Wildly fluctuating Broadband speed (1 Viewer)

A couple of months ago I changed from NTL ADSL to Virgin Wireless Broadband. The advertised speed was 8000kbps although of course most people seem only to be able to get around 2000kbps.
Following a series of tests using Dan Elwell's Broadband Test and Beltronica Speedometer I found that my download speeds varied from 250kbps to 1800kbps. On some tests my ping times were seriously poor and on occasions my packet loss was also seriously poor.
As some tests also showed acceptable ping times, no packet loss and download speeds of 1800kpbs I contacted Virgin Media who wanted me to ring their Technical Support line at £1 per minute or some other outrageous amount. I am in no doubt that this would be a complete waste of time and money.
I know that the Internet varies due to the time of day etc but I cannot accept that the difference in speeds I am getting is down to that. I was wondering whether anybody else also experiences such variance in their download speeds. Roger

Welcome to the world of broadband, the service you subscribe to is up to 8Mbps with the up to in very small print from some suppliers! Time of day is a major influence and it depends upon how your supplier supports their network, some sell em cheap and stack em high others are a little more caring. If your service is over the BT copper PSTN line then the rate which you get is determined by the sync rate between your modem and the local exchange after that there is an IP rate which is less than the sync rate, the IP rate is the maximum that your line will be able to support and for want of a better method its usually 500Kbps less tham your sync rate.
As for pings and packet loss where is this occuring if its between you and the edge of the BT network your ISP should send it to BT if its after that then its your ISPs responsibility, if its on the internet then its just traffic.
If your service is supplied and delivered over the Virgin network and they own the copper then its all down to them but the process is the same if the packet loss is in thier network probably not a lot you can do apart from move to another ISP.
Other test sites of repute are www.kbps.co.uk or the one on the adslguide website
Cheers

Thanks for that Duke. I think Virgin must come in the "sell em cheap and stock em high" category. On the other hand I pay £19.99 per month for which I also get free calls to all 01 and 02 numbers at any time of the day or night. My wife always runs up a phonebill of at least £15 per month so at around £5 per month for the Broadband I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.
I had a look at www.kpbs.co.uk and ran a test. As you will be aware they test two downloads and two uploads in quick succession so I was a bit baffled as to why my first download was 480kpbs and the second a much more respectable 1720kpbs.
I am stuck with Virgin now until next July but may see what else is on offer at that time. Roger

If you've changed to a wireless connection does that mean your PC is connecting wireless or via a cable?

Virgin/NTL use cable modem technology which is slightly more robust than the standard BT copper cable ADSL and you shouldn't be seeing packet loss to that level. But saying that I lose my NTL connection between 9:30 and 10:00 3 mornings out of 10.

If you're connecting wirelessly and no longer have a cable connected your PC to the cable modem that could be causing the packet loss and speed problems. You should have an icon near the clock that tells you the quality of the wireless connection. If you are using a wired connection it could be the modem.

Phone the normal Virgin customer services and complain about the costs of their phone support, ask to be escalated to a supervisor and you may get a friendly one who will do an internal transfer to the broadband support people.

If you're using the Virgin cable modem for your broadband, you are stuck with Virgin, nobody else can carry broadband over their network. But it's not a monopoly remember . If you want any other provider you need a BT line installing.

Malop said:

If you've changed to a wireless connection does that mean your PC is connecting wireless or via a cable?

Virgin/NTL use cable modem technology which is slightly more robust than the standard BT copper cable ADSL and you shouldn't be seeing packet loss to that level. But saying that I lose my NTL connection between 9:30 and 10:00 3 mornings out of 10.

If you're connecting wirelessly and no longer have a cable connected your PC to the cable modem that could be causing the packet loss and speed problems. You should have an icon near the clock that tells you the quality of the wireless connection. If you are using a wired connection it could be the modem.

Phone the normal Virgin customer services and complain about the costs of their phone support, ask to be escalated to a supervisor and you may get a friendly one who will do an internal transfer to the broadband support people.

If you're using the Virgin cable modem for your broadband, you are stuck with Virgin, nobody else can carry broadband over their network. But it's not a monopoly remember . If you want any other provider you need a BT line installing.

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Thanks for that. I am outside the Virgin cable network so my broadband is received through my BT telephone line. The Netgear wireless modem (or whatever it is called) is connected to the same telephone point by the same cable that I used to use when I had NTL ADSL.
What I find so strange, being a relative novice, is that sometimes when I use the excellent Dan Elwel's Broadband Test many times it shows I have no packet loss and excellent ping times but other times they are both so bad that they need investigating. The Dan Elwel test runs 38 different tests on servers all over the world and I have now paid £10 to register the software which means the results of my tets can be saved or exported.
I sent Virgin the result of a test but it seems to me that they must get a bonus for every caller that they can pursuade to phone their 099 number as they ignored it!!!.
Roger

Don't forget that ping latency and packet loss are to be expected if your running tests all over the world, BT will give your SP assurances of the quality of the network between you and the edge of BT, your SP will try to do the same across their network but when you leave via a peering point the losses you experience may be down to numerous problems none of which you could raise a fault against with your ISP, speedtesters are only any good when then either in or next to your network, the further they are away from the guaranteed part of the platform the less use they are, I doubt any UK ISP would be interested in packet loss outside their platform

Roger,
I too changed to Virgin to take advantage of their B/Band + telephone package. The reported speeds settled down from about 6Mbps initially to around 4.3 - 4.6 (dependant upon time of use I noticed). Recently (over the last 2 - 3 weeks) the speed has dropped to around 2.2 - 2.4 Mbps with noticeable effect on d/loads. u/loads and web-site loading via browser.
Contacting Virgin via e-mail brought the predictable response about time of day, BT wiring, line faults, interference, etc but they did suggest a speedtest via BT which (almost predictably) has not been usable because of "a problem". Virgin then ask you telephone an 0906 number where they will be able to check the results of the test and "if necessary escalate this to our Faults department". I am in a sort of B/Band limbo at the moment ... not a happy bunny but will try the suggested speedtests that Steve mentioned.

RoyCo said:

Roger,
I too changed to Virgin to take advantage of their B/Band + telephone package. The reported speeds settled down from about 6Mbps initially to around 4.3 - 4.6 (dependant upon time of use I noticed). Recently (over the last 2 - 3 weeks) the speed has dropped to around 2.2 - 2.4 Mbps with noticeable effect on d/loads. u/loads and web-site loading via browser.
Contacting Virgin via e-mail brought the predictable response about time of day, BT wiring, line faults, interference, etc but they did suggest a speedtest via BT which (almost predictably) has not been usable because of "a problem". Virgin then ask you telephone an 0906 number where they will be able to check the results of the test and "if necessary escalate this to our Faults department". I am in a sort of B/Band limbo at the moment ... not a happy bunny but will try the suggested speedtests that Steve mentioned.

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6Mbps, I should be so lucky!!!. I would be happy just to get 2.2-2.4 Mbps.
I can recommend Dan Elwell's speed test, I have used it for a couple of years and it is the only one that I have found that measures ping times and packet loss as well as download and upload speeds to a variety of world wide servers. It is free although it will not measure uploads unles you pay £10 for the full suite of facilities.
It can be found here http://www.broadbandspeedtest.net/
Roger