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

sid · 4 May 2007 at 16:50

BTW when do these caps come into play?

I reckon I do about 40gb pm of downloads, 30gb of which is newsgroups.

I'm considering upgrading to the 4mb package now, as that gets capped to 2mb so I won't see any peak time speed decrease,

Oh and not all people can "plan" their downloads and leave it overnight or something, its not pregnancy ffs :rolleyes:

sid

cdcopyman · 4 May 2007 at 17:37

come back telewest!!!111111p13se!

Wingz · 4 May 2007 at 21:27

i hate to say this but usually i only get between 2-5meg around this time but now i can am getting the full 10 meg speed when downloading :eek:

could did be due to traffic shaping?

Darkwave · 4 May 2007 at 21:31

Wingz said:
i hate to say this but usually i only get between 2-5meg around this time but now i can am getting the full 10 meg speed when downloading could did be due to traffic shaping?

That's odd, lol. :eek:

Maybe there was a tiny hicup in the line near you they spotted and fixed? Longshot, but you never know.

Wingz · 4 May 2007 at 22:13

speeds are around 8 meg atm which is pretty good since having cable installed 10 days ago, will keep an eye on it for the next few days.

mark_t50 · 5 May 2007 at 00:56

I think this is shocking, I could learn to live with a cap or shaping or whatever the heck it is called if it was reasonable, but when they impose a 3gb per day limiter which you can reach in probably about 20mins on a 20meg connection thats rubbish. I'm also annoyed that they restrict the upload speed as well as the download speed, so my upload will get limited to 256Kbps if I go over the 3gb limit, this will really effect me when hosting online Xbox games via live.

I think I'll get SkyBB installed and run them side by side for a month or two, If I'm happy with sky I'll just get the Virgin pap disconnected.

I miss NTL

stigggeh · 5 May 2007 at 00:59

mark_t50 said:
I think this is shocking, I could learn to live with a cap or shaping or whatever the heck it is called if it was reasonable, but when they impose a 3gb per day limiter which you can reach in probably about 20mins on a 20meg connection thats rubbish.
I miss NTL

You need to read it again mate... its 3gb in peak hours, then your restricted for 4 hours and its back up again. (till you hit another 3gb and its another 4 hour wait)

bringans · 5 May 2007 at 01:00

and it only runs for 8 hours, so there is still 16 left in a day

mark_t50 · 5 May 2007 at 01:16

Well, I would say about 90% of my online time is during these 'peak' hours so I'm still not happy out it.

All it's gonna take is for me to download a couple of 360 demo's one evening and then thats me crippled with regards to being able to host games that night. To be honest I'm not bothered about them limiting the download speed, it's more the limit of the upload to 256 thats bothering me. I can live with the 5meg download limit.

KIA · 5 May 2007 at 02:49

Sky Broadband is notorious for heavy pings. I would recommend it for heavy downloaders but not for gamers.

dbmzk1 · 5 May 2007 at 03:46

I don't mind about the actual bandwidth throttling, its not really something you can avoid these days.

What I don't get, however, is why premium customers spending £37 a month are getting ripped off so badly. We'd loose 75% of our speed while the lower tiers only loose 50%. Thats not exactly what I'd call premium.

Third Opinion · 5 May 2007 at 07:12

fluff said:
Sky Broadband is notorious for heavy pings. I would recommend it for heavy downloaders but not for gamers.

I can game perfectly ok with Sky. I do read a hell of a lot of myths about the service, especially from cable forums.

FrankJH · 5 May 2007 at 09:09

DAvE18 said:
should be kept at 10mb unlimited untill there network can take 20mb unlimited. and 640kbps may be fine to you, but it isnt to those of us who use it at 1.2mb just now !

since when did noobs need 20mb to browse asda and do there shopping.

When did virgin promise to always keep it uncapped?

I wouldnt be so condesending to the users whe are actually making it cheaper for you in the first place (as more users in the lower tiers are making the fewer users on the higher tiers pay less)

zetec452 · 5 May 2007 at 09:34

DAvE18 said:
yeh your not quite getting it are you.

