Server selection and download speeds...

Just a couple of technical questions.

Firstly, on an ADSL line, when you disconnect and connect again to get a better ping rate and hence a different server, what actually determines which server you get.
It doesn't always give you a better one, so I don't think it looks for one that is less congested; any ideas

Secondly, about maximum download speeds.
My Profile is 6500kb, but I never get above 3333Kb (my record on BT tester) in fact the results almost always come out (at off-peak times in the morning) at around 3200-3300 (on BT tester).
Is this a coincidence or do Virgin put a limit on download speeds. I would have thought that with a profile of 6500 I may have occasionally got a random higher figure.

Thanks,

Mike.

In reply to:

---

when you disconnect and connect again to get a better ping rate and hence a different server, what actually determines which server you get

---

You've lost me there - which server are you talking about?

In reply to:

---

My Profile is 6500kb, but I never get above 3333Kb (my record on BT tester)

---

Here's an old joke, updated for the broadband age:

patient: Doctor, it hurts my download speeds when I use a speed tester.

doctor: Well stop using a speed tester then!

In other words, what speeds are you getting when you do something useful, such as downloading a file from http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/, or http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/?

Sorry if I wasn't that clear...

I sometimes get a congested Virgin(NTL) server i.e. brhm-bam with say a 250ms ping rate, checked with tracert.
Disconnecting and reconnecting mostly brings up a different server (best so far was popl-bam) with perhaps a lot lower ping rate, say 40ms, hence a lot better overall download speed.
When you get 300kb and then by the above process get a usable 1.5Mb, I consider the exercise well worth doing.

LOL at the speedtester joke.
I was getting appalling speeds with Virgin but the service has improved drastically over the past 2 weeks so I am staying with them for the time being.
The question really was do ISPs limit the download speed on their system, even though you have a relatively high profile?

Thanks,

Mike.

I'm afraid I'm still confused about what the servers are. For a minute when you mentioned NTL I thought we were talking about cable (in which case they may have been NTL's notorious transparent proxies), but then as you mentioned the BT speedtester and IP profile previously I guess this must in fact be ADSL Max? Perhaps Virgin have adopted transparent proxies at the back end of their ADSL Max service as well? If I'm anywhere close, then the trick is to configure a specific proxy on your PC in order to override the automatic transparent selection.

As for ISP's limit speeds, then yes as a general rule specific protocols are often capped in order to more fairly share out the available bandwidth. Whether Virgin do this is perhaps a question for the Virgin forum.

He is talking about which Virgin gateway and central the BT round robin software connects him to. We can do the same thing on ENTA where we can see which segment and central we are on. If it is one of the busy ones and the others are less loaded one can try to reconnect with a new session and get on to a different gateway and central which might have better figures. Of course, it doesn't always work first time round and can sometimes take quite a few attempts to get on a different gateway. Though I usually find that I rarely need more than two attempts to get a different one. Whether it will be as easy for him to switch gateways on Virgin is hard to say, though it appears not so from his post, but the only way is to keep trying with a new session.

Ah, I see - server as in L2TP Network Server.

I'm surprised that Virgin's centrals get so overloaded that the home gateway ping time rises to 250msec.

JCYM, yes you got it.
I usually have a couple of tries and get one below 100ms, sometimes as low as 35ms.

Yes Cahaddras, they can get that low, 3 of them were around 230 tonight, I', on Bromley at the moment at 212ms.

No big downloads to do tonight so not that worried. Running at 410kb at present, worse it's been all week, but no problems chatting on forums.

Guess they do cap your speed on Virgin as well, but why they bother at off peak times beats me.

Thanks for you comments,
Mike.

What exactly are you pinging ? Those results suck.


C:\Documents and Settings\%%%%%>tracert www.thinkbroadband.com

Tracing route to www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.138
2 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms redback-lb-bgp.newnet.co.uk [212.87.77.54]
3 12 ms 12 ms 11 ms th15.th.newnet.co.uk [81.3.81.15]
4 116 ms 13 ms 12 ms linx-gw1.thdo.ncuk.net [195.66.226.240]
5 15 ms 13 ms 14 ms gi0-1-20-star2.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97
.69]
6 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]

Trace complete.

Hi Zarjaz,
Usually use www.bbc.net.uk
Tried a couple of yours, similar times.
Virgin pings vary between 35 off peak and 250 peak, but not on all servers; there's usually one under 100ms.
Who are you with, and are you on cable.
I'm on Plan 2, up to 8Mb, adsl Max here.
Mike.

C:\Documents and Settings\%%%%%>tracert www.bbc.net.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.125]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.138
2 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms redback-lb-bgp.newnet.co.uk [212.87.77.54]
3 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms th8.th.newnet.co.uk [81.3.81.8]
4 13 ms 12 ms 11 ms bbc-gw0-linx.prt0.thdoe.bbc.co.uk [195.66.224.10
3]
5 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms 212.58.238.153
6 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms www25.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.125]

Trace complete.

Hi Mike,
I am with Newnet, most certainly not on cable, and using their Home Lite up to 8meg package.