I had 500mb fibre installed recently (last month) and have great download and upload speeds. Getting on average 550mbps down and 55mbps up. This is fairly consistent.
Streaming video etc is fine, although on occasions it does buffer. However, when it comes to gaming, its an absolute bloody night. I play CS, Battlefield etc. Any form of online shooter is a pain to play. Its playable with an average ping of around 15-20ms, but I get regular spikes up to 150ms/200ms for 2-3 seconds and it drops down again. I currently have a new Hub 5x, which I think could be the cause of the problems, but I am not sure. Just to provide some evidence, I have run a number of line quality tests, with mixed results. As you can see, its shocking. These tests are done 30 seconds apart and its terrible.
The same happens when its plugged in. I also also run the same tests on a different internet connection and via my mobile and I don't get any of these issues.
Hi Gareth,
The issue is still present No improvement at all. As per the entire chain, it's now clear to me, as the other users in this thread have said, we have 2 issues here, Virgin speed testing the line and a problem with the Hub5x router . The new Hub5x router has some serious issues with delay and buffer bloat. The engineering team at Virgin probably know this is an issue and need to get a Firmware update released ASAP. If no timeline for that can be provided, I will be requesting a deadlock letter via the Virgin media complaints department and will raise this with the communication ombudsman. If you provide a terrible bit of kit which causes use latency spikes then the internet is useless to me, especially when I want to use it for gaming.
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?
