Throttling now a reality

for all the ppl that complain about most ppl using thier bandwidth for illegal downloading i would suggest you and virgin look at sites like this... http://eu.plaync.com/eu/games/buynow/#lineage_ii and the thing is theres more and more sites popping up like this and i think they will account for up 50% of pc game sales in the not to distant future and with the ever incresing files sizes (last game bought 7GIG !!) many ppl will soon have no option but to look eles where for the BB.

I really do think virgin have shot them selfs in the foot with this one... they lost 49000 customers in past 3 months.... so some in the the virgin media office says how do we get out customers back??? and then the office idiot says 'what about throttling bandwidth' amazing! maybe some one with better grammor should write a letter to branson him self becuase iam sure iof he knew what ppl where doing to this company changes would be made b4 its too late!

only time will tell but for the time being well done virgin! great marketing.
 
Although i don't agree with throttling or Qos for certain ports as some of the other ISP's do, just because you get a 20mb/sec connection by no way means you are actually going to receive that from different servers. You maybe lucky and get that from certain servers but speaking from a position where we run server farms that distribute content, we rate limit per connection, nevermind that the 20Mbps actually also relies on the path you take to the server and how loaded those connections are. Most servers that are co-located are sold on a 10-20Mbps connect, with burstable up to 100Mbps.

An OC12 is about 622Mbps, im sure not many providers actually have tons of these laying around and evening if they did it doesn't mean the server you are pulling it from us is gonna actually respond at that speed if there are a few other leeches doing the same. Think about what your upstream is, why do you think it is so low. The reality is that 20Mbps is optimal and your gonna be really lucky to get that kinda speed on a regular basis.

If your getting 2Mbps and low latency that is plenty to survive on.
 
Although i don't agree with throttling or Qos for certain ports as some of the other ISP's do, just because you get a 20mb/sec connection by no way means you are actually going to receive that from different servers. You maybe lucky and get that from certain servers but speaking from a position where we run server farms that distribute content, we rate limit per connection, nevermind that the 20Mbps actually also relies on the path you take to the server and how loaded those connections are. Most servers that are co-located are sold on a 10-20Mbps connect, with burstable up to 100Mbps.

An OC12 is about 622Mbps, im sure not many providers actually have tons of these laying around and evening if they did it doesn't mean the server you are pulling it from us is gonna actually respond at that speed if there are a few other leeches doing the same. Think about what your upstream is, why do you think it is so low. The reality is that 20Mbps is optimal and your gonna be really lucky to get that kinda speed on a regular basis.

If your getting 2Mbps and low latency that is plenty to survive on.

have to disagree with you there m8 i pretty much get my full 10mb connection pretty much no matter where i download from, u just have to look for good servers but my download speed very rearly drops below 1000kbs.
 
Hi All

I'm not happy with the throttling but ill work to live with it, What I don't understand is, the fact its supposed to be between 4pm and midnight, That's not the case for me im seeing it most of the time, 2 weeks ago I was downloading at 1000-1200 kb's now I get 300kbs most of the time.:mad: woke this morning downloading heroes, (is this illegal by the way, its only recorded for the tv by someone in the states):thumbsup: getting 300 kbs still.:thumbsdow :thumbsdow :thumbsdow should it go back up to full speed, if I am in the 5%, this should only effect me in the times above. is that right.
 
I can see exactly where this is all leading...

Since throttling will be in effect during 4pm - 12am, as soon as the throttling period is over, users will be maxing out their connections with downloads and what not, meaning the network will become very congested, which in turn means a lower bandwidth for everyone affected... this is just the same as the throttling period, probably worse.

And all the while, we'll be paying £37 a month for a service which is technically worth no more than £25

I'll wait and see whether my assumptions are correct before making a choice of migrating.
 
welcome to virgin media where you can download at upto twice the speed of dialup !!!!

well thats what i get 24/7 at the minute on a 4 meg line

91kb/s :mad:
 
I am on the VIP package and so should be experiencing anything up to 10mb. So why am I only experiencing 130 - 180 Kb/sec download speeds?? (using numerous test sites - mostly blueyonder games)

This is really pissing me off!!! I have never experienced more than 650 Kb/sec which is around half my maximum set download speed; but 180 Kb/sec is taking the **** big style!!!

