Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Phreaky · 19 Feb 2014 at 21:26

Just to clarify earlier comments, the 152mbit upgrade doesn't come with a 10:1 upload ratio, in fact none of them do. The best you can do is be on 120mbit now and keep the 12mbit upload.

The new 100mbit customers will have 100/3 :eek:

Steampunk · 19 Feb 2014 at 21:49

Phreaky said:
Just to clarify earlier comments, the 152mbit upgrade doesn't come with a 10:1 upload ratio, in fact none of them do. The best you can do is be on 120mbit now and keep the 12mbit upload.

The new 100mbit customers will have 100/3

Can you even utilise 100 mbit download with only 3mbit upload to send ACKs?

Worth noting that VM promised to double upstream speeds two years ago, and still haven't done it yet.

R3X · 19 Feb 2014 at 22:22

asim18 said:
Somewhat true.

Virgin Media run their network on an oversubscription model. This means they aim to run their equipment slightly above max capacity. This is because any un-utilised capacity = pointless spending = lost profit.

An extra couple of customers most definitely has the power to send the entire CMTS/UBR into meltdown. This is what happens when people suffer from oversubscription problems. Speeds have been known to get slashed by a factor of up to 100 at peak times (someone on 120Mb would end up getting 1.20Mb).

When this happens, Virgin Media will wait 6+ months for customers to start cancelling contracts to ease the congestion. They typically add a new fault on their website and pull out a random repair date within a month. If enough customers end their contracts, they will consider the issue resolved, if they don't get enough cancellations they simply extend the repair date by a few weeks at a time until enough people cancel to ease the network congestion.

Actually increasing capacity is a last resort, they won't do it unless they absolutely have to, and it could take up to a year.

I experienced this a couple of years ago. It lasted several months, but now I'm actually glad I'm one of the customers who stayed. I get rock solid 120Mb/s.

thanks... would you suggest me walking down my street from top to bottom and checking virgin wifi signals ?

Also when you said 120mb down to 1.2meg, I take it after 12pm the speed goes back to full ?

I see from my mobile phone someone close to me uses virgin

asim18 · 19 Feb 2014 at 22:31

Don't let me scare you. It could be perfectly fine where you are. I think VM has a cooling off period AFAIK, so it might even be worth having a go.

When I got hit, I was on the 20Mb package IIRC, my speed used to go down to 0.2Mb/s from around 5PM to Midnight and the internet was completely unusable.

I can understand your thinking when you talk about going down your street and checking WiFi, but the thing is it won't mean much. There's no set number after which service becomes ****.

Rainmaker · 19 Feb 2014 at 23:19

R3X said:
thanks... would you suggest me walking down my street from top to bottom and checking virgin wifi signals ?

Also when you said 120mb down to 1.2meg, I take it after 12pm the speed goes back to full ?

I see from my mobile phone someone close to me uses virgin

asim18 said:
Don't let me scare you. It could be perfectly fine where you are. I think VM has a cooling off period AFAIK, so it might even be worth having a go.

When I got hit, I was on the 20Mb package IIRC, my speed used to go down to 0.2Mb/s from around 5PM to Midnight and the internet was completely unusable.

I can understand your thinking when you talk about going down your street and checking WiFi, but the thing is it won't mean much. There's no set number after which service becomes ****.

Hi again R3X... Unless this is the world's biggest coincidence I'm the guy who ran the Mullvad speedtests for you on the VM community forums last week.

I really wouldn't worry bud, I get 120/12 all day every day and I live in a major city with a buttload of students. There are bad areas (mostly former NTL ones) but they're mostly being brought up to spec, slowly but surely. As I said on the other forum, and Asim has added above, you can always cancel in the cooling off period if you're not happy - but odds are you'll be absolutely fine.

I'd cancel in a heartbeat if something like Hyperoptic symmetrical 1Gbps fibre was available round here, but aside from that it's VM all the way as I get great service and top value considering the use we get out of it. Remember people only usually post online to complain - you don't get to hear from the majority of happy customers.

KIA · 20 Feb 2014 at 11:15

Steampunk said:
Can you even utilise 100 mbit download with only 3mbit upload to send ACKs?

3Mb up should be good for 200Mb downstream.

lettuce · 20 Feb 2014 at 19:16

Anyone else VM connection been playing up the last couple of days!?. I just seem to be getting rubbish speed sporadically, where webpages will take ages to load and youtube stops buffering the clip im watching.

All the lights on the SuperHub are as they should be and im not completely losing connection as the little network icon in the task bar isnt showing a yellow exclamation mark or red cross, so not sure whats up!?

HACO · 20 Feb 2014 at 19:32

lettuce said:
Anyone else VM connection been playing up the last couple of days!?. I just seem to be getting rubbish speed sporadically, where webpages will take ages to load and youtube stops buffering the clip im watching.

All the lights on the SuperHub are as they should be and im not completely losing connection as the little network icon in the task bar isnt showing a yellow exclamation mark or red cross, so not sure whats up!?

