I suspect some might find my first post somewhat contentious.
When VM advertise what they sold me as UNLIMITED and that I can use as much as I want then that is what I will attempt to use.
If on the other hand they advertised my service as no worse than for example a 1/20th share of a certain amount of bandwidth with no caps then that is what I would expect to get.
My expectations are in line with their advertising.
I understand their need for contention ratios as they should understand that certain users that use a lot when grouped with those that don't will also result in everyone being relatively happy.
The general consensus seems to be that only those people using torrents etc are creating an issue for others and that what they do is illegal.
I have in the past used 10+ TB a month without going anywhere near a torrent site and would be quite happy for any inspection of my group of computers that are connected ..... There are no illegal downloads here. I just use my connection differently than most and have more computers connected than most...It is possible to do this in a wholly legal way.
In using as above I let VM cap the download rate through the day which was fine with me and made little difference due to the poor 5Mb upload rate not supporting the download rate.
The upload cap in the evenings was a different matter and needed intervention on my part to prevent hitting their limit
There seems to have been a downloadcentric speed race rather than a provision of infrastructure to match the claims VM make.
If only they too could say that the poor performance of their network only effected the 2.5% of their customers that they claim are effected by and were in receipt of their unreasonable use letters. Does this then make theirs an unreasonable network?
I have been reading their new caps and timings and restrictions page
http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.contr... and it will not make a lot of difference. Any user can still hit their limits in around half an hour of use at the advertised rate sold to them by VM so their claim of "As much as you like when you like" seems also to be a falsehood. although they are trialling something newer still it seems.
Lastly, When I undertake internet use as described above I can get most of it done in around 12 or so hours if I actually got what was originally advertised in the way of connection speed. This would mean that I could undertake most of the "work" overnight. The fact that I am lucky to achieve 50% of the advertised rate except for the period 2am to 8am, due seemingly to contention issues, means that the work has to continue into the day thus effecting the use of others. So, my fault or theirs in a scenario like this?