I'm on the 30Mb package - I upgraded from 10Mb last week - and I've noticed something similar. The best speed I've had for a single download from BBC's iPlayer is 19Mb. Don't ask me why but I prefer to download than stream... One of the happy things, though, is that I can download something at max speed while gaming and not have the dowload affect the game's performance.
Agreed, we're on 100mbit internet connection here at work, the only things that max out my connection here are Steam / AMD Website / Nvidia Website and RapidShare!
I see several have mentioned the shoddy customer service by phone and the Indian call centres. This is all sadly true, but there is a way around it. Go to their support forum. Get the 2nd line support guys to help you out. They will arrange call outs, line tests ect.. Never call VM unless you like wasting your time. [Edit] If anyone is receiving a truly awful service and is getting nowhere with VM, then feel free to PM me. I have the email address of the CEO for Virgin.
I've recently upgraded to the 30Mb service from 10Mb with virgin. And I couldn't be happier. I do get traffic shaped, but I need to download 10Gb during peak hrs them I'm limited to 10Mb for 5hrs then it resets back to 30Mb. Which is excellent. My upload speed is roughly 1.5Mb Bear in mind that Virgin are also upgrading their exchanges to increase upload speeds for all users. There is a rollout schedule here : http://shop.virginmedia.com/content/dam/allyours/pdf/uploadschedule2012.pdf And this is what you can expect your upload speed to be one enabled: http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/discover-broadband/broadband-speed/upload-speeds.html I have a friend on 50Mb and it's just him using it, he's considering downgrading as he says it's too much for 1 person. Only plus point over the 30Mb is there's no traffic shaping. Also regarding customer service, sometimes you will get put through to an offshore call centre which it a hit or miss sometimes. But you can also get a UK operator. Just depends on how busy they are. I've been with VM since they were telewest in my area (got the original 512Kbps service) and I think my broadband has went down twice in all the times i've had it.
Ahh that is very interesting as the exchange has already been updated! Think I need to spend some time on the Virgin website later tonight and follow all the links through as I bet im missing a lot of the techie information I would be interested in.
I know three people who are using/used the 50mb Virgin offer. All of them hated it. In their experience it was very unreliable. When it worked it was plenty fast. "when it worked" being the crucial phrase. Honestly, the fastest Sky or O2 packages are already fast enough. Unless you dl torrents 24/7 or use it for heavy duty stuff (say sharing your work when you are a graphic designer or multimedia editor). If you don't use torrents or set them to work from 1AM to 11AM the service will be fast enough for everything. I thought about the 50 mb package, but after visiting my friends a few times and listening to their anger over reliability of service and crap customer support I wouldn't use it even for free. I had very few problems with Sky (current ISP) and never had any with O2 (previous one).
contetion doesn't really apply anymore either, contetion affects the backhaul. virgins problem is their traffic shaping, fair usage policy.
Just got to say I think its real bad that Virgin never seem to reward their loyal customers and if you upgrade they wont give you any discount anywhere near close to what a new customer would get. For example I have to pay £26 a month for 10mb but new customers after their offer price is over will only have to pay some £20!
If you know someone who has VM already, they do an introduction scheme which gives you both £30 off your next bill (or, it was when we did it). VM are pretty cheeky with this though and we had to chase them up on it to make sure they actually gave us the money off.
I very much doubt that the cable service was at fault here. My experience of the 50Mb service has been flawless. However, The experience of the wireless router that was supplied with the cable modem was not. It was a flakey as hell, frequently requiring reboots to get a frozen network running again. My advice - get 50Mb, chuck the DLink POS router and get a decent one. I did (A swanky ASUS one), and haven't looked back.
no sky have LLU packages and on the whole ive heard good things although heard some pretty bad stuff too. i know you are tied to the router as your broaband is linked to the routers mac address and if you clone it you break thier T&Cs and they can terminate your broadband and you still have to keep paying until your contract ends. thier router is also the biggest pile of poo and ive seen them freeze for no reason.
Wow seriously? That's pretty lame to say the least. I'd seriously kick off if Virgin ever tried to dictate to me what network hardware I should use in my house.
You could try the 30mb, it's the same cost as 20mb, just a one time charge for the new router (12month contract) and if thats not enough you can still upgrade to 50mb. Also wait for TiVo for the TV (new customers have to wait till April) http://tivo.virginmedia.com/
Interesting article on The Register yesterday that is relevant: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/22/virgin_media_superhub_fail/. The comments section is enlightening.
It's mainly people trying to use wireless N with a 54g adapter getting slow speeds. This laptop I'm on right now... in fact hold on. 3 tests each for fairness Clearly an issue with people using the wrong adapter/equiptment. "My Ferrari doesn't go past 50MPH" "Sir you have no tires on it"
Its a little concerning that you can't use the current hardware as a modem, I will be looking at running a top end router of my own choosing not some generic no-options entry Netgear. Virgin does seem to be awfully confusing at the moment.
You don't have to use the router they give you, in fact many people don't. Even if you tell them you won't use the router, they give you it anyway. Where do all those go? Ebay lol.
