It was only a matter of time; Virgin Media start packet shaping

BenST

BenST

BenST

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VM have confirmed that they have now started a nationwide packet shaping system to restrict high usage customers. The rollout will occur concurrently with the new 20Meg updates.

For a XL customer, the system will mean that they are restricted to downloading a maximum of 3Gigs of data between peak hours of 4pm-midnight before falling foul of the traffic shaping which will then downgrade the line to 5Meg/256k for a period of 4 hours.

M and L customers will be restricted to 350Mb/750Mb respectively before being restricted during peak hours.
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http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html


I never thought I would say it... but I miss NTL already :(
 
It's only peak times, 4-12, tbh I tend to do most my DL in the morning setting up before I head off for the day.

There are a lot of DL managers, ftp etc that you can set up to start DL at a time you want.
 
BenST said:
I didn't know that, but regardless I think it deserves its own thread.
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It probably does, but I was just letting you know that it is already being discussed :)
 
Is that 3GB for the whole month between those times or day?

(It seems weird saying 3GB per day for such a small time frame, but truthfully I could easily do it.)

I don't get why they limit the upload as well though. Seems a bit OTT.
 
Trifid said:
Is that 3GB for the whole month between those times or day?

(It seems weird saying 3GB per day for such a small time frame, but truthfully I could easily do it.)

I don't get why they limit the upload as well though. Seems a bit OTT.
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If you download 3GB, your speed is dropped for four hours.

After that four hours, you're free to continue downloading at full speed for another 3GB.
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
If you download 3GB, your speed is dropped for four hours.

After that four hours, you're free to continue downloading at full speed for another 3GB.
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*during peak hours.
 
Just got Virgin Media myself to replace my Be* Broadband due to the 20Meg speed increase, now I wont be able to fully make use of, why oh why! what’s the point in increasing the speeds when there’s stupid caps/throttling :mad:

And there going to trial 50Meg lol
 
They limit to 5mbit. That's still far better than I could ever get on ADSL where I live so personally I don't care.
 
To repeat what I said in the other thread, it's not as bad as I was expecting. I'm a very heavy user, but the vast majority of my large downloads are done between 9am and 1pm, before I go to work (I work 2pm till 10pm).

I very rarely download anything large between the hours of 4pm and 12am, maybe occasionally on a Friday or at the weekend.

It could have been a lot worse. As it stands it shouldn't really affect me atall :)
 
DreXeL said:
To repeat what I said in the other thread, it's not as bad as I was expecting. I'm a very heavy user, but the vast majority of my large downloads are done between 9am and 1pm, before I go to work (I work 2pm till 10pm).

I very rarely download anything large between the hours of 4pm and 12am, maybe occasionally on a Friday or at the weekend.

It could have been a lot worse. As it stands it shouldn't really affect me atall :)
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Exactly. I consider myself a pretty heavy user (150GB a month on average, or thereabouts) and I honestly can't see this policy affecting me at all because I always do my downloading overnight.
 
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