Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

The VM broadband feed - no matter others may say - is probably the best
and most reliable on the market. It certainly meets or is very close to
quoted speed at almost all times - which it is guaranteed you will not
get with ADSL. (To confirm that try www.speedtest.net at different times
of day - you'll be within 100K or so of 4Mb every time.) It does depend
where you live, but if the feed is solid (as mine is - two outages of
more than 10 mins in five years) then stay with it. VM are proposing to
update most customers to at least 10Mb within the next year or so.



Totally agree with that. We have VM at home and use ADSL via various
providers at a number of other locations. Most all are poorer in
caparison especially on longer phone lines.

Only one gets anywhere near the -fabled- 8 Meg rate and even then its
rarely that!.

As to customer service which pile of dog-doo do you want to step into
today?..

Nb: why is it that Telco's both fixed and mobile have the poorest
customer service among all the other utilities .. Well excepting EDF
energy;!...
--
Tony Sayer

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

naza wrote:

Uh ?

With VM's 4 meg service I was normally down to 500kbps at peak times.

With an '8 meg' service from Idnet over a BT line I rarely see less than 5
Mbps even at peak times and see peak speeds of 7 Mbps.

Both figures from the speedtester at thinkbroadband.com and Bbmax

You're talking complete and total nonsense about VM's alleged 'great'
broadband. It's actually total ****e.

I notice that you get quite bad service from VM. But looking at all
the post's that are made by VM customers at the moment it seems that
Virgin Broadband is as good as ADSL.

More nonsense. They have hopelessly inadequate capacity (bandwidth). In other
words, they've oversold the service.


The chance of you getting a good speed depends on where you live, like ADSL
depends on the length and quality of your line.

Apparently the 'average' speed on ADSL is over 5 Mbps. Hardly bad and with
ADSL2+ it'll be faster. With VDSL (in the pipeline), the twisted pair can
deliver download speeds as high as 50 Mbps.


Put simply if you live in an area where VM have
got a good setup with sufficient backhaul then you will be fine and
enjoy a more relieable and faster connection the possibly on ADSL.

Where do they have sufficient backhaul ? Clearly not where I live.


But if you unlucky then you will suffer like mad with them. There are
somepeople who get the full 20meg all the time on VM's broadband, and
yes I have seen it and used it wheras there are others like you who
dont.
You wont find out what speed you will get with VM until you join them,
just like ADSL.

ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's rubbish.

Graham

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

In article , Eeyore rabbitsfriendsandrel
scribeth thus


naza wrote:

Uh ?

With VM's 4 meg service I was normally down to 500kbps at peak times.

With an '8 meg' service from Idnet over a BT line I rarely see less than 5
Mbps even at peak times and see peak speeds of 7 Mbps.

Both figures from the speedtester at thinkbroadband.com and Bbmax

You're talking complete and total nonsense about VM's alleged 'great'
broadband. It's actually total ****e.

I notice that you get quite bad service from VM. But looking at all
the post's that are made by VM customers at the moment it seems that
Virgin Broadband is as good as ADSL.

More nonsense. They have hopelessly inadequate capacity (bandwidth). In other
words, they've oversold the service.


The chance of you getting a good speed depends on where you live, like ADSL
depends on the length and quality of your line.

Apparently the 'average' speed on ADSL is over 5 Mbps. Hardly bad and with
ADSL2+ it'll be faster. With VDSL (in the pipeline), the twisted pair can
deliver download speeds as high as 50 Mbps.

Yep?.. Any idea when?..or is that a -pipe- dream;?..


Put simply if you live in an area where VM have
got a good setup with sufficient backhaul then you will be fine and
enjoy a more relieable and faster connection the possibly on ADSL.

Where do they have sufficient backhaul ? Clearly not where I live.

Neither does BT in a lot of rural areas..


But if you unlucky then you will suffer like mad with them. There are
somepeople who get the full 20meg all the time on VM's broadband, and
yes I have seen it and used it wheras there are others like you who
dont.
You wont find out what speed you will get with VM until you join them,
just like ADSL.

ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's rubbish.

Graham


I really think you have a very biased and blinkered view. I know of
several people in locations off the VM network who would pay more than
what they do for ADSL from any provider as after all with very rare
exception it all runs over BT wires;!.

Course some of the VM network was built better then others but some of
the BT network wasn't all that clever either!...

We have a location in Cambridge .. yes the hi-tech hub of England that
struggles to get much more then 1 to 1.75 meg on a 5:1 contention
service!...
--
Tony Sayer

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

tony sayer wrote:
In article , Eeyore rabbitsfriendsandrel
scribeth thus

naza wrote:

Uh ?

With VM's 4 meg service I was normally down to 500kbps at peak times.

With an '8 meg' service from Idnet over a BT line I rarely see less than 5
Mbps even at peak times and see peak speeds of 7 Mbps.

Both figures from the speedtester at thinkbroadband.com and Bbmax

You're talking complete and total nonsense about VM's alleged 'great'
broadband. It's actually total ****e.
I notice that you get quite bad service from VM. But looking at all
the post's that are made by VM customers at the moment it seems that
Virgin Broadband is as good as ADSL.
More nonsense. They have hopelessly inadequate capacity (bandwidth). In other
words, they've oversold the service.


The chance of you getting a good speed depends on where you live, like ADSL
depends on the length and quality of your line.
Apparently the 'average' speed on ADSL is over 5 Mbps. Hardly bad and with
ADSL2+ it'll be faster. With VDSL (in the pipeline), the twisted pair can
deliver download speeds as high as 50 Mbps.

Yep?.. Any idea when?..or is that a -pipe- dream;?..

Put simply if you live in an area where VM have
got a good setup with sufficient backhaul then you will be fine and
enjoy a more relieable and faster connection the possibly on ADSL.
Where do they have sufficient backhaul ? Clearly not where I live.

Neither does BT in a lot of rural areas..

But if you unlucky then you will suffer like mad with them. There are
somepeople who get the full 20meg all the time on VM's broadband, and
yes I have seen it and used it wheras there are others like you who
dont.
You wont find out what speed you will get with VM until you join them,
just like ADSL.
ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's rubbish.

Graham


I really think you have a very biased and blinkered view. I know of
several people in locations off the VM network who would pay more than
what they do for ADSL from any provider as after all with very rare
exception it all runs over BT wires;!.

Course some of the VM network was built better then others but some of
the BT network wasn't all that clever either!...

We have a location in Cambridge .. yes the hi-tech hub of England that
struggles to get much more then 1 to 1.75 meg on a 5:1 contention
service!...

Better move here. I get 3 megs easily out here in the sticks..

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

On 30 Dec, 12:04, Eeyore
wrote:
naza wrote:
Uh ?

With VM's 4 meg service I was normally down to 500kbps at peak times.

With an '8 meg' service from Idnet over a BT line I rarely see less than 5
Mbps even at peak times and see peak speeds of 7 Mbps.

Both figures from the speedtester at thinkbroadband.com and Bbmax

You're talking complete and total nonsense about VM's alleged 'great'
broadband. It's actually total ****e.

I notice that you get quite bad service from VM. But looking at all
the post's that are made by VM customers at the moment it seems that
Virgin Broadband is as good as ADSL.

More nonsense. They have hopelessly inadequate capacity (bandwidth). In other
words, they've oversold the service.

The chance of you getting a good speed depends on where you live, like ADSL
depends on the length and quality of your line.

Apparently the 'average' speed on ADSL is over 5 Mbps. Hardly bad and with
ADSL2+ it'll be faster. With VDSL (in the pipeline), the twisted pair can
deliver download speeds as high as 50 Mbps.

Put simply if you live in an area where VM have
got a good setup with sufficient backhaul then you will be fine and
enjoy a more relieable and faster connection the possibly on ADSL.

