What's up with VM download speed?!

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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!

 

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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!

 

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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.

 

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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!?

 

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[/sarcy mode off]

OK back to my normal self now I love this thread...it really makes you wonder how many people read anything other than the thread title before they post.

But anyway, back on topic. The reason for my OP was that I had been getting speeds of around 2MB for a couple of weeks, even at very low traffic times. I have never been traffic shaped, and hope I never will. But even so, the connection had been very dodgy, even since I had VM isntalled in Jan but with a slightly higher speed. I read a lot of forum posts and settled for the fact that I was probably on an oversubscribed UBR.

However, after looking at the VM service status page I see that my UBR is scheduled for maintenance over the next six nights. *waits a week then tries again* The difference is amazing. I am now getting 20Mb/s consistently throughout the day, and even during the peak times it will rarely fall below 10Mb.

I guess my point is that yes, there are a hell of a lot of us on pretty damn poor connections, supposedly 20Mb. But at the end of the day, this and many other posts claiming suddenly higher speeds over the past few weeks, just proves that VM are indeed aware of the issue and are taking steps to resolve it. Just take a look here if you need any more convincing - http://status-cable.virginmedia.com/vmstatus/maintenance.do

Help is on the way folks, hang in there.

 

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How's about that for full speed