Virgin Media speed problems Options

[Andy Capp]

My dad has Virgin and I the whole process has been junk.

[Guest_xjay1337_*]

Thanks but I'm not sure what you mean by fair usage in this context. Do you think I might be exceeding a fair usage limit?

I've used a bandwidth monitor for the last few says and I'm averaging about 2gb a day downloaded (and about 150mb a day uploaded) which doesn't seem excessive.

I'd say 2gb a day is classed (by most ISPs) as "high usage"...for example my Mum, completely ignored someone who worked in the IT/Networking industry, instead listened to her dappy friend who can't even look after her own child, and went with BT (not infinity, but a normal, 2Mb connection (10gb download limit woopsie-daisy-hickery-dickery-doo) for £17.99 a month, I sh*t you not) despite my strongest objections it was ignored. Yeah, pay attention to the lady who works in pets-at-home rather than a networking expert engineer. (I kicked her in the Kebab and called her an idiot).

This is why I stand by Sky broadband, I had it for a year, it went down once for 10 minutes, throughout the year that's like 99.97% uptime or something.. I also downloaded 600gb in the last 20 days of my residence at that household of contempt and it never complained or moaned and frankly...I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

So you're using by an approximation, approximately ( ) 35Gb a month in total.



That's from Virgin's own website. This is the thing, unfortunately most people are drawn in by the "big speeds"... okay, sure Sky, for example, can't compete with Virgin/BT Infinity in terms of speed, Sky do not have any download limits or fair usage policies, Sky also do not severely throttle torrents or streaming of media. While officially the XXL Virgin package has no limits, I read people who hit restrictions after 40Gb and are unable to get more than about 30kbps on torrent downloads unless they tunnel their traffic... pain in the bum hole.
Although it still has a foreign call centre.

[NWNREADER]

Please educate me - what does one up/download that uses such huge amounts of data etc?

[Andy Capp]

Please educate me - what does one up/download that uses such huge amounts of data etc?

Video, especially high definition.

[user23]

Please educate me - what does one up/download that uses such huge amounts of data etc?

Watching TV or films online (iPlayer, Netflix, anything like that) would account for the volume of download data.

[NWNREADER]

Watching TV or films online (iPlayer, Netflix, anything like that) would account for the volume of download data.

That is a lesson... If I anted to watch a film I'd go to a cinema, I reckon. As for watching TV on a computer screen, I can't watch what I record on the Virgin box let alone i-player (etc)!
Am I out of date?

[Sherlock]

I'd say 2gb a day is classed (by most ISPs) as "high usage"...

Many thanks for all that xjay. Not sure why my download figures are quite that high - used over 2GB yesterday and that was just for browsing, Gmail etc and possibly the odd Youtube video but no iplayer. The tech support person I spoke to earlier in the week said the service hadn't been throttled.

I've run Spybot scans. and have working firewalls, virus checkers etc so as far as I (and the Virgin tech person who looked at 2 of my machines) can tell they haven't been hijacked.

Re. Newbury Reader's point - most new TVs are web enabled and you can use them to watch iplayer programmes but we don't do that very often.

I fear another long telephone conversation with someone on the sub continent is needed but I'll consider switching to Sky.

[Andy Capp]

Many thanks for all that xjay. Not sure why my download figures are quite that high - used over 2GB yesterday and that was just for browsing, Gmail etc and possibly the odd Youtube video but no iplayer. The tech support person I spoke to earlier in the week said the service hadn't been throttled. I've run Spybot scans. and have working firewalls, virus checkers etc so as far as I (and the Virgin tech person who looked at 2 of my machines) can tell they haven't been hijacked. Re. Newbury Reader's point - most new TVs are web enabled and you can use them to watch iplayer programmes but we don't do that very often. I fear another long telephone conversation with someone on the sub continent is needed but I'll consider switching to Sky.

A word of warning, being with any particular ISP doesn't mean you will get the same.

Try this link, it should tell you what others near you are getting.
http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/bro...in_my_area.aspx




Here's a utility that can show you where your latency is. Do a free trial, or use the live demo. If you do, pick the 'table' view, which I think makes it easier to see where the slowness is.
http://visualroute.visualware.com




If you have Windows Vista or 7, use a Network Meter Widget.

