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High ping, Random disconnections - Phone support states it's "Fine"

Sesnik
Tuning in

Hello,

For a few months now I've noticed my internet becoming more and more erratic, I know around midnight theres a chance an update is pushed to the hub which knocks it off for a few moments which never used to be a problem but lately the hub will take several minutes to fully come back online.

 

It will kick my devices offline, they lose connection to the internet first and then moments later it loses the WiFi signal, it regains the signal after a bit but then loses the signal again and again until it just randomly stabilises, this hasn't been the norm so it's odd and quite frustrating.

 

Secondly, I'm noticing large ping spikes, which doesn't affect most things but certainly does effect gaming in a very negative way (30ms ping to 700ms ping spikes which lasts a few seconds and constantly happens then stops at random for a few minutes).

I've had a talk on the support call line, the agent kept telling me everything looked fine and was operating normally, I raised my concerns about the errors and the power levels of the Downstream/Upstream channels and the fact that Virgins own website states: 

Broadband connection issues found

Please wait for 15 minutes while we reconnect the WiFi Hub to our network.

When I log in on the site and try to check out anything to do with my broadband from the website or the app itself, so how could it possibly be "Fine". I've now been told that I'm going to be paying a £25 fee for a technician to come out to my address, I assume because In their eyes, I must be imagining these ping spikes and issues I'm encountering, or they just refuse to acknowledge the problem.

 

My network log is filled with a lot of these:

RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=[redacted];CMTS-MAC=[redacted];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=[redacted];CMTS-MAC=[redacted];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=[redacted];CMTS-MAC=[redacted];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

These errors repeat throughout the day, every single day.

 

Here's the Downstream/Upstream stats also:

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

12030000000.238256 qam9
2139000000-0.438256 qam1
3147000000038256 qam2
41550000000.438256 qam3
51630000000.538256 qam4
61710000000.938256 qam5
71790000000.738256 qam6
81870000000.938256 qam7
91950000000.538256 qam8
102750000001.240256 qam18
112830000001.240256 qam19
122910000001.238256 qam20
132990000001.238256 qam21
143070000001.240256 qam22
153150000001.540256 qam23
163230000001.738256 qam24
173310000001.938256 qam25
183390000002.538256 qam26
19347000000338256 qam27
203550000003.240256 qam28
213630000003.240256 qam29
22371000000340256 qam30
233790000003.238256 qam31
24387000000340256 qam32

 

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1Locked38.9480
2Locked38.6544230
3Locked38.679676345677
4Locked38.9130935263022
5Locked38.93560
6Locked38.91300
7Locked38.9770
8Locked38.9440
9Locked38.9740
10Locked40.3260
11Locked40.9220
12Locked38.9100
13Locked38.950
14Locked40.350
15Locked40.360
16Locked38.950
17Locked38.640
18Locked38.9120
19Locked38.9560
20Locked40.380
21Locked40.9180
22Locked40.340
23Locked38.950
24Locked40.340

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

14960000055.3512064 qam1

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1ATDMA0000
12 REPLIES 12

Matthew_ML
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hey Sesnik, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community I am sorry to hear you are having some issues.

Just to confirm you have a engineer visit booked in, if so how did that go?

Also these visits are free unless one of the T&C's wore broken which are;

Most engineers’ visits are free of charge, in the below instances there would be a charge of £25:

•    The customer is not present for the engineers visit (aka a missed appointment).

•    The fault is due to customer's own equipment.

•    The fault is due to damage caused by someone at the customer's premises which we were not aware of.

•    The fault is due to theft, loss, or removal of equipment. 

 

 

Matt - Forum Team


New around here?

Hey Matthew,

Yea, I had a techy come out and he said he ran a scan on my connection and said the Upstream was having issues, the router wasn't locking in the upstream channels.

He had replaced the attenuator, that seemed to have solved the upstream issue and the connection was fine yesterday but today, I'm seeing the same issues again, my ping is spiking from 50ms to 300ms+, though this time the ping stays at the spike for much longer than before.

If there's no problem with the lines / area, then the next thing that it comes to is the Virgin router itself. At my previous address, each year we ran into connection issues and the router was replaced as the techy's who came out would simply take the old one and install a new one, which solved any connection issues for the next year or so. I hoped the new router wouldn't have the same problem but it seems they do from what I'm experiencing as my connection at this address has been fine since I signed up with Virgin but now the connection is progressively getting worse.

