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Author Topic: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband  (Read 20246 times)

kitz

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2009, 07:23:29 PM »

Posts crossed again

>> bournemouth.virgin.net, newcastle.virgin.net, manchester.virgin.net, london.virgin.net

hmmm..  you could well be on IPStream..  sounds like that may be their BAMs (ISP centrals) which they have located throughout the country.

Can you do a tracert to somewhere like the BBC and i'll see if I can recognise any of them.
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dayvh

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #16 on: August 31, 2009, 07:28:35 PM »

I used to know 2 guys that worked in tech support for Bulldog Broadband back when I originally had 8MB problems with Virgin and the first words to come out of their mouth were Virgin over-subscribe.
tracert to bbc below, 1st hop timed out on this connection :(

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  2    62 ms    48 ms    44 ms  bmly-core-1b-ge-016-0.network.virginmedia.net [8
0.1.225.149]
  3    85 ms    95 ms    76 ms  bre-bb-b-as3-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.1
62.61]
  4    74 ms    64 ms    60 ms  bre-bb-a-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.
174.225]
  5    70 ms    83 ms    76 ms  213.43.163.105
  6    66 ms    62 ms    68 ms  redb-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
185.78]
  7    62 ms    68 ms    58 ms  212.58.239.249
  8    70 ms    74 ms    64 ms  212.58.238.133
  9    70 ms    76 ms    64 ms  virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]

Trace complete.

Update: I ran a BTw speed test,
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.

    Your DSL connection rate: 7456 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 6500 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4964 kbps

This is exactly what happened before, where all the tests were saying It's fine except 2mins after starting to do anything remotely active my latency goes to pot.
What is the rough difference between the 2MB fixed rate I was on and the 8MB I'm on now. I kind of mean, sure the 8MB gives me that actual speed of 5MB at this moment in time but how come on a 2MB connection at the same time of the day it would keep much better latencies and not throw a hissy fit when I demanded anything from it?
« Last Edit: August 31, 2009, 07:41:58 PM by dayvh »
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jeffbb

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #17 on: August 31, 2009, 07:55:13 PM »

Hi

Your stats are fine .

this throughtput is showing some  contention   
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4964 kbps

with your profile you should be getting over 6000Kbps at least


The latency problem is also showing up  this is my tracert to BBC MY line is interleaved so my figures ar probably ~20ms higher than a non interleaved line.
Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     7 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    34 ms    32 ms    33 ms  gauss-dsl.zen.net.uk [62.3.82.18]
  3    34 ms    32 ms    33 ms  spinoza-ae0-160.hq.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.161]
  4    37 ms    34 ms    46 ms  lotze-ae1-0.hq.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.66]
  5    33 ms    33 ms    33 ms  nietzsche-ae2-0.ls.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.70]
  6    33 ms    33 ms    33 ms  nozick-ge-3-1-0-0.ls.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.74]
  7    44 ms    42 ms    43 ms  lorenz-ge-3-0-0-0.te.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.78]
  8    43 ms    42 ms    42 ms  82.71.254.134
  9    41 ms    41 ms    43 ms  212.58.238.129
 10    43 ms    43 ms    41 ms  virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]

Trace complete.
This all points to congestion .
quote Could you also define jump ship btw? I can have a new modem in under a month depending on when I next get paid, contract wise with virgin I took out a 12 month contract 3 years ago so I can now get out at any time.

When is your contract up . ?
Not sure you can leave anytime ,as I understand it ISPs tend to work on a rolling contract ,so that if you do not give them a months notice of termination then automatically your in for another year . Maybe Virgin is different hope so .
Regards Jeff

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dayvh

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #18 on: August 31, 2009, 07:59:57 PM »

Well I am very hateful of contracts and the one I got was a minimum of 12 months and if I wished to terminate and/or change ISP I had to keep paying the monthly fee til the contract was up, after the contract ended however I am free to drop it at any time. This is what I believe anyway, they definitely haven't had me sign any changes to TOS that can change the contract..
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orainsear

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #19 on: August 31, 2009, 08:12:26 PM »

I can have a new modem in under a month depending on when I next get paid

You could try and get Virgin to supply you with a new one for free, although it will likely have to be returned if you migrate.
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kitz

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #20 on: August 31, 2009, 08:27:56 PM »

bmly-core-1b-ge-016-0 isnt one I recognise..
but the IP 80.1.225.149 does appear to be one of their BAMs... they did some rejigging last year.

Looks like you are now on IPStream - plus youve also been able to access your IPprofile from the performance tester.

>> IP profile for your line is - 6500 kbps

Your IPprofile is fine - you should be getting throughput of around 6.5Mb



That first hop (their central) looks a tad busy..  the increase in latency is being carried over to subsequent hops.
Its now looking pretty certain its congestion (over subscription) of their central pipes I'm afraid.
You may see a slight improvement if you disconnect and try to get on a different central.


>> What is the rough difference between the 2MB fixed rate I was on and the 8MB I'm on now.

