Virgin Media Speed Upgrades: FAQ

Right, Just thought I would revive this thread becuase of the new 10mb upgrades for 'L' package users.

lots more information availble at:
virginmedia.com/evenfaster


Proxy Servers?
Fairly old news now, however the short of the story is virgin media no longer use transparent web proxy's. Good news.

I am on M (2mb) and i want faster!?
Well for ex-NTL customers it is possible to upgrade your speed over the internet. Firstly you must be the bill payer, and have your login details to hand. Then head over to:

https://autoreg.autoregister.net/cgi/cabletier

fill it out, and select what service you would live. Usualy takes 0-15minutes for the upgrade.

So who/what/when is actually getting upgraded?
As we all know XL package users got upgraded this time last year and are now on 20mb service. As i originaly posted 4mb users are now being upgraded to 10mb. Upload speed will be 512kb.

all speed upgrades are automatic, you don't need to do anything. However if you know your area has been upgraded then rebooting your modem might ‘speed up’ the process. Some people have said that they managed to get virgin media to upgrade them instantly by giving them a ring; I can’t confirm or deny this!

Below is a link to the rollout schedule:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/schedule.html

A lot of people say they don't know what area they come under / their area isn't listed on the page.

If you want to find out head to:

http://tools.virginmedia.com/

and read the line that looks something like:
cpc1-rdng13-0-0-cust950.winn.cable.ntl.com

now in my case its winn.cable. those 4 letters mean im in winnersh. FULL LIST OF AREA CODES HERE:

http://help2.virginmedia.com/help/getContent.jspx?page=h_internet_advanced_dns

I’m getting odd/erratic results from speed tests? what’s going on?

Speedtest.net is not a reliable measure of speed. First things first to find out what speed you are technically on (real world factors may change this) head to:

http://192.168.100.1/

And login (by default) with the user name and password 'root'. Now head for the operation config page or similar at which point you will see something similar to


Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 4096000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 400000

There you can see I'm 4mbit down, 400kbit up.

if you want to do a real world speed test then start some monster download from a reliable source like a source forge mirror or something!

More Information about the config pages can be found:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/signal.html

What about speed capping / traffic shaping?
New information availble here:
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

Broadband Size: M
During peak times, the top 3% of downloaders on the Size: M package download at least 300MB of traffic each, with the top 3% of uploaders uploading at least 150MB of traffic each.


Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till 9pm) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 1Mb, with their upload speed set to 128Kb. This will last for 5 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.


Broadband Size: L
During peak times, the top 3% of downloaders on the Size: L package download at least 800MB of traffic each, with the top 3% of uploaders uploading at least 325MB of traffic each.


Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till 9pm) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 1Mb, with their upload speed set to 128Kb. This will last for 5 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.


Broadband Size: XL
During peak times, the top 3% of downloaders on the Size: XL package download at least 3GB of traffic each, with the top 3% of uploaders uploading at least 1250MB of traffic each.


Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till 9pm) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed - their download speed will be set to 5Mb, with their upload speed set to 192Kb. This will last for 5 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

Click to expand...

What speeds can i expect from 10mb?
10*1024 / 8 = 1280KB/sec. This is NOT the correct sum. firstly you never get 100% of your line and secondly, that's not the correct sum! (apparently, i i personally find all this bits and bytes stuff to confusing!)

the sum you want to use is:

(10*1024)*(1000/1024)*(1460/1518)*(1/8) = 1202~ KB/sec

So 1202KB/sec. But speedtest.net says different? well firstly speedtest.net is NOT THE BE ALL AND END ALL OF SPEEDTESTS. Just had to get that out of my system. Try different mirrors for downloads, differerent speed tests etc.

http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/ is usually top speed for me (but not always)


Does my modem support 10mbit?
Simply follow this online form and you can find out

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/current_service.html

My modem doesn’t? what happens now?
Ring up virgin and they will give you a free 10mbps compatible modem.. most likley one of their 255 modems (or the newest STB if you use that)


Hope this helps..

