Virgin Media Hub - Device Capping?

Mmmm_Lemony

Recently signed up again with Virgin Media. It's the Naked 500 package. When I ran the first speedtest over wifi I was shocked to see it bottoming out at about 45mb/s so i connected a cable directly to the router and tried again. This time bottomed out at about 55. Later that night (around 2-3am) I tried again and max I could get was 190.

Got on to support who sent out a Red House Engineer the following day. Had to keep 2m distance at all times so let him at it. He fiddled about for a while then called me in to show his laptop connecting at 480+ mb/s.

I explained my laptop is more than capable to do the same so he ran the same test from mine. This time mine came in at 125mb/s. I got a second cable and asked to run them side by side. Then swapped them over. He was getting 380+ and again mine was around 110-120. When he would run on his laptop alone, everytime he'd get 480+. Mine alone anywhere from 55-125.

He was a nice guy but it was difficult to troubleshoot the issue under the circumstances so he left stating that my equipment is the issue. Since then I've had a good look and my laptop is connecting to the router at 1gb/s. But every speedtest I run is coming back between 45-55 again. I've tried a different laptop with similar spec and network card and same issue, same connection speeds. I tried a third laptop thats only capable of 10/100 and thats coming in around the same.

Over wifi on average it's 10-15mb/s less than direct cable which would be exdpected and when I connect to a work phone as a hotspot i'm getting around 95-100mb/s fairly consistently. I know the hub isn't great for wifi but direct cable should have no issues, yet it feels like all devices are being capped at around 50mb/s!

I'm convinced that something fishy is going on and that the engineers mac address is somehow being uncapped, and any device I use is capped in/around 50. But when I think about this it seems ridiculous tinfoil hat stuff.

tl;dr
Hub appears to cap my devices at around 50mb/s (10/100/1000 adapters included), red house engineer came and could connect at 480+. What gives?

deckie27

can you try another device

Mmmm_Lemony

deckie27 wrote: »

can you try another device

I've tried 3 laptops with a direct cable connection (same cable ENG used for 480+ speeds) and 4 phones over wifi. I've ran out of devices.

smuggler.ie

Mmmm_Lemony wrote: »

I've tried 3 laptops with a direct cable connection (same cable ENG used for 480+ speeds) and 4 phones over wifi. I've ran out of devices.

What tool was used for test?
Was ENG testing to specific server on his device and random on yours?

ED E

Mmmm_Lemony wrote: »

I've tried 3 laptops with a direct cable connection (same cable ENG used for 480+ speeds) and 4 phones over wifi. I've ran out of devices.

You dont perhaps have three dells do you?

ted1

Is your laptop using a DNS , proxy or VPN. Or similar ?

thenightman

Mmmm_Lemony wrote: »

Recently signed up again with Virgin Media. It's the Naked 500 package. When I ran the first speedtest over wifi I was shocked to see it bottoming out at about 45mb/s so i connected a cable directly to the router and tried again. This time bottomed out at about 55. Later that night (around 2-3am) I tried again and max I could get was 190.

Got on to support who sent out a Red House Engineer the following day. Had to keep 2m distance at all times so let him at it. He fiddled about for a while then called me in to show his laptop connecting at 480+ mb/s.

I explained my laptop is more than capable to do the same so he ran the same test from mine. This time mine came in at 125mb/s. I got a second cable and asked to run them side by side. Then swapped them over. He was getting 380+ and again mine was around 110-120. When he would run on his laptop alone, everytime he'd get 480+. Mine alone anywhere from 55-125.

He was a nice guy but it was difficult to troubleshoot the issue under the circumstances so he left stating that my equipment is the issue. Since then I've had a good look and my laptop is connecting to the router at 1gb/s. But every speedtest I run is coming back between 45-55 again. I've tried a different laptop with similar spec and network card and same issue, same connection speeds. I tried a third laptop thats only capable of 10/100 and thats coming in around the same.

Over wifi on average it's 10-15mb/s less than direct cable which would be exdpected and when I connect to a work phone as a hotspot i'm getting around 95-100mb/s fairly consistently. I know the hub isn't great for wifi but direct cable should have no issues, yet it feels like all devices are being capped at around 50mb/s!

