View Full Version : Virgin 50 Mb & Usenet
Hi Guys,
I'm considering re-signing up to the darkside to get 50 Mb, however can anyone comment on usenet throttling please? I'm using Astranews via port 443.
Do they throttle these connection during peak hours? I get the distinct impression from the site that they are now throttling P2P & Usenet however I can't get anyone on the phone who can give me answers.
Not really interested in the P2P side as I don't touch BT these days, however usenet has always been my preferred method of downloading... er... Linux distros :)
Any user experiences would be most appreciated :)
Ta,
R.
I didn't think they touched XXL 50mb package. They did make some changes recently though...
Yeah I thought the same thing till I started reading through the small print.. just wondering about anyones real world experience to see where I stand :)
I think they might packet-shape. Meaning prioritise HTTP over P2P etc. But not limit bandwidth on the XXL.
Just tried it, astraweb on port 443 and i'm on 20mb and got 2.25 M/B. but was only a 200mb file. i have noticed slower speeds on occasion but honestly cant remember the size of file i was downloading or the time of day it was.
why is it such a problem? surely you want to be using the internet and peak hours, gaming, surfing etc so just leave your downloads going over night
It really is no big deal, I just want to know what I'm letting myself in for, I'd rather know in advance so I can plan around the limits than be surprised by them :)
Sniperdude
18-01-11, 18:39
they throttle all P2P and usenet from 5pm to midnight weekdays and weekends it 12pm to 12am
port 443 for usenet seem to have escaped but i doubt this will last long.
the network is totally over subscribed with many areas suffering from upstream over utilization some have fix dates for May or longer
I live in Liverpool after the upstream upgrades a few weeks ago in peak hours i suffer
with packet loss an very high ping times
online gaming is out of the question as is most things
today is a good day but i have had line rated F
http://www.pingtest.net/result/32530263.png
fix date is 28th on this month but i wont hold my breath
this is very very common
Virgin Traffic Management Policy (http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html)
XXL packages are not managed according to that except for p2p etc.
"File sharing
We moderate the total volume of file sharing traffic on our network between 5pm and midnight on weekdays and midday and midnight on weekends. This policy, which applies to all broadband packages, is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)
This policy does not impact any applications other than Peer to Peer and Newsgroups, so things like watching iPlayer, online gaming, making calls via Skype, downloading music tracks from iTunes or streaming them from Spotify and sending an email or normal browsing are unaffected.
It's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply at peak times when speeds are most likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share. Outside of peak times we do not manage traffic."
Usenet and Bittorrent are effected, Filehosts like MU, HF, RS, MS etc are not iirc as they are all over HTTP/HTTPS
Jonathon82
18-01-11, 19:39
Lol I love how you called it the Darkside. I probably should take offense as a member of staff but meh :weeee
Anyone else get selected for the BT infinity lottery in a similar but not quite-thread-hijacking way?
might be worth considering if the traffic management policy is different?
heh I only refer to VM as the darkside as I had a large falling out with them a few years back, they well and truly pi$$ed me off and tried over-billing me on 2 separate months to the tune of nearly £200! I would hope things there have improved since I last used them.. it was just after the NTL changeover and they decided to cancel the deal I was on in favour of a much higher price.
Infinity is nowhere near ready for my area, and to be honest I'd rather not have internet than be with BT :)
Thanks for the other input guys.
I'd recommend getting VM 50mbit, it's not got the downstream caps at all but it might hav in the future, it will still be better than any other isp. Since my ubr was sorted (utilisation) i've had rock solid 20mbit speeds. Even when capped i get 5mbit download and 512k upload, that is still alot better than adsl (1.5mbit dl if i'm lucky and 256k upload)
SilveR_172
18-01-11, 20:53
yeah im on 10 MB Line before this throttling was introduced virgin was GOD , Now there a little SOD for doing it i get crap speeds until its opend back up at Midnight then i can download a fair bit
But i was going to use Giganews to get some downloads ive missed on the newsfiles seems they have a good deal on
iGoD ReLeNtLeS
18-01-11, 21:25
cant say ive ever had any speed reductions short of full speeds downloading these linux distros :thumb:
Cheers guys, I think I might just got for it, especially as Quidco are offering £100 cashback :D
My brothers on 50mb but has no fears over the usenet restrictions. He already has a way around it :)
Just wish i could get anything over 4mb. Going from 20mb to 4 is a culture shock!
My brothers on 50mb but has no fears over the usenet restrictions. He already has a way around it :)
Just wish i could get anything over 4mb. Going from 20mb to 4 is a culture shock!
