megs or 20 megs, if it's happening while you sleep and your queue will be done by time time you wake anyway?
 
I too have the 20Mb package and to be perfectly honest the traffic management system hardly affects me at all.

If i need to download something i usually set it to download at night time thereby leaving me and the mrs with full speed broadband all day long.

Dont get me wrong i have been caught out once or twice for example whilst patching a game etc but its very rare.
 
zootfloot said:
I too have the 20Mb package and to be perfectly honest the traffic management system hardly affects me at all.

If i need to download something i usually set it to download at night time thereby leaving me and the mrs with full speed broadband all day long.

Dont get me wrong i have been caught out once or twice for example whilst patching a game etc but its very rare.
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same

even if I do get capped, my pings are still great, and uptime is awesome

very rarely do I download anything now anyway
 
Compared to a couple of years ago I really can't fault Virgin, since they put the STM into place my internet connection has been rock solid. Where as before my download speeds were fairly crap and stability uptime around my area was a joke.

I would much rather pay for a fully reliable 20MB connection and put up with the STM, instead of going too sky and not knowing for sure what exact speed I will get with my connection.
 
If you're paying the extra £11 a month for 20mb instead of 10mb, I recommend paying an extra £9 on top of that for the 50mb and not have to worry about Traffic Management again.
 
zootfloot said:
I too have the 20Mb package and to be perfectly honest the traffic management system hardly affects me at all.

If i need to download something i usually set it to download at night time thereby leaving me and the mrs with full speed broadband all day long.

Dont get me wrong i have been caught out once or twice for example whilst patching a game etc but its very rare.
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Same, even when i am capped which is extremely rare i still get faster speeds and lower pings than those around me on ADSL. So can't complain really.
 
I'll be on Virgin 20Mb in a few weeks time and have wondered how this might affect me. I'm far from a heavy downloader though so I can't see it being too much of a problem, and if I was to get capped to 5 meg it wouldn't be that much less than what I get from BT currently anyway...
 
Naff8000 said:
If you're paying the extra £11 a month for 20mb instead of 10mb, I recommend paying an extra £9 on top of that for the 50mb and not have to worry about Traffic Management again.
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Im on the 50MBIT and it's nice so far, but ive no doubt they will shaft us all very soon, once they have enough people locked into 12 month contracts then it will begin it's inevitable, they are all about
minimum investment and maximum profits, bit like a banking system.
 
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