What is THE BEST gaming ISP?!?!

[sadbuttrue]

The ADSL line checker suggests I can get 12Mbps. This is possible if I disable gaming mode and lower my noise margin, putting it in line with most other isps. However, doing this creates a less stable connection and will add to packetloss.

My download speed with BE is always the maximum possible the line connection can provide. In 4 months I have never been capped, and I download plenty. BE have excess capacity allowing them to provide a throttle free service. Of course, no-one can say for sure if this policy will stay in the long run, given the financial crisis we are still in.

[LuckyNV]

Line checkers and the such have always been wrong for me, I had 2Mbps package from Onetel a couple of years ago, I had practically zero knowledge of how ADSL worked, line attenuation, exchanges, distance etc...

After browsing around using various line checkers from ISPs and independent sites, BT and most other ISPs estimated between 4-6Mbps yet Bethere estimated 12Mbps.

However since I already had ADSL I could check line attenuation, apparently I should be able to achieve at least 19-20Mps.

After some research I decided to go with Bethere, my first sync speed was indeed 12Mbps, but my line attenuation stat still implied I could get more, Be users and staff agreed, turned out my house wiring was an issue. Some tweaking later (bell wires begone and connecting router to the first socket) and sure enough I can sync upto 21Mbps using the highest profile.
I settled for profile that yields me around 17-18Mbps, more than enough.

[watercooled]

They may give you low ratings if the value is based on averages in your area, most people would just get the router installed and leave it, and maybe moan about it a bit but not actually do anything.

[Predator]

just thought I would share my results with you all....



I have no end of problems, usually my NAT Type on the xbox being Moderate, Even in DMZ...This is using virgins own router though...

So even that shows it as being quite good, there are still issues.

It kicks me off WoW a lot...

P.s. This was done on my girlfriends fairly old laptop via. wireless.

[watercooled]

That's due to the router, not the connection. Check uPnP is enabled, or try without the router (unless you have one of the new combined modem/routers).

[Predator]

UnPn is enabled, I'll try straight from the modem later

[watercooled]

I would be surprised if it is the VM router causing it, after all plenty of people are going to use them for gaming and they would get no end of complaints if they didn't have 'open' NAT by default. If the modem alone works OK you could try updating the firmware on the router.

[Robscure]

what... a BT exchange?

I may surrender from this debate in a while...but one more try

Are you on FIBRE OPTIC Virgin broadband or on ADSL Virgin Broadband?

I think you've got a great chance of getting a MUCH better gaming experience by going with BE (I won't push Zen anymore.....) but only if Virgin IS ADSL.

If Virgin is on Fibre Optic, then you have a different issue and they DO need to send an engineer.

If you want to change to BE you will need to make sure you have a live BT phone line, and the monthly charge for that needs taking into account (about a tenner per month)

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days to respond.

Thanks for all of the responses.

Here is a test from tonight @ 23:36... well outside their "throttling" time...



This jitter is unacceptable...

I was told that I'm ordering Fibre Optic... I connect through a cable, not a telephone cord, what is it called--coaxial wire or whatever.

I use the modem that VM sent me, which is Netgear VMDG280... it is updated automatically to their latest firmware.

I've been on VM's cable forums, everyone is complaining of the same issues that I have on there... and by everyone I mean hundreds of customers at least... They are swamped with latency issue complaints. The best they can tell anyone is "We're working on it" and have given no dates or even an excuse.

When I log into WoW... I disconnect EVERY 10 MINUTES. Do you know how frustrating that is to a gamer? Lol

Well an engineer is coming out for the second time on the 5th... So we'll see how that goes. It better not be another guy who just comes in and does some generic test and says "Everything is fine" like last time.

Oh and by the way, when I said I'm 1km from "the exchange" I was referring to the exchange which Be* uses in my area... I don't know about VM. I just know that my upload speeds are crap (like 0.20 to 0.60 max) and my ping/latency and jitter are horrible at all hours of the day, even 03:00 in the morning...

I've just reformatted my PC, thinking maybe something was wrong on my end... I even changed cables around, used different sockets, repositioned my router, changed ethernet cords, moved wires around so they're not near anything.... I removed and replaced and tightened the coxial cable, I looked outside my window to see if anything was wrong with the cable... I've done everything in my power to ensure it was not something wrong that I could fix, and my speeds have only become worst or remained the same at best.... No improvements throughout the days.

Two months since I signed up with VM, and every day has been a nightmare for me as a gamer...

Download speeds are irrelevant to me, even if Be* Pro gave me 7Mbps download or less I would be happier with it without ping and jitter issues than with anything else.

Here is my event log inside my modem's control panel...