Do tell.. take it to PM if you don't want those darksiders listening in ;)
Sniperdude
19-01-11, 15:20
My brothers on 50mb but has no fears over the usenet restrictions. He already has a way around it :)
Just wish i could get anything over 4mb. Going from 20mb to 4 is a culture shock!
hmm proof or it never happened
Hi Guys,
I'm considering re-signing up to the darkside to get 50 Mb, however can anyone comment on usenet throttling please? I'm using Astranews via port 443.
Do they throttle these connection during peak hours? I get the distinct impression from the site that they are now throttling P2P & Usenet however I can't get anyone on the phone who can give me answers.
Not really interested in the P2P side as I don't touch BT these days, however usenet has always been my preferred method of downloading... er... Linux distros :)
Any user experiences would be most appreciated :)
Ta,
R.
could try using ssl on newsgroups - most now offer it as standard, just stated again - needed something urgent:p. using usenet-news and pulled down about 9gigs with no restrictions.
another thing is that from febuary (at least thats the date that cs gave me) vm are beginning to roll out 30 down/3 up tier. this is basically a speed bump - akin to what the 10meg's got when they got bumped to 20. why this will be different from what i've heard is that the 30 tier will be using dociss3 which in theory may ease congestion (also a free superhub as existing 256's not dociss3 complient, but £30 activation for existing customers). but i've no doubt that some sort of stm will come with it - but what the limits are is another question.
Sniperdude
21-01-11, 22:04
another package with more upload
annoying that they keep trying to gain more customers and yet they can't even keep the ones they have happy because the network is overloaded
http://www.pingtest.net/result/32769288.png
another package with more upload
annoying that they keep trying to gain more customers and yet they can't even keep the ones they have happy because the network is overloaded
http://www.pingtest.net/result/32769288.png
well the dociss3 part of the network shouldn't be as congested as that its only used for 50meg at the moment.
got issue myself with u/l speed, so waiting to see what happens.
Just a heads up about VM 50MB
I originally ordered the package with TV and Phone with free equipment and installation. However, when they did come over and install it, they had me on the 10MB package, which is not what I wanted. The engineer said I had to give them a call so I did, to some annoying indian guy who insisted that I ordered the 10MB package and that if I wanted the 50MB I'd have to pay another £20. I know what I said! I banged it up a notch and asked to speak to his manager - to which he said he'll have to call me back as he was in a meeting - BS! No call surprisingly, so I phoned back the next day and got some pleasant guy up north who understood why I was annoyed and fixed the problem for free and with £20 off my next bill!
Uhhhhh, what is usenet? :o
I know this is slightly off topic...
But a heads up on Virgin media; I've got the entire package, XL all around (20MB broadband) but noticed on their website the prices were ALOT cheaper so I phoned up to enquire about that and apparently it's ONLY for new customers for the FIRST year..after that it get's raised up. I explained that I wasn't in the slightest impressed with what I was paying and he came up with a nice wee tenner off all my bills, he also noted, really strangely, that I should have phoned each year in order to secure a discount for being a 'loyal' customer......
Uhhhhh, what is usenet? :o
OOoh, you're in for a treat ;-).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
Sniperdude
22-01-11, 17:20
well the dociss3 part of the network shouldn't be as congested as that its only used for 50meg at the moment.
got issue myself with u/l speed, so waiting to see what happens.
don't put money money on that am on DOCSIS 3.0 and on 50Mb
people in my area are seeing pings of over a 1000 ans packet loss of upto
90% due to the load in our area being 99% maxed out
Added after 2 minutes:
I know this is slightly off topic...
But a heads up on Virgin media; I've got the entire package, XL all around (20MB broadband) but noticed on their website the prices were ALOT cheaper so I phoned up to enquire about that and apparently it's ONLY for new customers for the FIRST year..after that it get's raised up. I explained that I wasn't in the slightest impressed with what I was paying and he came up with a nice wee tenner off all my bills, he also noted, really strangely, that I should have phoned each year in order to secure a discount for being a 'loyal' customer......
OOoh, you're in for a treat ;-).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
I always pay what new customers are paying and better by phone customer relations I just did this the other day
I always pay what new customers are paying and better by phone customer relations I just did this the other day
Did you give them the 'Provider X is offering a better deal so meet or beat the price or I'm off?' speech?
Sniperdude
22-01-11, 17:39
No never do, i just say i have been on this network for over 10 years never paid a bill late and i think its unfair that new customers are getting a better deal
they agree
then start trying to sort out a deal.
you have to be out of contract to get deals
you have to ring customer relations not customer service
(150 choose I'm thinking of leaving mon-fri 8am-8pm )
you have to be nice and sure of current prices
Uhhhhh, what is usenet? :o
is slang for porn :p
I know this is slightly off topic...