I can not even count the number of times I have been on the phone. It ranges from speaking to a foreign helper who is definitely just reading from a sheet of paper to someone who knows what they are doing. Every time I either get some bull about tech problems or have to go through the usual tests in DOS (pinging etc etc).

Every time I call, they never manage to solve the problem. I can live with 650 Kb/sec but anything else is a **** take - imo.

One time I called they told me they had done everything they could and suggested I rebuild my PC and phone them back - I couldn't believe it.

Anyway, I have given up as I am paying £70 for the VIP package (with caller ID) which is really not that bad (ok it is a v good price) but it still gets me how they sneakily advertise their BB speeds.

Rant over now - feel a bit better!
 
ignore my last post - all is well - now experiencing 1.2 Mb/sec download.

at last!!!! I fell free!!
 
ignore my last post - all is well - now experiencing 1.2 Mb/sec download.

at last!!!! I fell free!!

What changed?Did you solve it or change something or did VM do something their end?
 
welcome to virgin media where you can download at upto twice the speed of dialup !!!!

well thats what i get 24/7 at the minute on a 4 meg line

91kb/s :mad:


that's True for me
I'm on 10mb
my top speeds for the last 2hours is between 56kb/s and 2.3kb/s:eek:


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welcome to virgin media where you can download at upto twice the speed of dialup !!!!
 

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What changed?Did you solve it or change something or did VM do something their end?

It was all down to my router. However, when I was phoning VM in the past I was always directly connected. I thought I would give it one more chance and reboot the modem and use a direct connection (ethernet). Anyway, that is when I started getting 10mb connection. I am back to 5mb on wireless. I think I will buy a new router.
 
came home yesterday about 6pm, noticed my internet was much slower than usual, did many speed test from various sites, and a few small downloads from some servers to see what speeds i could get, maximum i got out of my line is 2meg, half of my normal speed, and it remained this was till midnight, when it magically went back to 4meg. I hadn't download anything all day, was at work. Hadn't played on live, and the router was switched off, so no one could have tapped into my connection during the day.

Time to ring Virgin to see why i was throttled.
 
Interesting article on El Reg this morning:

El Reg said:
Virgin Media still claiming no usage limits.

Transparency? They've heard of it


Virgin Media's website still says the firm has "no plans to introduce any usage limits", despite the nationwide rollout of bandwidth throttling at the beginning of May.

Virgin now limits speeds between 4pm and midnight once users reach a MB limit, which is dependent on how much they pay per month.

However, in the firm's FAQ, posted when NTL rebranded last, it says there were no plans to introduce such limits, even though it was already trialling the technology.

The oversight is an embarrassment for Virgin Media, which is struggling against Sky, while trying to turn around years of bad customer service in its NTL incarnation. Part of the play has been to be transparent about usage policies and generally communicate better with punters, so the garbled information is doubly off-message.

virgin_limits.png


Virgin doesn't apply monthly download limits, and has criticised others for doing so while claiming "unlimited" service. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/22/virginmedia_claims_no_usage_limits/
 
Isnt what they are saying illegal then?

I think so, but I'm not a legal expert. :lesson:

However, the facts are as follows....

  • Virgin say there are no download limits.
  • Virgin limit your connection if you download more than X/Y/Z Mb/Gb after 4pm.

Either way, that's a limit in my book as you can't download as much as you could before they throttled it.

If you are on a 4Mb service then you could theoretically download about 40Gb per day (rough figure), yet if Virgin throttle you to 2Mb then you total download ability has been limited.

In my eyes it's fairly clear that what they are doing is illegal, but as I said I'm no legal expert.
 
Isnt what they are saying illegal then?

I should coco,

I havnt paid much attention to my download speeds as I have 10mb, but that doesnt meen owt when you're downloading a torrent with very few seeders. it can vary from 20kbps to 800, sometimes even over a thoudand, but not often.

I shall check my connection speed when I get home mind you.

and where is my 20mb connection!?

and just spoke to Virgin (well, virgin UK, Indian call centre, asked to be put back to thr UK, a billing department and then the tech help!) and they say the throttling is only used on the top 5% of customers who are downloading massive amounts of data, so I suppose it is the 5% who are actually getting 20mps (or 10mbps) transfer rates...
 