They offer 20mb you shold get 20mb, they blag on about no limits this and that and what do loyal customer for over 10 years get. Naff all some pansy download restriction so there network doesnt die because there offfering to much.

should be kept at 10mb unlimited untill there network can take 20mb unlimited. and 640kbps may be fine to you, but it isnt to those of us who use it at 1.2mb just now !

since when did noobs need 20mb to browse asda and do there shopping.

Do you know how much it would cost if VM let you constantly download at 20mb?

ScoobyDoo · 5 May 2007 at 09:43

The problem is that ISP's are trying to keep one step ahead of each other by increasing the speeds for their customers. Virgin with 20mb will be one of the fastest in the country.
BUT
As with most ISP's they havent got the backbone to cope with this increase in speed. Yes they can get 20mb out to most customers but they cant sustain this speed for a long period of time throughout the day for all their customers or else the system will just come to a grinding halt.

The only way to manage this and to make sure the pipeline doesnt collapse is to

1) Spend millions of pounds on new equipment
2) Introduce traffic management at peak times

As ISP's are businesses they are always going to go for the cheaper option, option 2.
If we wanted to download at 20mb 24hrs a day then we would be looking at spending way in excess of £37 a month.
Its annoying saying its unlimited, and yes it is still unlimited, just not at the full 20mb.
Until investment is made in the internet pipes/cabling etc traffic management is here for us all.

Tom|Nbk · 5 May 2007 at 13:07

Dosn't really bother me, I'll just leave it downloading stuff all day till i get in or late at night after 12, Really does not bother me, this could be a lot worse, besides 5mb isn't the end of the world and its about as fast as i can get on ADSL around here anyhow, Also I only pay £18.50 for my 20mb

.

Liverpool-Lad · 5 May 2007 at 16:44

ScoobyDoo said:
The problem is that ISP's are trying to keep one step ahead of each other by increasing the speeds for their customers. Virgin with 20mb will be one of the fastest in the country.
BUT
As with most ISP's they havent got the backbone to cope with this increase in speed. Yes they can get 20mb out to most customers but they cant sustain this speed for a long period of time throughout the day for all their customers or else the system will just come to a grinding halt.

The only way to manage this and to make sure the pipeline doesnt collapse is to

1) Spend millions of pounds on new equipment
2) Introduce traffic management at peak times

As ISP's are businesses they are always going to go for the cheaper option, option 2.
If we wanted to download at 20mb 24hrs a day then we would be looking at spending way in excess of £37 a month.
Its annoying saying its unlimited, and yes it is still unlimited, just not at the full 20mb.
Until investment is made in the internet pipes/cabling etc traffic management is here for us all.

The backbone is the strength, the local capacity of the cables on each of the uBRs is the problem (HFC).

Dave85 · 5 May 2007 at 19:31

FrankJH said:
When did virgin promise to always keep it uncapped?

I wouldn't be so condescending to the users when are actually making it cheaper for you in the first place (as more users in the lower tiers are making the fewer users on the higher tiers pay less)

Its 10mb unlimited at the moment, it should stay this way until they can operate 20mb unlimited without restrictions.

As for being condescending, I'm talking about all the the "noobs" to the internet who are being shoved the line get 20mb u need it.

I would happilly pay upwards of £50 for 20 unlimited like the old days when 10mb was £50 odd.

JonRohan said:
Do you know how much it would cost if VM let you constantly download at 20mb?

I work for an ISP I'm well aware of how much it would cost, as such it should be made available as at least a new tier package for unlimited usage 20mb. And to take a part from there research as we are only 5% of there extreme users it should not put to much strain on the network at all.

Its cost cutting pure and simple.

Liverpool-Lad · 6 May 2007 at 00:14

I dont think its possible to run a stable 20mb service without HUGE investment given the restrictions of the equipment used.

Anders0n · 6 May 2007 at 01:44

Surely the whole point of having 20mb is to download files faster? So if we wanted to leave the pc on whilst we're at work we wouldn't bother having it. We would just have 4mb?

For me (and probably others) it's all about having files on demand. If I want a 4gb file, I only have to wait an hour.

These new changes affect me massively. I get in from work at 4pm and often use the net up til 12 ish. Sadly theres bugger all else in my area which I can change to.