You mentioned datastream before..  datastream traffic was done over a different (3rd party supplier) backhaul.
IPStream traffic is carried over their own Central Pipes.
Virgin used to use some Datastream..  but since this year they appear to be moving away from this.. and transferring users over to their IPStream Centrals.. or using C+W LLU.
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kitz

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #21 on: August 31, 2009, 08:33:16 PM »

If you get virgin to supply you with a new router..  be aware you will likely find that you will enter a new 12 month contract.

Not many of the decent IPStream ISPs will provide a free router...  doing so normally means a lock-in for a minimum of 12 months.

O2 provide free routers, (12 months), but their IPStream service is also congested.  However if you have O2 available on LLU at your exchange may be worth a look.

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dayvh

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #22 on: August 31, 2009, 09:14:24 PM »

The guy on tech support earlier tried to persuade to me accept one of those netgear wi-fi, firewall, router modems that in my experience start to fall apart in one way or another after about 6 months.
I'm going to keep looking around for a solid modem-only piece of hardware heh
« Last Edit: August 31, 2009, 09:16:33 PM by dayvh »
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orainsear

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #23 on: August 31, 2009, 09:34:25 PM »

Probably best not to go for a Virgin supplied router then in case it does end up locking you down for another 12 months.

I read that earlier this month Virgin went on a huge marketing drive and 'relaunched' their ADSL service.  They have apparently had so many new subscriptions that they were having trouble providing modem hardware to meet the demand.

I'd imagine that unless they have added, or plan to add extra capacity in the not too distant future things will not improve.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2009, 09:42:57 PM by orainsear »
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waltergmw

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #24 on: September 01, 2009, 12:00:10 AM »

This is one such device but I haven't had much experience of using it. Most modems now combine at least a router which can be useful if you might have visitors who must plug their laptops in.
I've found most netgear and thompson modem / routers to be reasonably reliable and the 2Wire is another good one although you have to fiddle with it to remove BT's blocking configuration.

http://www.adslnation.com/phpapps/catalog/index.php?cPath=29http://www.adslnation.com/phpapps/catalog/index.php?cPath=29

Kind regards,
Walter
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dayvh

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #25 on: September 01, 2009, 01:01:24 PM »

Well I've squeezed out 4 speed tests since last night, 2 last night and 2 this morning and they all range from 4000-5000kbps throughput. I've obviously only done the tests between early morning and midnight when I have most of my issues. I wish there was some kind of a stress test I could run though, nothing too advanced, just something to squeeze abit of download activity on my line and monitor my latency. Kind of like a test that lets me look for bottlenecks in different situations on my connection.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2009, 01:15:28 PM by dayvh »
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kitz

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #26 on: September 01, 2009, 01:28:08 PM »

Theres a couple of things you can do to automatically monitor latency.

Win MTR has options to run and monitor overall latency on your PC.

But something which may really interest you is f8lure.. which monitors your latency from a remote location and graphs it for you
I'm afraid the sign up doesnt show much info..  so Ive attached below a copy of one of my graphs from today.
Historic graphs are retained for a month - as long as you log in.


Edited to add

---- Oops just thought youre on a dynamic IP.  I cant remember if during the signup theres an option for anything if youre not on a static IP.  You may be able to do something with dyndns

[attachment deleted by admin]
« Last Edit: September 01, 2009, 01:31:30 PM by kitz »
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dayvh

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #27 on: September 01, 2009, 02:33:12 PM »

I was using Wireshark with PingPlotter to actually pull IP addresses of servers I'm connecting to in games and applications and then monitoring via PingPlotter. The in-game ping stuff was showing huge spikes at small intervals whilst PingPlotter barely pushed above 160ms over a period of 45 minutes but did however spot a 10% packet loss issue at the 2nd hop of the trace for about 20 minutes.

Going to have a play with WinMTR now!
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orainsear

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #28 on: September 01, 2009, 02:51:15 PM »

Do you suffer the same kind of latency spikes if you were to ping a UK server?
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dayvh

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Re: ADSL issues with Virgin Broadband
« Reply #29 on: September 01, 2009, 03:43:47 PM »

Well not many games or applications I use actually have UK servers. They'll tag servers as EU and they'll be based out of Amsterdam or Paris and several other various cities. For instance the other day I was pinging a 6,000 to EU servers yet only 600 to West Coast so that didn't make an ounce of sense. It actually happened again about 15 minutes ago but when I did a tracert everything was perfectly fine..

Edit: Still haven't been able to use Virgin web chat as it has no queuing system and is practically useless, was also on hold for 30 minutes earlier and they actually changed their phone on hold queue system also so it doesn't even tell you what position you're in. It just lets you know that you've moved up a slot and are one step closer to speaking to someone..
Going to give them another ring tomorow and demand they put me on the new fixed rate equivalent and try and argue the fact that when they forcibly upgraded me they said there was no equivalent, hopefully that will make them realise I don't want to spend a month doing speed tests and trouble shooting.. Now I'm back at college there's no way I want to have crappy internet at the only times I'll be on..
Thanks for the help and I hope you can all understand why I'm not that bothered about having my internet perform as well as it should on ADSL Max.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2009, 08:38:54 PM by dayvh »
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