Virgin Media Discussion Thread

gareth170 said:
i'm getting very angry now with VM. called VM this morning due to the speed still dropping. now they are saying it's the SH2 and levels at fault, so they sending yet another engineer out tomorrow. but I know 100% it's nothing to do with the SH2 and levels, I've already had a second SH2 and also every engineer that as came out has said the levels are perfect and the issue isn't anything to do with in the house...

heres the levels

Downstream
DS-1 DS-2 DS-3 DS-4 DS-5 DS-6 DS-7 DS-8
Frequency (Hz) 283000000 267000000 275000000 291000000 299000000 307000000 315000000 323000000
Lock Status(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Locked Locked Locked Locked Locked Locked Locked Locked
Channel ID 35 33 34 36 37 38 39 40
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM
Symbol Rate (Msym/sec) 6.952000 6.952000 6.952000 6.952000 6.952000 6.952000 6.952000 6.952000
Interleave Depth I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17 I=12 J=17
Power Level (dBmV) -1.19 -0.56 -1.05 -1.16 -0.99 -0.90 -0.84 -0.51
RxMER (dB) 38.26 38.26 38.26 38.26 38.98 39.40 38.98 38.98

Upstream
US-1 US-2 US-3 US-4
Channel Type 2.0 N/A N/A 2.0
Channel ID 3 N/A N/A 1
Frequency (Hz) 27400000 N/A N/A 45800000
Ranging Status Success Other Other Success
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A 16QAM
Symbol Rate (Sym/sec) 5120000 N/A N/A 5120000
Mini-Slot Size 4 N/A N/A 4
Power Level (dBmV) 43.75 N/A N/A 45.25
T1 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

to me the levels are perfect. also if it was the SH2 and levels, surely the speed issue would be 24/7. but my speed issue is only at peak times / weekends....

I really wish VM would stop lying.

I just want VM guys to sort this. even the last engineer said it sounds like a high utilisation issue still.
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just had a engineer round, she said the SH2 and levels are fine. now this is the crazy thing. she called her manager and guess what him and her is saying, it's the Traffic Management and said if I download over 20MB (yes you seen it right 20MB) my speed will drop by half and if I download another 20MB+ the speed will drop by another half and so on until the connection cuts off and said Traffic Management is on 24/7. at this point I was getting very angry. I told her no that's all wrong and I showed her the Traffic Management Policy but nope she till said what her manager and she said is right. so basically VM managers, engineers, customer service team have no idea what their talking about.

i'm very angry on how VM is treating me, I've been with ntl/VM for over 18years
 
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That's a very poor show^ :(

Waiting for a mod on vm forum to arrange an engineer for power level adjustment too because the techs there think it's all to do with my power levels.
 
Does VM ever not have a 'sale' on? I'm sure they are worse then DFS. Why don't they just say their price? If you like it great, if you don't go find someone else. I'm sure TalkTalk will greet you with open arms and lock you in tight.
 
Just had an email through saying about even faster broadband and it's available in my area March 2014. It fails to state what speed though, I'm on 120MB at the moment.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm at the stage now where 120MB is more than sufficient, pending better quality streaming services and 4K coming along, I'd much rather see an improvement in pings and general service. I can download 15GB MKV files in more than good time now, what difference really does it make if I then have 150MB or 160MB for instance (rhetorical)
 
Yeah, every time VM do a speed uplift, they say stuff like "you could have ten people in your home all watching HD video". Well, I don't have ten people in my home, so it's not really a selling point to me.

Sort out all the other network problems, get rid of the traffic shaping and STM, sort out a half-way sensible upstream speed. Then worry about getting me from "faster than I need" to "more faster than I need" downstream speeds.
 
Just got my letter from Virgin saying they are increasing my bill by 4 quid, that's the second year in a row now.

On a lighter note I just found out BT Infinity is available in my area finally! Ordered and due to be installed on 20th, well chuffed can finally watch youtube now.
 
oHUTCHYo said:
Just had an email through saying about even faster broadband and it's available in my area March 2014. It fails to state what speed though, I'm on 120MB at the moment.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm at the stage now where 120MB is more than sufficient, pending better quality streaming services and 4K coming along, I'd much rather see an improvement in pings and general service. I can download 15GB MKV files in more than good time now, what difference really does it make if I then have 150MB or 160MB for instance (rhetorical)
Click to expand...

I don't see any need for another increase either. The new speed will be 152Mb.
 
oHUTCHYo said:
Just had an email through saying about even faster broadband and it's available in my area March 2014. It fails to state what speed though, I'm on 120MB at the moment.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm at the stage now where 120MB is more than sufficient, pending better quality streaming services and 4K coming along, I'd much rather see an improvement in pings and general service. I can download 15GB MKV files in more than good time now, what difference really does it make if I then have 150MB or 160MB for instance (rhetorical)
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Completely agree. My ping fluctuates heavily after about 7pm and can cause issues playing games such as Arma 2 or DAYZ. But I can DL the full BF4 game within 20 mins. Crazy stuff.
 
Guys ideally your downstream should be between +3 to -3. If you need any help with power levels I have plenty of spare attenuators.
 
That's very kind of you!
Do ypu have any 10dB ones at all? I could do with one of those!
 
AlanJ said:
Guys ideally your downstream should be between +3 to -3. If you need any help with power levels I have plenty of spare attenuators.
Click to expand...

I've always been told different areas have different power level ranges. for example my area is between -5.0 to +4.0 for the downstream
 
Engineer booked to get the downstream power levels to nominal levels. He's coming Saturday.

Let's see what happens over the next few weeks.
 
mrk said:
Engineer booked to get the downstream power levels to nominal levels. He's coming Saturday.

Let's see what happens over the next few weeks.
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Let us know how you get on mate, i posted a few posts back where browsing was slow & connection timing out (tbb graph similar to yours) not a clue what the guy on the phone had done but my problem is back so will try restarting the SH1 tonight.
 
Rensin said:
Let us know how you get on mate, i posted a few posts back where browsing was slow & connection timing out (tbb graph similar to yours) not a clue what the guy on the phone had done but my problem is back so will try restarting the SH1 tonight.
Click to expand...

Sure thing :)

The engineer has just been and adjusted the levels. Here's what it looks like now:
vm_ds_fixed.JPG


vm_us_fixed.JPG


A much better result!

I will keep an eye on it over the next few weeks and see if the high latency issue returns.
 
gareth170 said:
I've always been told different areas have different power level ranges. for example my area is between -5.0 to +4.0 for the downstream
Click to expand...

I think you're confusing power levels with the channels/frequencies.

The power levels are adjustable at the green boxes where there are different attenuators/boosters to hook your cable onto depending on how far away your house is etc.

The ideal power level is 0 but -3 to +7dB is generally recommended by Virgin I think, the power level will fluctuate under different temperatures so it's impossible to have bang on 0dB all of the time. I think the DOCSIS specification for most modems is +/- 15dB but you might get problems at either extreme.
 
Yeah I gather those levels are what you should be aiming for. I'm rocking 0.9-1.8 dBmV and 36-38 dB through the channels :)
 
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