Bad D/load speeds - legality

[grimswold]

For a while now I have had appalling download speeds - I'm on 20mb and get 250kbs if I'm lucky. The last straw was I left it to download a 7GB file overnight and it downloaded 800mb in 6hrs!!
What exactly is the legal position with all this? How can they charge for a service they are miles away from providing?

I dont appear to be the only one!!

[bu5ter]

was it a normal http download or something like a torrent. If it was a torrent or other P2P app then alot of service providers cap this using traffic shaping so it doesnt hammer their network.

What provider are you with?

[grimswold]

This is with Virgin Broadband 20mb - it wasn't p2p I was using a download program, but it is slow even with a normal dload. I hadn't d/loaded anything earlier to deserve being throttled either.

[bu5ter]

Your best of calling them and seeing which speed tests they recommend

[Batch]

Dedinatley speak with them, i'm on their 4mb package and regularly achieve 400 - 500kbps

[Decadent Fool]

Do you use Zonealarm?

[stuntrider]

Hi Decadent, does using zonalarm make a difference then? Back to the origanal op, I would also be interested in the legality of Virgins 'service'. They promised us 'unlimited downloads and fast speeds', clearly none of us are recieving this. As far as I am concerned the product is no longer 'fit for the purpose' I purchased it for and I therefore consider that they have broken thier contract with me so I should be free to bin them with no penalty. Comments?

[Decadent Fool]

It did for me

I have used ZA for years, I really can't remember how many (6+?) and swore by it.

I recently upgraded my pipe to 10mb, in addition to a few upgrades to the pc, and was getting a real hit and miss connection. I blamed everything but ZA, looked at all the new hardware I'd put it, through 3 reinstallations of XP, including getting close to a new mobo as I suspected the sata bus was knackered. VIA drivers, BIOS settings, the whole kit and caboodle. It turned out to be ZA, and I was furking WILD, as much with myself as with ZA.

The waters had been muddied that my laptop runs ZA as well, but on Vista, which was the big difference. Read my thread here:

Internet connection intermittent - but connection fine; what's wrong?

Needless to say, I now use Comodo

[mannyo]

Perhaps the server you were downloading from was overloaded or having its own issues.

Another thing to consider, especially if you are connecting via a router. Is the router upto the job. Some routers, even though they have a 10/100 WAN port do not have the processing capacity to get 20meg from the Wan to Lan/wireless ports and cause slowdowns.

[graham.myers]

I've just 'upgraded' from 4mb to 20mb.

according to speedtest.net prior to the upgrade I was getting 3.9mb - not bad for a 4mb link. On the new superfast 20mb I get 8.1mb

I use gigabit ethernet on cat6 to a gigabit router which plugs into a 200mb homeplug > 200mb home plug > 100mb router > modem

Conveluted I know but it works for streaming hd to my xbox360 plugged into the 100mb router from the pc so I know I dont have an internal issue. I think from memory I was getting 108mb across the powerlines according to ethereal or such like. The gigabit upstairs is because I have a gigbit lan to a NAS

[Decadent Fool]

Two words:

'Cor' and 'blimey' Convoluted indeed! Anyway of getting the pc direct into the cable modem to check? It is cable I take it, not adsl?

[graham.myers]

Like I say its on an internal LAN issue as I can push 108mb around the house.

I have a gigabit network upstairs which servers 2 pcs and a NAS. I then use the homeplugs as a bacbone down to the ground floor where the media room is (xbox ps3 xbox360 wii etc) where the dsl line enters the building and the cable modem is.

works for me.