Virgin cable service seems crap...

TangoSixteen

TangoSixteen

TangoSixteen

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4 Jun 2010
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Hi I hope someone can help..

I recently got a fresh virgin cable service to a house, the old one stopped working (had been working for quite a while after the previous owner cancelled).

However, certain sites keep constantly timing out, and coming up with connection to the server was reset...

Happens on OCUK, Gmail, and RAC routeplanner. (and some others)

I cant ping forums.overclockers.co.uk, so im assuming an ICMP block on the OCUK server?

I can ping Rac.co.uk, but it STILL times out when trying to do things on it.

I know OCUK is fine as if there was any issue here it would be all over the forums!

Lots of other sites are fine, and torrents come down at up to 2.2MB/s.

Its been like this since it was installed, and makes browsing some sites almost impossible.

Now, it can'tbe the computer as a number of PC's and laptops all do it when connected at the house. The other half was moaning because she couldnt get onto Gmail. Its insane.

The annoying thing is I know someone who lives about 5 mins away with the same service and they have no such issue.

Can anyone fathom WTF is going on?

I spoke to Virgin technical support, and they wanted to go through the rigmorole of asking me about the flashing lights on the modem etc etc, and obviously were totally unable to grasp anything more advanced.

I am going mad!!
 
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works fine for me.....

only time i ever had it a bit wobbly was thanks to the engineer not tightening the coax to the splitter box, which also meant our tv screwed up on a few channels.
 
Well I just have the internet only, no TV or anything, just straight internet via the Ambit 256 modem, which as far as I can work out is meant to be quite good.

Actually you know what.. It can time out in say one browser, then I can open another, say Firefox, get the site up once.. then it starts timing out again!!

But like I say... it cant be the PC as the GF brings her laptop round and its just as slow and rubbish on hers too.

Torrents still fly down though, as does any normal off the internet download.

Its totally bizarre.
 
Post your modem stats on the VM support forums. The power levels may not be right.
 
do u use torrents a lot, and if so, do they upload much ?

if you havn't limited the uploads in torrents, then they will cause the download to suffer as well.

when ever my bro use to use the Wow Updater, which is basically torrent, it would completly kill the connection due to the upload
 
Ok guys.

I posted a while ago about my virgin cable broadband being rubbish, and I have a small update!

Basically everything works fine apart from webpages...

So OCUK times out, ebay times out, even the flipping virgin homepage times out.

They gave me a blueyonder proxy server to connect through, and this made no difference really.

All speedtests come back ok, well, apart from the upload speed!!

So, 19.9Mb down, 0.07mb up !!


LOL. Could this be causing all my page time outs?

I have logged a case with VM technical... and now they have come back saying its a problem with the SNR on the line....

HMM! If I post the cable modem stats can someone tell me if this is rubbish or not?

Stats are as follows:-

Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 40
Downstream Frequency : 307000000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 3.7 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 40.5 dB



Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 4
Upstream Frequency : 25800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 47.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2






Are they lying to me?!


How can the speedtest sites show 19.8mb down but webpages refuse to load?

They did say they can give me two months free of charge...
 
Your power levels seem fine, Post on the virgin forums and they should get your problem sorted. It seems to be some sort of upstream issue.
linky and dont bump.
 
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I'm not an expert on the cable modem levels but I have a feeling the SNR at 40.5 is too high, should be in the 30s I think?
 
Yeah, the SNR is too high, this can normally be fixed by the engineer simply adding an attenuator to your modem or moving your line down in the street cabinet.

Either way, an engineer is probably required. Have you tried alternate DNS servers (OpenDNS)?
 
TangoSixteen said:
So, 19.9Mb down, 0.07mb up !!
Click to expand...

I had EXACTLY the same problem for a couple of months.

It is the crap upstream which is causing the timeouts. For me, it just managed to fix itself after a couple of months.

Also, I'm not sure if this is just me, but make sure there's no power strips near your modem. I was getting really crap speeds lately (11mb ish) and I didn't know what the problem was. I recently tidied up everything around my desk and moved the modem to a different spot; away from the power strip and my speed has sky-rocketed straight back to 20mb. :D

48155831.png
 
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Ahh fantastic.

At least I havent been alone in this!

Yeah, I use the Virgin DNS servers, the "new" 194.168 ones.

I shall try alternative DNS and keep an eye on the upload speed.

Just done another speed test, and the upload is now at 0.02mb!!

This HAS to be the problem surely..

Still odd how I can download things rapidly, but cant browse anything on the net.

Cheers guys
 
erm higher signal to noise ratio is better surely?

mines Downstream SNR : 40.0 dB and i never get any problems

you should run some tracerts and see if u get much packet loss
 
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0.07 upstream is pretty bloomin aweful. An ADSL Max (8meg) service normally gives 0.448mbps upstream (448kbps), 0.07 is just 70kbps.

The biggest problem, if your uploading anything at all (and even when your downloading your computer has to sent acknowledgements quite often), then the acks will be to late arriving, and you will get timeouts.

I believe that virgins cheapest packages are supposed to have at least 256kbps (0.256), and their highest packages can have up to 1.5mbps.

Need that upstream performance fixed or its always going to be "a bit dodgy"
 
Had this problem for 6 months on my connection. It's due to high upstream utilisation on your UBR. Contact Virgin and get them to fix it or raise an issue if possible. Took them half my contract to sort it out eventually, not impressed at all. The poor upload caused exactly the same issues you describe. My problem worsened greatly when students moved back into the local area (Bristol).
 
Cant thank you enough fellas.

Its cemented the upstream as being the cause of this firmly in my mind.

Without meaning to sound thick, whats the upstream UBR? (alexhull!)

Cheers.
 
I had a few issues on VM 20Mbs service but after an upgrade this morning to their 50Mbs service my speeds are blistering fast once again.

 
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