Terrible VM download speed

[watercooled]

I've noticed awful download speeds over the past few days. Sometimes it's ok then even as I'm downloading a file it can drop as low as 50KB/s. It's nothing to do with the PC as it affects all PCs on my network and I've tried rebooting the modem. AFAIK, it's not speed throttling - firstly because these speeds are low even compared to capped speed, and because I've been waiting until after 9 to start. Funny thing is, Firefox reports download speeds as high as 4MB/s at times (that's MB, not Mb). When I use http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/lhr.html it reports my QoS as below 40% a lot of the time, I don't know if that matters. Has anyone else on VM experienced anything similar, and what could be causing it?
Thanks


Just wanted to add, it can go back up as quickly as it drops.

[Tonka777]

I've been getting a similar rate here on Virgin, i don't know what's going on, but its really starting to do my head in. If these companies cant actually provide their current customers with the service they are paying for they should at least stop taking on new connections until they have upgraded the infrastructure to handle it.

[watercooled]

Agreed. I think the must be having large-scale problems lately, as a few people who I have asked are having similar problems.

[blueball]

Remember that once you get outside VMs network it is not their responsibilty. If the site you are trying to download from is being heavily loaded then it doesn't matter how fast your connection is, you cannot get more than the remote server can provide.

I have just tried the download test linked to above. In 3 tests it gave download speeds of 3Mbps, 13 Mbps and 9 Mbps. The QoS was reported as anything between 11% and 96% - in short, it doesn't, to me, seem very reliable as a test.

[Mutley]

It also depends on where you live.
I live in the Reading area, and speeds for me are pretty solid (I'm on the 20Mb service).
It's ping times that have been driving me mad lately - made gaming in the evening hard to impossible (at least that's excuse for playing badly).

After some reading around I found that Virgin don't support QoS and suggest you uninstall any QoS support for your NIC, but also using TCPOptimiser to adjust your RWin and MTU settings (if you are running Windows XP that is), is very worthwhile. After I did that I found my ping times are solid all the time (within reason given internet latency in general), and general internet use appeared "smoother" (a highly subjective judgement I grant you).

So you could give TCPOptimiser a try?

Secondly, VM are rolling out their 50Mb service, and from all that I've read, its causing quite a lot of distruption, with the promise from VM that it will be much better for everyone when they're done. I think this programme involves upgrading old UBRs, and hopefully easing the load on over-loaded UBRs.

I suspect VM are crossing their fingers and hoping that enough customers hang on (with payouts for bad service) until the 50Mb roll out is complete and the kinks worked out, AND that this will in fact improve things for everyone!

I've been very tempted by Be Unltd's 24Mb service (2.5Mb up!) - its cheaper than VM and they don't throttle, but that would mean having a BT line installed, and that means talking to BT. Something I really don't want to do, from past experience.

[LuckyNV]

I ran the OP test many times, QoS is always 97-99%, up and down stream is as it should be, i've never had trouble maxing out my connection to servers that could supply me.

[watercooled]

Thanks for replying guys. I understand speed tests can be unreliable - I only used that to check it wasn't just the server I was downloading from. I tried different mirrors and nothing much changed.
I think VM must be having trouble with their speed-limiting gear since, soon after I opened this thread, I was getting around 8MB/s (that's MBytes not Mbits!) for a few seconds so I don't think it's anything my end limiting speed.

[moogle]

It's the internets fault. Virgin can't guarantee their fast speeds to any server, even their own

The QoS test isn't unlreliable because it doesn't give a stable QoS value, it's just because your speed to that server never stays constant when you run the test.

[Mutley]

Thanks for replying guys. I understand speed tests can be unreliable - I only used that to check it wasn't just the server I was downloading from. I tried different mirrors and nothing much changed.
I think VM must be having trouble with their speed-limiting gear since, soon after I opened this thread, I was getting around 8MB/s (that's MBytes not Mbits!) for a few seconds so I don't think it's anything my end limiting speed.

Have you had a look on their newsgroup service? You could also post a comment on the support group their - VM support people are pretty good at responding, and should be able to tell you if they are screwing you around with STM or not.

[HermansArmpit]

Yeah I have definately noticed this. I throught it was them throttling the life out of my connection but their policy says they only throttle it down to 75%. I was downloading at 50k/s yesterday and couldnt even open this web page.

They routinely throttle me to far less than 75% - I drop from 10Mb to 2.5Mb quite regularly but not usually as bad as the past few days.

Could they be doing upgrades or something? Or maybe there's a monster feeding on the internet? I saw it happen once...

[moogle]

Yeah I have definately noticed this. I throught it was them throttling the life out of my connection but their policy says they only throttle it to 75%. I was downloading at 50k/s yesterday and couldnt even open this web page.

The routinely throttle to more then 75% with me - I drop from 10Mb to 2.5Mb quite regularly but not usually as bad as the past few days.

Could they be doing upgrades or something? Or maybe there's a monster feeding on the internet? I saw it happen once...

They throttle 75% back, as in throttle you to 25% of your speed. So 10Mb is meant to be a guaranteed 2.5mb 20Mb 5Mb and 50Mb 10Mb. But I'm guessing even then you don't get those minimum speeds.
It's just Virgins wording, and I'm guessing it's on purpose to make you think oh throttling to 75% won't be that bad.

[HermansArmpit]

They throttle 75% back, as in throttle you to 25% of your speed. So 10Mb is meant to be a guaranteed 2.5mb 20Mb 5Mb and 50Mb 10Mb. But I'm guessing even then you don't get those minimum speeds.
It's just Virgins wording, and I'm guessing it's on purpose to make you think oh throttling to 75% won't be that bad.

Yeah I originally thought this but no I don't even get that. This is what they say on their website about it tho:

"An example of how this works is that if a broadband size L customer downloaded 1200MB of data between 4pm and 9pm, their speed would be temporarily managed with their download speed set to 7.5Mb and their upload speed to 884Kb for 5 hours."

I am an L customer (10mb connection) so that should apply to me unless I'm reading it wrong?
http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php

[moogle]

Yeah I originally thought this but no I don't even get that. This is what they say on their website about it tho:

"An example of how this works is that if a broadband size L customer downloaded 1200MB of data between 4pm and 9pm, their speed would be temporarily managed with their download speed set to 7.5Mb and their upload speed to 884Kb for 5 hours."

I am an L customer (10mb connection) so that should apply to me unless I'm reading it wrong?
http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php

I'm confused about it too

I read from this page

So okay if it's throttled to 75% of the actual speed, then why when I try it out on my friends connection of 10Mb once I pass the threshold the max speed I sometimes get is always 2.5mb and no more. I'm guessing maybe they've done it the wrong way round or something as it's got to be more than coincidence of getting 2.5mb max during throttling.

[Georgy291]

il try tiscali when i get home

if i get anything over 10% il be happy

[Blitzen]

Personally i find it astonishing the people are falling for the 50mb D/L speeds upgrade from Virgin.

They have to traffic shape now so how will they manage when the speeds more than double for the people that pay for it.

In theory, VM have a good service. Its a pity they have no way of honouring what they advertise without major network upgrades.

[HermansArmpit]

I'm confused about it too

I read from this page

So okay if it's throttled to 75% of the actual speed, then why when I try it out on my friends connection of 10Mb once I pass the threshold the max speed I sometimes get is always 2.5mb and no more. I'm guessing maybe they've done it the wrong way round or something as it's got to be more than coincidence of getting 2.5mb max during throttling.

Yeah mine always drops to 2.5 when throttled so I have no idea how they justify what they say on their website. Not even obeying their own policies really!