Dumping Virgin Media

[AndrewJ]

As a result of their packet shaping on their network totally killing how I use my internet, I plan to jump ship from Virgin Media.

I do not fancy BT and fancy something guranteed service with a UK call centre which won't shape my speeds once I have uploaded even 1.95GB of data

I share alot of files relating to the STBC project a development from an old Star Trek Game, both over ICQ, and on Utorrent all legal third party created files yet I am heavily shaped for uploading even 2GB in the evening, and perhaps downloading 5GB in a 24hour period, hardly the top 3-5% of users really that is it? yet night after night day after day my net speeds plumment to silly low speeds well below the 5MB down 192K they advertise so stealthily on their website .

So what other ISP's are there out there? that are not overstretched like Virgin Morons.

[GoNz0]

i was fed up with this, i just got the free upgrade and it seems to have sorted things out, if i think i have been shaped now i pop along to my rack server in london and grab a large file form there, is always flys up to 1mb/sec (10mb download) just as it should be !

2 weeks ago i was lucky if my 4mb line would drag 1mb from them and i know that networks not overloaded as its a high speed games pipe.

[AndrewJ]

It's ridiculous and the GF will NOT have a BT line, but my principle I am done with Virgin Media, so looks like offline for me and perhaps buying a console.

I just will not use a service which is blatantly miss-advertising to the public as an unlimited server with breakneck speeds which has what is basically a stealth cap 11hours of the 24hours day.

[Templar87]

Have to agree with you, the bandwidth throttling is pretty annoying. Although I think it's only between 4 and 9pm - would it be possible for you to run torrenting apps overnight (or at least outside of those hours) to avoid being throttled? Don't get me wrong, I know this solution is inconvenient at best, but if you can get a decent deal from VM through their cancellations dept. then the savings may be worth it.

[GoNz0]

ring em up and moan, they will up your package or discount you to keep your business !

[AndrewJ]

I'm off mate, I've seen service disruptions throughout the night, and the whole oh you can only use your "unlimited" broadband when "we" decide really boils my blood.

I do stand by principles too often but on this occasion I am damn right and I hope others walk out in disgust as Virgin Morons.

[AndrewJ]

ring em up and moan, they will up your package or discount you to keep your business !

I am on 20MB I have the family pack TV and I have their international phone package.

Unless they offer to remove the damn packet shaping and provide me a static IP they can go and screw themselves for

1) Altering the network without notifying me by post

2) Making it so I have to see this information on a forum and not from them because it's hidden on their site

3) For also being after bringing in PHORM an advertising system to monitor my websites to gain better adverts for me.

[Templar87]

In that case this post will probably have the information you need.

[digit]

3) For also being after bringing in PHORM an advertising system to monitor my websites to gain better adverts for me.

They have signed an agreement to investigate the service and what it can provide to their customers, doesnt actually mean they have implemented something. They have quite a bit of information stating clearly they are not currently testing or using phorm with any users.

Virgin Media has signed a preliminary agreement with Phorm to understand in more detail how this technology works but we have not yet decided if it will be introduced. Webwise is a technically complex application which could be implemented in a number of different ways and it will be some months before we can confirm if the service will be made available to our customers and if so, how and when it would be deployed. Customer concerns around privacy and data protection are (and will remain) an important element of this preliminary evaluation and we will not roll out Webwise unless we are completely satisfied that in our view it complies with applicable data protection and privacy regulations.

It may be that, as part of the evaluation process, we want to test the technology among some of our customers but we are not currently doing so and we will not conduct any such tests without individual customers' prior consent. Moreover, should Virgin Media eventually decide to roll out Webwise, customers will not be forced to use the system.

Please do though have a go at Virgin Media for the costant outages and lack of speed at any time during the day though

[AndrewJ]

Oh I plan on Digit, they're really cut my patience today good job it's a bank holiday really or I'd be on the phone giving a piece of my mind to some poor person.

[Agent]

Virgin do not packet shape, they throttle if you down/upload too much data between 4 and 9. There is a big difference between throttling and shaping

Its a PITA no matter where you get broadband from atm.
ADSL = BT Line needed and many ISPs still throttle / shape. If you choose one that doesn't, you're still at BT's mercy should you have a line fault. Then there is the entire 'not sure what speed I will get until I get it' issue

Virgins service really depends on the area. Some have a brilliant service, some have a real poor one

[digit]

In the area's served by stoke its constant outages. Brill Must have been three this year so far!

[AndrewJ]

I'm in the Rochdale area.

[jeffel]

The reason for all this is due to thier traffic management they have for sometime now.

They are targetting the top 3-5% of the users.

Your speed won't be moderated unless you're in the top 3% of users (uploaders and downloaders). Our boffins ran a trial to see how much our service was being affected. They discovered that, in certain areas, just 3% of customers were uploading and/or downloading such a large amount of content that it was affecting the service for other users in these areas.

There is some overlap in the 3% of uploaders and the 3% of downloaders. Our data has identified that the top 3% of uploaders and downloaders makes up fewer than 5% of all users.

And we're not talking about just a few video clips. In some cases the top 3% of uploaders and downloaders were using as much as 3GB, just during peak times. That's around 750 music tracks in the space of a few hours.

So, unless you're using an unusually large amount of information at peak times, we won't restrict your service and you can use to your heart's content.

Traffic management

Therefore i do all my downloads before 4pm and after 12pm at night.

This is insane wonder why they still call it unlimited broadband though!

[Jay]

i'm dumping them too. They throttle my connection if I download or not so this "only if you are a heavy user" is a load of crap. I get 19mbps in the easrly hours and between 6:00pm and 12:00am I get from 4 to 10mbps.

I do not torrent and mostly only browse the web.

[Robert]

As Agent has said...they do not packet shape