Internet Problems

[zeitgeist]

Some of you may recall me posting about this in the internet speed thread!

Basically I am on Virgin Medias 10Mbps service (apparently) but ever since they upgraded us our speeds have been slower. Over the weekend I tested out the system even more and no matter what I do I can't get it to go faster. In fact over the weekend our speeds have been really slow. As you can see by the image below. Not even making 1Mbps. In the past few weeks since they apparently upgraded us the speeds were averaging only 4Mbps download (ish).

I have tried it from all 4 computers in the house. One of which is my apple mac. Yesterday I tried again hooking up my dad's laptop (PC) directly to the modem, and that made no difference. We are all networked together on a wireless router. I turned it off and completely removed it from the equation. Got the exact same result.

I also accessed our modem and found this in the logs. I personally can't make heads or tails of it. I'm not that computer literate. Maybe someone on here can see the problem. I can see the fail references but am not sure as to exactly what they refer to, or if indeed that they are the cause of our slow download speeds. Any information would be most welcome. Thanks:

070505143051 4-Error X501.35 Unit Update Failed.
070505143051 8-Debug F502.1 Bridge Forwarding Enabled.
070505143050 4-Error E107.0 SW Upgrade Failed after download - Incompatible SW file
070505143050 4-Error X501.28 Unit Update - Not updating. This image is not for this platform.
070505143050 8-Debug M571.6 CM Cert Upgrade Enabled. Initiate via SNMP
070505143050 8-Debug M571.9 Missing CM Cert Upgrade TLVs.
070505143050 8-Debug M570.1 Motorola CM certificate required
070505143050 8-Debug F502.2 Bridge Forwarding Disabled.
070505143049 7-Information X500.0 Attempting Unit Update
070505143044 6-Notice E102.0 SW Download INIT - Via Config file cm-10240-384
070505143044 8-Debug I503.0 Cable Modem is OPERATIONAL
070505143044 8-Debug F502.1 Bridge Forwarding Enabled.
070505143044 8-Debug F502.3 Bridge Learning Enabled.
070505143044 8-Debug B918.0 Baseline Privacy is skipped
070505143044 6-Notice I401.0 TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
070505143044 6-Notice D501.10 TFTP, Unknown SNMP 30 82 00 11 06 0C 2B 06 01 04 01 8B 15 4D 01 03
070505143044 7-Information X519.8 Unit Update - GGFGGD - SCD flags
070505143044 8-Debug I500.1 DOCSIS 1.0 Registration Completed
070505143044 7-Information I500.4 Attempting DOCSIS 1.0 Registration
070505143044 7-Information D509.0 Retrieved TFTP Config File SUCCESS
070505143044 4-Error D503.0 TFTP, Invalid type, CONTINUE
070505143044 7-Information D507.0 Retrieved Time....... SUCCESS
************ 7-Information D511.0 Retrieved DHCP .......... SUCCESS
************ 5-Warning D3.0 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response
************ 4-Error D530.8 DHCP - Invalid Log Server IP Address.
************ 4-Error D530.6 DHCP - Invalid Time Offset.
************ 5-Warning D520.2 DHCP Attempt# 1 BkOff: 5s Tot DSC:1 OFF:1 REQ:1 ACK:1
************ 7-Information D0.0 DHCP CM Net Configuration download and Time of Day
************ 7-Information T500.0 Acquired Upstream .......... SUCCESS
************ 8-Debug T503.1 Acquire US with status OK, powerLevel 48, tempSid 1183
************ 8-Debug T505.0 Acquired Upstream with status OK
************ 7-Information T501.0 Acquired Downstream (339000000 Hz)........ SUCCESS
************ 8-Debug T509.0 Acquired DS with status OK, DS Freq 339000000, US Id 2
************ 7-Information I510.0 *** BOOTING *** SB4100-0.4.9.6-SCM01-NOSH

[old5od]

Run
http://www.speedtest.net/

Its UP TO 10 mb so they have an excuse, phone them & complain !!!

[BrianBinder]

virgin media are throttling connections for 4 hours if u download a certain ammount

[tomjol]

It's unlikely that it's the throttling causing the problem.

Have you rung VM? Which modem model are you using? How long has the problem been occuring, and has it only happened since you were upgraded to 10Mbps?

[zeitgeist]

Originally Posted by tomjol

Have you rung VM?