Where do they have sufficient backhaul ? Clearly not where I live.
Clearly not, but VM is a business, if you live outside of a city then
they will probally not have invested much into the network whereas in
built up areas it would make business sense as they stood to make a
lot of money, just in the same way BT invest very little into people
whi live in the countryside. You can see how ADSL & cable are
similar.


But if you unlucky then you will suffer like mad with them. There are
somepeople who get the full 20meg all the time on VM's broadband, and
yes I have seen it and used it wheras there are others like you who
dont.
You wont find out what speed you will get with VM until you join them,
just like ADSL.

ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's rubbish.

Not really. When joining a cable service if you were to ask a few
people in you area what speeds that were getting that would give you
quite a good indication of what speed you would get, becuase there is
little chance that the wiring is a problem or the fibre optic cable.
But I suppose you cant get to much information about VM speeds before
hand on the internet as much as you can ADSL but ADSL is no more
predictable. An example being my own line, people around me get from
4-6mbps and when I joined with my ISP if got this sort of figure, BT
wholesale also supported this claim and Samknows and these other
information sites just get thier info from there. When it came to
connecting the line, which previously never had any broadband service
they found a problem of some sort and cancelled the order, they never
told me what the problem was, The order was resubmitted and went
through. I got a lower speed and BT wholesale's broadband check now
claimed my line can only do 500kbps on ADSL Max. Now all these
information sources were wrong and still are, I get above 500kbps, the
reason being since my broadband various bits of my line have been
replaced increasing the sync speed from 2200kbps to 3776kbps on
average. The information from these soruce only take into account line
length and some information about the predicted quality of the cable.
Now VM network does not have any of these problems, but rather
contention problems which ADSL has but how many people get full 8mbps.
If on ADSL people where getting 8mbps then most likley ADSL providers
would have the same issues as VM but that simply isn't the case.
Chossing a Good ISP will not change the laws of physics, a good ISP
will do a little more to resolve your issue's but thats about it. They
cant really do that much to force BT to do something about you line.

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

tony sayer wrote:

Eeyore scribeth thus
naza wrote:

Uh ?

With VM's 4 meg service I was normally down to 500kbps at peak times.

With an '8 meg' service from Idnet over a BT line I rarely see less than 5
Mbps even at peak times and see peak speeds of 7 Mbps.

Both figures from the speedtester at thinkbroadband.com and Bbmax

You're talking complete and total nonsense about VM's alleged 'great'
broadband. It's actually total ****e.

I notice that you get quite bad service from VM. But looking at all
the post's that are made by VM customers at the moment it seems that
Virgin Broadband is as good as ADSL.

More nonsense. They have hopelessly inadequate capacity (bandwidth). In other
words, they've oversold the service.


The chance of you getting a good speed depends on where you live, like ADSL
depends on the length and quality of your line.

Apparently the 'average' speed on ADSL is over 5 Mbps. Hardly bad and with
ADSL2+ it'll be faster. With VDSL (in the pipeline), the twisted pair can
deliver download speeds as high as 50 Mbps.

Yep?.. Any idea when?..or is that a -pipe- dream;?..

It exists NOW.

BT however are apparently currently thinking more along the lines of using fibre to
the cabinet and using ADSL2+ thereafter. They have trialled VDSL2 though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL2


"In United Kingdom, BT Group trialed VDSL2 during 2006. BT currently plans to launch
ADSL2+ from early 2008 as part of its 21CN program to upgrade of its core network. In
July 2007, Sir Christopher Bland, the chairman of BT said that BT was considering
fibre to the curb and that VDSL2 was a 'likely development going forward' but that no
final decisions had yet been taken."


Put simply if you live in an area where VM have
got a good setup with sufficient backhaul then you will be fine and
enjoy a more relieable and faster connection the possibly on ADSL.

Where do they have sufficient backhaul ? Clearly not where I live.

Neither does BT in a lot of rural areas.

I don't believe that. Without doubt you're almost certainly seeing not a *BT* problem
but a problem related to your ISP.


