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Slow 160m speeds

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Old Apr 23, 2014 | 09:22 PM
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Default Slow 160m speeds

I have upgraded to the 160mb line with Virgin and my speeds are averaging 30-40mb all the time, I rang customer services up and they seem to think the modem is ok so the fault lies elsewhere?

I have upgraded to the faster line two more times in the past and have always cancelled it with the 1st two weeks due to similar issues so it looks like I may be cancelling this one as well.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get around this problem as this evening it was sitting around 12mb on a 160mb line so the speeds are silly and it was actually faster on the 60mb line.
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 09:24 AM
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The speed quoted is "up to" 160mb and is never constant, I think, like all "fibre" broadband, it's limited by the copper cable (coaxial in this case) from your house to the junction box in the street. The further away you are from the junction box, the slower the connection. From the junction box to the exchange it is fibre optic. If the copper connection to your house limits your maximum connection speed, ie 30-40, it's pointless paying for a 160mb connection, may as well stick with an "up to" 50mb speed and save your money. Doesn't the Virgin Media site have a link to test your maximum speed obtainable from their fibre broadband?

Last edited by jonc; Apr 24, 2014 at 09:25 AM.
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 09:44 AM
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Originally Posted by jonc
The speed quoted is "up to" 160mb and is never constant, I think, like all "fibre" broadband, it's limited by the copper cable (coaxial in this case) from your house to the junction box in the street. The further away you are from the junction box, the slower the connection. From the junction box to the exchange it is fibre optic. If the copper connection to your house limits your maximum connection speed, ie 30-40, it's pointless paying for a 160mb connection, may as well stick with an "up to" 50mb speed and save your money. Doesn't the Virgin Media site have a link to test your maximum speed obtainable from their fibre broadband?
Whilst it's true the 160Mb rate quoted is a best case scenario (no contention etc.) the piece of coaxial between your house and the fibre network will not be the limiting factor. Provided the cable itself is sound and the terminations are good then you could easily send data through it at speeds of 1Gb or more.

From what are you doing the speed test because if it's over Wi-Fi then this will definitely be the limiting factor. Even 802.11n although quoted to carry ~150Mb you'll never see it in real world situations. You need a PC with a decent Gbit Ethernet interface plugged straight into the modem.
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 05:25 PM
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The test was done on my main pc connected directly to the internet
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 05:32 PM
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can take a while to settle down, mine was low when i first upgraded to 120mb, running 20's, they checked and said all looked ok and told me to try it the next day. sure enough it was up to 120.
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 07:02 PM
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It's all over the vm forums people having problems
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 07:12 PM
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Ant, have they said what's causing it or is it just Virgin media and what they are going to be like from now on?
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Old Apr 24, 2014 | 08:02 PM
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No not said anything pop over it's littered with complaints some
People getting as low as 10mb
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Old Apr 27, 2014 | 01:36 AM
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I'm supposed to have "upto 100MB"

I can see the green box from the window....and this is what I get:



I think I've been upgraded again (Mo Fara? )

Get on the phone and complain.

Last edited by ALi-B; Apr 27, 2014 at 01:41 AM.
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Old Apr 27, 2014 | 11:26 PM
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I am 10 metres from the green box on upto 30m with Virgin




on my Tesco mobile i just got ping 24 ms dowload 20.16Mbps and upload 2.66 Mbps

wonder why i am still paying virgin?

Last edited by Adrian F; Apr 27, 2014 at 11:31 PM. Reason: updating
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Old Apr 28, 2014 | 07:11 PM
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Mine's upto 120mb I think



No complaints! Are you using the superhub, because when I was upgraded to 100mb, the router that I have to VPN into work was limited to 80mb throughput. They had to buy me a new one!
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Old Apr 29, 2014 | 02:01 PM
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Superhubs can be iffy;

My old one (glossy black + noisy pig squeeling PSU) was pretty flakey, wouldn't connected to another router and when it did, internal network speeds weren't right. In Modem only mode it works ok though.

My newer Superhub (matt black + Totally silent PSU ) has been fine. Even when running along side my other Wifi router. (I use the superhub's wifi as a guest network, which can't see my intranet).
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Old Apr 29, 2014 | 05:55 PM
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I only use the superhub as a modem and use a Netgear wr3500 router for wireless. I have ordered some cat 6a cables and I will see if those make any difference.
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Old Apr 29, 2014 | 06:37 PM
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I hate you all

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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 09:38 AM
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We've just switched from BT to 5g (corporate)



Probably about 20% faster on the same hardware. . . .
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 01:48 PM
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Originally Posted by DJ Dunk
I hate you all


I feel your pain - this is what I get at work...just after rebooting the modem....




