Forum Discussion

rid1's avatar
rid1
Tuning in
2 years ago

Broadband drops every hour, possibly caused by realspeed

Hi,

I have the symmetrical Gig2 service. Over the past few weeks, I have been experiencing periodic packet drops every hour, specifically around 12 minutes past the hour. Despite having the Hub 5x in router mode, this issue persists.

Upon investigation, I noticed that I can replicate these packet drops when I run a samknows/realspeed test. It appears that realspeed is running a test against my line at these intervals. Strangely, when I initiate a download of approximately 20Mbps, the dropout does not occur.

I have tested this behavior across different devices, both via Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections. Additionally, I have set up a BQM, which clearly shows the regular drops. The absence of drops during the 20Mbps downloads further supports my suspicion that realspeed testing is causing the issue. How do I get realspeed to stop running tests against my line every hour, as it disrupts the service.

Thanks

realspeed

42 Replies

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  • haywardgg's avatar
    haywardgg
    Dialled in
    11 months ago

    Another update.

    I've been testing the connection out with a constant 2MB download (very impractical long term), and i've not had any lost packets in the past 2 hours. So, Samknows is configured to not run if the download stream is 2MB or over, but doesn't factor in for upload speeds, which are crucial for streaming, video calls, etc.

    Seriously, VirginMedia, are you even listening ?

  • haywardgg's avatar
    haywardgg
    Dialled in
    11 months ago

    @rid1 have you figured out a workaround or had any resolution from VirginMedia?

    • legacy1's avatar
      legacy1
      Alessandro Volta
      11 months ago

      The only way is just leave and say no modem mode no future with VM. 

      I just hope when fibre happens here I'm not having to follow what I say.😟

      • haywardgg's avatar
        haywardgg
        Dialled in
        11 months ago

        That's what I'll be doing by the end of next week if they don't fix it. I'm also writing to Ofcom.

        I can't be the only one who got the Gig package for streaming, surely others are complaining too. Not just me and the OP of this thread. I've even tried bringing it up on Twitter, but they tried gaslighting me, so I gave up there too.

        Fingers crossed for next week, and fingers crossed for when you get it in your area 🙂

  • legacy1's avatar
    legacy1
    Alessandro Volta
    11 months ago

    Its going to be a bumpy ride for modem mode to happen even if VM can't give us true modem mode then can do REAL DMZ also known as IP passthrough

     

    • haywardgg's avatar
      haywardgg
      Dialled in
      11 months ago

      You can't even enable Modem Mode manually with the 'secret' URL any more, either. They patched it. There isn't even an option to disable PING / ICMP packets in the firewall or advanced settings. Which leaves the router open to even the most basic DoS attacks!

      In other threads and on social media, VirginMedia are gaslighting people. Knowing too well that there's an issue with the samknows ping service and their routers, acting like they have no idea what the customer is talking about.

      If it wasn't for the support rep that's helping me right now, I'd have cancelled weeks ago. I'm about to though!

  • haywardgg's avatar
    haywardgg
    Dialled in
    11 months ago

    I can confirm, after 1 week of testing, that this is indeed Samknows related.

    I'm on a Gig2 package and signed up so I could stream, but unfortunately the hourly packet loss due to Samknows is cutting me off and is making it impossible to stream consistently. I've asked a representative to look into it, and if it can't be fixed I'm leaving the service. Whoever made the decision to use an intrusive service breaking tool like Samknows, needs to be fired.

    I'm disappointed to see that VirginMedia have known about this all along, yet they play dumb when you phone up and point it out to them. Saying they'll send round an engineer to test cables, etc..

  • legacy1's avatar
    legacy1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    VM and there unless Statistics lets run a speed test on a user! OO look 1Gb and 100Mb upload lets test another user! what is the bloody point! 

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    Applying a continuous load masks a connection stability issue, that is the opposite of what one might expect.

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

    Hi rid1 👋.

    Thanks for reaching out to us, and welcome to the Community Forums. Apologies for the issues that you are having with your service. We cannot confirm if we are doing any testing in the background, can we ask are all devices disconnecting, is it at the same time and are there any changes in the lights on the hub?

    Sabrina

    • rid1's avatar
      rid1
      Tuning in
      2 years ago

      Hi. Thank you for your reply. I have tested this with and without devices attached and the behaviour is the same. There is no change on the light of the router. It does not disconnect from the Internet. The broadband becomes unstable during this period. If I am on a voip call then this is interrupted. If I work from home then my citrix connection is also interrupted. The only way that I could prevent this from occurring is to run a continuous download of 2 Mbps. This is annoying as for £90 a month I should not have to do this "workaround". I've previously had BT FTTP to my house and did not experience any issues.

      Regards

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

        Thanks for coming back to us rid1 

        As you are on the XGS-PON service, you do have a ring-fenced team to help with any technical issues.

        Please give us a call on 150 / 0345 454 1111 and we can assist further.

        Best wishes.

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Wise owl
      2 years ago

      Looks like the usual VM remote speed testing of the XGS-PON network to me. 

      Just to add the putting green latency of the new network compared to the usual Docsis performance is very impressive. 

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    As you are on a new service, this could very well be VM running tests.