the speed is very slow between 6pm-1am

other time my bb connection is ok. i got 50-150ping in game server. from 6pm-1am i got like 300-900ping in server. anyone know whats the problem is?

and i done the speedtest serval time. in good moment i got 3.5mb dl speed, sometimes drop to 250k dl speed.

anyone got that situation and fixed it? thx

[adie_gibson]

sadly we all get this, @the times you have stated, all the school computers are up/down loading and the hotmail server is at it's peak.I tend to not search during these times.Most internet banking is also done at these times of the day.&7.6 meg seems like old dial-up at these times of the day so I avoid .Sorry I cannot be of more help

its sad. i havent got that problem when i was using ukonline

I have been experincing these problems too, but surely the performace shouldnt drop this drastically for everything, I have only started to notice it on Virgin over the last month or so, it hasnt always been this slow

[dampsquib]

I get this too - it's been like it for about 2 months, going from 30-50ms pings to 200-250ms. If you ring tech support they try and convince you it's interleaving - Rubbish! interleaving may give a 30-50ms reduction, but that would still give me a ping of 170-200ms.

I thin ksomeone posted on this forum that it's down to the core backbone (NTL in Birmingham?) not being able to handle the amount of Virgin customers. I hope they sort it out soon - it's driving me mental!!

[dampsquib]

I think I may have found a solution - it's working so far. I've been trawling the different forums and discusion sites regarding BT exchanges and found this bit of info.

When you are experiencing the severely high pings (and slow downloads) log into your router or modem, and do a disconect without turning your router/modem or pc off (to do this with netgear, select router status, connection status, then disconnect).

wait a few seconds, and re-connect. My pings dropped back to normal (30 form 200!). It's something to do with resetting your connection at the exchange which happens whne you do a proper disconnect from the modem.

Give it a go - interesed to see if it works with anyone else.

*** EDIT*** This isn't working for me anymore. oh well , it was worth a try!

[The_Phantom_Tech]

I heard it was NTL's STMs. I'd imagine they'd probably upgrade eventually but I can't imagine them doing such major work during the already busy christmas period.
My guess? It'll be bad till about febuary, but that is just my GUESS.

[trojan698]

I've just signed up to virgin and come accross this problem while going for a game of COD2, this is horrendous - 300 ping? surely this is a reasonable basis for cancellation.

[Ian]

I've just signed up to virgin and come accross this problem while going for a game of COD2, this is horrendous - 300 ping? surely this is a reasonable basis for cancellation.

Originally Posted by trojan698

Morally, yes, technically, no. There are no QOS or any other Service Level Agreements.

Performance: Due to contention on the telecommunications network and other factors outside Virgin.net's control the speed of Service may vary from time to time. In addition the speed and limitations of your chosen access Equipment may affect the Transmission Speed that we can provide you.

http://www.virgin.net/terms/broadband_tc.html

Well I also have the same problem and have had also for the past 2-3 months not palyed much online until the release of bf2142.. any how as soon as dusk approach's download speed drops from max 3.5mbps to 256kbps around say 1900hrs... I have been a customer of virgin for over two years now and have had no qualms with the speed of my connection until now!!!

And to top all this they have reduced the package I am subscibed to from 24.99 per month to 19.99 a month and my payment has not chnage I fell pretty hacked off with all this they are not provding a reasonable service I would not mind if my ping hit 100 max but unfortunately this is not even an achievable target as some nights it goes to 250...

have not called to complain as yet but have sent on message on the web form with no reply on contact!!!!

Now looking to change provider....if it takes until after christmas this is a joke... am not willing to wait and sit on a substandard service...

Im exactly the same..i play a lot of BF2 and BF2142...however the last 3-4 months its been a no go after 18.00 as pings go 250+..its a joke..i completed a speed test with my BROADBAND speed at 66.7KBps..THATS DIAL-UP speed...still awaiting a reply.

[trojan698]

mball37, I'd migrate to another isp if i were you! I can't as I've only just connected and would get landed with a £50 charge. I've transferred over to their datastream service as opposed to adsl max and hopefully there will be an improvement. I'll keep you all posted.

[dampsquib]

I heard it was NTL's STMs. I'd imagine they'd probably upgrade eventually but I can't imagine them doing such major work during the already busy christmas period.
My guess? It'll be bad till about febuary, but that is just my GUESS.

Originally Posted by The_Phantom_Tech

Yes, I heard this too, but i'd love to hear it from the horses mouth - come on Virgin Tech Support - we know you read this board! No BF2 for 2 months now, and I'm starting to get a bit miffed.

[pete284]

Spoke to one of their techies tonight re my speed hits (down from 7.5mb to 512K between 5pm and 1am):

If the speed to BT is so different to the speed when actually on the internet and you have no filesharing software and you have scaned for spyware then it is likely to be the Virgin.net network that is congested. We are working to increase the capacity of our network but it is a slow process.

Someone mentioned NTL's STMs...

This problem has a history.

When Virgin.net first began supplying ADSL, they provisioned everyone with IPStream accounts. These require an STM.

When Datastream came along, they began to provision everyone with that. These don't require an STM.

It was at this point that some bright spark in NTL said "Hey, we have all these STM's lying around doing nothing now that everyone is on Datastream. Let's get rid of them."

So that's what they did.

Then ADSL Max came along (which can only be provisioned on IPStream by Virgin atm). Everyone bought it...

Yes, you guessed it...

They didn't replace the STM's they got rid of before.

