Virgin Media Discussion Thread

ChrisD. · 31 May 2017 at 08:45

Bassmansam said:
speedtest.net app on ios, is it not reliable?

Virgin will prioritise traffic for speedtest sites but often real world usage and streaming won't see the full 210.

I remember being able to get 152 mbit on Speedtest but I couldn't watch YouTube or other streaming services without severe buffering.

chroniclard · 31 May 2017 at 09:04

I get full speeds on downloads, speedtest, steam, origin, newsgroups etc. Streaming seems fine too. The only time I have issues is with Youtube but I rarely use that.

TheMightyTen · 31 May 2017 at 11:39

Bassmansam said:
speedtest.net app on ios, is it not reliable?

You more than likely pulled the test from within the VM network from a local node. Select a none local node at the other end of the country that is not VMs and try again. Better still use Thinkbroadband's speed test as it tests single thread and multithread downloads and returns more informative metrics, also VM hate it

Bassmansam · 31 May 2017 at 12:18

TheMightyTen said:
You more than likely pulled the test from within the VM network from a local node. Select a none local node at the other end of the country that is not VMs and try again. Better still use Thinkbroadband's speed test as it tests single thread and multithread downloads and returns more informative metrics, also VM hate it

To be honest as long as i can play fifa online and stream 4k netflix/amazon which both worked well last night, i'll be happy

I will try think broadband test later just out of curiosity.

wam7 · 31 May 2017 at 14:15

Bassmansam said:
To be honest as long as i can play fifa online and stream 4k netflix/amazon which both worked well last night, i'll be happy

I will try think broadband test later just out of curiosity.

Also set up a ThinkBroadband meter (like the ones you can see in this thread) as that will be a good indicator as to how well you can expect your online gaming experience to be going forward. From what I remember as long as you're not in modem only mode it should be fine but...

Bassmansam · 31 May 2017 at 22:40

wam7 said:
Also set up a ThinkBroadband meter (like the ones you can see in this thread) as that will be a good indicator as to how well you can expect your online gaming experience to be going forward. From what I remember as long as you're not in modem only mode it should be fine but...

I downloaded the meter but it is very slow and unresponsive, is this a general problem?

bremen1874 · 31 May 2017 at 22:46

Downloaded?

I'd assume that they were referring to the Broadband Quality Monitor which is setup via their website.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality

edit: I see that there is something to download named Broadband Meter. I'm fairly certain that this isn't what they were referring to, and it's just an unfortunate coincidence with the names.

Tommyyv · 31 May 2017 at 23:11

Is Virgin a good ISP to go for? Ive heard the speeds are incredible.

bremen1874 · 31 May 2017 at 23:21

'Incredible'? Yes, if by that you mean unbelievable, beyond belief, hard to believe, scarcely credible, unconvincing, far-fetched, strained, laboured, implausible, improbable, highly unlikely, or any other similar synonym.

It's actually going to depend on where you live. In some areas you'll get what's advertised, or slightly better. In others it can be near unusable during peak hours.

Schizo · 31 May 2017 at 23:47

I've never had a problem with virgin media in the last 4 years I've had them,always get the speed they say and had one outage in those years.

Tommyyv · 1 Jun 2017 at 08:11

bremen1874 said:
'Incredible'? Yes, if by that you mean unbelievable, beyond belief, hard to believe, scarcely credible, unconvincing, far-fetched, strained, laboured, implausible, improbable, highly unlikely, or any other similar synonym.

It's actually going to depend on where you live. In some areas you'll get what's advertised, or slightly better. In others it can be near unusable during peak hours.

Well compared to my current speed with TalkTalk (40Mbps max) Virgin seems to just be a better ISP. But is it actually the case? They arn't available in my area at the moment anyway, I was just wondering.

Sp00n · 1 Jun 2017 at 08:51

Tommyyv said:
Is Virgin a good ISP to go for? Ive heard the speeds are incredible.

If you live in a non-oversubscribed area they're great.

ChrisD. · 1 Jun 2017 at 08:52

Tommyyv said:
Well compared to my current speed with TalkTalk (40Mbps max) Virgin seems to just be a better ISP. But is it actually the case? They arn't available in my area at the moment anyway, I was just wondering.

Depends on the area, if you're in somewhere that's congested then FTTC would be better.

In fact, apart from peak downloads speeds most FTTC connections are 'better'.

crinkleshoes · 1 Jun 2017 at 13:12

Sp00n said:
If you live in a non-oversubscribed area they're great.

Even in an over-subscribed area they'll be better than TalkTalk... TalkTalk's tiny backbone is heavily over-subscribed

Sp00n · 1 Jun 2017 at 13:19

crinkleshoes said:
Even in an over-subscribed area they'll be better than TalkTalk... TalkTalk's tiny backbone is heavily over-subscribed

I beg to differ, my connection was completely useless during peak hours (25%+ packet loss) prior to VM upgrading the local infrastructure a few years ago.

I would have been happy with a stable but slow connection had they not reimbursed me.

crinkleshoes · 1 Jun 2017 at 14:19

Sp00n said:
I beg to differ, my connection was completely useless during peak hours (25%+ packet loss) prior to VM upgrading the local infrastructure a few years ago.

I would have been happy with a stable but slow connection had they not reimbursed me.

Same/worse with Talktalk duder... but instead of being localised it's everywhere.

I've heard they have plans to upgrade but like virgin localised things the dates keep getting pushed back.

ChrisD. · 1 Jun 2017 at 14:21

@crinkleshoes where is the evidence of Talk Talik over subscription? As far as I was aware, since that guy from Zen joine them, their network is much improved? Just their CS leaves something to be desired.

[HB]Rugrat · 1 Jun 2017 at 17:33

As others have said if you're in an area that's not oversubscribed it's great - very fast, very reliable. If you're in an oversubscribed area it can be absolutely awful. I left a month ago but was paying for a 200mb service and receiving as little as 2-3mb between 6pm and midnight. The problem with VM is that they won't tell you, even if you ask directly about it before signing up. Their response to oversubscription issues for existing customers largely depends on whether the customer service rep is any good or not, and they don't know / won't tell you when the network will be upgraded (they just give you a "review date" and allow you to infer that's the point that they'll fix it). Anyone thinking of signing up to VM should check with neighbours who have it to see if they're affected by oversubscription and / or wade through the many hundreds of complaints on the VM customer forum.

Sp00n · 1 Jun 2017 at 17:54

Read the VM forum, search for your postcode.

Nexus18 · 1 Jun 2017 at 18:12

Generally I get 1-2 issues a year with virgin i.e. internet not working or/and slow speeds/awful latency, usually it is fixed within a week though (unless it happens at xmas time/holidays, then it takes longer....) and the rest of the time is good.

Recently got an asus router to go with the superhub 2ac (superhub 3 was awful even just in modem and router mode) and it has helped a bit with latency etc.

superhub 2 ac:

asus with sh 2ac:

The big spikes are when downloading/uploading.

Some speed tests throughout the day:

Could get BT for better latency (well possibly, not sure as pretty much this entire neighbourhood are on BT..... we are the only ones in this smaller area on virgin....) but honestly, I wouldn't want to downgrade to anything less for download speeds.