Slow Broadband ?

[frodoker]

Ive recently upped my Virgin Media package and now have their largest broadband package which is 20MB.

 

When I run the Broadband test it only says its coming through at 5MB, can anyone tell me if their is anything I can do to speed it up. I have XP but its an old version with service pack1 n(which cant be upped to Service pack 2) not that IT literate so not sure if this has anything to do with it.

 

Cheers

[dodethejambo]

You will not get speeds of 20mb unless you stay next to the telephone exchange, the futher from the exchange you are the slower your tinternet will be. That is why they say speed up to 20mb very few folk get these speeds

[N User]

my parent's broadband has just been upped from 4mb to 10mb.

The email said you might need to upgrade your modem. Check their website.

[makateer]

You will not get speeds of 20mb unless you stay next to the telephone exchange, the futher from the exchange you are the slower your tinternet will be. That is why they say speed up to 20mb very few folk get these speeds

 

That would be true if he was on ADSL, but as it's Virgin he is probably on cable.

 

Virgin is pretty crap during peak times, and speeds do suffer. Try your connection at different times of the day to see if your speed changes at all.

[Better call Saul]

You will not get speeds of 20mb unless you stay next to the telephone exchange, the futher from the exchange you are the slower your tinternet will be. That is why they say speed up to 20mb very few folk get these speeds

 

Dont thinks that applies to virgin M8 that only applies if you use the BT lines

 

 

 

Give the tech guys a call

and try to

reset your modem

[scottishguy]

Ive recently upped my Virgin Media package and now have their largest broadband package which is 20MB.

 

When I run the Broadband test it only says its coming through at 5MB, can anyone tell me if their is anything I can do to speed it up. I have XP but its an old version with service pack1 n(which cant be upped to Service pack 2) not that IT literate so not sure if this has anything to do with it.

 

Cheers

 

 

If you do a lot of downloading,virgin now cut your speed no matter what package you are on.

 

Some speed tests give you different results too.

 

http://www.speedtest.net/

 

That ones reliable

[Barf]

It could be because you are being slowed by the traffic management virgin use.

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

 

Also, online web based speed tests can be pretty inaccurate, as can download speeds from web browser download managers.

 

Check here if your modem can handle 20mb. Which of the modems do you have? Note you may need to select size L to see the list. I think it just assumes you have a suitable modem by default if you are on 20mb.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/current_service.html

 

Try downloading a largish file from virgin media's ftp servers [One of the large files from here for example: ftp://ftp.virginmedia.com/sites/gentoo/releases/x86/2007.0/installcd/ ] or newsgroups for a better idea of if there really is a problem.

 

 

And as stated above, there is no issue with distance from exchange with cable like there is with ADSL lines.

[Mike Hunt]

Try all the above suggestions and also maybe a speed optimizer

 

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

[CompleteIdiot]

That would be true if he was on ADSL, but as it's Virgin he is probably on cable.

 

Virgin is pretty crap during peak times, and speeds do suffer. Try your connection at different times of the day to see if your speed changes at all.

 

Indeed. The speed with Virgin cable is related to the distance your copper lines are from the fibre optic cables in the street. If you live in a house next to the street there should be very little loss. Conversely, living in a 4th floor flat will show some loss due to the distance.

 

Virgin throttle their connections, so there isn't always a hardware explanation for slow speeds. If you use torrent sites you're likely to get throttled.

[Barf]

If you use torrent sites you're likely to get throttled.

The speed throttling is done purely on the amount of data downloaded. Doesn't matter if the traffic is from torrents, streaming video, downloading game demos etc.