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harveyl12's avatar
harveyl12
On our wavelength
2 years ago

HUB 5x - GSX-PON FTTP - Extermely spikey latency

Hi All,

So I've been on the new GSX-PON FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) connection since October. The first month and a bit was fine with no issues however since at least November I have had issues with latency spikes noticeable when gaming. I set up a Broadband Quality monitor and have also been running various latency tests and it seems that my broadband consistently had a pattern of peaking to very high latency and also when in use and gaming more of these latency spikes occur. I'm not talking spikes to like 60ms, I am seeing spikes up to well over 500ms.

On the tests I run the latency on download is fine however on upload most of the time it will see an average of around 150-350ms latency. On the rare occasions, I do see this stay around 20-40ms on tests but I'd say 90% of my tests show over 200ms on upload latency.

This seems to be down to bufferbloat however there is nothing I can try on my side to sort this out as the Hub 5x cannot yet be put into Modem mode so I can not buy and use my own router with some SQM to help stop bufferbloat. However, that is beyond the point as my old ADSL line never had these issues and there was no special SQM on that. I should not need to buy a router when this is not acceptable broadband that should not be having these issues.

 

I've had an engineer out who replaced the Hub 5x and also cleaned my fiber cables inside and the one outside connecting into my house. The one on the pole has not been done yet although I am told by the engineer that a request for a new line to be sent from the pole to my house has been sent, this has only been up since October so I don't think this will solve the issue but we will see.

 

Is there anyone else on the new GSX-PON network using a Hub 5x who can share their results on BQM and other tests so I can compare? I feel like Virgin Media's new network has an issue with the upload latency and I can see this being annoying for them to try and fix which they really need to do.

Also for your info, I get the exact same results with the Wi-Fi turned off on the Hub and all my network devices disconnected from the hub. I still get the fluctuating results with 1 Laptop connected directly into the Hub with nothing else connected to the network at all. 

 

I've included examples below with also the rare good test I actually got to prove that it isnt just the test bloating the network as sometimes it has perfect upload latency but only 5% of the time I test it. If that.

 

Broadband Quality Monitor

 

Bufferbloat Test

Cloudflare Test 1

Cloudflare Test 2 *This is what I get the majority of the time*

connection issues
FTTP
gsx-pon
hub5x
lag
latency
upload latency

30 Replies

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  • pob42's avatar
    pob42
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    Here is my BQM on the 1 gig service with 5x Hub (very little internet use for the last 24 hrs)

    • Tudor's avatar
      Tudor
      Very Insightful Person
      2 years ago

      Check with Area faults on 0800 561 0061 If you have a VM landline 150 this goes down to post code level. You could also try the web page status, but this is not recommended as it only covers issues that affect a very large number of customers.

      VM will not dispatch any technicians while an area fault exists.

      If no area faults found:

      The primary place to report faults or for service requests is Customer Services on 0345 454 1111/150 if you have a VM landline or wait two or three days for a VM staff member to get to your post..

    • harveyl12's avatar
      harveyl12
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      Looks miles better than mine, Your spikes when virgin media seem to do a test don't peak anywhere near as much as mine do. 

  • legacy1's avatar
    legacy1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    VM really needs to stop speed testing the hubs🙄

    • harveyl12's avatar
      harveyl12
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      Yep either way most other networks don’t have an issue with bufferbloat on upload. Virgin media’s new network just sees stupid high latency when upload is being used

    • harveyl12's avatar
      harveyl12
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      And this is using a new Hub 5x on the new GSX-PON network where fiber going into your hub. Not coax? 

    • harveyl12's avatar
      harveyl12
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      I can’t see the pictures yet, did you make sure to blank out IP address?

      • Martyn's avatar
        Martyn
        Superfast
        2 years ago

        Yes all blanked out, re-adding here, (they still showing above for me)

        added below works fine. (maybe)

  • asim18's avatar
    asim18
    Rising star
    2 years ago

    So basically, slower is faster?

    Haha, only VM could create a brand new fibre network that is slower than the 50 year old CATV network.

    I guess that's what you get when most customers demand bandwidth rather than speed.

    I'd be more than happy with a 50Mb of bandwidth if I could have sub 5ms speed to LINX/LONAP.

