Do Virgin throttle bandwidth etc?

[iain187]

My mates just moved house and got virgin broadband - he rang me up complaining it is dog slow (When downloading torrents + uploading - although if he has his torrents open then that will be his issue on uploading i suppose)

anyway - do virgin throttle torrent traffic? if he does the start on a random port /encryption options does this get him round it (i dont play with these options as ive never had issues)

 

[Moz168]

Yeh they do between 6am-10pm or something, if you go over 700mb. They throttle it for 5 hours I think, from the time you exceed the limit. Go onto your account on the Virgin site and you can look at your package and all the details.

Not sure about getting round it.

 

[blackpanther]

It says in there faq's they do throttle traffic around peak times but ive always had my full download/upload speed. Some days i download 15 - 20 GBs and still get my full speed.
My just depend on what area your in.
It sounds more like whatever he uses to download his torrents and or router port as Virgin dont just throttle torrents alone.

 

[Adam]

XXL FTW...

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

 

[Cookie]

Not sure about getting round it.

Getting a better ISP helps

 

[DMS]

Virgin utilise various traffic management techniques on everything except the 50mbit service.
Your bandwidth will get throttled on anything other than 50mbit if you spend too much time on YouJizz.

 

[Sym0n]

On XL you can download 3Gb during peak hours (4-9pm IIRC) and upload 1.5Gb, limits are less for the slower packages. Breach either of these and you're gonna get throttled down (the line, not just a port) to "5mb" download and about 200kb upload for "5 hours from the time the throttle was applied". I've been stung by it and TBH it's more like 512kb download speed and f**k all up and lasts for well over 5 hours, last time I hit it I had unusable internet for over 24.

Easiest thing is to set the auto scheduler in the torrent client to restrict bandwidth usage during the peak hours. Since I started doing this I've never had an issue.

 

[rctempire]

Its a shame, as i never get my full 20MB. I really struggle to get it. I have even left my connection dormant and not downloaded but still crap speed.

 

[UncleGrumpy]

Virgin media are piss, they throttle like buggery, I ditched them a while back and went to plusnet, 60gb a month usage and from midnight till i think its 7am (could be 8am) any usage doesn't count against your allowance. Best bit is being based in Sheffield if you ring their support (which is brilliant - they actually know what they're talking about) you can actually understand what they're saying.

Plusnet FTW - Virgin Media can eat a giant poo sandwich!

 

[DMS]

Its a shame, as i never get my full 20MB. I really struggle to get it. I have even left my connection dormant and not downloaded but still crap speed.

In my experience the Virgin Media cable broadband service always gives consistent speeds which are close to or in excess of what you're paying for.
Are you using a broadband router? If so, it's possible that if you're paying for more than 10Mbit you're effectively wasting money. Most older broadband routers only have a 10Mbit WAN port, which makes it a bottleneck. You can't download at 20Mbit speeds if the link between the modem and router is only 10Mbit, so the connection speed you see is actually slower.

Post up the make and model of your router (if you have one) and I'll be able to tell you if it's got a 10Mbit or 100Mbit WAN port.

 

[Sym0n]

Its a shame, as i never get my full 20MB. I really struggle to get it. I have even left my connection dormant and not downloaded but still crap speed.

I'm on XL (20Mb) and get on average 19.5Mb, according to speed tests. Maxxed out download seems to be about 2.3Mb/s (server fed or torrent).

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html <--- info on VMs throttling policy.

 

[MikeC]

How much extra is the XL package? I have L Broadband, XL tv and M phone and pay about £45 for the lot, give or take

 

[Dink]

Its a shame, as i never get my full 20MB. I really struggle to get it. I have even left my connection dormant and not downloaded but still crap speed.

have you got the old grey modem? as when i had one of them on 20Mb i couldn't get above 13Mb and it was all over the shop since they sent out a new black modem it's rock solid and never below 19Mb until they throttle me down to bang on 5Mb

 

[z8jay]

I'm on 10mbit and only been throttled a couple of times. I do try and make sure to download outside of the hours where they apply these stupid bandwidth caps though.