Virgin cable, slow or normal?

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ajf

ajf

ajf

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I have the standard 10mb Virgin cable service. Noticed it tends to struggle with streaming such as iplayer, even late at night. Will get so far through then the programme stops, sometimes restarts, other times fails completely.

A speedtest.net test showed 16ms ping and 7mb download speeds.

Are these acceptable and normal for a 10mb cable connection? I would have expected given it is cable that it would be a lot close to the 10mb limit.

Just want some feedback before I give them a ring!
Results are from a laptop connected direct to the Virgin modem, so no routers etc in the chain.

Thanks
Andrew
 
They only cap if I go over download limits though don't they? This I definitely am not doing. At work most of the day and do only browsing until 10pm-11pm. Anything heavy or streaming is mostly late at night - poor sleeper!

I'll try another speedtest late tonight though and see what it is.

Andrew
 
Good ping, but yes your download should be at least 9mb or more. Could give them a call and see if there are problems in your area.

Could just be oversubscription in the area that's causing the slow down.
 
ajf said:
They only cap if I go over download limits though don't they? This I definitely am not doing. At work most of the day and do only browsing until 10pm-11pm. Anything heavy or streaming is mostly late at night - poor sleeper!

I'll try another speedtest late tonight though and see what it is.

Andrew
Click to expand...

Maybe my working is wrong. If everyone in your area is hammering the connection, it may be the cause of slow down, over subscription as above.
 
YEp all of the above VM is very Hit and miss and varies loads from place to place.

Best you can do is call them 150 speak to a nice indian they will do basic diagnostics with you then send out a repair tech if its somethign like power levles need changing.

If its somethign more serious like too many people in peak hours then unlucky mate.... Welcome to my world.
 
It's very easy to cap yourself from simply web browsing on the 10mb service. A few hours of web pages and half a dozen youtube clips and you're over the limit.
 
It depends on your package. Are you on small, medium or large.

All are 10Mb packages but only large is an actual 10Mb service as the others are just 10 - 2Mb trackers ans they are discontinued services.

If you are on those as the bandwidth decreases your speeds will be the first to be affected
 
Fair enough if it's just over subscription. Just wondered about it. Might give them a ring anyway. Debating the 50mb service though just for the hell of it :)

Not sure what service it would actually be classed as. It was taken out when cable first started so it has been gradually upped to the 10mb rather than being 10mb from the start.

Andrew
 
Your download cap will come into force if you download over 1500mb between 10am-3pm and will be in effect for 5hours from the time you go over.

Between 4pm-9pm, you only have 750mb allowance and going over that again will drop the speed for 5hours.

However, the speed reduction is 75%, so your speedtests are reporting 7mb, so I don't think it is the cap thats causing the issues.

You could try going to 30Mb or 50Mb or 100Mb if its available as they are all on DOCSIS3, whereas the 10Mb package is on DOCSIS2 (or 1? Can't remember). That should help if over-subscripton is the issue, but give them a call, could just be your power levels being a bit off, in which case they should be able to sort it out.
 
I really wouldn't bother with their unhelp desk. Unless of course you like spelling simple words like your name for 20 minutes of your life and being told "let me help you with that" while the poor helpdesk person struggles with their script and speaking English.

You will also have to ring up and repeat anything up to 17 times like I did until someone points you at the support forums which are staffed by people who care and can actually help.
 
Thanks again everyone.
Logged a call on their help forums and they are sending a new modem. My old one is the original Motorola Surfboard 3100, which must be 10 years (or so) old now!
Can't complain on its reliability though!
Someone suggested actually it should be in a museum :)

Andrew
 
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