[Strafin]

2 Gb is loads - even with TV streaming. I tried to go with Virgin once but a month after the install it still wasn't working so I cancelled it. BT are fairly consistent but they should be with the monopoly they have. I have never used Sky but only heard good things.

[JeffG]

As for watching TV on a computer screen, I can't watch what I record on the Virgin box let alone i-player (etc)!
Am I out of date?

Indubitably . Modern equipment allows you to watch iPlayer on your TV.

[Sherlock]

Video, especially high definition.

Over the last few days we've watched a few episodes of a series which I downloaded to iPlayer desktop a couple of weeks ago. Can't understand why my usage yesterday was so high - it is possible that even though I downloaded the episodes (about 600mb each) a while back they're also putting a load on the broadband when they're played back?

Many thanks for all the thoughts everyone, what a helpful lot you are!

[Andy Capp]

Over the last few days we've watched a few episodes of a series which I downloaded to iPlayer desktop a couple of weeks ago. Can't understand why my usage yesterday was so high - it is possible that even though I downloaded the episodes (about 600mb each) a while back they're also putting a load on the broadband when they're played back?

Many thanks for all the thoughts everyone, what a helpful lot you are!

Isn't downloading and using iPlayer peer to peer?

[Vodabury]

Isn't downloading and using iPlayer peer to peer?

I would use "peer to peer" to generally describe a network of equal nodes such as on a decentralised file sharing system like LimeWire (now defunct I believe) to distinguish it from a traditional client/server centralised network.

Thanks for the above links, interesting results!

[NWNREADER]

Is there any rule about comments on the forum being in English?

[Vodabury]

Is there any rule about comments on the forum being in English?

Apologies.
A crude analogy of the top of my head is that (financials aside) if we both have an allotment, and I give you some of my cabbages and you give me some of your parsnips, then we are trading peer to peer - we both give and take veg. Alternatively, if we both go to a branch of Sainsbury's to get our veg, then we are clients and the supermarket is the server.

[Turin Machine]

Hmm, p2p is the usual ditribution for file sharing (eg torrents) using decentralised node structures, however it is also used for some media streaming, so if, for instance you are into spotify, you are using p2p. I think Napster may have operatef on the same lines but I may be wrong.

i used to participate in a project called folding at home which was about using unused cycles for medical research and I believe that was p2p as well, it would be interesting to find out whether the SETI setup which did a similar thing was the same, Hmmm.

By the way, if COPA goes thru, all you file sharers out there better be on your guard !

[user23]

Isn't downloading and using iPlayer peer to peer?

It was, I don't think it is any more.

[Vodabury]

In using iPlayer to watch/listen to BBC programmes, I would say I am in receipt of a broadcast, more than being part of a peer to peer network.

[blackdog]

In using iPlayer to watch/listen to BBC programmes, I would say I am in receipt of a broadcast, rather than being part of a peer to peer network.

But iPlayer is not broadcast it is a very 'narrowcast' - to you and quite possible you alone at the time you are viewing or downloading it for later viewing.

[Guest_xjay1337_*]

Apologies.
A crude analogy of the top of my head is that (financials aside) if we both have an allotment, and I give you some of my cabbages and you give me some of your parsnips, then we are trading peer to peer - we both give and take veg. Alternatively, if we both go to a branch of Sainsbury's to get our veg, then we are clients and the supermarket is the server.

You had to mention parsnips didn't ya?

By the way, if COPA goes thru, all you file sharers out there better be on your guard !

Already got a solution if that problems. They may take our lives but they'd never take my freedom. Nor my free downloads. I download something. if I like it I will generally buy it.

I believe SETI is p2p as well. After all you are sharing data and files about the tasks with each node participating.
I have that thing on my work laptop so when I'm pretending to be busy I'm actually helping in the search for aliens. Not because I believe in them but because I think all the graphs and colours are really quite cool.

But yeah you total virgin, computer says no to Virgin internet, eh eh eh to sky. Although I am stuck on some Orange crap-job.... not happy. I would get Sky installed for myself personally however I am not sure how long I will live here for...in talks about getting my own house.