Sources:
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/schedule.html
http://www.chetnet.co.uk/articles/index.php?page=index_v2&id=91&c=4
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/q2/speed.html
http://cablehell.co.uk
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=9256016
http://www.internode.on.net/adsl2/graph/index.htm
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/socket.php
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/index.html
http://tools.virginmedia.com/
http://help2.virginmedia.com/help/getContent.jspx?page=h_internet_advanced_dns
http://abcde.co.uk/virginmedia/broadband-faq.html#q10
http://www.virginmedia.com/help/broadband/broadband-helpline-number.php

Ta

Alec

Great post. I few people here will be greatful

looking at lots of other peoples comments its but with ** its all in esay text and i can understand this. so i think this needs an place at the top and permenant place in this form ?

I agree, and i endevour to keep it updated - so please if anyone has any suggestions or new information for me it would be fantastic if you could let me know

thanks

alec

Sorry for double post, 'hax ban' me.. or just delete either post as you so wish but..

updated if anyone could give me a hand finding virgin medias policy in terms of leaving that would be great.

thank you

alec

Please pin this someone, good info here.

there should be a law against using red text on a blue background.

whats wrong with using orange or yellow?

Just for you. ill change it to orange

how does that sound?

Very Nice the orange looks much better than the red.

Excellent FAQ I'm sure this will help a lot of members.

For the ADSL part, 5KM is a bit much for the speed of ADSL2+ being over 8Mb. http://www.internode.on.net/adsl2/graph/index.htm suggest 3KM.

You should also mention that Be is not available in all areas. Entanet, IDNET, Namesco, Fast are top providers to name a few. Virgin ADSL should never be considered.

Cool - updated with your information. Thank You

a bit disapoiting, i thought all customers were getting upgraded, and since im on the L package it could be a while before my 4mb gets upgraded, and even if it does, my modem doesnt support 10mb according to that website.

also, i checked 192.168.100.1 to check the upstream/downstream and was wondering if any1 knows if these are the correct things they should be:

downstream
Frequency 339000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 37 dB
Power Level 5 dBmV The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

upstream
Channel ID 3
Frequency 34000000 Hz Ranged
Power Level 45 dBmV

since im on 4mb, shouldnt the frequency (im guessing that means speed?) be 4 something, instead of 3 something?

Dist said:

since im on 4mb, shouldnt the frequency (im guessing that means speed?) be 4 something, instead of 3 something?

Click to expand...

Nope - you're looking at the wrong page, click logs, should say something along the lines of configfile 4096/384 failed
Or something along those lines

Also, had a check at the moment there are no plans to roll out upgrades to anyone other than XL customers - source, well I can't really say but there's such a thing as an intRAnet you know

Doesnt look like my modem supports 20meg.
I'll have to ring them up >_<

Back on 10mb now, from 4. Got the parents to change to VIP package (which is cheaper and gives us Movies channels too)

Can't wait for 20

I am on 20meg and hardly make it above 5meg. The 20meg connection isn't worth the money unless your downloading millions of files and can handle the restrictions between 4pm and 4am. Not between 4 and 12 like VM would like you to believe...



Thats my latest speedtest...

Gav said:

I am on 20meg and hardly make it above 5meg. The 20meg connection isn't worth the money unless your downloading millions of files and can handle the restrictions between 4pm and 4am. Not between 4 and 12 like VM would like you to believe...

Click to expand...

do explain?

Chief Wiggum said:

Nope - you're looking at the wrong page, click logs, should say something along the lines of configfile 4096/384 failed
Or something along those lines

Click to expand...

the only 4096 thing in logs is:
SW Download INIT - Via Config file cm-4096-384

so i guess th at its. tbh i expected things like speed its set at to be on the configuration section or maybe status.

so what does the Hz thing i was looking at do? i notice in the config section i can change it (although im guessing i wont have any need to change it)

a clearer explanation can be found here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/signal.html#chans

hope it helps

*also OP updated.*

ta

alec

I wouldn't believe anything that customer services say.