But if you unlucky then you will suffer like mad with them. There are
somepeople who get the full 20meg all the time on VM's broadband, and
yes I have seen it and used it wheras there are others like you who
dont.
You wont find out what speed you will get with VM until you join them,
just like ADSL.

ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's rubbish.


I really think you have a very biased and blinkered view.

I think it's a very accurate view.


I know of several people in locations off the VM network who would pay more than
what they do for ADSL from any provider as after all with very rare
exception it all runs over BT wires;!.

There's nothing wrong with BT wires (or their DSLAMS). I expect these people you know
don't understand how to choose a decent ISP more likely.

Are ANY of them with IDNet for example ?


Course some of the VM network was built better then others but some of
the BT network wasn't all that clever either!...

We have a location in Cambridge .. yes the hi-tech hub of England that
struggles to get much more then 1 to 1.75 meg on a 5:1 contention
service!...

On twisted pair ? How far from the exchange ?

Graham

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

naza wrote:

Eeyore wrote:

Where do they have sufficient backhaul ? Clearly not where I live.

Clearly not, but VM is a business, if you live outside of a city then
they will probally not have invested much into the network

I DO live in a city.

You idea just crashed and burned.

Graham

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

But if you unlucky then you will suffer like mad with them. There are
somepeople who get the full 20meg all the time on VM's broadband, and
yes I have seen it and used it wheras there are others like you who
dont.
You wont find out what speed you will get with VM until you join them,
just like ADSL.
ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues
and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last
penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's
rubbish.

Graham


I really think you have a very biased and blinkered view. I know of
several people in locations off the VM network who would pay more than
what they do for ADSL from any provider as after all with very rare
exception it all runs over BT wires;!.

Course some of the VM network was built better then others but some of
the BT network wasn't all that clever either!...

We have a location in Cambridge .. yes the hi-tech hub of England that
struggles to get much more then 1 to 1.75 meg on a 5:1 contention
service!...

Better move here. I get 3 megs easily out here in the sticks..

Well oddly enough the fastest service we have is out in the fens at
Friday bridge!..

Yes it does exist .. never found out why it was called that!...
--
Tony Sayer

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

naza wrote:

Eeyore wrote:

ADSL is more predictable. You can get a good estimate of your line speed from
the various online calculators. Once you have ADSL, backhaul capacity issues and
not a problem as long as you're not a cheapskate looking to save the last penny.
Simply choose a good ISP. With cable there's only one choice and it's rubbish.

Not really. When joining a cable service if you were to ask a few
people in you area what speeds that were getting that would give you
quite a good indication of what speed you would get, becuase there is
little chance that the wiring is a problem or the fibre optic cable.

So that explains actual 500 kbps speeds does it ?

I get TEN TIMES that down a bloody phone wire !

Stop making idiotic excuses for VM !

Graham

Should I quit Virginmedia?
 

naza wrote:

Now VM network does not have any of these [line related] problems, but rather
contention problems which ADSL has

NO. ADSL does NOT have any inherent significant contention problems. Not for ages. BT
has fixed that ages back. That's why they don't quote a contention figure for MAX.
It's still a popular myth however that there are such problems but it IS a myth. There
may be congestion/contention problems over the *ISP's* network but that's down to them
and YOUR decision to use them.


but how many people get full 8mbps.

Me for one !


If on ADSL people where getting 8mbps then most likley ADSL providers
would have the same issues as VM but that simply isn't the case.
Chossing a Good ISP will not change the laws of physics, a good ISP
will do a little more to resolve your issue's but thats about it. They
cant really do that much to force BT to do something about you line.

You simply don't understand that realities of how ADSL works.

Idnet can say this (and they do) .

"No contention on our network is achieved by not oversubscribing our broadband
services and ensuring that bandwidth investment exceeds customer demand. This means
that our goals of the highest performance and reliability can be maintained"
http://www.idnet.net/solutions/homeofficebroadband.jsp#

That's ALL it takes. It's called investment. VM doesn't (can't) invest since it's
mired in debt. That's why it's crap.

End of story.

Graham