A quick question.

Hello!

I've been using VM for around a year or so. Then we moved address, and our VM still works. My old flatmate is the account holder. As such it is impossible for me to contact VM about the issue (I can't confirm S Q/a etc,)

Basically, over the past 2-3 months. I have begun to notice a *massive* increase in Latency times.

I'm ont he 2mb package, and I'd think my downloading patterns are fairly small. I'm connected via an ethernet cable, and my flatmate uses wireless.

I play a few online games, particurlarly WoW. So having my connection jump from 9x MS (which is fine for me) to 2k MS isn't particurlarly helpful. This is during times where my flatmate is out, and no other users connected to my router. (Wireless is secured)

There is no specific time, it happens fairly regurlarly. Even sometimes 2am and beyond.
This isn't a game server issue, as I've tried pinging to other IP's. (Namely Easynet's DNS) and have had my connection time out.
Loading webpages has become increasingly difficult.

Theoretically the cable connection should be much more stable with less instances of high latency than a standard ADSL line. So I can't understand why I'm suffering from such poor performance.

I've reset the router, and the Virgin Modem to no avail.
I was wondering, perhaps if I changed the DNS from VM to another ISP's (I'm thinknig Easynet as they're fairly stable) would it improve my latency times or reduces my spikes somewhat? As there is times when my iternet connection becaomes pratically unusable.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
(Apologies for the wall fo text)
Thanks in advance!

"Theoretically the cable connection should be much more stable with less instances of high latency than a standard ADSL line. So I can't understand why I'm suffering from such poor performance. "

In terms of the bit that is DOCSIS this may be the case but beyond that local street cab you are both in the realm of fibre based networks (fibre to the exchange with ADSL), so the effects of network congestion can affect both technologies.

Chaning DNS will only possibly improve the conversion of domain names to IP addresses and not improve lag during game play

It would be interesting to see some tracerts to the sites that are difficult to load when you're in one of the latency 'spikes'.

If that doesn't pin down the problem, check your power levels in the modem config pages.
(There are some useful hints on Annie's Broadband FAQ)

Let us know what you find?