Odd VM 50meg Issue (Works fine then goes slow like its capped)

Soldato
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Stoke-on-Trent
I recently upgraded from 20meg to 50meg. In the last few weeks I was seeing phenominal speeds from 20meg, I was getting upwards of 2.5MBp/s with it.

Anywho, after upgrading to 50meg and getting the new modem, after downloading a few gig's worth of data via newsgroups the connection seems to struggle and speeds go from 5.5MBp/s to less than 1MBp/s.

Not only when do my newsgroups go slow the whole HTTP goes slow too. The problem seems to get rectified after turning the modem off for 20 seconds then turning it back on.

I have tried all different combinations of hardware to make sure than the problem is with the modem.

Any idea's? Could I have gotten a duff modem?
 
Phone there technical department tbh, here is the number just 50meg only enquires its uk based as well 0800 052 0431, i had issues with speeds dropping like a rock made a few calls and they have messed a bit and it seems stable now.
 
Very common problem. Doesn't affect everyone but I read of it happening to a lot of people and am experiencing it myself. Of course give tech support a call, but don't hold out much hope on it getting fixed any time soon.

I'm not even using my 50mbit connection at the moment because it's totally screwed. I've just switched my gateway over to my ADSL but I'll be cancelling the 50mbit very soon - even 20mbit cable worked out faster overall, even with STM. After reading of many people having the same problems for 3 months plus, I'm not confident Virgin are bothered about fixing it.

You might find that when your speeds are going slow that you'll be seeing excessive packet loss. I ran a quick ping test to my Virgin default gateway and it was fine, but when I started downloading I got massive packet loss. As soon as I stopped downloading it was fine - take a look at this:

pings.jpg


Can you guess at what point I was downloading? ;) I have personally had 50mbit installed for a month and a half and have been having these problems since the day it was installed. It's not my router - as I've tried the cable modem directly - and it's not my PCs, as I've tried my PC and 2 laptops with the same results. Shame really.
 
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Ah excellent, the last few times I phoned technical support they refused to give me a UK number to call. I will give them a call. Thanks mate.

I don't know if thats free or not i might add, but it beats trying to explain to the foreign call centers, i have called them a few times and they have always solved my issues with 50mb.
 
Yeah the newsgroup guys I've had more success with. They still can't seem to do anything about the 50mbit speed dropping issues though ;)

I raised it on the newsgroups and they said it'd been passed to the networks team but 6 weeks later nothing has happened and they can't give me any ETAs.
 
I get the same kind of packet loss when the downloads plumment, I have phoned the number you gave and they have admitted there is a problem and are sending an engineer out on Thurday.
 
Your power levels are probably off. I don't mean to be such a pessimist but I had exactly the same thing. The power levels got fixed after the engineer visit, but I'm still seeing the packet loss and speed drops. Hope the engineer does get your problem fixed though - let us know :)
 
Also got the badly fluctuating speeds 50mb to 1mb then back up. Hasnt been as bad after getting rid of the netgear but still does it.

Thanks for the number will phone it tomorrow.
 
Right, so the engineer came out last night and said he couldn't find anything wrong with the line. Even while he was there he witnessed the line speeds drop dramatically while downloading from Usenet.

He took off up the road to check the speed from the box, then came back and ran some tests on his own laptop. His conclusion was that the problem is with my PC!!!

Once the connection drops the network speed is the same across my entire network. Laptops (wireless) and PS3 (hardwired).

I don't know how they can say the problem is with my PC when after I reboot the shoddy modem the problem fixes itself.

I started posting on there newsgroup support last night and started gathering modem stats for them to investigate.

However my internet connection was down completely again this morning, I phoned up and was told there was planned maintenance in the area this morning.

Tried the connection again this afternoon and I get exactly the same thing. The connection drops after using Usenet for 10-15 minutes.

I really have no idea what to do next. Just see where their support on the newsgroups gets me.
 
There's pretty much nothing you can do. Nobody at Virgin seems to acknowledge there is a problem with some (actually, a LOT of) users.

My connection has got so bad that even rebooting the modem doesn't fix it anymore. I tried switching over to my cable connection a few days ago (I have both ADSL2+ and cable) and was surprised to get 6200KB/sec speeds for a while but wasn't surprised when it did eventually drop. I rebooted the modem and speeds were still terrible. I tried the cable connection again last night and was still seeing poor speeds right from the start.

Nobody at Virgin seems to care or acknowledge a problem, so there's really not much that can be done. If you're still within 28 days of getting it installed, I'd strongly recommend just cancelling it now.
 
when mine drops down, I just close usenet, give it 10 minutes and open it again and its 50/50 as to if it stays at 50mb or download at below 13 its a joke.
 
Hi Paul,

With those levels of uncorrected codewords I would recommend we send a
network technician to attend and investigate the issue further. Please could
you let me know when would be the most appropriate day/time so I can attempt
to book a technician accordingly?

Thanks

The technicians were here on Wednesday and blamed the problems on my
computer and or network.

If the technicians do Saturdays then I will be available this Saturday, if
not then the best day would be Tuesday / Wednesday next week. Anytime of the
day would be best.

The technician that came out on Wednesday refused to accept that the problem
was with the connection and was adament on blaming my hardware. Since he
came out I have installed a fresh version of Vista x64/ Vista x86 and XP x86
and tried many different configurations of hardware and software and still
get the same problems.

I hope they are not going to waste another of my days telling me the same
that the problem is with my "hardware"

Am I actually getting through to them now? We shall see...
 
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