Local UBR over utilised!!!!

[DEADMAN_INC]

Hi there,

Im new to this forum but basically i have been told that if i want some sort of results this is the place to post?!!

Well basically i live in the Cambridge area and im on the 50mb broadband package.

In the 1st month and a half everything was going pretty well, but come mid october everything went pear shaped. (i use the net only for online gaming by the way)

I started getting kicked out of all my online games could not join rooms or search anyone online either.

so i did speedtests and ping tests and that seemed all fine averaging 30-40mb down 1.4-1.5 up 10-20 ping rates i was happy, but then i did the packet test and found some problems my line was rated f with a high % packet loss, did tests all day long checked my power levels they were fine even connected direct to the modem still no luck.

 So i rang virgin (2 1/2 months ago this is) and asked them to look into this they said nothing is wrong with my area nothing was reported. so i rang again and again everyday moaning about it and then the result was that they tell me my local ubr is over utilised what a load **** i was very angry that nothing has been done for 2 months and still hasnt.

download speeds are always fluctuating all over the place sometimes 6mb sometimes 20 sometimes 45 its just crazy.

Virgin also say this is not high priority well i think it is and needs to be addressed as im practically without internet now (coming onto 3 months)!!!

Ringram the response you got of virgin is the exact same response i got from them over the phone too! there is no exact date of the fix in our area. i did get a month and that is January but i phone recently and they said that still nothing has been confirmed!!! what the hell

Can some one please help or point me in the right direction as to what i should do.

I dont want to pay BT £150 just for changing over to them again (yes i have already done this before and wish i never came back to virgin), i think if this goes on i would like virgin to pay the £150 i paid BT when i last left virgin cos they cocked up back 2 years ago too

why did i join virgin why??? please somebody help me with my problem??? Virgin anybody

[Sephiroth]

@ DEADMAN_INC

Look up the user drwhofan and do what he did - write to the VM CEO.  He appears to have got a result.

[Yanni_Depp]

Hi guys,

LS6 here also. Terrible connection since the end of November / start of December. I have had a techie round who confirmed it was trouble from the box on the road outwards. Nothing to do with the house/my router/pc. etc

I, to be honest am also reaching the limit in terms of patients. The response I get from ringing up support is insulting to my intelligence. If I get told to restart my router again I am going to go insane. I know enough about enough to understand what the problem seems to be here... overcrowded/over utilised ubr

Just curious as to whether anyone else has heard anything, or if there are any updates on the situation. I am sick of waiting around having been told the problem would be resolved weeks ago.

Bit of a joke. x

[ringram]

Sorry i haven't been keeping this updated... I have been in semi-regular contact with a guy named Pete who works at Virgin E complaints, he has been great so far, although we haven't gotten a resolution it's nice not to be patronized!

I explained to him that it isnt my router or my configuration as it happens on all 3 pc's in my household and my xbox - after 3-4pm (with or without the router).

The last i heard from him was as below:

I can totally appreciate how you are saying and understand why you'd believe it's due to being over subscribed in your area, as it's happening in between 4pm-12am.  However, we've already ran checks on your network and the infrastructure in your area and it's not over subscribed.

What I'm going to do, is to get back in touch with our Network guys so that they can run some more tests over a 24 hour period for a few days to see if we can identify any problems on the network.

Once I've had an update from the Network guys, I'll be back in touch.

[ringram]

"I can totally appreciate how bad and frustrating this is and has been for you. We all want our broadband service to work all the time and there's nothing worse when your not able to use it.

The good thing is, I've had confirmation back from our networks guys today and they've now been able to identify that there is a problem with your local server. Its good that we've found the problem now obviously it's not good that your service is still affected. In order to fix the problem and restore your broadband back to how it should be, we need to upgrade your server. I'm afraid this isn't a small or quick job, as it takes time to plan and implement the work required.

Normally this process can take upto 3 months to be completely and for you to notice the full benefit of the service again. I understand and appreciate this isn't the answer you're looking for. I'm currently liaising with our network guys and directors to see if there is a possibility of this been done earlier however this isn't something we can't guarantee."

[Sephiroth]

---

ringram wrote:

"I can totally appreciate how bad and frustrating this is and has been for you. We all want our broadband service to work all the time and there's nothing worse when your not able to use it.

The good thing is, I've had confirmation back from our networks guys today and they've now been able to identify that there is a problem with your local server. Its good that we've found the problem now obviously it's not good that your service is still affected. In order to fix the problem and restore your broadband back to how it should be, we need to upgrade your server. I'm afraid this isn't a small or quick job, as it takes time to plan and implement the work required.

Normally this process can take upto 3 months to be completely and for you to notice the full benefit of the service again. I understand and appreciate this isn't the answer you're looking for. I'm currently liaising with our network guys and directors to see if there is a possibility of this been done earlier however this isn't something we can't guarantee."

---

Dear old Pete has padded this out to make it look good for him!   You know, the network people can track down a problem in hours if not minutes.  The so called "servers" are richly endowed with MIBs (you can look that term up if you're not network savvy) and they can find an anomaly when they access these MIBs in conjunction with data they've got from the analyzers on the ciruit.  There's no excuse for the delay in finding a problem.

I'm not privy, obviously, to the detail.  But it looks like Brighton, Plymouth & Exeter.  It might not be but ....

Now what to do?  Dear old Pete's appeal to the Directors is a don't hold your breath statement IMO.  He'll do his best but backup from YOU is now the best approach.

I suggest you email the VM CEO as per my earlier post, giving your story, plus dear old Pete's reply and asking the CEO to support Pete in his endeavour to sort this out quickly.

Waddaya think?

[ringram]

Exactly what i was thinking Seph.

I did respond saying that I was sure of this being a problem 2 months ago, and by the time the 3 months may have rolled by itll be 5 months of fairly unusable internet (i actually use my iphone on 3G for most things now when im at home in the evenings)... which isnt very helpful when im moving house in around 5 months (12 month lease)... so out of 12 months my internet will have been goosed for 5 ... splendiferous!

[dmr999]

Hi guys, just to let you know about my recent experiences! I've had the same problems with a slow service, pages not loading, timing out etc in the evenings/weekends since November. I had a technician round just before Christmas who told me he was aware of an issue in the area (LS6) and that it should be fixed in January. I gave them the benefit of the doubt to see if it would improve and didn't contact VM at all over January. But no surprises, the service is just as bad (especially bad tonight!) I've just rang their call centre to be told again they are aware of problems and they are being looked into and he could give me no indication of what they are or how long it'll be before they are fixed and service is back to normal! I was given £10 off my next bill but it's REALLY frustrating and getting totally fed up!