Once upon a time

A year and a half ago I gave up a lack lustre adsl connection, and made the switch to NTL. It was a great feeling to be able to use cable at last as my telephone line length was exceptionally long.

Back then, I was on the 1mb basic package. Since I was downgrading from 1.5 mbp adsl, it felt a bit disapointing. But I put up with it, because it was rock solid, never dropped out and my pings went from about 18-25 ms, to around 5-7ms to jolt. Even better, NTL upgraded all 1mb to 2mb speed soon after. I was laughing, until now...

For the past couple of months my cable has been dire. What was once an internet connection to envy and forget about as it got on with the job, is now almost an utter sham...

Currently I'm only uploading files at a sorry 14-15kbp/sec instead of the 23-24kb/sec or more I used to get. Infact, I cant even upload stuff bigger then maybe 150 kilobytes because it just times out at a certain point. And I need to regularly upload 25-80mb of stuff!!

I just pinged jolt now,
45ms
37ms
42ms
request timed out.... OUCH. I used to ping this place for 6ms averages. BBC offers much the same high ping results.

So my question, what would you recommend I do to try and rectify the situation? Will Virgin media take my enquiry seriously or just tell me to make sure my computer it switched on? (pun)

Switching isn't really an option with cable, so Virgin Media have a monopoly!

Thanks !

p.s I use a router but plugging in directly to the modem doesn't seem to make a difference, nor does restarting the modem.

Edited by AlcatelGuy (Tue 27-Nov-07 21:50:42)

Imho, not much you can do.

You could try to get through to customer relations/retentions at VM and discuss the issue with them. This has worked for me, albeit only for short periods of time. Be polite and objective.

I find other means like e-mail and those poor script reading folks somewhere far away totally ineffective.

Keep in mind that there are circumstances under VM control and there are other issues with the Internet at large.

A few folks are as satisfied as you were prior to the merger. Many are getting a poor experience, particularly at the times of day when they can use the service.

How is the service at 7:00 am? I find it quite good at 7:00 am but everything then progressively goes down hill for the rest of the day and night. I see speedtest results in the range of 200 kbs (bits) to 2400 kbs on download in the evenings so have given up using the service then. Uploads are consistently around 700 kns irrespective of the time of day. I am on a 20 mbs contract.

Thanks...its reasuring to know I'm not the only one suddenly getting a raw deal since the merger. All that bs I got through my door saying how VM were going to make things just sooooo much better should have made me more paranoid.

And when I read about support being 25p a minute and the scripted Indian call centres, I don't see anywere to turn

Heres my speed test for 9.45 AM http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/119624294640175331741.html

Much improved...strangely last night I did a speed test on one website that was saying I was getting 2 mb, when adslguide reported only 512k..odd

p.s paying for 20meg and getting 2.5 is sooooo danm wrong. Its fraud, no exaduration.

Edited by AlcatelGuy (Wed 28-Nov-07 09:48:48)

i have noticed that my ping rate is rather high over the past few weeks, where it used to be stuck on 23ms now its usually in its 60s and ive even seen it as high as 253ms.

The other thing ive noticed is when i reset my cable modem not only does it take longer to get back to normal, but it sometimes resets itself a further 2 or 3 times a few mins after i have reset it and im using it.

I have exactly the same experience with ping times - same figures.

My cable modem is in a cupboard so I cannot comment on the second reset.

(London N1 area)

There was 3 bears.........


Hahah sorry couldn't resist!!

In Bristol, I have no throughput problems, i.e. i max out my bandwisdth in all speed tests and downloads, however my pings areant as stable as they once were and I get the odd packet loss when pinging jolt.co.uk.

During peak time i have gone from <20ms when pinging jolt.co.uk to anywhere between 30ms and 50ms with the odd blip much higher or failing. After midnight the situation improves.

Personally I am starting to think that this is the end of fantastic telewest product I have received for the last few years.