cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

High Latency, VM Refuse to Acknowledge a Problem

joethoughhh
Tuning in

As the title reads, im having major issues with latency on Virgin Media. Im using a Hub 4 on a WIRED connection and averaging about 400mb/s download and 35mb/s upload. I will attach below a Broadband Quality Monitor graph so you can see what I'm talking about. (https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/view/a1a95abd3c307810a2e3f61db9047dd212...)

My latency issues mean Call Of Duty is absolutely unplayable, usually getting around 150-500ms of latency while the ideal is around 1-50ms of latency. 

I've spent numerous hours on the phone with VM repeating myself about my problems but i never seem to get anywhere, I tried to be patient and have waited to see if the problem fixed itself but it just gets even worse. 

This is my last ditch attempt at trying to get some help from someone from VM. 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

 

YES i've restarted my hub.

YES i've tried both wired and wireless connections

YES i've tried multiple ethernet cables

YES i've tried multiple consoles / NO i don't have a faulty console

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions


@joethoughhh wrote:
I'm still having problems, and have been for over a year now sadly. Here is a link to my BQM showing high ping, making gaming unplayable.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/23f02d9871f6697f4285715fe32320b49f...

That, I'm afraid, looks very much like the distinctive fingerprint of "over-utilisation", where VM have overloaded the local network by selling more contracts than their equipment supports.  You see how it's very poor during normal waking hours, and then peachy from about half past midnight before starting to get worse again as traffic rises through the day?  Shows that the network and your hub are working OK when there isn't too much traffic. Over-utilisation is not strictly speaking a fault in the sense of something broken, but rather equipment working exactly as expected when VM sell more contracts than they can support in a given area, and the way the company respond to these is often very poor.  Put simply, at busy times more data packets are at times being transmitted than the equipment capacity allows, so the data packets get queued at the equipment that joins the local coax network to the upstream VM network and internet exit points.  And although that queue time is not that long, it's easily long enough to wreck performance of any latency sensitive use like gaming, live-streaming, or video calls.

There is (mostly) nothing you can do to improve matters.  In some areas VM do indeed undertake work to rejig the local networks to balance loads and eliminate over-utilisation, and they spend millions each year doing this.  But sometimes that's either not possible, or judged uneconomic if there's a need to spend money on more equipment.  And regrettably, VM often struggle to admit (a) that there is a problem, and if they do then (b) they struggle to be truthful over whether any fix date is attached to real network changes.  So even where there is a fault reference and a "fix date", there's no way of knowing if that fix date is backed by an actual plan of action and programme of works. Quite often it seems not, and as the fix date approaches it is simply moved a month or two ahead. Your options:

1) Sit it out, and hope that VM do carry out improvement works. There's little or nothing you can do to force VM to upgrade the network, nor to be honest about the fix dates.  This has been a festering issue in some areas for a long time.

2) Get yourself a new ISP. If you're in a fixed term contract you may have to use the VM complaints process (and possibly escalate for arbitration at CISAS ) to be released from contract without penalty. If you need to do this, the grounds of your complaint is the poor performance, and your request for release from contract without penalty is twofold: First the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that requires any consumer service to be provided with "reasonable skill and care", and second, the Ofcom Fairness Commitments that VM have signed up to, that states "Customers’ services work as promised, reliably over time. If things go wrong providers give a prompt response to fix problems and take appropriate action to help their customers, which may include providing compensation where relevant. If providers can’t fix problems with core services they have promised to deliver within a reasonable period, customers can walk away from their contract with no penalty."

 

 

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

8 REPLIES 8

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
The link is not to your BQM - its to the login page.

Do it as described under it for ..... "share live graph"

--------------------
John
--------------------

I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
Also in the meantime
____________________

Post up your Hub/network connection details and someone will check to see if there is a problem there.  In your browser’s URL box type in http://192.168.0.1  (or http://192.168.100.1 - if in modem mode) and hit return. On the first page up [there should be no need to login if you have done so before unless you have the New Hub4 when you do] click on the “router status” icon/text at bottom-middle of first page up and then copy/paste as “Formatted Text” (not images) 3 FULL sets of data onto here – 2 pages from the Downstream, 2 from the Upstream, & the Network Logs page. Don't worry too much about the formatting it can be easily read & DON’T include personal data or MAC addresses - blank them out - if you copy/paste the data, the board software will do this for you (you may need to click the "submit" button again.

