Virgin media problems between about 7pm and 11pm

Drukk

Drukk

Drukk

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Joined
5 Feb 2006
Posts
1,152
Nearly every evening I go to do some online gaming I get huge lag and warping on any left4dead server I go on. Never used to have this problem until about a month or two ago and had VM for 3 years at this address.

Doing a check on www.pingtest.net reveals typical figures as of below -

packet loss 5%
ping 165
jitter 120ms

Once it gets round to about 11pm then the figures return to normal -

packet loss 0%
ping 38
jitter 25ms

I have got an engineer coming over to have a look in a couple of days but I don't think its going to do any good. Have they over subscribed the area I am in and is it going to mean having to drop VM to be able to game properly again?
 
thou I dont get problem anywhere near yours I do get some problem at them times
I sometimes like to play a bit of teamfortress 2 and using net_graph 2 U can see the differents in the connection at different times.
Any other times its nice flat not many spikes but from about 5pm they start using there throttling and my grapth goes from flat to the Alps of the game world and I can't hit a thing but for me my ping stays about 30 - 50ish

I think your problem could be throttling + to many ppl in your area both together making the problem worst
 
I can't see it being a throttling issue as I am nowhere near hitting my limit for that period.

Have written down the figures from last 4 days at various times but not holding out much hope, I think he will say nothing wrong with it knowing full well its just been over subscribed but will find out tommorrow.

Can anyone recommend a good adsl isp as won't be keeping VM as its no good to me like this. Might as well start looking into who to try next.
 
VM phoned up an hour before engineer was supposed to turn up and said he had gone of sick. They could n't get another engineer out because they are not paying overtime we were told so now its been put back to monday morning.

Of course it will all be fine monday morning because its not a time that loads up the network.
 
Drukk said:
VM phoned up an hour before engineer was supposed to turn up and said he had gone of sick. They could n't get another engineer out because they are not paying overtime we were told so now its been put back to monday morning.

Of course it will all be fine monday morning because its not a time that loads up the network.
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Call and ask for your £10 no show fee ;)
 
Sounds like its just local traffic. Sometimes they can change your downstream/upstream channel - might be worth posting on the VM support forum as they can check it from there and probably fix it if thats the case.
 
Duke said:
Sounds like its just local traffic. Sometimes they can change your downstream/upstream channel - might be worth posting on the VM support forum as they can check it from there and probably fix it if thats the case.
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I will look into that after monday when the engineers been but hopefully he will be able to do that quicker than going through the forum.

Latest figures from tonight -

17:00 - 0% packet loss, 27ms ping, 16ms jitter.

Looking good until it all went downhill to this -

21:00 - 16% packet loss, 353ms ping, 463ms jitter.

I used to get better with Barrysworld dial up 15 years ago than that :(
 
Getting the same thing... its oversub, plain and simple. You will have to wait for ur exchange to hit a limit for an extended period before it will be resolved. I'm not too worried as my exchange is due for upgrade soon.
 
What area do you live?

The technician will be able to and should call up second line broadband support who can tell the technician what activity has taken place over the 4 days previous.

The utilisation KPI's for Virgin Media are as follows:

DOCSIS 1 (10Mbps and some 20Mbps connections)

>99% utilisation for over 10% of the month.

DOCSIS 3 (20Mbps, 30Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps)

>90% utilisation for over 10% of the month.

I would imagine that your problem is utilisation but it could be SNR on the network or even an intermittent network fault.

Probability of it being anything in your home? Highly unlikely.

Its not the answer you are looking for but you will probably find that your problems disappear in a few weeks as the kids will be back at school and when they are off the parents usually let them stay up playing playstation and xbox later.
 
awinchurch said:
What area do you live?

The technician will be able to and should call up second line broadband support who can tell the technician what activity has taken place over the 4 days previous.

The utilisation KPI's for Virgin Media are as follows:

DOCSIS 1 (10Mbps and some 20Mbps connections)

>99% utilisation for over 10% of the month.

I would imagine that your problem is utilisation but it could be SNR on the network or even an intermittent network fault.

Probability of it being anything in your home? Highly unlikely.

Its not the answer you are looking for but you will probably find that your problems disappear in a few weeks as the kids will be back at school and when they are off the parents usually let them stay up playing playstation and xbox later.
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What exactly does it mean 99% for 10% of the month? Does that mean at all times or peak times? Because I can't see it being anywhere near that if its based on a 24 hour day. Its the peak evening times that are the problem.

Good point about the school holidays, never thought about that but its still a below standard service if they can't supply the bandwidth to cover this.

Spoke with a friend in the same village and he is getting better service with adsl so I think thats going to be the final answer but I will give VM a chance to sort it out. As people have said though, highly unlikely they will.
 
10% of the month is at all times so yes you are right but if it happens every night for 4 hours then it will be above 10% (2Hrs 24Mins ish) but that is providing that it is at or above
99% for the whole time.

But they would require a whole month of it
 
Latest update, engineer came round this morning. Said the signal was low and that in peak times this would drop even more and could cause the problems. He has now boosted this up and changed the outside splitter as it was an old type.

I asked about congestion and he said it could be that but the local exchange I am on has about another 20 spaces on it so unlikely.

Did a pingtest just now and the results were the best I have had for along time but its off peak so will see tonight I guess.

10:00 - 0% packet loss, 25ms ping, 11ms jitter.
 
Best off posting in the VM forums, leave it 3 or 4 days pop back and see if you have a reply (you'll get a definate answer then) but I assume they'll come back and say its a local utilisation issue on your upstream!

Fancy posting up the modem stats you have ie power levels etc?
 
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My Broadband Ping


No problems here in Romford Essex, completely normal..........

Took them 2 months to acknowledge there was even an issue.
1 month to plan a fix that is scheduled to be done either 02.09 or 30.09
amazing what upstream upgrades 3 or 5mbit can cause isnt it when they don't plan at all for extra capacity till the last minute.

Remember that this company is made up of pretty much every pre existing cable provider in the Uk with some areas hardware 20+ years old, some places brand spanking new. your problem is indicative of upstream congestion and if the engineer tweaks don't fix it complain to the ISPA straight away or VM will run you in circles for as long as possible.

10 years ive been an NTL/VM customer and its the same every time they do upstream upgrades, they roll it out, overload then gradually upgrade hardware to get it back to normal.

Thank god FTTC is finally here it will jump start them into faster reaction as there is at last a real competitor

I was just playing BFBC2 in that .... trying to play sorry.
 
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Leave VM as soon as possible. I had exactly these issues for almost 2 years and they never fixed it. It's caused by oversubscription and their upload capacity being saturated on your chassis.

On BT Infinity now and it's infinitely better.

I will continue to bash VM until they send me back the ~£100 that's owed to me through paying for non-functional service. They wouldn't even acknowledge these problems for most of the time, horrible service.
 
Drukk said:
Latest update, engineer came round this morning. Said the signal was low and that in peak times this would drop even more and could cause the problems. He has now boosted this up and changed the outside splitter as it was an old type.

I asked about congestion and he said it could be that but the local exchange I am on has about another 20 spaces on it so unlikely.

Did a pingtest just now and the results were the best I have had for along time but its off peak so will see tonight I guess.

10:00 - 0% packet loss, 25ms ping, 11ms jitter.
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Let us know how you get on tonight :)
 
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