What VM are doing is not illegal all they have done now is state what there Fair Usage policy is and I don't see what big deal is mostly all ISP do the same over peak times they just don't state it.
 
What VM are doing is not illegal all they have done now is state what there Fair Usage policy is and I don't see what big deal is mostly all ISP do the same over peak times they just don't state it.

Except Virgin make a big song and dance about the supposed lack of transparency that other ISPs have with their policies....
 
What VM are doing is not illegal all they have done now is state what there Fair Usage policy is and I don't see what big deal is mostly all ISP do the same over peak times they just don't state it.

BE do not throttle anyone.
 
What VM are doing is not illegal all they have done now is state what there Fair Usage policy is and I don't see what big deal is mostly all ISP do the same over peak times they just don't state it.

IMHO, the main problem here is that no reasonable person could define "unfair use" (i.e. the sort of over-use that requires capping or throttling) as using your internet service at the speed for which you are paying for more than 20 minutes in one evening. And that's what Virgin are saying to their 20MB customers.

Andre
 
Ok i hadn't noticed this until recently, in past week my internet performance has dropped rapidly I will admit I download torrents but usually only the morning/afternoon when i get up i leave the nights before tv shows downloading heroes etc. . . in evening only things going on are gaming, general internet browsing. but I'am now seeing IE taking time to load pages that usually instantly appear and today first demo I have downloaded in weeks of 360 marketplace is at 66% after near 2 hours!! and I'am on 4MB.

dif something going on here, but really what can I do?
 
what gets me is that ever since i went to 10mb (and i guess 1mb, 4mb before that) i have had good service from TW BB and i don't remember there being as many complaints about the speed as there are now.
virgin have just gone and messed it all up IMO and i have no problem going elsewhere, even if its just to stop Virgin getting my money for a service they cant/wont provide (and im talking the whole TV/BB package here)
Im not talking about the throttling although i will expect a reduction in cost if i get a reduction in speed but the whole Virgin media thing seems not to be working. the boxes need constant rebooting, Sky movies are difficult to watch when the PIN system decides not to work, a lot of people here seem to have had their once reliable BB speed fluctuate much too often and Virgin seem to just be after more customers rather than sorting out the ones they have. Its all very well giving a slight reduction in monthly payments but im sure we would all rather pay the full price for a full, working service.

Thursday rant over.:suicide:
 
Except Virgin make a big song and dance about the supposed lack of transparency that other ISPs have with their policies....

Well VM are stating plain and simple what you do to get throttled or capped most other ISP will have different people say different thing's so you never really know what you can do to stop it.

BE do not throttle anyone.

You are correct they don't but BE don't have as many customers you get random speeds not set you will get 20mb and they do have fair usage policy which try downloading a lot of stuff 300gb+ month using like torrents and you will get a warning.

what gets me is that ever since i went to 10mb (and i guess 1mb, 4mb before that) i have had good service from TW BB and i don't remember there being as many complaints about the speed as there are now.
virgin have just gone and messed it all up IMO and i have no problem going elsewhere, even if its just to stop Virgin getting my money for a service they cant/wont provide (and im talking the whole TV/BB package here)
Im not talking about the throttling although i will expect a reduction in cost if i get a reduction in speed but the whole Virgin media thing seems not to be working. the boxes need constant rebooting, Sky movies are difficult to watch when the PIN system decides not to work, a lot of people here seem to have had their once reliable BB speed fluctuate much too often and Virgin seem to just be after more customers rather than sorting out the ones they have. Its all very well giving a slight reduction in monthly payments but im sure we would all rather pay the full price for a full, working service.

Thursday rant over.:suicide:

Problem is VM has to many people and there old equipment couldn't handle all them customers also the whole unlimited will always draw the big time down loaders that abuse the system this is what is killing it those people always downloading 24/7
 
im on 4mb bb, what should i be downloading at if im being throttled? IE been running really slowly so i decided to check internet speed by downloading something off the microsoft website; 39 kb/s!!:eek: :mad: nromally i get about 400 kb/s ish
 

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