Apologies, Another Wireless ?

Does the wireless router also have an ethernet port such that you can compare wired vs. wifi to/from that same router? I'd start with that, if possible.

Thanks for the replies, 

Yes, the router does have additional ethernet ports so I'll give this a go. The best wireless we ever achieved was around 60mbs but it was almost a blink and you'll miss it situation! We barely had it for 24 hours.

I very much suspect it is Virgin as our TIVO box doesn't perform particularly well either, especially with the iPlayer which constantly buffers.

Trouble is i am not sure i could face another 2 hour conversation with Virgin, only to end up a day or two later being back to square one. I have thought about switching but from what I have read online, they are all pretty much the same when it comes to customer service and quality of goods etc. For what is deemed very much a utility these days, it is very poor and extremely frustrating  If I ruled the world... 

Pretty sure it's something awry at VirginMedia's end, Gingerbeard - either that or for some reason they're applying some pretty severe capping in order to serve all the users in your area at busy times. Or the Superhub has a problem.

Have just checked my connection – VM Superhub in modem mode to Apple Airport Extreme and then Wi-Fi to a MacBook Air – and I'm getting 117Mbps down and 11.49Mbps up, which is around what I normally get from the 'up to 152Mbps' service we have around here.

Might be worth booking an engineer visit, and see what speed he/she can get: may need a Superhub swap, or perhaps you should only be paying for one of VM's slower services if that's all they can deliver.

We recently switched to Virgin, and also have the router in modem mode connected to the same Asus. We pay for the up to 100 service, and I'm getting 39 down and 9 up on my iPad, while sitting in the sitting room with the router in the dining room. If you put the iPad directly next to the router, the speed can be over 100. That said, at busy times the speed drops yo about 20 and the Internet sometimes conks out completely. Our TiVo box works perfectly, and when we streamed a hidef film it was perfect. If the TiVo is stuttering there is definitely something wrong with the service. Another call beckons.......

Ensure you are testing the speed from an ethernet port unless you have the latest wireless laptops with AC then you will never realise the speed of the line. Remember when you activate a broadband speed test it does it from what ever network connect5ion you have.

I have an AC lappy connected to an AC router and can see tops 80Mb/s on a computer connecting to the same router via ethernet its 150Mb/s

Thanks for your responses and advice everyone, it is appreciated  I think I'll have to brave another call to Virgin. It will no doubt be a rather painful and drawn out experience 

Hi, just caught up on this thread, yes it's a bit naughty, consumer ISPs often quote sync speeds to the MSAN or DSLAM / PON when quoting upload and download speeds. This stays reasonably constant irrespective of load.

The real measure that is of interest is the back haul speed, this will be the speed or more accurately the effective bandwidth between the MSAN or DSLAM/PON and the ISP core router network. This has nothing to do with the access bandwidth which is typically quoted. If the path is heavily over subscribed, you will see a greater performance drop at busy times than you would expect. This back haul bandwidth is usually specific for each ISP and is seperate from the access bandwidth that may well be leased from an infrastructure provider such as OpenReach or Virgin. In your case I think Virgin will probably be providing both.

You should complain, but may not be a quick fix, so be prepared to change ISP if there is no improvement.

Simon

After much wrangling with Virgin Media we have finally got the wireless speed connection we are paying for. Talk about having to jump through loops though, just to get even the basics right! Turns out that our existing Superhub was too old to accept these speeds so they have sent us a new one and hey presto all is good. I am still at a loss as to why when we upgraded our service they didn't send this out as a matter of course. Surely they would have know our router wasn't up to the job.

Their service levels are truly atrocious and more often than not, left doesn't know what right is doing. You speak to one technician they till you one thing, then another and they tell you something else. They hang up on you, don't call you back and are resistant to offer compensation! So much for joined up thinking and the customer is always right hey! If me and my good lady ran our business and treated our customers in such a way we wouldn't be in business for long! I am sure I / we are not the only ones who despairs with all this   

It will be interesting to see how long we can maintain these speeds (148mbs wired and 130mbs wireless download) for. 

I get the gist of what you are saying Simon, even if I don't totally understand the terminology but thanks for the reply / information as it all helps to gain a better idea of how these things work. Do you happen to work in this field as you seem very clued up on it all? 

ATB 

Gingerbeard

So the top download speeds lasted all of about a day! And after another frustrating bout of phone calls to VM we were finally told that our area is over subscribed and pretty much at capacity. As a result our speeds will fluctuate wildly until they fix the problem, which is supposed to be In October. At 7pm last night our download speeds were 6mbs (which is why we called) and at 4am this morning it was 159mbs! How a company is allowed to sell you something they can't deliver (they we were aware of the issue in May when we upgraded) is beyond me!  

My sympathy for you is slightly reduced by the fact that I can only get a miserly 4MB from my aging rural copper cable. Having said that, I can stream TV or lossless music with no trouble when it behaves itself, so things could be worse. 

Given the massive difference between the speed you pay for, and the speed you get, I would have thought you would have grounds for getting out of the contract, although VM may well put up a fight. I would be tempted to ask them to cancel, and sign up for a so-called 'truly unlimited' service from someone like Talktalk or Sky, which means that they aren't supposed to use traffic shaping to reduce your speed at peak times.  

