If I'm getting 8Mb on 20Mb service, should I just downgrade?

Hi folks,

This is my first time on the board in about... 3 years? I ended up setting with Buldog... Pipex... Tiscali, which was expensive, but actually pretty reliable at a posted 8Mbps. I've just switched to Virgin for triple-play after a house move, my heart full of doubt after I was last stung 8 years ago when they shorted out my landlady's flat's junction box...

In short, I'm getting variable speeds - usually around 8Mbps, but often 4Mbps in evenings, and never above 10MBps.

Given this, might I as well switch to a 10MBps service and save some cash? How do the contention ratios work? Will I still get around 8Mbps as before (ie. the 10Mbps is a cap), or will I be thrown into an entirely different scenario, such as entirely different speeds with different contention ratios? I'm in SE London - SE10.

I'm also getting the D-Link DIR-615 resetting the wireless hourly and losing my laptop's DHCP-assigned address once a day, and also had the cable modem slow down to an eventual 200kbps/20kbps. I assume these are par for the course with Virgin?

Thanks all!


Damian

You can do as long as you are happy with the Cap. I have been put from 50mbps to 2mbps(s) and its like hitting a brick wall. Especially with the 200MB cap and the 12 hour retardeness of the throttling.

Well, not quite that extreme for me. I only get 8Mbps now, so moving to a 10Mbps service shouldn't make any difference - theoretically?

Or would I then find my 8Mbps drops to 4Mbps (ie.. still around 40% of the advertised limit)?

I've also just realised they withdrew my #50 credit when I downsized my BB from XXL to XL because they couldn't get an engineer visit for 3 weeks. Not happy. If I cancel in the 1 month cooling off period, am I then locked out from re-joining for a number of months (eg. O2 lock you out for 6 months).

Well, I've been monitoring available bandwidth on my connection in SE7, and it's not great.

50% of the time... when i'm mostly asleep or away... it'll get 18-20Mbps without problem.(see first column after time). However - come 8-9pm, it drops to under 1Mbps.

[144]|2010-01-21 10:27:02 : |10412|-1|10|0|7|
[145]|2010-01-21 11:27:02 : |19136|-1|9|0|8|
[146]|2010-01-21 12:27:02 : |18811|-1|10|0|10|
[147]|2010-01-21 13:27:02 : |14500|-1|9|0|4|
[148]|2010-01-21 14:27:02 : |18931|-1|10|0|6|
[149]|2010-01-21 15:27:02 : |19096|-1|9|0|2|
[150]|2010-01-21 16:27:02 : |16434|-1|10|0|7|
[151]|2010-01-21 17:27:02 : |7978|-1|10|0|9|
[152]|2010-01-21 18:27:02 : |16360|-1|10|0|9|
[153]|2010-01-21 19:27:02 : |5439|-1|10|0|14|
[154]|2010-01-21 20:27:02 : |812|-1|18|6|12|
[155]|2010-01-21 21:27:02 : |502|-1|41|10|13|
[156]|2010-01-21 23:27:02 : |2161|-1|13|0|9|
[157]|2010-01-22 00:27:02 : |3771|-1|13|0|13|

Which is ridiculous.

Might see if I can get a BT line put in, and call up O2, before my cooling-off period expires.

Well, I spoke to guys on the Usenet group, and VM Customer Support, and they were refreshingly honest. Yes, the UBR is heavily oversubscribed, but not enough to upgrade it, so there's no date on a resolution.

One of the Usenet guys raised it with Networks, so I'll hold off my BT Line for 24 hours to see if there's good news (but I suspect this'll be a 'can't please everyone' case).

Final update.

I posted on the Virgin Support newsgroup, and they raised a fault; 2 weeks later, last night, the line went down, and when it came back up, I was getting a consistent 19Mb. See stats:

http://twitpic.com/11kwzg

Looks pretty good!