Virgin National is known for poor performance i.e. under investment in network capacity so that is the biggest factor.

If it was me I would not bother with any more router fiddling until I had changed to a provider with a better reputation. As Virgin does not sell the national service anymore, they are not going to be investing in it much I suspect.

Who would be the best ISP to go for specifically for gaming if possible? I'm going to get out now even if I have to pay termination fees.

What exchange are you on?

Happy to exclude some mainly based on similar issues to the Virgin National product, but recommending a specific one is impossible, as the choice must be yours.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EMGRHAM

I don't mind which one I go to as long as they deliver better performance!

Well TalkTalk LLU is available which is cheap and runs OK but people moan about customer support if they finally need it.

Otherwise a BT Wholesale service avoiding Sky. The usual suspects of BT, PlusNet, Zen, IDNet and the other providers in decreasing size.

Have you checked to see if FTTC is available, as apparently some parts have it, including ones outside the virgin cable footprint

Will TalkTalk give me the best performance? Price is no issue so I'd rather pay more if needed to get the best I can.

FTTC isn't available for me yet every broadband checker I've tried has said I can only get up to 2 Mbps.

Edited by sdb14 (Tue 04-Feb-14 13:28:08)

I wouldn't be so quick to pay the termination fee. You might find if they can't assist you they'll let you go free of charge.

In reply to a post by sdb14:

Does DLM apply to G.Dmt and ADSL2 or only ADSL2+?

To all.

Here is a ping graph for my connection, look at the yellow and red

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/184e9df1a42...

The red is because at 10:30 pm you had a disconnection and reconnection. As you are on a dynamic IP address with VM you have a new address.

That BQM setup is dead and you need to delete it. The next person to have that address may think he is under (mild) attack.

In reply to a post by sdb14:

What mode do you recommend I use on my line?

Not ADSL2+. Of the other two, hard to tell without checking occasionally, but G.DMT is likely to have the lower packet loss. You have a fairly constant trickle of red in the "working" part of that BQM.

If I leave the SNR as default and let the DLM do its thing do you think things will improve?

That's you best chance. If you leave it alone and the error rates go down, then DLM will after 10-14 days lower the margin by 3dBm giving you 500kbps or so more sync speed. It may after a further 10-14 lower it to 6dB with a similar speed gain.

Tweaking a long line is always risky, as was explained earlier.

Yes, the IP address changes every time a connection is made. I'll delete the graph

I'm connecting with ADSL2 at the moment but I'll switch back to G.DMT, leave the SNR alone and see what happens.

What is causing the packet loss?