Joining VM reluctantly - couple of questions :)

Hi folks

I've been a long time lurker and checker of info on the site, which has taken me from a frankly disgusting experience with Talk Talk (don't even get me started - had to write to the CEO to get out of that contract) to BT, then to Zen, then to Be and currently to BT Infinity. I've been very happy nearly the whole time thanks to tips and info from this site and these forums, so I'm calling on you now in a time of need

I've been living in fairly central parts of Plymouth for years now, but now my family's grown to another baby, I'm having to move out to the suburbs (Plympton if anyone knows it) to get more space. That means that my broadband supplier options are a lot more limited. I've gotten used to about 7.5 Mbps downloads with my BT Infinity connection and don't want to lose the speed, so VM is my only current option.

I'm a pretty constant but not extreme newsgroup user and I've heard of throttling on their network - any more info on that? Also, how are they for flexibility when installing/neatness etc? And how is the general reliability of VM? I'm not that bothered about the TV side of things and I'd go with Infinity if it was available, so I'd just like to know what I'm in for. Thanks!

When you say 7.5 you mean 7.5 Mega Bytes per second?

Yep, so about a 60 megabit download speed. I should probably add that I'm thinking of signing up for the 100mb VM service.

Edited by deleted (Sat 14-Feb-15 10:50:30)

Experience varies a LOT in my experience. Some people get the speeds they ordered pretty much the whole time. Others speeds' drop to the 20mbps (bits) mark during periods of high use on their nodes eg if there's a lot of very high users on your road/town, expect slower speeds.

Virgin's current traffic management only affects upload speeds. http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic...

Edited by deleted (Sat 14-Feb-15 11:13:18)

In reply to a post by Pedrostech:

Experience varies a LOT in my experience. Some people get the speeds they ordered pretty much the whole time. Others speeds' drop to the 20mbps (bits) mark during periods of high use on their nodes eg if there's a lot of very high users on your road/town, expect slower speeds.

Virgin's current traffic management only affects upload speeds. http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic...

Concur with that - I suggest you try to speak with some VM users in your new area.

I'm with VM at present on 100Mb/s and speeds are OK even at peak. I have no problem with streaming, games, browsing or reliability. Whilst download speed tests at peak show 107Mb/s, actual download speeds (single thread) are typically 30Mb/s. The ThinkBroadband speed test is a good measure of this effect.

Note that upload speed is only 6Mb/s on VM 100Mb/s so I guess a lot less than you have now.

Edited by Eeeps (Sat 14-Feb-15 11:28:05)

In reply to a post by Eeeps:

Whilst download speed tests at peak show 107Mb/s, actual download speeds (single thread) are typically 30Mb/s. The ThinkBroadband speed test is a good measure of this effect.

FYI that's something I would consider to be a fault or at least a poor service. I would never recommend an ISP that showed a significant disparity between single and multi-threaded downloads. My own ISP - Plusnet - is having a few issues at the moment but even so this is what I get at peak time:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14227...

The worst I've seen is this:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14223...

Multi-threaded downloading is a bit more efficient but that shouldn't account for more than a couple of percentage points faster. What you have described sounds like an ISP that is protecting its network by throttling on a per-thread basis. A bit like a restaurant operating an 'all you can eat' service then only providing small plates.

Edited by Andrue (Sat 14-Feb-15 19:03:35)

"A bit like a restaurant operating an 'all you can eat' service then only providing small plates. "

Absolutely true at Flavours in Oldbury but if you had a big plate and filled it up to start with then how do you eat the second plateful?

Small plate and many trips to sample many different foods is the better way to go!

In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by Eeeps:

Whilst download speed tests at peak show 107Mb/s, actual download speeds (single thread) are typically 30Mb/s. The ThinkBroadband speed test is a good measure of this effect.

FYI that's something I would consider to be a fault or at least a poor service. I would never recommend an ISP that showed a significant disparity between single and multi-threaded downloads. My own ISP - Plusnet - is having a few issues at the moment but even so this is what I get at peak time:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14227...

The worst I've seen is this:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14223...

Multi-threaded downloading is a bit more efficient but that shouldn't account for more than a couple of percentage points faster. What you have described sounds like an ISP that is protecting its network by throttling on a per-thread basis. A bit like a restaurant operating an 'all you can eat' service then only providing small plates.

This is what I get early morning.

This is what I typically get in an evening.

Interestingly, even at peak times the ping jitter stays quite low.

I think VM implement some sort of packet priority scheme on a CPE IP port basis. Low rate packets being prioritised over high rate streams.

I too am also considering the 100 meg service as with the current deal it'll cost the same as my Xilo 20 meg TTB LLU service. There's nothing wrong with my current connection in fact it's been very reliable, but now my kids are using a significant chunk of the bandwidth together with the low upload speed of 0.7 meg, I am tempted.

I can't help thinking I might regret it, goodness knows what the customer service would be like compared to Xilo's which is excellent.

Any comments of reassurance or words of warning?

Edited by deleted (Sun 15-Feb-15 19:59:09)

As I've said before on here, I changed to 152MB Virgin last August, came from a pretty crummy BT 9MB.

Never regret it for one minute.

H