My dad rang them a couple of weeks after they said that had upgraded it and they assured him that we were on the 10Mbit service and that they no longer were an "UP TO" 10Mbit service, and we should be getting exactly 10Mbps. They also told him that using the internet speed tests like the one I used above wasn't a true reflection of the speeds we were getting. Which of course is a load of hoohah!

So before I ring them back I want to try and figure out just what is causing the problem.

Originally Posted by tomjol

Which modem model are you using?

It is a Motorola Surfboard 4100. I thought it may be the problem, but after reading various web forums and looking at it's specs it should be fine. However there are reported cases of it not always working. It has always been fine for us up until now.

I read here that something new has been implemented called QAM256, and I thought maybe that is the problem because the modem is too old to take it. New VM packages are shipped with a VM255 modem. Maybe I should phone Virgin up and ask for a new modem upgrade. What do you guys think?

Originally Posted by tomjol

How long has the problem been occuring, and has it only happened since you were upgraded to 10Mbps?

Ever since they upgraded us to the 10Mbps service. Before then this modem has caused no major problems. For the first three weeks we were still getting speeds at around 4Mbps, which is the package deal we were on prior to the upgrade. That is why I thought they just hadn't upgraded us properly. Like I said though, they assured us that they have indeed upgraded us.

Over this weekend the download time has been consistently never going above 1Mbps no matter which computer in that house I check it on, or which online internet speed test site I use. They all come up with similar results.

The only other thing I can possibly think of is that because of this 20Mbps free upgrade they are supposed to be implementing maybe they are doing something with the lines in the area. Although Sheffield isn't mentioned on Virgins site for when the upgrade will take effect.

Originally Posted by BrianBinder

virgin media are throttling connections for 4 hours if u download a certain ammount

How do you know that? and what exactly is the download cap? Sometimes I download a lot of stuff. This last week I've hardly downloaded a thing though. So throttling isn't the problem, unless they screwed something up on the liens in the area.

[BrianBinder]

Broadband Size: M - 2mb
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: M package download at least 350MB of traffic each.

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 1Mb, with their upload speed set to 128Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

Broadband Size: L (4mb)
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: L package download at least 750MB of traffic each.

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 2Mb, with their upload speed set to 192Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

Broadband Size: XL (20mb - old 10mb)
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: XL package download at least 3GB of traffic each.

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed – their download speed will be set to 5Mb, with their upload speed set to 256Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...t/traffic.html

[zeitgeist]

cheers.

I just noticed they have now added 'sheffield' to their list. unconfirmed

still on bad download speed:



I also noticed that they could charge you £25 to upgrade your modem. that sux!

[Sc0TTy]

Originally Posted by zeitgeist

cheers.

I just noticed they have now added 'sheffield' to their list. unconfirmed

still on bad download speed:



I also noticed that they could charge you £25 to upgrade your modem. that sux!

I recommend you visiting the forums at thinkbroadband.com - it's very good and highly informative. Alternatively, try checking the forums at Virgin (if they have it!!).

[Celia]

Looks like they have done that to me... I've been watching a movie online. I have 2MB and:

[tomjol]

The limiting stuff has only just come in, so it isn't that. In terms of testing speed, I recommend using ThinkBroadband's checker rather than SpeedTest.net - it tends to be much more accurate and reliable in my experience.

I'd recommend ringing Virgin and trying to get a new modem. If the person you speak to isn't much help, keep trying - wait times are usually low these days, even on weekends, so it's worth ringing back several times to get a helpful staff member. If that's going to take a while, you could also ask them to re-upload the configuration to the modem, just to be sure. Also, get yourself over to Cable Forum, there are a lot of people there who are much more knowledgeable on the subject than I.

[dagwoood]

I've found the best way to get help with a connection problem is to post it on the Virgin Media newgroups. I've got an on-going problem with my connection (they've over subscribed on my UBR and there's not enough upload speed to go around...go figure ) but it wasn't until I posted the problem on the newsgroup that they then realized there's a problem on the network locally.

Here's the Virgin page for newsgroups and some how to's if you're not familiar with using them http://help2.virginmedia.com/help/ge...omernewsgroups

As an aside, the SB4100 is fine for the 20meg service, so it shouldn't have problems with running at 10meg.

[BrianBinder]

i thonk these upgrades there doing are effecting speeds

[zeitgeist]

I think you are probably right.

I used that site last night and got this:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedt...976925394.html

Just used it again and got this:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedt...178582844.html

I will post this on those virgin newsgroups in a bit. Just sorting out something else first.

thanks for all the info guys.

*hugs*

Zeitgeist