So now the whole Virgin.net ADSL Max customer base runs through 5 STM's in Birmingham. To support the whole ADSL Max customer base properly, they need at least 11.

And at £90k per STM, this problem isn't likely to be fixed any time soon.

Hope you enjoyed the sorry tale, and if you're on Virgin.net ADSL Max (like me), I hope you enjoy the dial up speeds you're going to get for the forseeable future.

Love,

Dudeintheknow.

[jonpen69]

I've been having the same problems as you all and May have an answer.
"Speed Download 4" is an application which sepatates the Downsteam packets from the current interleaving and requests the server to download at its maximum rate. I tried it and tested it via a few dirfferent Test sites and I went from a poor 1200Kbps or so to around 6000Kbps which was amazing. The way it downloads files from FTP servers and websites has an interface which asks and stores your user names and Passwords which are in you Keychain access control and downloads the files quickly to a specified area on your computer. I found that I was downloading files at around 600kps which aint' bad. try it out here.
Gamers May also Have some luck with thier pings.
http://www.yazsoft.com/?gclid=CPj60I...FSdcMAodeklkOQ
Happy "Speed" Downloading (Finally)

[dampsquib]

Nice try - unfortunately, that program is for Mac OS X, not Windows which I suspect the majority of us are using. Back to waiting for Virgin to increase their capacity.

[jonpen69]

AH! Sorry Mate... Thinking that every one uses mac now....
There's Got to be something Simliar that does the same thing. A packet conduit manager or something like that which can connect straight to your Exchange asking for an un-interleaved transmit rate. I'll do a search and try it within Virtual PC. standby..

[dampsquib]

Has anyone noticed any improvement recently? the pings are still generally bad (200+) but there are moments where it has dropped back to normal (Tuesday at 9pm, i was back to 16ms!) but normally hanging around 150-180ms now. They may be starting to rectify things.

Yeah I've noticed an improvement in the last few days. I think since about Monday or Tuesday, like you mentioned.

It has improved a lot, but latency still isn't that great. I find it still fluxuates a bit, but it's a hell of a lot better than it was a week ago.

Hi all I'm glad I found this thread because lately my connection has been driving me mental. I too am a Virgin.net adsl max customer, and I also get pings of between 200-250 after 6pm (the time I use the blinking thing). Before 6ish well under 30ms.
I too have been fobbed off by the premium rate support line. I did the BT test on there behalf and was told that my connection wasn't bad enough to warant an engineer to visit my home. Now I know why!
It is really getting to me I am a clan admin and tonight couldn't even participate in a CS:S clan war that I helped arrange, most embarrasing .
Is it just Virgin that use NTL because if I can find out that a different ISP can offer me a more consistant connection I'm off. Even though I have been a loyal virgin customer for 5 years.
I too can report that in the last week download speeds have improved after 6ish, but as all you fellow gamers will know it is the ping/latency that is important as most game servers auto kick anyone over 200m/s. Just so frustrated at getting 100 points in a bf2 server only to get kicked before the end of the round because of rubbish ping.

Just gutted

i know how u feel my friend,im an admin also for a multigaming community and i like yourself CAN NOT play after 6PM.

I cant say i have noticed any improvements over this shoddy substandard line.
i have done so much info gathering and it seems that Virgin, bulldog and Bt seem to be full of problems..i have however found a ISP that Garantees me at LEAST 4Mbps regardless of time etc.
They also have a good contetion ratio of 20:1 which will help pings, as well as a no download limit.

So as of jan 18th ill hopefully be able to play after 6Pm with a decent ping

[dampsquib]

I spoke to the Virgin Net techs last night, and actually got some ueful info from them. We were right in our assumptions that the issue was with the STMs (or lack of!) on the NTL network in Birmingham. They are installing new STMs every month (hence the slight improvements) but they won't be finished for another few months.

[trojan698]

Thats good news, I've noticed an improvement too, although its still sometimes unstable

ive been with virgin for a while now and its only the threat of the £50 penalty keeping me there ..on occasion my page load times are like that of dial up. and online gaming [ET] i get ping readings on 200 300 sometimes even 999 to uk servers even to european servers ..but over christmas was not to bad ..i wish i had stayed with btyahoo ..i have 8mb at moment and when its bad its very bad ..avoid virgin like the plague..helpdesk wot helpdesk cost me over £10 the last time i reported the problem..and the online help is a joke with the usual have you installed a new programme latley and do a speed test its a problem with your system yea yea like all us here on virgin can see virgin sukk..last time i complained a guy on the help desk said a lot of people were leaving virgin due to this ping and connection problem

Yeah it really does suck. I hope it gets fixed soon

Has anyone else noticed that the connection has got worse again, since the 1st of January? I found it was getting much better throughout December and then at the start of the new year it got really bad again.

I'm hoping this is a sign of them doing something to try and fix it!

[bobdown]

still very slow. Finally got tech support to admit they had a problem on their network after given them output from ping plotter and trace route. They are suggesting that it will be months before it gets better. I am pretty sure I will be off as this sucks big time for 25 squid
Currently ping times of 250ms with upto 7% packet loss on some ntl routers.
Shambles

[Benthic]

Does anybody know how many months, or are Virgin still not willing to give an estimate?

I'm just hoping the guy who estimated around February in the first page of this topic is right! Although I think that's just me being rather hopefull!

[Benthic]

14 February is when the new MAC rules come into force and so are quite timely.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2006/12/nr_20061213