--------------------
John
--------------------

I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

Alex_RM
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi joethoughhh,

 

Thanks for posting and sorry to hear you've had some issues with your connection. 

 

I've been able to locate your account using your forum details and can see there is currently an outage affecting you.

 

This is due to be resolved later this evening, please let us know if you're still experiencing connection problems after this timeframe.

 

Alex_Rm

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID
25 331000000 7.1 37.6 QAM256 25
1 139000000 6.8 38.6 QAM256 1
2 147000000 6.7 39 QAM256 2
3 155000000 6.8 38.6 QAM256 3
4 163000000 6.7 38.6 QAM256 4
5 171000000 6.6 38.6 QAM256 5
6 179000000 6.6 38.6 QAM256 6
7 187000000 6.6 38.6 QAM256 7
8 195000000 6.6 38.6 QAM256 8
9 203000000 6.6 38.6 QAM256 9
10 211000000 6.5 38.6 QAM256 10
11 219000000 6.3 38.6 QAM256 11
12 227000000 6.3 38.6 QAM256 12
13 235000000 6.2 37.6 QAM256 13
14 243000000 6.5 38.6 QAM256 14
15 251000000 6.3 37.6 QAM256 15
16 259000000 6.5 38.6 QAM256 16
17 267000000 6.4 38.6 QAM256 17
18 275000000 6.1 38.6 QAM256 18
19 283000000 5.6 38.6 QAM256 19
20 291000000 5.5 38.6 QAM256 20
21 299000000 5.8 37.6 QAM256 21
22 307000000 6.6 38.6 QAM256 22
23 315000000 7 38.6 QAM256 23
24 323000000 7.2 38.6 QAM256 24
26 339000000 7.3 38.6 QAM256 26
27 347000000 7.4 38.6 QAM256 27
28 355000000 7.4 38.6 QAM256 28
29 363000000 7.6 39 QAM256 29
30 371000000 7.5 38.6 QAM256 30
31 379000000 7.6 38.6 QAM256 31


3.0 Downstream channels
Channel Lock Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors
25 Locked 37.636276 0 0
1 Locked 38.605377 0 0
2 Locked 38.983261 0 0
3 Locked 38.605377 0 0
4 Locked 38.605377 0 0
5 Locked 38.605377 0 0
6 Locked 38.605377 0 0
7 Locked 38.605377 0 0
8 Locked 38.605377 0 0
9 Locked 38.605377 0 0
10 Locked 38.605377 0 0
11 Locked 38.605377 0 0
12 Locked 38.605377 0 0
13 Locked 37.636276 0 0
14 Locked 38.605377 0 0
15 Locked 37.636276 0 0
16 Locked 38.605377 0 0
17 Locked 38.605377 0 0
18 Locked 38.605377 0 0
19 Locked 38.605377 0 0
20 Locked 38.605377 0 0
21 Locked 37.636276 0 0
22 Locked 38.605377 0 0
23 Locked 38.605377 0 0
24 Locked 38.605377 0 0
26 Locked 38.605377 0 0
27 Locked 38.605377 0 0
28 Locked 38.605377 0 0
29 Locked 38.983261 0 0
30 Locked 38.605377 0 0
31 Locked 38.605377 0 0


3.1 Downstream channels
Channel Channel Width (MHz) FFT Type Number of Active Subcarriers Modulation (Active Profile) First Active Subcarrier (Hz)
159 96 4K 1880 QAM4096 759


3.1 Downstream channels
Channel ID Lock Status RxMER Data (dB) PLC Power (dBmV) Correcteds (Active Profile) Uncorrectables (Active Profile)
159 Locked 40 7.5 1000705028 0



Refresh data
3.0 Upstream channels
Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID
1 53700000 46.8 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM 2
2 39400000 47.3 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM 4
3 46200000 46.8 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM 3
4 60300000 47.3 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM 1


3.0 Upstream channels
Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts
1 US_TYPE_STDMA 0 0 1 0
2 US_TYPE_STDMA 0 0 1 0
3 US_TYPE_STDMA 0 0 1 0
4 US_TYPE_STDMA 0 0 12 0