Signs of a faulty modem in general. I'd call them and they would probably replace that for you.

lettuce · 20 Feb 2014 at 19:37

HACO said:
Signs of a faulty modem in general. I'd call them and they would probably replace that for you.

Is that what you think it might be?, i should mention i have the superhub in modem mode as i use an ASUS RT-N56U as the wireless router as the superhub is rubbish for wireless.

I just did a speedtest, and whilst the speed started off at the full 120 it quickly decreased to around 60, and the slow decreased even more to 35 i actually stopped the test after a couple of minutes as it never finished, the below picture was take about 2 minutes after the test started.....

You can see from the above picture that the speed started off at full speed and then rapidly decrease, what on earth is going on here

HACO · 20 Feb 2014 at 20:56

lettuce said:
Is that what you think it might be?, i should mention i have the superhub in modem mode as i use an ASUS RT-N56U as the wireless router as the superhub is rubbish for wireless.

I just did a speedtest, and whilst the speed started off at the full 120 it quickly decreased to around 60, and the slow decreased even more to 35 i actually stopped the test after a couple of minutes as it never finished, the below picture was take about 2 minutes after the test started.....

You can see from the above picture that the speed started off at full speed and then rapidly decrease, what on earth is going on here

It could also be a weak or noisy signal (especially if there's a pattern at the times the issues occur, e.g. no issues at midnight). You can have a look at the Advanced Settings > Device Management > Network Status on the SuperHub settings.

I would call VM ASAP and arrange an engineer to come and either swap the SuperHub or amplify the signal.

lettuce · 20 Feb 2014 at 21:03

Well for the internet im using cable not wireless so it wont be a bad signal.

Just tired speedtest again now and it tested fine, full 120meg across the whole test....as said it only happens sporadically

HACO · 20 Feb 2014 at 21:06

lettuce said:
Well for the internet im using cable not wireless so it wont be a bad signal

I'm talking about the signal from the Cabinet to your modem.

Slinky1989 · 20 Feb 2014 at 22:46

Hi guys, could you help make head or tail of this?

I'm currently on the basic 30mb connection but according to the speed test I've just done, I'm only getting just under 2mb. It's been slow for the past week or so now and is seriously annoying especially when youtube videos are limited to 360p and google maps struggles in earth mode.

Rensin · 21 Feb 2014 at 02:57

Slinky1989 said:
Hi guys, could you help make head or tail of this?

I'm currently on the basic 30mb connection but according to the speed test I've just done, I'm only getting just under 2mb. It's been slow for the past week or so now and is seriously annoying especially when youtube videos are limited to 360p and google maps struggles in earth mode.

Don't take my word on this but I think your downstream power levels are slightly too high and will need an engineer visit to adjust them.

Also are you doing your speed test via wireless or wired connection?

Ceryndrion · 21 Feb 2014 at 11:04

So they are promising that they'll be upgrading my connection to 50mb/s by the end of march.. I wonder how they plan to do that, pretty sure my cable modem is only docsis1, and thusly I think I'll be getting a new modem too..

IronWarrior · 21 Feb 2014 at 11:40

Any tips on getting a better deal from Virgin?

Currently we paying £58 for M TV, 60MB Internets and XL Phone. Frankly we should be getting better.

!bluetonic! · 21 Feb 2014 at 16:24

I've recently moved house and no longer have Cable Broadband.

I'd like to say that I had a great service with NTL and Virgin Media.

I started off with a 2Mb/s line and ended up on 20Mb/s or was it 30Mb/s. I had an email today saying that would have gone up to 50Mb/s.

I didn't bother with a phone line or TV package.

I had my fingers crossed when the online checker said 'maybe' for my new house. This was then confirmed as a 'no'.

So long old friend.. I'm already back on a 8Mb/s ADSL line.

lettuce · 21 Feb 2014 at 16:44

Slinky1989 said:
Hi guys, could you help make head or tail of this?

I'm currently on the basic 30mb connection but according to the speed test I've just done, I'm only getting just under 2mb. It's been slow for the past week or so now and is seriously annoying especially when youtube videos are limited to 360p and google maps struggles in earth mode.

What program are you using to get those download stream readings from?

MOOGLEYS · 21 Feb 2014 at 16:47

IronWarrior said:
Any tips on getting a better deal from Virgin?

Currently we paying £58 for M TV, 60MB Internets and XL Phone. Frankly we should be getting better.

Calling them and saying you want to cancel worked for me.

I have XL tv with two 1tb TiVo boxes, unlimited phone and 150MB BB for £75 a month...

Slinky1989 · 21 Feb 2014 at 18:30

Rensin said:
Don't take my word on this but I think your downstream power levels are slightly too high and will need an engineer visit to adjust them.

Also are you doing your speed test via wireless or wired connection?

Not an issue I've ever heard of but thanks for the tip, I'll look into it.

The speed test was done wirelessly, but with no other devices using the wireless and the laptop is barely a couple of yards from the router with clear line of sight.

lettuce said:
What program are you using to get those download stream readings from?

The readings are straight from the advanced part of the Superhub router settings.