How to monitor virgin capping?

GlasgowTitan · 25 Feb 2009 at 15:05

Is there some sort of software that lets you know how much bandwidth you've used per day and what speed your net is running at? Or how do you tell if it's been capped/throttled/whatever its called?

cheers

Matteysan · 25 Feb 2009 at 15:33

DuMeter can monitor how much bandwidth you use within an hour e.t.c

Gavin · 25 Feb 2009 at 15:38

check think broad bands new tool especially designed for this.

bledd · 25 Feb 2009 at 15:43

get a WRT54GL router, and whack Tomato firmware on it.

you get fancy real-time graphs with it too

GlasgowTitan · 28 Feb 2009 at 20:20

bledd. said:
get a WRT54GL router, and whack Tomato firmware on it.

you get fancy real-time graphs with it too

I have this router already

, is it easy to put tomatoes on it? Also do you know what the virgin cap is for the 20meg connection?

i.e. after x amount of Jiggabites used the download speed is reduced to x amount kilobitings per second?

thanks

J.B · 1 Mar 2009 at 00:21

bledd. said:
get a WRT54GL router, and whack Tomato firmware on it.

you get fancy real-time graphs with it too

Thats what I was going to say. Thats how I keep track

GlasgowTitan said:
I have this router already, is it easy to put tomatoes on it? Also do you know what the virgin cap is for the 20meg connection?

i.e. after x amount of Jiggabites used the download speed is reduced to x amount kilobitings per second?

thanks

Putting tomatoe on is as easy as upgrading your firmware with the new Linksys release, just download the file, point the router at it and let it do its business, a lot of the time all the settings will stay the same.

Virign Traffic Management

reflux · 1 Mar 2009 at 00:25

Virgin suck big brass balloons. Their throttling policy really hacks me off....the only reason to have internet faster than 2mb is for downloading....and yet, with the throttle in place, you can't use it to its full potential.

Lethagized · 1 Mar 2009 at 00:33

Virgin is ****e. Was with them from the Blueyonder days. Gone downhill in the last year or 2. Get O2 instead. Much better and actually unlimited

cavemanoc · 1 Mar 2009 at 19:58

I might have to give DuMeter a go - I'm sure I'm getting capped waaaaaay too early (and I'm getting some odd slowdowns during the day too

)

Dist · 1 Mar 2009 at 20:21

reflux said:
Virgin suck big brass balloons. Their throttling policy really hacks me off....the only reason to have internet faster than 2mb is for downloading....and yet, with the throttle in place, you can't use it to its full potential.

Its not just about downloading MORE. It's also about downloading faster. When i upgraded from 4Mb to 20Mb, i didn't change my download patterns, i didn't start donwloading more just because im on a faster connection. All that changed was that what i would normaly download is now downloaded faster.

So even with STM, its possible to download faster then the other tiers that are offered. And even with downloading many GB of patches, games on steam, ubuntu and such it's easy to time the downloads so you will never be hit with the STM.

Also, there are some ISPs which will simply kick you off their service, or charge extra if you download large ammounts, with VM, you can max your connection 24/7 for a whole month, and although you will get hit by the STM you wont have any extra charges or be warned about excesive usage.

rz30 · 1 Mar 2009 at 20:32

If it's relative to the 2meg line then you get about 5-6gigs download and they then half your speed for about 4 hours i would roughly say.

PistolPete · 2 Mar 2009 at 16:30

I disagree completely. In this age of "unlimited" anything you know full well it's not unlimited. I think that for what I pay I get a great service from Virgin - so what that it's not 20Mb 24/7.... how much could you want to download a day anyway?

Also, it suits me. I'd rather have 20Mb and "only" be able to download 115Gb a day then have ADSL and not even be able to hit 28Gb in a day.

JimAroo · 2 Mar 2009 at 17:38

PistolPete said:
I disagree completely. In this age of "unlimited" anything you know full well it's not unlimited. I think that for what I pay I get a great service from Virgin - so what that it's not 20Mb 24/7.... how much could you want to download a day anyway?

Also, it suits me. I'd rather have 20Mb and "only" be able to download 115Gb a day then have ADSL and not even be able to hit 28Gb in a day.

Exactly, in the time I've been with them (6 Years) I've always had < 20 pings and whatever I pay for internet speeds, currently 20mb. only time i see speed drops is if I've been STM'd, which has only happened a handful of times since it was rolled out.

Where as my mates on ADSL are getting capped to 512k and receiving unstable internet. Even on 02/Bethere.

So it's all Win Win from my point of view.

fro5tie · 2 Mar 2009 at 18:39

RobRX-7 said:
Virgin is ****e. Was with them from the Blueyonder days. Gone downhill in the last year or 2. Get O2 instead. Much better and actually unlimited

Completely agree, I was in same boat. Joined Blueyonder when broadband was first rolling out, 512k oh yes! And it was great. No caps no download limits, they steadily upgraded the speed and it stayed great. As soon as Branson's lot took over it went downhill, the capping was crazy. I left home and I got O2 which has been brilliant, ive put hundreds of gigs through monthly and not had any problems. Finally I told my Dad to get rid of Virgin and signed him up to O2 as well. Cashed in with £25 quidco cashback when I signed up, and £70 when I signed him up, cant go wrong!

I have been reading on the o2 forums though a lot of people have been having problems with the service. I would check what exchange you would be on and do some research if anyone was thinking about moving to them, as it seems to be great in places, and poor in others :S

Dist · 2 Mar 2009 at 20:18

fro5tie said:
As soon as Branson's lot took over it went downhill, the capping was crazy.

Virgin did NOT take over NTL:Telewest

NTL:Telewest took over Virgin Mobile. As part of the take over deal NTL:Telewest had to take on the virgin name.

arknor · 3 Mar 2009 at 06:46

erm no NTL took over telewest and then NTL bought out the virginmedia ISP and were allowed to use the virgin name.

telewest sold out

Phal · 3 Mar 2009 at 09:37

Dist said:
Its not just about downloading MORE. It's also about downloading faster. When i upgraded from 4Mb to 20Mb, i didn't change my download patterns, i didn't start donwloading more just because im on a faster connection. All that changed was that what i would normaly download is now downloaded faster.

So even with STM, its possible to download faster then the other tiers that are offered. And even with downloading many GB of patches, games on steam, ubuntu and such it's easy to time the downloads so you will never be hit with the STM.

Also, there are some ISPs which will simply kick you off their service, or charge extra if you download large ammounts, with VM, you can max your connection 24/7 for a whole month, and although you will get hit by the STM you wont have any extra charges or be warned about excesive usage.

Just because youve learnt to work around the limitations doesnt mean its not crap

Rabtech · 3 Mar 2009 at 10:41

J.B said:
Putting tomatoe on is as easy as upgrading your firmware with the new Linksys release, just download the file, point the router at it and let it do its business, a lot of the time all the settings will stay the same.

I'd factory default the router after flashing to prevent any configuration issues.

Once you have Tomato up and running you can get graphs for the last 24 hours and see from that when STM has been applied.

Kua · 4 Mar 2009 at 20:42

Mattey1 said:
DuMeter can monitor how much bandwidth you use within an hour e.t.c

You, kind sir, have brought a truly wonderful thing into my life. This is exactly the tool I needed!

EDIT: And its providing immediate evidence that my ISP is absolutely ****, with a sudden and arbritrary drop in bandwidth to half a dozen kbps.

Star it out completely.

Edit2: Apologies! FAQ fully re-digested.