Time Priority Description
Thu 01/01/1970 00:01:27 3 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed 30/06/2021 20:47:55 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Sat 03/07/2021 11:11:53 4 DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Sat 03/07/2021 11:11:54 6 DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg640-bbt053-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Tue 06/07/2021 18:35:53 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Thu 08/07/2021 00:50:02 3 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Thu 08/07/2021 14:53:46 4 DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Thu 08/07/2021 14:53:47 6 DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg640-bbt053-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Sun 11/07/2021 07:32:51 4 DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Sun 11/07/2021 07:32:51 6 DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg640-bbt053-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Sun 11/07/2021 22:14:06 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed 14/07/2021 13:11:29 3 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed 14/07/2021 13:16:48 3 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed 14/07/2021 13:16:53 5 Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed 14/07/2021 13:17:18 3 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed 14/07/2021 13:21:19 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Fri 16/07/2021 10:26:58 4 DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Fri 16/07/2021 10:26:58 6 DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg640-bbt053-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 19/07/2021 03:29:56 4 DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 19/07/2021 03:29:56 6 DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg640-bbt053-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Tue 20/07/2021 17:20:04 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Fri 23/07/2021 10:24:55 4 DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Fri 23/07/2021 10:24:55 6 DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg640-bbt053-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Fri 23/07/2021 20:23:18 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:02:44 3 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:02:45 5 Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:04:00 3 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:28:59 4 Missing Mandatory MDD TLV on primary DS Channel;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:29:15 3 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:29:43 5 MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Mon 26/07/2021 13:29:47 3 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;


Is this the required info that you were talking about? Hope I didn't post the wrong stuff, haha. Thanks for your help though!


I'm still having problems, and have been for over a year now sadly. Here is a link to my BQM showing high ping, making gaming unplayable.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/23f02d9871f6697f4285715fe32320b49f...

Hi joethoughhh,

 

Thanks for posting on our community forums. Disappointing to hear that you're still having ongoing issues with high latency, and this is making gaming online very difficult.

 

Unfortunately I have tried to run some remote checks from our end, but your hub is showing as offline? Can I ask you to reboot the hub for me and come back to me once this has been done?

 

Kind regards Jodi. 

 


@joethoughhh wrote:
I'm still having problems, and have been for over a year now sadly. Here is a link to my BQM showing high ping, making gaming unplayable.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/23f02d9871f6697f4285715fe32320b49f...

That, I'm afraid, looks very much like the distinctive fingerprint of "over-utilisation", where VM have overloaded the local network by selling more contracts than their equipment supports.  You see how it's very poor during normal waking hours, and then peachy from about half past midnight before starting to get worse again as traffic rises through the day?  Shows that the network and your hub are working OK when there isn't too much traffic. Over-utilisation is not strictly speaking a fault in the sense of something broken, but rather equipment working exactly as expected when VM sell more contracts than they can support in a given area, and the way the company respond to these is often very poor.  Put simply, at busy times more data packets are at times being transmitted than the equipment capacity allows, so the data packets get queued at the equipment that joins the local coax network to the upstream VM network and internet exit points.  And although that queue time is not that long, it's easily long enough to wreck performance of any latency sensitive use like gaming, live-streaming, or video calls.

There is (mostly) nothing you can do to improve matters.  In some areas VM do indeed undertake work to rejig the local networks to balance loads and eliminate over-utilisation, and they spend millions each year doing this.  But sometimes that's either not possible, or judged uneconomic if there's a need to spend money on more equipment.  And regrettably, VM often struggle to admit (a) that there is a problem, and if they do then (b) they struggle to be truthful over whether any fix date is attached to real network changes.  So even where there is a fault reference and a "fix date", there's no way of knowing if that fix date is backed by an actual plan of action and programme of works. Quite often it seems not, and as the fix date approaches it is simply moved a month or two ahead. Your options:

1) Sit it out, and hope that VM do carry out improvement works. There's little or nothing you can do to force VM to upgrade the network, nor to be honest about the fix dates.  This has been a festering issue in some areas for a long time.

2) Get yourself a new ISP. If you're in a fixed term contract you may have to use the VM complaints process (and possibly escalate for arbitration at CISAS ) to be released from contract without penalty. If you need to do this, the grounds of your complaint is the poor performance, and your request for release from contract without penalty is twofold: First the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that requires any consumer service to be provided with "reasonable skill and care", and second, the Ofcom Fairness Commitments that VM have signed up to, that states "Customers’ services work as promised, reliably over time. If things go wrong providers give a prompt response to fix problems and take appropriate action to help their customers, which may include providing compensation where relevant. If providers can’t fix problems with core services they have promised to deliver within a reasonable period, customers can walk away from their contract with no penalty."

 

 

Thank you so much for your help man, really appreciate it!