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?