Mon Jan 03 21:40:07 2011 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Sat Jan 01 23:03:56 2011 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Sat Jan 01 20:26:51 2011 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Sat Jan 01 15:00:03 2011 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Sat Jan 01 13:26:38 2011 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Sat Jan 01 12:37:23 2011 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Sat Jan 01 12:31:01 2011 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Sat Jan 01 12:04:34 2011 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Fri Dec 31 02:03:31 2010 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Tue Dec 28 13:03:05 2010 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Mon Dec 27 11:51:30 2010 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Mon Dec 27 10:39:30 2010 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Sat Jan 01 12:37:03 2011 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...

And here is my line status...

Startup Procedure
Procedure Status Comment
Acquire Downstream Channel 315000000 Hz Locked
Connectivity State OK Operational
Boot State OK Operational
Configuration File OK
Security Enabled BPI+
Downstream Channel
Lock Status Locked Modulation QAM256
Channel ID 59 Symbol Rate 5360537
Downstream Frequency 315000000 Hz Downstream Power 0.0 dBmV
SNR 40.8 dBmV
Upstream Channel
Lock Status Locked Modulation QAM16
Channel ID 3 Symbol Rate 5120 Ksym/sec
Upstream Frequency 35800000 Hz Upstream Power 41.2 dBmV
Primary Downstream Service Flow
Downstream(0)
SFID 13809
Max Traffic Rate 20480000 bps
Max Traffic Burst 3044 bytes
Mix Traffic Rate 0 bps
Primary Upstream Service Flow
Upstream(0)
SFID 13808
Max Traffic Rate 768000 bps
Max Traffic Burst 3044 bytes
Mix Traffic Rate 0 bps
Max Concatenated Burst 1522 bytes
Scheduling Type Best Effort

Gateway status... I read that DOCSIS 2 is not ideal, but that it would be too expensive for VM to upgrade their equipment to DOCSIS 3...

Standard Specification Compliant EU DOCSIS 2.0
Hardware Version 1.05
Software Version V4.4.4R08

[Blastuk]

There are some light downloads/uploads running when I ran the test.

[Robscure]

There are some light downloads/uploads running when I ran the test.

Yeah, I haven't been able to find any solid opinion or proof that you can get a better gaming connection than BE*

Still, I like this thread so I'll keep looking here and reading responses

[Georgy291]

i would do a ping test for you on my BE line but unfortunately in here on holiday in swansea until friday so your going to have to do with this one then



w/e that says i still dont recommend tiscali

[tiaza]

When I was on VM they had problems with loss of connect (bad wiring or something) and they refused to take responsibility. Changed to O2 and never looked back, it's £7.50 a month and I never see less than the full 7mb I pay for and always low pings. I heard BE or Plusnet was good but with a try of O2 I realized it couldn't get any better for me.
Also there's a addon called 'Leatrix Latency Fix' for wow and other games that reduces delay.

[Blitzen]

ADSL...Not too shabby.

[scorpionfoot]

Hate to watch you suffer still so here's some better help regarding VM i work for VM yet have Sky which probably tells you what i think of the service of my employer.

You are on cable for sure as the router you describe is a normal vm hub its not perfect out the box/out the factory and you would benefit from going to 192.168.0.1 username admin password changeme and the clicking continue on 'gateway currently set to default' then click on wireless settings at top of black section on the left then channel is on auto try 11 also 802.11 mode is 300 mbps try 145 - that will set your hub up better also regarding T3 timeouts that can be the modem flapping /too many power adjustments and needs a tech usually on our systems its a max transmit=1 even if power levels up and down are within limits (down -12 to +12 and up +29 to +56 -which by the way yours on the report you posted were nice) with the modem t3 timeouts being high im not surprised you are getting a bad quality experience. I could look at a report of your connection when im back at work but would need some from of details to look your connection up if the utilisation is high vm may be doing work for up to 12 weeks to upgrade and solve that issue however if t3 showed up i would think those are main cause when you call tech support ask them to checkyour flaphit and flapmiss counts and get them to call 2nd line to see if your modem is going into the flap list often.

Most of that you wont have a clue what im saying but i assure you if you say those things to a 1st line agent they WILL suddenly sit up at their desk. haha

Good luck and i shall come back to this thread over the next week to see how you get on

Also importantly DONT call them sunday as an in house system is being upgraded so cant book techs or do anything specific on accounts sunday would be a wasted phone call


Booya!

Mark

[_alias]

ISP, well not a fair question, i've been with afew in different areas

ROUTER

I flashed my dlink 615 with DD wrt and found virgins acceptable connection great!

I still wanted it faster though - well better line quality, so i drop the TV package and went with sky for that and then got virgins business package (Better share ratio, so I believe). THEY EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH - down side they work 9 to 5 and there is only your manager that can organise stuff for you meaning everything has to go though him.


One other thing to note is that is everyone in your area is on cable, go with BT (for example). And visa Vera. Internet is shared, like the roads, for all your neighbours are on it you will get a traffic jam. Move to a retirement village, I'm sure there not gameing. Or as close to the phone exchange as you can get. i managed 327 m as crow flys at my old address.

[jonny440]

Eclipse Internet

On an up to 8Mb line. UK call centres/support. Been with them for years and always been great.