A single user cannot saturate a VM segment and there is only so much that a single user is likely to download (albeit a surprisingly large amount judging by SeanSmit's post). If those downloads are done quicker then there is less chance they will overlap with other likeminded "Linux distro" addicts so less chance of saturation.

If VM cut their offering to 5Mbps maximum then there is no doubt that contention would fall spectacularly - mostly because they would haemorrhage customers by the thousands if not millions.

My suspition is that it isn't the download amount that leads to the ticking off - it's probably 24x7 torrent seeding.

In reply to a post by seb:

I appreciate you're frustrated with Virgin and you raise a valid query so I've not deleted your post, but I suggest you watch your language..

seb

shove it is not a swear word nor is it offensive. but point taken

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

My suspition is that it isn't the download amount that leads to the ticking off - it's probably 24x7 torrent seeding.

Well I spoke to VM today who told me that it was not uploading that was the problem as our upload is low.. it was downloads between 11am-6pm that were high and then it was FTP. I've never done P2P from my home connection it's all done remotely

I have a server in france downloading 24/7 from GN on it's own 100mbps link however I only ftp down or stream the films I want to watch. I don't sit on GN on my VM connection 24/7 that would be rude.

I was also told that they can't see amount but get a graph. I was really starting to think I was the baddie UNTIL he told me they recorded me doing between 30-40GB between 5pm-6pm a few nights ago.. Which then made me realise that it was all [censored] as a 50mbps connection maxed out hits just under 18GB an hour.

Anyway I agreed with VM that I would download between 9pm and 9am and if this still caused a problem after a month they have agreed to release me from my contract and service.

We got 3 people in this house we all have 20-30 games on Steam and they all do massive [censored] updates so they are off too!

Edited by deleted (Fri 23-Jul-10 01:11:23)

Well I saw your first post and found it unacceptable, plus where it was quoted, bit too graphic for me,........... but that was before I spotted seb's post.

Oh well, cannot undo my actions now and in any event I think your point has been made.


Have to have a word with seb about why he is getting so tolerant in his old age. Acting as if he owns the place....hang on.....erm.....well.......oops.

I can't see your original post, but...

We have 50Mb Virgin Cable and records show we have downloaded just shy of 2 Terrabytes over the last year. That's about 160Gb a month, averaged out.

I have no idea if that's high usage or not, but we've had no complaints from Virgin about this. I think given the speed of the connection and the number of users we have using it, I don't think that figure is overly excessive. If anything, our outbound traffic is marginally greater than our inbound, by 200Gb (again, over the last year) which is a big red flag for them to spot heavy torrenting.

Maybe you're just on a POP that has less capacity, so you're not able to get away with as much as other VMC customers elsewhere in the country, which is why they are complaining.

Maybe.. But this annoys the hell out of me.

I have been told that I have to avoid the best I can from 9am to 9pm.. But for christ sakes I work nights which means the hours I am at home I can't enjoy the broadband I have and for £45 a month It's just not worth it!

It's like now I have steam games to download. Probably about 60GB worth but I am having to do this over night. Now due to things happening in the past I refuse to leave my PC running at night.

SO for me VM have ruined my total enjoyment and want of this service. So the usual people at the CE office are going to get a ear bending.

It's not possible for me to cause a problem and if I do based on about 30GB a day downloads then their network is really really poor and they should forget 100mbps as it will just cause more of a bum ache.

The icing on the cake was when the guy tried to make me believe that I was affecting a couple of 10Mbps users in the area.. He clearly thought I was dumb.. big mistake.

They just don't understand how their own multi million pound network works. They can't even tell me how much I have downloaded they just go off a monthly graph. Totally pathetic.

Edited by deleted (Sat 24-Jul-10 17:51:11)

Dude, no intention of targeting you directly here, but did you just say you do 30GB a day of downloads? Seriously? That's 100Gb shy of 1 Terra-byte of downloading a month. Like I said in my post, we've done 2 Terra-bytes in a year!

If that -is- what you are saying, you are going to be hard pressed to find ANY ISP in the country that is prepared to put up with that for your hard earned 45 pounds a month - that just can't work.

Unfortunately, I have to take this view point. Their 50Mb service (soon to be 100Mb or even 200Mb) is designed to give people the super fast download potential, but they only intended this potential to be used in short occasional bursts. Eg. if I want to download a 30Gb game from steam, at 200Mbs, I'll be able to do that in 20 minutes. That's convenient (rather than having to wait hours). What they don't expect me to do is to repeat that process 30 times a month!

This is the whole point of the 'speed' - it's not there for you to use like a 50Mps leased line, because it's a shared domestic service. I have no solution for your predicament except to follow their advice and cut back on when (and maybe how often) you are using the service like this. If they are very specific on the 9am to 9pm, you could look at putting a Linux router on your connection and set it up to throttle back your traffic within these hours - then you can still do stuff and not have to worry about turning your PC off. Though I am surprised Virgin can't do traffic management their side - it would make more sense over all.

To summarise, their network is not poor for the rate they are charging. It is poor for users who treat the service as a leased line, because it is not, which is why they are having to clobber you. I'm not having a go at you, I'm just suggesting you need to stop using it like it's a '£45 a month 50Mb leased line' - because it really isn't.

Fair comment.. Appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thank you

In reply to a post by mixt:

To summarise, their network is not poor for the rate they are charging. It is poor for users who treat the service as a leased line, because it is not, which is why they are having to clobber you. I'm not having a go at you, I'm just suggesting you need to stop using it like it's a '£45 a month 50Mb leased line' - because it really isn't.

That is the most reasonable and well thought out post I have ever seen on these forums!