Yesterday the Virgin broadband status page showed no issues, which was a change as it previously said there was an issue before the techy came here, now it's back to saying there's an issue once more.

 

Broadband connection issues found

Please wait for 15 minutes while we reconnect the WiFi Hub to our network.

 

I'd appreciate any assistance here, after the last phone call I had with the support team, I'd rather avoid calling them again, I was made to feel like I'm the problem and that I'm just wasting the support agents time as they ignored my questions about the fact the website itself says there's a problem. Very frustrating situation.

legacy1
Alessandro Volta

Setup BQM but likely nothing wrong with your hub just how bad the Docsis upstream gets due to people in your area uploading unless your the one causing ping spike 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Not doing any file transfers during these ping spikes.

It's never been an issue before, which is why it's very odd. - It's noticeable during Gaming, with only one device connected and using the internet, as the only other devices would be my Tv and Phone, TV is off and phone is disconnected during tests.

 

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/559a428ca92222ccc9321505879ec82985...

This is my BQM that I setup when I created this post. As I'm typing this right now, I'm watching my ping inside a game go from 50 - 60ms up to 300ms to even 1000 at one point.
No major networking being used on the PC during this, as I'm monitoring my network Upload/Download on another monitor, trying to remedy the issue.

I've ruled out the potential of it being the game, tested 4 different games from different studios, same issue on each one. - PC Performance is normal, so not performance related. 

Switched to Pay as you go mobile dongle for internet and that runs fine, although slower, obviously, sitting at a steady 90ms ping but no spikes.

Sesnik
Tuning in

Adding an edit here:
I decided to start to monitor VoIP ping on my phone and the pc, the results come back the same.

They sit at a respectable 20 - 30ms ping while connecting to a rotterdam VoIP Server, with a 0.0% packet loss rate, though the spikes appear. When transmitting voice, the ping will raise (Expected) to around 10ms higher, though when receiving voice from others, the ping spikes appear, again raising to the 300+ range, it's harder to test during the VoIP but it's good to confirm that it's happening on both devices through a different method.

The "Average Ping" is 230ms after a couple of minutes of testing with VoIP.

Thank you for keeping us updated Sesnik. 

How has the service been since your last post?

^Martin

It had a few days of being alright, a few spots of spikes but nothing as bad.

But it's starting up yet again, the Downstream channels keep failing to lock in half the channels. Ontop of this, now the Router is rejecting the password to sign in, though I have the password saved to the browser, so no idea what on earth is going on with my hub, it's having a mental breakdown.

 

A manual reboot of the box fixes some things for a day or two, then it **bleep**s the bed again. It's very strange how it can be fine for a couple of days then go back to being a mess.

WorstISP
Superfast

Hi Sesnik, if you see my thread, you'll see this is an ongoing issue across the UK. They don't resolve this kind of issue unless it gets to the Ombudsman stage, and even then you'll be disapointed.

You should raise a complaint with Virgin, 8 weeks after that you can escalate to the Communications Ombudsman, which is when you should share your evidence (Focus on building up a table of evidence that's easy for them to understand the issue and failures by Virgin).

Start Virgin's official complaint process: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

Report the issue to OfCom: https://ofcomlive.my.salesforce-sites.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

Well, that's sad to hear. Virgin is the only provider where I'm at currently so I'm stuck, unless I go through a phoneline and get 2mb speeds.. which is not realistic. Or I continue to use a wifi dongle but the payment for that would be insane.

 

Ontop of this, I've also been charged for the tech call out, which I was told I would not be charged if the fault was theirs, which the tech guy said it was virgins problem at the time and replaced equipment to deal with it, which didn't work for long, so I already have a complaint in about this.

 

The issue is persisting again today, It consistently happens around 8pm onwards, so probably due to being on the same line as others in the apartments here and they are sucking up the bandwidth, Virgin overselling their service again I guess.

 

The moment another provider has their network available here I will be jumping ship immediately.

 

To tack on a new issue, the router is no longer accepting my password to login. I have the password saved on Chrome and its suddenly rejecting it, as if it's been reset, yet no other settings that I can tell, have changed (WIfi Password, etc). Seems as if the Hubs are still garbage as they were some years ago.