BT also have an option for unlimited with no traffic shaping. Works well, is what I use here, on my rural 3.8 to 4.2 ADSL line.. Which is better than some of my fellow village neighboughs who are on less than 2, but I had BT rewire my internal wiring and used the preferred BT NTE modem.. Made quite a difference.

But don't confuse traffic shaping and throttling with over subscription which is where throughput significantly drops at peak parts of day . The latter is just shoddy service where the ISP has oversubscribed the access, but still charging full rate... It's shameful. On my BT service I see no significant variation at peak or off peak time of days. measured by timing a transfer to a known remote server. you pay for what you get...

Also you need to check your ISP has a breakout at the local exchange, otherwise it will be piggybacking on another provider.. Not a great scenario. My local exchange has BT and Talk Talk breakout, but no Sky... But I could still get a Sky service... If I wanted..

Simon

Simon, thanks for elaborating - when I mentioned traffic shaping there was a little voice in the back of my mind telling me it wasn't quite the full picture.

I, too, have a fairly consistent line speed, but then, I have few neighbours, which might help.

Chris, yes it's more over subscription at the local telephone exchange rather than immediate neighbours.

interesting replies guy's. they finally admitted it was a case of over subscription in our area, as to whether they improve this by October remains to be seen. We are seeking some significant reimbursement as this 'fault' (or incompetitence) has been going on since September 2014! Although we only up-graded to the top package in May. 

My parents neighbour (who lives in South Devon) is quite senior in BT so next time I visit I'll have a chat with him about their services 

I'm shocked by some of the speeds listed on this thread. I pay for 150mbs and at times see 160mbs however, at one point I was getting around 60mbs and spent a huge amount of time discussing with Virgin who told me they were upgrading equipment in our area - this took around three months and I was refunded the different between my 150 subscription and their lowest tier during that period.  I think we are too patient as consumers sometimes.

Here in the States, some ISP's advertize "speeds up to X MBPS."  "Up to" basically means 'good luck.'

My ISP, Verizon FiOS fibre, seems to always deliver what I pay for (right now 80/80, which seems fast enough for me).

Yes there is a lot of confusion over broadband speeds. The speed that is typically sold is the maximum physical synchronisation speed the service can provide. This limits but does not necessarily support the equivalent data throughput.

The sync speed is about 

• home wiring quality / domestic interference
• ADSL protocol used. This may vary on geographic location and how remote you are. 
• distance from exchange http://www.increasebroadbandsp...peed-versus-distance / line quality.
• modem DSP interoperability with ISP.

when people quote 7 Mbps or 3 Mbps with ISP x this is what they are referring to.

However, and this is so often the killer part and most people are unaware, the actual data throughput, that is the effective usage speed is dependent on the ISP and the quality of their back hauls and the extent of the subscription.. This you can not determine from the sync speed alone. A poor ISP will have unacceptable over subscription... Basically their investment has not tracked their customer base.

also  the independent ISP review unweighted list for the UK is here

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top50.php

sky # 26,  BT # 34,  Virgin Media #39, Talk Talk # 40

So just to clarify;

when the provider tells you "up to X Mbps" with a disclaimer that your results may vary depending on a variety of conditions, you shouldn't be disappointed to actually receive less than "X"?

Go figure

Mine is 160.77 at 08:00.  Just a little tip - if you are going to complain do so on their Facebook page.  they watch it constantly and are very keen to be seen to deal with the issues that are raised on there - you also get a direct email address for the member of staff dealing with it and they have much more leeway than the first tier of tech people if you complain by phone.

joerand, indeed.. as is so often the way with consumer technologies,mthe glitzy marketing headlines gloss over the technical realities that most won't understand... or just be too complicated.

A dedicated 100Mbps or 1Gbps duplex uncontended fibre or even a 30 Mbps EFM bonded copper access will give you just that.. but you are paying for pro connectivity as opposed to consumer..

its kind of like the ghetto blaster mentailty of the 80s when they said a tiny set of speakers had 150 Watts (peak music power) when in practice it would probably struggle to do 15 Watts RMS.

True enough but if you are receiving a quarter of X and never get any higher than that then you have been mislead in my view?

Just read this Thread. Interesting. Very similar story on VM here. The indicated speed on Speedtest is great - up to around 32Mbps. But... in the real word, internet pages hang up and wont load. It may be fast - but its not responsive. Can anyone give me a tech term for this - that VM might recognise & react to..?

After a circa 30 min shouting match with VM India & UK, they dis arrange a technician visit. He was good - checked all the wiring - AND changed the SuperHub from V1 to V2. This has significantly improved the Wireless performance. He also said we could be upgraded to 50Mbps for free - and mase a call to arrange this. I heard him get confirmation of this. But... this is VM... so it hasnt happened....  Cue a further 30 min plus call sometime.....

He also told me there are capacity issues in our area - which he thought were due to be fixed by September - he couldnt confirm this....

In summary - VM is good, when its working well....