    • legacy1's avatar
      legacy1
      Alessandro Volta
      2 years ago
      asim18 wrote:

      So basically, slower is faster?

      well no its the result of me doing BWM ( which is why my speed never hits 125Mb or 20Mb because I limit under it) but in a way slower is better if VM have bandwidth limits that they rate limit you and cause Bufferboat    

      • harveyl12's avatar
        harveyl12
        On our wavelength
        2 years ago

        Any annoyingly there is no way for me to mitigate bufferbloat with my hub 5x yet as they won’t allow modem mode yet so I can’t even use my own router with SQM

  • Riche90's avatar
    Riche90
    Dialled in
    2 years ago

    Same situation for months now as you guys have, albeit less frequent and lower spikes than OP. Hourly tests that tank my latency and do despite what a staff response said on here, actually impact my connection. If I run a ping -t to google during that time, my connection essentially lags out and VOIP through discord drops entirely for about 2-3 seconds. Amazing new network VM has. Don't even bother trying to get support either, it's beyond woeful. I've spent 6+ hours on calls now and not spoke to one person who has listened to me, or actually had a clue about the 5X. In fact they say it's got lots of problems and I'm part of a 'limited pilot'. Which I wasn't aware when I bought in... Why didn't I listen to people warning me about VM. ðŸ˜…

    • NoGGy's avatar
      NoGGy
      On our wavelength
      2 years ago

      Same here Ritchie. I should have stuck with my BT Fibre. Slower downloads, but had way better speeds. Save yourself the time and effort. Raise a complaint and ask for a "deadlock" letter. 

      • Kath_P's avatar
        Kath_P
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        2 years ago

        Hi NoGGy,

        Thanks for coming back here. 

        I've just replied to your thread here: Poor Line Quality Gaming.

        Please make sure you are only posting once about your issue. If you need to update the thread then just reply to your original thread rather than creating a new one. We understand it's frustrating when something's not right however posting more than once about the same fault makes the boards look busier than what they actually are. It also means we could take longer to reply due to needing to sift through duplicate posts.

        Have a look at my reply on the other thread and stick with that one so we keep all the information in one place. 

        Thanks, 

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Wise owl
      2 years ago

      Good spot. £90 symmetrical? The angels wept. Also still no news on modem mode or spiky BQMs. 

  • harveyl12's avatar
    harveyl12
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    So an update on my situation.

     

    After I was ill for the last few weeks earlier this week I started chasing this again and making phone calls. (Going through the very annoying automated service time and time again to speak to an actual human myself) Anytime I get through to the Indian call center they are quite frankly useless both call operators and managers and also struggle to understand half of what they are saying.

     

    However, I eventually managed to get through to the English call center and I explained the issue and that if they could stop doing these period speed tests to my Hub 5x every hour then it would probably sort most my issues I am facing. I was told that they don't think they can stop the tests but he said he was going to ask and find out. 

     

    I notice that my lag when gaming only really occurs on the hour such as 20:01, 21:01, 22:01, and so on. This is obviously when they are doing the speed tests.

    I also booked an engineer to come out again which was a few days ago, he saw the issue and spoke to a network engineer and he confirmed there are speed tests every hour which VM are doing to these hubs on the new XGS-PON network. This network engineer also said that most of these issues would be sorted if Modem mode was available as it stops all the VM tests etc.

    I checked my BQM the day the engineer came to visit and long behold, after I got off the phone with the English phone operator the other day who said they would ask if the tests can be stopped they seem to have stopped testing my hub so often, maybe at all. I have not experienced the lag on the hour the last few days as well.

     

    Now whether this is a massive coincidence or not that they seem to have stopped testing my hub I don't know, I never got confirmation that the tests have been stopped but see my BQM from the days before I called up, on the day I call up and the days after and it is a massive difference.

     

    Now this doesn't fix the buffer bloat issue so whenever I speed test I get bad upload latency on the tests due to the saturation of the upload, but at least VM doesn't seem to be saturating my upload anymore every hour with their own speed tests. They still need to enable Modem mode on the Hub 5x so I can sort and manage the buffer bloat and upload saturation myself with my own router but at least for now this is a big help and a massive improvment than before.

     

    Its taken months to get to this point

     

    Has anyone else's BQM on the Hub 5x XGS-PON network also showing that the periodic speed tests have stopped or is it just because I have complained?