Can some one just confirm whethre the statement offered by VM is correct..that if I have a 20meg line the best I can hope for is a 2 meg download? (i.e. 10%). I use numerous speed testers and average 1.6mbp/s download (700-800 kbp/s upload). Whilst they kindly upgraded my BB from 4 to 20 meg after a HUGE on-going blunder, my perception of download is it hasn't really changed (I know about contention, target download servers being 'throttled' etc).

10% ...hum, please advise. Thank you

If you have a 20Mb product and only get 1.6 Mb then there must be something wrong. How far away do you live from your telephone exchange (this should not be an issue anyway)?

Or do you mean upload speed?

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

Thanks for the reply

Upload is around 700-800 kbps with download around 1.6 mbps. I phoned the 25p 'help' line at VM who confirmed the

10% 'rule of thumb' - they also 'ran' some tests and confirmed my line was fine.

My nearest exchange is no more than 5 miles.

Aaprt from using speed tests, which seem to vary substantially, is there a site with excellent bandwidth where I can dowlnload a file and observe the transfer rate?

 

download.com

Hang on your exchange is 5 miles away? Well that probably explains it then, if you want me to check tell me your postcode and I can confirm approx speed from your location for you.

Cheers

Jason

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

Jason  - my postcode is GU12 5HS - i didn't think 5 miles was at all bad - it's in Aldershot, apparently, according to the web site i just visited. I'm now wondering if I got that right !

Hi Molmeister

You live 2.64km from your nearest telephone exchange - I've checked and confirmed you can get cable from there. If you have signed up to 20Mb speeds from Virgin Media then based on distance from exchange you should get at least 10Mb if not more.

I have no idea what they mean by 10% - in fact cable broadband deteriorates less due to distance from the exchange than copper wiring - I suspect they haven't upgraded you to 20Mb at all and that you're probably still getting 4Mb.

Go back to VM and tell them that they should be providing a much faster speed for 20Mb. Ask them to upgrade to 20MB or get the cable line checked out.

Let me know how you get on?

Cheers

Jason

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

Will do  - thank you (and test donkey), for taking the time to reply. I'm off to call their 25p (un) help (ful) line.

OK - maybe it' me ! VM confirmed the line is 20meg, and having checked with Download and MySpeed PC it appears to be correct (give or take a few meg). However, downloading is still pitiful - examples;

Kaspersky AV - download of trial AV very late last night - 178 kbp/s

Google, this morning - 11 0'clock - 30 seconds to download the front page and 20 seconds to reach the log on....

Maybe the moral of the story is, irrespective of how big your pipe is, if the world's not caught up or doesn't want to play ball, you're limited to what's out there! Therefore is it worth paying for large amounts of bandwidth if 'suppliers' of sites are limiting download speeds?

 

 

Hi Molmesiter

Your problem sounds like it could be:

i) the cable modem you're using

ii) the security software your using - firewalls often drastically slow a connection in order to make sure it can check all data coming into your pc.

iii) internal wiring - doubtful but possible

iv) line interference - again doubtful but you could get VM to check this for you.

I suspect it's the modem or your security settings.

Cheers

jason

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

Jason - Again, many thanks, I will get to the bottom of it.......albeit this might take some time!

1) Standard modem supplied by NTL (pre VM), so I can put a tentative line through that although will check.

2) I've been gonig through a large excercise on AV software and downloaded many trial products and as speed is poor across the board I'll put a line through that

3) I agree with you - doubtful, but possible

4) Line interference......back on to VM !!

 

Thanks again, I appreciate your v/busy.

Don't worry mate

 Virginmedia ADSL is just crap.

I live 1.5km from the exchange and my line syncs at 5.5Mbps but i'm lucky to get 0.4Mbps actual rate.

And during peak hours the rates are barely faster than dial up, Virginmedia are defo up to something.  I can barely surf the net at times.  Its just a crap service and nothing can be done about it as Virginmedia will never improve it. They just blame it on the high contention ratios they have.