Virgin Media rate limit usenet access - even on 50 smegs

JBod · 12 Apr 2011 at 20:23

I am shocked, they still maintain they do no traffic management on the 50MB service. But they clearly do.

I swapped ports with Giganews for SSL to standard web SSL of 443 (from 563) and my connection slammed back up to full speed!

Thought i'd share...

Nick1881 · 12 Apr 2011 at 20:51

Where you been, they have been doing this for a while, well since the upload speed increase anyway.

PistolPete · 13 Apr 2011 at 11:43

...and they advertised the fact they were going to do it too.

JBod · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:10

PistolPete said:
...and they advertised the fact they were going to do it too.

Where? They still maintain that 50MB is completely unrestricted as far as I am aware (so someone from the CEOs office told me about 2 weeks ago).

antijoke · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:19

Welcome to the murky world of broadband.

PistolPete · 13 Apr 2011 at 17:09

JBod said:
Where? They still maintain that 50MB is completely unrestricted as far as I am aware (so someone from the CEOs office told me about 2 weeks ago).

Here:

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html

50Mb is free from the STM, which is the "dont download / upload more than xx amount between xx pm and xx pm or get pulled down to 25% of your line speed for 5 hours".

Usenet and P2P is restricted at certain times by a generally undisclosed amount (or an amount that's variable depending on network / UBR load)

Rroff · 13 Apr 2011 at 17:11

"unrestricted" in the sense they don't stop your access to something after x MB, just slow it down a lot.

McDaniel · 13 Apr 2011 at 17:47

JBod said:
I am shocked, they still maintain they do no traffic management on the 50MB service. But they clearly do.

I swapped ports with Giganews for SSL to standard web SSL of 443 (from 563) and my connection slammed back up to full speed!

Thought i'd share...

Good Tip!!

Sorted my issue out, from 300KB/Sec back to 5.96MB/sec!

Mr Krugga · 13 Apr 2011 at 20:54

PistolPete said:
Here:

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html

50Mb is free from the STM, which is the "dont download / upload more than xx amount between xx pm and xx pm or get pulled down to 25% of your line speed for 5 hours".

Usenet and P2P is restricted at certain times by a generally undisclosed amount (or an amount that's variable depending on network / UBR load)

Does Heavy User Management Policy apply to File Sharing (NG/P2P) only or any data you download? I can't imagine my internet connection speed going down by three quarters for half a day after I download a game on Steam... (I'm thinking of getting the 30Mb/s package)

dbmzk1 · 13 Apr 2011 at 21:17

Mr Krugga said:
Does Heavy User Management Policy apply to File Sharing (NG/P2P) only or any data you download? I can't imagine my internet connection speed going down by three quarters for half a day after I download a game on Steam... (I'm thinking of getting the 30Mb/s package)

Any and all data.

PistolPete · 14 Apr 2011 at 00:02

STM is applied once your traffic hits the predefined levels in each period. At the end of each period your usage counters are reset for the next one.

If you hit the limit your connection is throttled back to by 75% (so your 30Mb would become 7.5Mb) for 5 hours....even if you are 1 minute from the end of the period!
VM were trialling a newer STM and one of the features was the restriction ended at the end of the period, so if you hit it 10 mins before the end you'd only get slowed down for 10 mins.

The P2P/Newsgroup enforced slowdown is as well as the STM.

asim18 · 14 Apr 2011 at 00:25

JBod said:
I am shocked, they still maintain they do no traffic management on the 50MB service. But they clearly do.

This has been going on for several months now, and they confirmed it ages ago.

Were you on holiday or something?

Rainmaker · 14 Apr 2011 at 00:40

We really need to pin this. NNTP on VM = Port 443 and SSL. Sorted.

I just wish they'd hurry up and roll out 100Mb here.

Mr Krugga · 14 Apr 2011 at 10:20

PistolPete said:
STM is applied once your traffic hits the predefined levels in each period. At the end of each period your usage counters are reset for the next one.

If you hit the limit your connection is throttled back to by 75% (so your 30Mb would become 7.5Mb) for 5 hours....even if you are 1 minute from the end of the period!
VM were trialling a newer STM and one of the features was the restriction ended at the end of the period, so if you hit it 10 mins before the end you'd only get slowed down for 10 mins.

The P2P/Newsgroup enforced slowdown is as well as the STM.

This really sucks, so it's either Virgin 50Mb/s or Sky Broadband now...

Relentless81 · 14 Apr 2011 at 10:28

I did exactly the same as the OP after putting up with dire Newsnet speeds for the last week and straight away it went up to my usual speeds that i've been used to. I cant beleive they can start doing this without notification.

So does this mean when it starts happening you just have to swap ports to get around it?

3dcandy · 14 Apr 2011 at 10:56

Guys I can't see what you're all getting worked up about, throttling/traffic management happens on all broadband in various forms otherwise the quality for everybody would suffer. Some ISP's throttle less or on certain ports more, but it's there. Internet/broadband useage is so high these days that if a basic form of management wasn't in place it would all grind to a halt over time. Sometimes actual useage means it is throttled/managed (no spare capacity etc.) but it is still there. Of course there are ways round it, but a completely unmanaged connection is almost impossible to find at a decent price, it would be commercial suicide!

Sp00n · 14 Apr 2011 at 11:01

3dcandy said:
throttling/traffic management happens on all broadband in various forms

No it doesnt, Bethere manage it just fine.

The problem is... they say they don't, when they clearly do.

3dcandy · 14 Apr 2011 at 13:21

Sp00n said:
No it doesnt, Bethere manage it just fine.

The problem is... they say they don't, when they clearly do.

No, they will be managing it better...or decide not to throttle ports etc. There is no way you get 100% of what they get bandwidth wise because their service will suffer. Don't kid yourself that you do! Like I said, they either manage it better, or don't oversubscribe or there is less congestion via their system...

Cr416 · 14 Apr 2011 at 13:32

Sp00n said:
No it doesnt, Bethere manage it just fine.

The problem is... they say they don't, when they clearly do.

Just been having a small argument about this with anticonscience

, VM only limit p2p/newsgroups on the 50mb service. Nothing else is affected by bandwidth management:

File sharing
We moderate the total volume of file sharing traffic on our network between 5pm and midnight on weekdays and midday and midnight on weekends. This policy, which applies to all broadband packages, is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)

This policy does not impact any applications other than Peer to Peer and Newsgroups, so things like watching iPlayer, online gaming, making calls via Skype, downloading music tracks from iTunes or streaming them from Spotify and sending an email or normal browsing are unaffected.

It's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply at peak times when speeds are most likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share. Outside of peak times we do not manage traffic.

Source: http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html#table

Other packages are restricted and listed on said page.

radar19 · 14 Apr 2011 at 17:43

I've checked, there appears to be no traffic restriction in my area. Torrents ran at full speed until my room mate messed about with the router.