What's up with VM download speed?!

[box]

Hi there,
I know this rant has been posted a fair few times before but I can't help venting my frustration at the utterly abismal service I seem to have been receiving recently. I have a 20Mb line, and up until a few weeks back I was getting the normal speed for this line, around 300kbps. I visited a number of forums and this speed seemed about normal if not a tad fast for 20Mb, so I was very satisfied.

But recently things have just got down right appalling. For instance, take a look at this...I ran a speed test this evening and this is what I got



What kind of speed is that? I mean if you're gonna advertise a 20Mb package, at least make it 2Mb like everyone is expecting. And if you've got any decency, it should probably be lower. But no, I'm stuck with this annoying speed. I mean what's the point of advertising 'Up to 20Mb', if you're just gonna give me that speed anyway. Misleading if you ask me. Why oh why? Honestly!

 

[PinkFloyd]

Damn you....

 

[bringans]

lol

 

[VaderDSL]

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 207 ms 34 ms 169 ms 10.92.156.1
2 42 ms 52 ms 26 ms bagu-t2cam1-b-v133.inet.ntl.com
3 220 ms 75 ms 37 ms bagu-t2core-b-ge-wan22.inet.ntl.com
4 35 ms 18 ms 38 ms lee-bb-b-so-710-0.inet.ntl.com
5 40 ms 102 ms 153 ms lee-bb-a-ge-000-0.inet.ntl.com
6 145 ms 53 ms 253 ms pop-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com
7 22 ms 283 ms 312 ms tele-ic-2-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.6]
8 84 ms 71 ms 74 ms ntl-ge2-8.prt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk
9 117 ms 60 ms 179 ms 212.58.238.129
10 31 ms 41 ms 53 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 84 ms 198 ms 119 ms 10.92.156.1
2 232 ms 34 ms 107 ms bagu-t2cam1-b-v133.inet.ntl.com
3 16 ms 47 ms 36 ms bagu-t2core-b-ge-wan22.inet.ntl.com
4 123 ms 33 ms 20 ms lee-bb-b-so-710-0.inet.ntl.com
5 35 ms 75 ms 84 ms lee-bb-a-ge-000-0.inet.ntl.com
6 30 ms 84 ms 26 ms pop-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com
7 63 ms 42 ms 234 ms tele-ic-2-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.6]
8 263 ms 155 ms 53 ms ntl-ge2-8.prt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk
9 42 ms 69 ms 45 ms 212.58.238.129
10 84 ms 70 ms * rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
11 72 ms 77 ms 19 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.

Awesome Moving house tomorrow to get away from VM, hopefully onto something a bit more reliable, and only 300 metres from the exchange.

 

[Phemo]

Aye the Bagueley UBR is knackered it seems. Fortunately my area seems to provide generally excellent service - on the Winnersh UBR. Virgin cable is excellent if you live in the right area.

 

[box]

Mine is even worse than yours!

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms 1 ms <1 ms Linksys [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 11 ms 9 ms 10.177.0.1
3 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms 80.193.192.5
4 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms pop-bb-b-ge-200-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.178.169]
5 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms ntl-ge2-8.prt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.217]
6 11 ms 12 ms 10 ms 212.58.238.153
7 11 ms 11 ms 12 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.

I am seriously considering phoning them up tomorrow. This has gone on long enough!

 

[VaderDSL]

Aye the Bagueley UBR is knackered it seems. Fortunately my area seems to provide generally excellent service - on the Winnersh UBR. Virgin cable is excellent if you live in the right area.

Indeed I like VM when it's summer or christmas, around here there are students for miles! all on the same UBR and all dowjnloading 24/7 it seems, it is just horrendous at peak down here

When they all go home I get the full download speed and sub 50ms pings, it's just while they are all here it bottoms out, it's actually hard to get my emails sometimes, I would be better on dial up now and again. In fact when it;s at its worst I use the Edge network (slow in itself) to do my emails

 

[Dist]

that speedtest site is stupid, i just tried it myself and the results are way off what im actully getting.

 

[VaderDSL]

Mine is even worse than yours!

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms 1 ms <1 ms Linksys [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 11 ms 9 ms 10.177.0.1
3 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms 80.193.192.5
4 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms pop-bb-b-ge-200-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.178.169]
5 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms ntl-ge2-8.prt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.217]
6 11 ms 12 ms 10 ms 212.58.238.153
7 11 ms 11 ms 12 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.

I am seriously considering phoning them up tomorrow. This has gone on long enough!

