Virgins 10MB broadband speed.

TrishUK

Do they ever reach 10MB? I've heard people complain about signing up to Virgin for 10MB speed and only getting 3 or even 2MB.

macman

That's usually the result of them being throttled in peak hours rather than the connection being permanently slow. The 10Mbps service is heavily controlled in that respect.

Rufus_348

In practice you'll rarely achieve bang on the headline speed from Virgin or any other provider.

There are so many factors at play - from congestion at peak times, as Macman says, to your distance from the exchange etc etc - that 10Mb is an ideal. Providers should give you a more accurate estimate when you sign up.

kwikbreaks

Rufus_348 wrote: »

your distance from the exchange

VM's 10Mb service is cable so there isn't even an exchange involved.

I'd like to hear from somebody actually on the service as BT's lamentable failure to fix my phone line fault may eventually force me over to cable despite the additional cost.

Nilrem

In my experience with VM you can get very close (or even over) the headline speed at times, however there are so many factors involved that you can never tell.

For example if you're in an area where VM are over subscribed you'll probably find the service is congested which will stop you getting the best speeds (although VM seen to be getting better at trying to sort it out when it crops up*), the bigger problem seems to be people expecting to get the headline speed all the time, not spotting that it can/will be dropped to about 2.5mb for several hours if you use download too much during the day.

Other problems that affect any ISP are things like your speed to any service is totally dependant on the route used, and the service itself - I've done speed tests on 10-15 different servers/test sites in the space of half an hour in the past, and had results varying from 2mb, to 19mb
Not to mention some sites deliberately limit the amount of bandwidth they allow per connected user/connection (so for example on some sites I might be able to download at a max of 5mb, but if i start a second download from the site that might also work at 5mb at the same time, giving me 10mb total from the site).

Possibly the biggest advantages of cable in my opinion are
1: You're only ever dealing with one company, no getting passed from ISP to BT to ISP, to BT as they argue over whose equipment is at fault.
2: You should always connect to VM's own network at the headline speed - if you're on 10mb you'll always connect to VM at 10mb regardless of where you are (although VM can/will apply their traffic management if you fall foul of it).
3: It tends to be very reliable due to much of it (especially the bits connecting your house to the service) being fairly new and designed with high speed access in mind

*The problem is, that when it becomes a problem it's quite expensive for them to fix, and can take a long time to go from "problem" to "fixed" (they may have to do other work, and the parts aren't exactly something you can pick up down the shops;)).

Lokolo

Last year I had 20mb with VM and always got 20mb apart from when housemates decided to torrent the crap out of our connection, it was then throttled for a good few hours.

However, at home we have 20mb and get around 10-15mb. We have spoken to VM and it is due to the number of connections in the area, but they are going to resolve this in time (or so they say!).

For advertised -> actual rates, I would trust VM a lot more than Sky, Orange and BT. I believe O2 are quite good though.

spike7451

It's mainly dependent on a few key factors;
1-the number of TV services in your home
2-distance from street cabinet to home
3-size of drop cable running from street cab to home
4-tap & port connected to in the street cab
5-signal level strengt at various points
6-return path level
7-attenuation &/or equalisation of signal strength
8-type of cable modem
9-number of people using the broadband at any one time
10-type of street cabinet (boosted DP or unboosted E)

Any combination of the above can affect your speed to varying degrees.

hth,
Spike (ex NTL/VM Service Engineer)

Lokolo

spike7451 wrote: »

It's mainly dependent on a few key factors;
1-the number of TV services in your home
2-distance from street cabinet to home
3-size of drop cable running from street cab to home
4-tap & port connected to in the street cab
5-signal level strengt at various points
6-return path level
7-attenuation &/or equalisation of signal strength
8-type of cable modem
9-number of people using the broadband at any one time
10-type of street cabinet (boosted DP or unboosted E)

Any combination of the above can affect your speed to varying degrees.

hth,
Spike (ex NTL/VM Service Engineer)

Could you expand on that one?

(More tv = less interest or vice versa)

kwikbreaks

Yeah - I'd like some brain dump too...
For instance you mention distance to VM street cab - I know I'm about 100 meters from one (easy to spot as the local layabouts kicked the door off and it's been held on with yellow tape for years) - is that near or far? I'm guessing near.

I'd assumed that it was all ethernet from the cabinets but from your post I'm guessing that's not so.

spud17

A tad slow tonight, but generally 9.7/9.8. currently pay £9/mth BB only.

hansi

http://www.speedtest.net/result/783014490.png

I get this speed consistently