But a heads up on Virgin media; I've got the entire package, XL all around (20MB broadband) but noticed on their website the prices were ALOT cheaper so I phoned up to enquire about that and apparently it's ONLY for new customers for the FIRST year..after that it get's raised up. I explained that I wasn't in the slightest impressed with what I was paying and he came up with a nice wee tenner off all my bills, he also noted, really strangely, that I should have phoned each year in order to secure a discount for being a 'loyal' customer......
as sniper has said, always ring retentions, usually because they have more clout and can give better discounts (at least in my experience) than customer services
don't put money money on that am on DOCSIS 3.0 and on 50Mb
people in my area are seeing pings of over a 1000 ans packet loss of upto
90% due to the load in our area being 99% maxed out
trouble is though bud, that's the nature of a maxed out unrestricted portion of the network - what did they expect with the 24/7 leechers? another thing is i bet there is still a hell of a lot of hacked modems on net, although they are being taken out fairly quickly - this another issue that affects all users in the area.
what u use astraweb etc usenet for?
Sniperdude
22-01-11, 22:17
is slang for porn :p
as sniper has said, always ring retentions, usually because they have more clout and can give better discounts (at least in my experience) than customer services
trouble is though bud, that's the nature of a maxed out unrestricted portion of the network - what did they expect with the 24/7 leechers? another thing is i bet there is still a hell of a lot of hacked modems on net, although they are being taken out fairly quickly - this another issue that affects all users in the area.
it isnt unrestricted p2p and newsgroups are throttled to death within peak hours
Added after 2 minutes:
what u use astraweb etc usenet for?
downloading linux distros like everyone
it isnt unrestricted p2p and newsgroups are throttled to death within peak hours
that was only recently though wasn't it? afaik those restrictions weren't in place at launch. they must have known what would happen, the cynic in me feels that the loose term of "unrestricted" is nothing more than a marketing tool.
i have a bit of a dilemma myself,
do i stay as is on 20meg and hope things get better as others move on to the 30meg.
move to 30meg for free and hope things are sorted with the upstream - with a new 12 month contract - this might be a wait and see to see how things are when they settle down.
move to 50meg - an option, but many factors to consider. issues in the area, i know a couple of peeps who suffer locally but a couple in my clan just up the road (so to speak) in warrington who have no issues. the other thing is because of the discounts on my retention deal it'll cost me an extra £16 a month. this would then bring my bill near to where it used to be - which defeats the object of me re-doing the deal to make it cheaper.
our wait until june when 100meg is due to go live in my area, which will hopefully affect the existing prices. only concern is that there would be (assuming 100meg is on the same standard) three tiers on the same network standard giving rise to even more congestion.
Sniperdude
23-01-11, 12:41
that was only recently though wasn't it? afaik those restrictions weren't in place at launch. they must have known what would happen, the cynic in me feels that the loose term of "unrestricted" is nothing more than a marketing tool.
i have a bit of a dilemma myself,
do i stay as is on 20meg and hope things get better as others move on to the 30meg.
move to 30meg for free and hope things are sorted with the upstream - with a new 12 month contract - this might be a wait and see to see how things are when they settle down.
move to 50meg - an option, but many factors to consider. issues in the area, i know a couple of peeps who suffer locally but a couple in my clan just up the road (so to speak) in warrington who have no issues. the other thing is because of the discounts on my retention deal it'll cost me an extra £16 a month. this would then bring my bill near to where it used to be - which defeats the object of me re-doing the deal to make it cheaper.
our wait until june when 100meg is due to go live in my area, which will hopefully affect the existing prices. only concern is that there would be (assuming 100meg is on the same standard) three tiers on the same network standard giving rise to even more congestion.
yea the p2p a usenet throttle started a few months back across all connections 10Mb 20Mb 50Mb 100Mb
I have never seen virgin use the word "unrestricted" unlimited is virgins
favourite word.
even that isn't true because I have seen loads of people on virgin forums
getting letters for downloading to much.
yea the p2p a usenet throttle started a few months back across all connections 10Mb 20Mb 50Mb 100Mb
I have never seen virgin use the word "unrestricted" unlimited is virgins
favourite word.
even that isn't true because I have seen loads of people on virgin forums
getting letters for downloading to much.
stand corrected, it was unlimited as opposed to unrestricted. trouble is some people take them to mean the same thing. not sure if there is any on the 100meg as it's not retail yet ;). as for the letters, i think they're more to do with the times of the download i.e. peak times. I mean how can vm complain if people do d/l loads over night when the network is at it's quietest. but vm still seem capable of screwing it up.
Sniperdude
23-01-11, 14:04
stand corrected, it was unlimited as opposed to unrestricted. trouble is some people take them to mean the same thing. not sure if there is any on the 100meg as it's not retail yet ;). as for the letters, i think they're more to do with the times of the download i.e. peak times. I mean how can vm complain if people do d/l loads over night when the network is at it's quietest. but vm still seem capable of screwing it up.