I'm personally gonna pee on your UBR VM gets a lot of bad press. If, as Phemo said, you're in the right area on a good UBR that isn't crammed VM is brilliant, it's just when they cram as many people on it gets bad. I guess students aren't fussy, as long as they can download their seasons of Family Guy and Scrubs 24/7 then I guess it doesn't bother them that performance is below average

 

[Jabbs]

Hi there,
I know this rant has been posted a fair few times before but I can't help venting my frustration at the utterly abismal service I seem to have been receiving recently. I have a 20Mb line, and up until a few weeks back I was getting the normal speed for this line, around 300kbps. I visited a number of forums and this speed seemed about normal if not a tad fast for 20Mb, so I was very satisfied.

But recently things have just got down right appalling. For instance, take a look at this...I ran a speed test this evening and this is what I got



What kind of speed is that? I mean if you're gonna advertise a 20Mb package, at least make it 2Mb like everyone is expecting. And if you've got any decency, it should probably be lower. But no, I'm stuck with this annoying speed. I mean what's the point of advertising 'Up to 20Mb', if you're just gonna give me that speed anyway. Misleading if you ask me. Why oh why? Honestly!

LOL thats good, am lucky too i get the full speed out of my 20meg con with vm.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

my VM connection seems to be really slow sometimes, noticeably after i download or upload large files.

odd? i heard a rumor that VM were restricting speeds, like capping? even though its supposed to be unlimited.. pfft

 

[Jabbs]

It is unlimited but if you download over a certain amount between 4-9pm you get capped

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

It depends on your area i guess between them times my 20 meg can go from 2.3mbs down too 1.6mbs which is more than good enough still, am more than happy with what they do its better than having a hard cap every month ive had one on adsl and it was a pain.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

It is unlimited but if you download over a certain amount between 4-9pm you get capped

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

It depends on your area i guess between them times my 20 meg can go from 2.3mbs down too 1.6mbs which is more than good enough still, am more than happy with what they do its better than having a hard cap every month ive had one on adsl and it was a pain.

well then it is not unlimited.. unlimited = no limit, and capping is a limit.

 

[manic_man]

600Kbit up on a 20Mbit connection Disgusting tbqh

The one area cable companies could really hit at DSL is the fact it bleedin well costs them nothing other than extra bandwidth (which they curb anyway) to offer 1:1 ratios.. I mean their network is asynch...

If DSL companies like BE can offer upto 2.4Mbit (1.3Mbit on their "normal" service) cable companies should be offering at least a quarter of the download speed imo...

I only get 10mbit on my BE connection due to my phoneline, but if cable was available I still wouldnt take it as I simply couldnt stand seeing my upload speeds drop from 130k/s to around 60...

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

When they come out with 40-50mb connections this year then i hope the upload speed at least doubles.

and i hope they get rid of this speed limiting c(r)ap at certain times

lol

 

[box]

600Kbit up on a 20Mbit connection Disgusting tbqh

I totally agree...it's disgraceful. They could at least make it a little bit slower, say 488kbps upload so we think we're on ADSL...that would satisfy me at least.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Now try downloading some stuff and pucker up that arse cause they're bound to shape or re-shape it

 

[box]

I have to say, VM's traffic shaping policy must be their most redeeming feature. I mean, I personally couldn't manage a day without the excitement of having my connection reduced from that very plain 20Mb to a much more stimulating 5Mb. 2Mb would be a bit more respectable, but I suppose there's time. If it was up to me, traffic shaping would be 24/7...how awesome would that be!?

 

[james32]

i got sick of virgin's traffic shaping and ditched them
web-pages were really slow to load outside the uk
uk websites were fine

i rather have a cap anyday than traffic shaping
i was getting traffic shaped from 1pm all the way to 1am
without even really downloading anything, got sick of it.

joined BE internet nice 1.5mb upload 4mb download seems a lot faster
than virgin on most webpages.

 

[manic_man]

I totally agree...it's disgraceful. They could at least make it a little bit slower, say 488kbps upload so we think we're on ADSL...that would satisfy me at least.

Erm my DSL connection gives me a nice healthy 1.3Mbit upload! Very few DSL connections are stuck on 400k anymore, only the dirty cheap ones, and tbh what do people expect for like £10 a month!

Even the "better" BT Max services at least offer 800k upload, but 600k on a 20mbit connection when literaly the ONLY limiting factor is VM specifically capping it? At least with DSL its a technological limitation as well.... with BE's 2.4Mbit upload requiring you to possibly forgo some of your download bandwidth to make room... this simply would not be the case for VM. They have an async 100mbit network in place, offering their customers say 5mbit up on a 20mbit connection would not hit their network at all except in slightly increased traffic.

I know for a fact all of the people obsessed with BB that I know would jump ship instantly to VM, even to the point of moving where they live! If they offered good upload services.

Perhaps if you dont work from home as a web developer etc like a lot of my friends do then it won't interest you as much, but VM really is missing a trick imo.