Virgin Media Discussion Thread

wildest_jjk · 7 Aug 2017 at 11:20

Steampunk said:
I can assure you that it's not. I have the old BT socket here still wired up to the pole, and next to it is the VM socket wired to the cable that runs alongside the coax.

I'll have a look next time I'm over there. At least I've learned that they use their own copper pair! Might help to explain the recent outage a bit better anyway!

Thanks

Rainmaker · 7 Aug 2017 at 20:29

Well I was late to the party (by a few months anyway), but I finally got around to adding 300Mbps to our package. An extra fiver a month, and...

Code:

root@debian:~$ curl ovh.net/files/1Gio.dat > /dev/null
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 1024M  100 1024M    0     0  42.9M      0  0:00:23  0:00:23 --:--:-- 45.1M

Not bad.

NZBGet is downloading at 42MB/sec to 45MB/sec, but I've not added any extra connections yet so it's still running on the old config. I reckon another five connections will stabilise that toward the higher end. Nice. :cool:

ETA: My little APU2C4 running pfSense is topping out around 38% CPU usage at 45MB/sec (1GHz AMD Jaguar quad core, 4GB DDR3, 60GB mSATA SSD). Plenty of legs left in it yet.

fireisdangerous · 8 Aug 2017 at 13:24

I have 100 meg via virgin but downloads max out at only 6m download speed in Sabnzb. I have played around with number of connections and sweet spot appears to be 30. Using port 443.

any assistance would be great.

Rainmaker · 8 Aug 2017 at 13:32

fireisdangerous said:
I have 100 meg via virgin but downloads max out at only 6m download speed in Sabnzb. I have played around with number of connections and sweet spot appears to be 30. Using port 443.

any assistance would be great.

I'm on my way out atm, but will happily help you when I get back later if nobody else does. Briefly:

More connections isn't always better. Each connection adds overhead. Start low, ramp up and find the sweet spot. About 10 connections can and should max most gigabit connections, for perspective. VM routing is pretty awful, so you may need 10 to 15 connections to max 300Mbps plus on VM.

SAB was awesome in its day but it is written in Python, and is single threaded. Basically it's not going to scale well on fast connections, and is very resource hungry. Switch to NZBGet (looks and acts almost identically, but is written in C - typically returns twice the speed of Sab on the same connection and machine).

Make sure you have a setup (CPU, RAM and especially disks) that can keep up. Downloading to one disk and unpacking to another can help. SSD for the download drive is a must for very fast connections.

List your machine specs, Usenet provider, and setup (server address(es), ports, SSL or not, which cypher, etc).

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 8 Aug 2017 at 13:37

fireisdangerous said:
I have 100 meg via virgin but downloads max out at only 6m download speed in Sabnzb. I have played around with number of connections and sweet spot appears to be 30. Using port 443.

any assistance would be great.

Have you set your maximum line speed in the options?
Config>General>Tuning
I'm on 200gamer, I set 30MB/s in SAB and get 26 downloading

ChrisD. · 8 Aug 2017 at 13:48

Sab is pretty bad but should be able to max 100Mb with ease (depending on hardware of course).

Swifty55 · 8 Aug 2017 at 14:20

VM have cancelled their 200Mbps Gamer package.

ISP Review said:
In related news we note that Virgin Media has quietly scrapped their 200Mbps GAMER package, which offered faster upload speeds and no traffic management. We’re not surprised by this as the service tier will have caused some confusion between their vanilla 200Mbps option and the seemingly faster 300Mbps tier.

Mind you if Virgin put more effort into stating their upload speeds and traffic policy on the package summary then consumers would perhaps find it easier to understand such differences.

Kemik · 8 Aug 2017 at 14:47

I'm moving into a New Build and VM seems to be the company that installed the wiring. BT are only offering 7Mb... However, while VM are saying I can get 350Mb, I can't get a phone line as I don't have any copper. This is fine for me but leaves a bit stuck on their deals.

Anyone have any suggestions for getting the best new customer deal? They had a lighting deal last month but looks like I missed it. My mate who works for VM says his mates rates aren't as good these days.