100Mb is retail mate has been for ages
http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/up-to-100mb.html
100Mb is retail mate has been for ages
http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/up-to-100mb.html
my bad, swear it wasn't there when i looked earlier :o, not like I've been bothered about it before. but maybe it'll become an option..............
.we'll see.
Jonathon82
25-01-11, 17:29
Do tell.. take it to PM if you don't want those darksiders listening in ;)
I lolled :thumb:
Im sat on a MAHOOSIVE 4MB.. after having damn near 19MB for 5 years
:(:closet
wrightphil
29-01-11, 22:56
I'd like to start using newsgroups but have absolutely no idea where to start, can anyone give me any advice on how to use them and which newsgroups and newsgroup readers are the best please?
I'd really appreciate it
Virgin mega throttle on the 10Mb, either that or it's terrible internet, sometimes only get 2Mb :(
wrightphil
29-01-11, 23:02
I'd be happy with 2Mb, I get like 1.1Mb with TalkTalk on DSL at the moment, its garbage haha
Terbinator
29-01-11, 23:03
I'd like to start using newsgroups but have absolutely no idea where to start, can anyone give me any advice on how to use them and which newsgroups and newsgroup readers are the best please?
I'd really appreciate it
GrabIt & Supernews.
Sniperdude
29-01-11, 23:04
they throttle on all packages read post 32
wrightphil
29-01-11, 23:06
GrabIt & Supernews.
Cheers man, do you pay for both of these and is there a lot of stuff available on there? Do the sites tell you how to use them, as I'll be a total newb
Sniperdude
29-01-11, 23:07
GrabIt & Supernews.
dont agree
newsleecher or sabnabd (free) + astraweb and virginmedias own groups if your with vmedia
Terbinator
29-01-11, 23:07
Cheers man, do you pay for both of these and is there a lot of stuff available on there? Do the sites tell you how to use them, as I'll be a total newb
GrabIt is free and Supernews is ~$10 a month, unlimited downloads, SSL and 400 days retention IIRC.
Set-up should be quite straightforward even without a guide.
dont agree
newsleecher or sabnabd (free) + astraweb
Each to their own i guess, GrabIt has been stable for the past 6 years though for me and i hear to many bad things about Astraweb - don't get me wrong, most are mostly down to user error i would imagine.
wrightphil
29-01-11, 23:12
dont agree
newsleecher or sabnabd (free) + astraweb and virginmedias own groups if your with vmedia
Have you tried the ones you don't agree with? What is better about the ones you suggest, are they all free?
Added after 3 minutes:
When you sign up for $10 a month or whatever it is, is it simple enough to cancel if you've had enough?
Is there a free page I could try in order just to test out my newsreader once I've downloaded one. I'm not with Virgin Media though, I'm with TalkTalk, would they have a free group I could try?
Sniperdude
29-01-11, 23:31
grabit is free software and to be honest its poo
SABnzbd is free software and is a little harder to set-up but in my opinion kicks grabits ****
I run SABnzbd on my server have a firefox plug in for it on my pc
if I download an NZB on my pc the plug-in detects this and asks of I want to open it on the server
SABnzbd download and unpacks the files and deletes anything not needed
you can also schedule it not to download in the VM peak hours.
newsleecher is pay software and is one of the more widely used clients
answer to you question YES or I wouldn't have disagreed
I have used astraweb since 2007 guess how much downtime I had?
Zero its never failed for me.. 897 days retention 99% completion SSL
wrightphil
30-01-11, 00:02
grabit is free software and to be honest its poo
SABnzbd is free software and is a little harder to set-up but in my opinion kicks grabits ****
I run SABnzbd on my server have a firefox plug in for it on my pc
if I download an NZB on my pc the plug-in detects this and asks of I want to open it on the server
SABnzbd download and unpacks the files and deletes anything not needed
you can also schedule it not to download in the VM peak hours.
newsleecher is pay software and is one of the more widely used clients
answer to you question YES or I wouldn't have disagreed
I have used astraweb since 2007 guess how much downtime I had?
Zero its never failed for me.. 897 days retention 99% completion SSL
Thanks man, I'll give them a try.
I only asked the question as normally you get different people suggesting different applications and you never know which are the best, its nice to speak to someone who has actually tried the software rather than just say they're rubbish so I appreciate that, cheers! :thumb:
Sniperdude
30-01-11, 00:10
grabit works dont get me wrong everything that Terbinator said was bang on
each to his own
you need to work out what's best for you
look at both astraweb and super newssee what YOU think is the best deal
the software you could test them both see what YOU like, what I like might not work for you
i use loads of advanced features you or Terbinator may not need them
in short there is no best they do the same thing only some have more features that others
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