Virgin XGS-PON thread

If anyone's really bored and has a Nexfibre XGS-PON connection (either via VM or GiffGaff), would you mind uploading a screenshot of pinggraph.io please?

The PC you run it on needs to be connected to ethernet for the test to be useful.

Thanks!
 
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thewanted said:
If anyone's really bored and has a Nexfibre XGS-PON connection (either via VM or GiffGaff), would you mind uploading a screenshot of pinggraph.io please?

The PC you run it on needs to be connected to ethernet for the test to be useful.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Here you go. 17/22/28ms pretty much across the board. I'm in Cardiff and my traffic is routed via Birmingham.

Updated with a full run.

pinggraph.png
 
Last edited:
aaronyuri said:
Here you go. 17/22/28ms pretty much across the board. I'm in Cardiff and my traffic is routed via Birmingham.

Updated with a full run.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much! I really appreciate it.

I'm surprised that the latency is so much higher than what I get via Openreach FTTP (~4ms consistently).

What do you get it if you ping example.com?


Code: 
/ % ping example.com
PING example.com (172.66.147.243): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=5.029 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=4.790 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=4.850 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=4.852 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=4.610 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=4.390 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=4.714 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=4.917 ms
^C
--- example.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 4.390/4.769/5.029/0.186 ms
 
thewanted said:
Thanks very much! I really appreciate it.

I'm surprised that the latency is so much higher than what I get via Openreach FTTP (~4ms consistently).

What do you get it if you ping example.com?


Code: 
/ % ping example.com
PING example.com (172.66.147.243): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=5.029 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=4.790 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=4.850 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=4.852 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=4.610 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=4.390 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=4.714 ms
64 bytes from 172.66.147.243: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=4.917 ms
^C
--- example.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 4.390/4.769/5.029/0.186 ms
Click to expand...
My FTTC had better latency than Virgin's XGS-PON. Cardiff to Birmingham before it goes anywhere else obviously isn't helping.

I'll do the ping later today.
 
@thewanted

Code: 
PING example.com (104.20.23.154) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=9.84 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=10.2 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=3 ttl=57 time=9.47 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=4 ttl=57 time=9.39 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=5 ttl=57 time=9.41 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=6 ttl=57 time=9.53 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=7 ttl=57 time=10.2 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=8 ttl=57 time=9.74 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=9 ttl=57 time=10.3 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=10 ttl=57 time=9.63 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=11 ttl=57 time=10.1 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=12 ttl=57 time=9.58 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=13 ttl=57 time=9.49 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=14 ttl=57 time=9.45 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=15 ttl=57 time=9.48 ms
64 bytes from 104.20.23.154 (104.20.23.154): icmp_seq=16 ttl=57 time=9.70 ms
 
Cardiff to London via Birmingham won't be the reason for any notable latency increase, it's only 60 miles difference in path length if you look at the shortest possible distances for both routes.
 
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Caged said:
Cardiff to London via Birmingham won't be the reason for any notable latency increase, it's only 60 miles difference in path length if you look at the shortest possible distances for both routes.
Click to expand...
Cardiff to Birmingham is ~120 miles.
Cardiff to London is ~150 miles.

Cardiff to London via Birmingham is ~240 miles.

It's more accurately ~90 miles as the network runs through Newport, Gloucester and then north to Birmingham. It doesn't go from Cardiff directly NE to Birmingham. 90 miles isn't far, I agree, but 13ms round trip Cardiff to London is pretty poor in this day and age. My old Openreach FTTC connection was easily 30-40% lower on latency.

On a consumer broadband network where ICMP is probably a low priority, that added distance is going to make a difference.
 
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I think we agree with each other, the reason for the latency isn't the path involved, it will be something else in the network that VM are doing. I can get from Leicestershire to London on CityFibre National in 5ms.
 
aaronyuri said:
@thewanted
Click to expand...

Thanks! Interesting stuff.

I went years without FTTP, and then I got access to Openreach and Nexfibre within 4 weeks of each other. I was curious if Nexfibre could be a decent alternative in the future when my Plusnet contract is up, but it seems like the Virgin Media can't get rid of the demons that haunt its network.

The pricing for GiffGaff is very appealing and symmetrical FTTP would be nice, but I use Geforce Now which is very sensitive to latency so Openreach is a better fit.
 
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thewanted said:
Thanks! Interesting stuff.

I went years without FTTP, and then I got access to Openreach and Nexfibre within 4 weeks of each. I was curious if Nexfibre could be a decent alternative in the future when my Plusnet contract is up, but it seems like the Virgin Media can't get rid of the demons that haunt its network.

The pricing for GiffGaff is very appealing and symmetrical FTTP would be nice, but I use Geforce Now which is very sensitive to latency so Openreach is a better fit.
Click to expand...
I would definitely stick with OR FTTP if that's available to you. The latency is even worse if you don't have symmetric speeds (which I do). I did a post somewhere showing the latency improvement when symmetric speeds are activated.

Sadly, my only alternative is FTTC and you can't compare 50Mb to 1/2Gb no matter the reasonable uplift in latency.
 
Giffgaff is £4 extra for a one-month contract, you then get the physical network installed and an ONT instead of having to use the Virgin hub. I would sign up for the 200Mbps service on a monthly term for £29, see what the latency is like and then either go and commit to the contract, or cancel it. There is very little cost involved in trying it out.
 
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Caged said:
Giffgaff is £4 extra for a one-month contract, you then get the physical network installed and an ONT instead of having to use the Virgin hub. I would sign up for the 200Mbps service on a monthly term for £29, see what the latency is like and then either go and commit to the contract, or cancel it. There is very little cost involved in trying it out.
Click to expand...

That’s a great idea, thanks. I’ll definitely give it some thought closer to the expiration of my current contract.
 
Caged said:
Giffgaff is £4 extra for a one-month contract, you then get the physical network installed and an ONT instead of having to use the Virgin hub. I would sign up for the 200Mbps service on a monthly term for £29, see what the latency is like and then either go and commit to the contract, or cancel it. There is very little cost involved in trying it out.
Click to expand...
One caveat: Giffgaff isn't available everywhere that Virgin XGS-PON is. I have had Virgin for 6 months but can't order Giffgaff.
 
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