ChrisD. · 8 Aug 2017 at 14:54

Read back the past page or so, there's someone on here who works for VM who offers new customer deals.

Rensin · 8 Aug 2017 at 16:06

Swifty55 said:
VM have cancelled their 200Mbps Gamer package.

Any idea what will happen to the Vivid Gamer customers? ... I'm currently paying £5pm mostly for the uncapped upload.

Swifty55 · 8 Aug 2017 at 17:51

Rensin said:
Any idea what will happen to the Vivid Gamer customers? ... I'm currently paying £5pm mostly for the uncapped upload.

I've no idea, it was something I just saw when reading that article.

Rainmaker · 8 Aug 2017 at 18:19

Rensin said:
Any idea what will happen to the Vivid Gamer customers? ... I'm currently paying £5pm mostly for the uncapped upload.

Traditionally VM just keep the tiers as legacy, with some customers migrating to other faster tiers in time.

Kemik · 8 Aug 2017 at 20:51

ChrisD. said:
Read back the past page or so, there's someone on here who works for VM who offers new customer deals.

Whoops! My bad. I did read the last past, just not the one before.

Shame there is a month wait after I move into the house before they can install internet... I don't move in for two weeks either! BT don't service the property...

Glanza · 9 Aug 2017 at 10:41

Wonder if they'll drop people who are on the gamer package back to the normal 200mbps.

izzop · 9 Aug 2017 at 11:38

Glanza said:
Wonder if they'll drop people who are on the gamer package back to the normal 200mbps.

Possibly not.

I only say that as I'm still on 150mb from back when they offered it, or rather kept upping the speeds. Contract finished a very good while back and they only offer 200 or 100 now, but I'm still getting just over 150mb.

Glanza · 9 Aug 2017 at 12:12

Not checked for a while but according to VM I can upgrade from my 200mb vivid to the 300mb package for an extra £14 a month, their checker claims I'm eligible for speeds upto 350mb.

Glanza · 9 Aug 2017 at 13:06

Rung VM and that's 25 minutes I'm not getting back, I can upgrade to vivid 300 but as my 200 is on a discount currently I'd have to pay the uplift for the remainder of that contract which is around £55 then start a new contract for the 300 at full price making the monthly figure between £50 and £60 purely for BB as I have no other services with them.

Beasty · 9 Aug 2017 at 13:47

Wait till we get price increase letters I guess, might strengthen our hands, I want to ditch tv and phone for a cheaper deal. Never use them but it was cheaper at the time.

Glanza · 9 Aug 2017 at 13:56

Spoke on live chat to someone else and he was more than helpful, should be on the 300mb vivid by the time I get home now for an extra £3 a month. He did mention that VM are putting their prices up to all customers by £2.76 from November.

[RB] · 9 Aug 2017 at 14:37

Despite being a VM customer (internet only) for quite a few years, I've just taken the plunge and moved from 200Mbps Gamer to TalkTalk 76Mbps. I was paying £42.25 a month for the VM 200D/20U service, now £31.50 for the high tier fibre 76D/20U and phone.

This was a Superhub 2 setup in Modem only mode into a Pfsense VM running on a Dell T20 and ESXI 6.5.

Virgin Graph Prior to switch over - speed tests usually returned at 220Mbps down / 22Mbps Up

74b8d6f5f47c063dd4976156c244a566875ad242-09-08-2017.png

TalkTalk - the section to the left of the red packet loss band is the TalkTalk supplied router with zero traffic or devices connected. Not sure on what's causing the consistent max latency spikes considering there was nothing connected! The section to the right is the switch over to the Unlocked BT Openreach Huawei HG612 3B into the Pfsense box described above. The spike of packet loss at ~1.30pm, was a quick pfsense restart but other than that (and appreciating it's very early days!) the connection does feel snappier. Speed tests at the moment show around 70Mbps down / 19 Mbps Up

d98eba21f66eae2f1de28b1ba134ea7b789c6a51-09-08-2017.png

I've not missed the extra download speed during normal use yet as most of the larger downloads are scheduled overnight. Time will tell whether I end up knocking back on Virgin's door but I suspect with the incoming price increase, they're going to have to knock out some amazing discounts to ever attract me back.