After a few days it gets slower and slower or it just stops until I reboot the modem again (Draytek).
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 02:01 PM
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Work connection not quite as quick!



Have you tried connecting directly to the superhub?
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 02:20 PM
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I never had any issues with Virgin im on 120mb soon to have the free 150MB and mines bulletproof.

I always get full speed and my pings are very low, Make sure as always your running Gigabit on your network, and get rid of that ****ty Virgin hub, put it in passthru mode and throw a nice Linksys on it or something sexy. its how mine runs and its fine.

All pcs and switches I have are Gig, im sat down in my cellar running through 1 switch and the Linksys into Virgins Hub
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 03:52 PM
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I'm surprised with download speeds as fast as those, that any of you has any vision left?

My TalkTalk 'upto 16mb'


Last edited by Neanderthal; Apr 30, 2014 at 03:55 PM.
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Littleted
I never had any issues with Virgin im on 120mb soon to have the free 150MB and mines bulletproof.

I always get full speed and my pings are very low, Make sure as always your running Gigabit on your network,

Don't forget to make sure "Jumbo frames" is enabled/supported and MTU sizes are set correctly (i.e the same on all devices).

I squeezed an extra 20MB out of my NAS by tweeking the frames.

Last edited by ALi-B; Apr 30, 2014 at 06:10 PM.
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 06:41 PM
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I think I've also done this on my Nas, need to check
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 09:52 PM
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Originally Posted by ALi-B
Don't forget to make sure "Jumbo frames" is enabled/supported and MTU sizes are set correctly (i.e the same on all devices).

I squeezed an extra 20MB out of my NAS by tweeking the frames.
Where do I find this?
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Old Apr 30, 2014 | 10:33 PM
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It's a properties within your network cards settings, not in front of my computer.

Right click on car and go into settings and get to section where it lists full duplex and frame settings
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Old May 1, 2014 | 03:20 PM
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I think we can safely say its my router I hooked the Superhub upto the computer with a cat6a cable.

I'm thinking of buying the Asus n66u or the Netgear 6250 router as that will be good enough for me as I have no 802.11ac devices that share my network.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3474160473.png
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Old May 1, 2014 | 03:52 PM
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Steve can u see in the superhub where u can put it in passthru mode ? don't forget the superhub still needs to be connected to terminate Virgins cable.

I personally would get

Linksys EA6900 Dual Band AC1900 Smart Wi-Fi Router with Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and Adjustable Antennas: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories Linksys EA6900 Dual Band AC1900 Smart Wi-Fi Router with Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and Adjustable Antennas: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

ive been in IT for 20 years and had many a router Vigour, Netgear Belkin and to say that the old 4200 Linksys I have has been obsoletely bulletproof, never needs a reboot, has build in media server Twonky. It just works.

that netgear 7000 does look nice though

Last edited by Littleted; May 1, 2014 at 03:58 PM.
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Old May 1, 2014 | 05:55 PM
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I don't fancy paying £170 for a new router as I'm only looking around the ton mark, I can always upgrade to a better router in a couple of years time with the saved cash
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Old May 2, 2014 | 09:32 PM
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I was soo tempted to buy an Asus router but after using Netgear for years and never having a problem I bought an R6300. I'm waiting for it to be delivered then hopefully
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Old May 5, 2014 | 06:11 PM
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Got the same issue here, on the 60mb service and fine up to 5pm then down to 3-4mb upto after midnight, spent over two hours on the phone to VM on Friday and they advised nothing was wrong, it's clear they have hardware issues due to the number of customers on fast services and the connections are being speed managed.
Had all the usual spill while on the phone saying it's my PC and when I have the same issue on three other devices both wired and wireless they want back to the response " all is fine we cannot see a fault also advised there is no limiting being carried out.
Totally fed up with it and seems I may be cancelling tomorrow, better connection on 4g!
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Old May 5, 2014 | 07:48 PM
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Just been on the phone to them, they called me back! Only day late, anyway in my area there is utilisation issues due to speed upgrades, advised that while hardware/software is being upgraded for the speed uplift there will be utilisation (speed management)
Also asked why this is peak times they said best item to do it!!! Do they know anything?
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Old May 5, 2014 | 08:17 PM
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Have you not tried getting the superhub as just a modem with good cables and a good router as what I am doing ? The speeds were rubbish connected directly to my pc until I connected a cat 6A cable and then it was proper speeds I then tested thru the router and it was 88mb at best which then proved my router was the limiting issue
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