I am now a Virgin

[wizer]

My back popped out tonight :roll: But in a couple of days I'm going take everything off the network and test the connection directly from the modem to the laptop. If it turns out that it's still slow then a very angry phone call to Virgin will ensue. It's possible that, with it being Easter weekend, lots of people are using the bandwidth. It could also mean that this area is flooded with Virgin users. In either case I'm not happy about it and would rather be back on BT\Sky. Actually Sky doesn't get cut off until the end of the month so I can do side by side tests.

I'd also be interested if anyone knows of good software for testing the true speeds. Clearly SpeedTest.net isn't showing the full picture. I have a suspicion that when I call Virgin they will tell me I have to have their software installed. But I fail to see how that could possibly speed things up. Unless they are somhow throttling the connection for people not using their software. :evil:

 

[cambournepete]

That's what I found with my setup wizer. The speedtest shows nearly 5Mb/s but my Netmeter software shows only 600.9Kb/s when the test was running. So which one is right and is there a test that is accurate and consistently reliable .

I've had it suggested to me that speedtest "optimise" the results for certain ISPs.

Speedtest shows your instantaneous download speed.
DU meter and many other monitoring tools show the average download speed over a time period. In the case of DU meter this defaults to 10 seconds.
Speedtest only downloads between 5-7 MBytes as far as I can tell so on my connection I get all the data well within the 10 second averaging period, so DU meter doesn't show that same max speed as speedtest.
I've had this problem at work trying to convince management we needed a bigger pipe even though the monitoring tool said we didn't because it averaged over 10 minutes!

Quite why your numbers are so far apart I don't know - I assume you've checked both tools are measuring megabits/sec?

Maybe a better test is to download a large file from a usually good server - maybe Microsoft, I get reasonably accurate speeds that way.

 

[studders]

Maybe a better test is to download a large file from a usually good server - maybe Microsoft, I get reasonably accurate speeds that way.

That was what was recommended to me to get a truer figure, though not from a Microsoft server. Apparently you need someone who is 'served' from the same server as you, which in my case is Virgin Croydon.
The Maths seemed to get a little complicated so I've never tried it.

 

[devonwoody]

Wizer I am certain it is going to be your virus programs that are at the route of the speed.


Our laptop was unbelievably slow (we were using the Virgin virus protection only on the laptop)
When I got my desktop back installed with Bullguard virus protection speed returned to good.
So can you risk running a Windows program without any virus protection for a couple of minutes and see if it is virus software your problem?
Also give i/e 8 a whiz, my system works OK.

 

[Blister]

My back popped out tonight :roll: But in a couple of days I'm going take everything off the network and test the connection directly from the modem to the laptop. If it turns out that it's still slow then a very angry phone call to Virgin will ensue. It's possible that, with it being Easter weekend, lots of people are using the bandwidth. It could also mean that this area is flooded with Virgin users. In either case I'm not happy about it and would rather be back on BT\Sky. Actually Sky doesn't get cut off until the end of the month so I can do side by side tests.

I'd also be interested if anyone knows of good software for testing the true speeds. Clearly SpeedTest.net isn't showing the full picture. I have a suspicion that when I call Virgin they will tell me I have to have their software installed. But I fail to see how that could possibly speed things up. Unless they are somehow throttling the connection for people not using their software. :evil:

Tom , the normal Virgin cop out is " UP TO ??? Meg Broadband " if you get anything less the expected its still up to :?

 

[matt]

I have a suspicion that when I call Virgin they will tell me I have to have their software installed.

I've not installed their software and my speed is fine. In the past I have been routed via when there was a problem. The Internet support bunch have been good the few times I've had to call them providing you give them a chance to follow their script (i.e. turn off the modem and router, wait X, turn them back on again, answer questions about lights...)

 

[devonwoody]

Wizer, virgin dont get stroppy because you are not using their virus program, the support is free on the telephone, you need to be a good linguist, its getting them to understand you that can be a problem.

 

[chippy1970]

I must admit the Virgin anti virus/ security package does seem to slow the pc down, I am only guessing but we recently got a newer Dell and it has Mcafee on a 15 month trial and you never notice it. Where as the older Dell we have has the Virgin software and its always popping up telling you things and seems to slow the pc down.

 

[wizer]

I have Mcafee Enterprise which was installed on this laptop well before Virgin and never seemed to bog down the connection when I was on BT\Sky. I need to set aside some time for testing during this week. Today it's a bit quicker again.

 

[wizer]

hmm so I have been doing some tests today. I reconfigured my setup first.

Initially I had it so that the cable modem went into a homeplug which sent the incoming connection up to a homeplug in the study and into VM's supplied router. I then had the PC, Printer and another outgoing homeplug connected to that router's outgoing ports. My main use was via wireless from the laptop. Speed tests barely rose over 1Mbps.

This morning I took VM's supplied router downstairs so that the cable modem connected directly to it and the homeplug just dealt with sending\receiving for the PC and printer, etc (which are hardly use). My reasoning being that I would get the best connection straight to the laptop via WiFi which is what I need most. However, there was little improvement over the download speeds and I might speculate that any improvement was more luck than configuration.

Next I took the router out of the equation and connected from the laptop to the cable modem directly. This made a significant improvement, but still not good enough. It managed to peak at 4.5Mbps, which is ok but terrible when I'm paying for a 10Mb line.

All test where done using three 'tools'. DuMeter, DSL Reports Speed Test and the non technical but essential test of how quickly a full 1080p YouTube video downloads.

One thing I have realised is that there is something fishy going on with SpeedTest.net. My gut feeling is that certain providers are massaging their results somehow. It's probably able to detect the broadband package and then give a random result between 9-10Mbps.

I'm going to do the same tests after midnight to work out how much contention ratios are coming into play and how much traffic shaping Virgin are doing. I have not read their T&C's fully but I'm guessing they have covered themselves for this. If it's a contention issue then I need to work out how much improvement there will be from their faster packages. The sceptic in me suspects this is how they want me to think.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. The bottom line is that it's slower than Sky was. So I might as well go back, even tho it will be costing me more each month. The internet is fairy important in our house. More than the TV that's for sure.