Why slow upload speeds but not download speeds?

http://www.speedtest.net/result/360684855.png

10061 kb/s down, 364 kb/s up.

I typically only hit 10Mbps at such an off-peak time as 5am. Most other times it's 5-8Mbps, which is NOT superior to standard ADSL products out there, whilst the upload speeds are a disgrace, never going above 440kbps out of a potential 512 (and at a 20:1 down:up ratio, every bit counts).

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/122741678899519415991.html

9037 kb/s down, 420 kb/s up. STILL not approaching 512kb/s up. :-(

Anyone have any idea why this could be happening?

NOTE: the router does an upstream speed detection of its own when restarting, it detects the full speed. Why is there such a difference - what overheads are involved or is it possibly a very high error rate due to signalling issues do you think?

Oh and I am able to detect and log other users on my LAN so it's not them sneaking some bandwidth AFAIK.

On current VM network the upstream is very possibly suffering more congestion than the downstream, due in part to the prevalence of P2P software which will use as much bandwidth as possible e.g. if downloading at 5Mbps you are using something like 10 upstreams from other people.

reported average adsl synch speed is around 4mbit meaning your speeds are above typical adsl so thats some compensation for you.

Yeah I understand how P2P works. Thanks though.

I had thought it was the modem/cable itself, as when I had an engineer out, he swapped the modem and it basically killed the connection and couldn't handle it at all, dropping more packets than not! The engineer mentioned something about a bad signal due to? He couldn't tell, but found it very strange.

So I need to have a go at Virgin for their [censored] network (you'd think, considering that cable architecture is inherently slow at upstream, that they'd be on top of this...)

I love trying to convince their monkeys that I know what I'm doing and need to speak to level 2 support, or their more helpful staff that they need to escalate the issue and put pressure on management to improve standards...
ISPA form again, is it? May be a minor issue, but upload bandwidth is tiny here in the first place and if Virgin don't properly engage with their customers... what are we supposed to do?
I'm starting to wish I didn't get a really expensive router that's cable-only...

I wonder how many customers Be/O2 have taken directly from Virgin?

In reply to:

---

reported average adsl synch speed is around 4mbit meaning your speeds are above typical adsl so thats some compensation for you.

---

.

So's the price I pay as far as I'm concerned. Also 1/3 of the upload speed of a decent ADSL connection is a big drawback. The more they up the download speed, the more TCP ACK packets have to be processed via the upstream bandwidth, always eating into it!

To be frank if you go raising a complaint over

"420 kb/s up. STILL not approaching 512kb/s up. :-( " then I doubt you will get very far, if it was always under 64Kbps for the upstream it would be more clear cut.

By complaining you are just going to raise your blood pressure and get nothing from Virgin. Their network still can suffer from errors/noise/attenuation in the co-ax cable segment and thus some modems can cope better than others.

If upstream is really important its take the 1.5Mbps of the XXL when it rolls-out or find an ADSL2+ provider like Be that supports ADSL2+ Annex M which can manage 2.5Mbps if line is short enough.

I'd take a look at the stats reported by the modem to see if there is any indication there of any problems......Sometimes an engineer may need to be pointed in the right direction when there is a fault.

im having identical problems here in swansea and Virgin claim its my PC.

Im getting 19.6mb down and between 390 and 500k up.

Jim

Make a note of both your download voltage and your upstream voltage.

It seems that if you have a below par upstream voltage then you will get better downstream results.

Suggest that you post the results on Virgin Media Support Broadband Cable newsgroup and the VM guys there will fix it.

Glad to see you are now getting max downstream.

Trust you are well

Sid.

PS. My upstream is marginally off now after a year of never below 711 kbs. Down is another matter - no change.