I'm convinced that something fishy is going on and that the engineers mac address is somehow being uncapped, and any device I use is capped in/around 50. But when I think about this it seems ridiculous tinfoil hat stuff.

tl;dr
Hub appears to cap my devices at around 50mb/s (10/100/1000 adapters included), red house engineer came and could connect at 480+. What gives?

So you have perfectly working internet at speeds you already won't max out or notice any difference in general web use and streaming, yet you're still risking your own and the techs well-being by insisting on a service call during a bloody pandemic. Jesus christ, you can't wait until it's safe again in a few months time?



The mind boggles!

Mmmm_Lemony

thenightman wrote: »

So you have perfectly working internet at speeds you already won't max out or notice any difference in general web use and streaming, yet you're still risking your own and the techs well-being by insisting on a service call during a bloody pandemic. Jesus christ, you can't wait until it's safe again in a few months time?



The mind boggles!

Firstly, I didn't request an engineer to call out. Secondly, I've been forced to work from home like a lot of people. I work in IT (in a company listed as essential services) and have to move large files regularly to and from the servers in work. Not general web use. I've signed up for a 500mb service which was only getting 10% of that. I don't think 10% would be considered 'perfectly working' technically, as you suggested.

As I said, the provider sent the engineer out to test for a fault, I merely highlighted the issue. That said, the alternative would be that I would have to attend the office, five days a week (risking my own and my colleagues well being). Which may prove the only outcome unless this is resovled.

Given the current environment, I can understand why you would assume i'm thinking only of myself and have jumped to the conclusion I'm having a rant because my netflix isn't up to scratch. Unfotunately, I need a good connection and I'm not getting one.

Mmmm_Lemony

ted1 wrote: »

Is your laptop using a DNS , proxy or VPN. Or similar ?

Yes a VPN but I've disabled it before connection testing.

Mmmm_Lemony

ED E wrote: »

You dont perhaps have three dells do you?

2 Lennovo, 1 HP.

KildareP

Tech was probably testing against Virgin's internal speedtest:
https://www.virginmedia.ie/broadband/learn-about-broadband/broadband-speed-test/

Whereas if you use something like Speedtest.net or Fast.com or your corporate VPN you'll be testing against a server located out on the internet.

If Virgin's internal network is fine but their routes out onto the wider network are congested then you'll see a discrepency.

What makes matters worse is that Virgin route the majority of their European traffic through Amsterdam, rather than locally in each country.

As a result their peering links can get congested very quickly and you will probably have poor performance across corporate VPN's unless your company ISP also happens to be using Virgin.

beauf

The OP says they ran the same test.

If they were capping you'd think more people would be experiencing the low speed.

When mine is working I get my full speeds, no cap. I had loads of problems two weeks ago. The hub eventually fixed itself, I think it was corrupt and too a few days to sort itself out. I could get no sense from the VM rep that got in touch 7 days after I logged a support call.

Mmmm_Lemony

KildareP wrote: »

Tech was probably testing against Virgin's internal speedtest:
https://www.virginmedia.ie/broadband/learn-about-broadband/broadband-speed-test/

Whereas if you use something like Speedtest.net or Fast.com or your corporate VPN you'll be testing against a server located out on the internet.

If Virgin's internal network is fine but their routes out onto the wider network are congested then you'll see a discrepency.

What makes matters worse is that Virgin route the majority of their European traffic through Amsterdam, rather than locally in each country.

As a result their peering links can get congested very quickly and you will probably have poor performance across corporate VPN's unless your company ISP also happens to be using Virgin.

He was actually using speedtest.net as was I. He said it didn't really matter what node you are connecting into, but I manually used the same as him (wasn't virgin at the time, may have been Waterford, can't remember). And as I said, my work laptop uses a VPN but I disabled before testing. The other 2 laptops are personal and don't have VPNs. All devices... phones, laptops even an Android box...max out at 40-50. I'm under the impression it's not me, it's them.

kheery

Hey

What hardware / software versions are folk on generally in Ireland? I upgraded to 500Mb and have a very similar experience - in or around the 10-50Mbps range . I had upgraded from 250 to 500 and was told a new router would arrive but it never did so I'm still on my original Virgin Hub 3 with following specs when I log in to router

Standard specification compliant : DOCSIS 3.0
Hardware version : 4.01 ....i read UK is on 10! Am I ancient?
Software version : CH7465LG-NCIP-6.12.18.26-3p7-1-NOSH ....i dont see an option to force an update

Guess my theory is end of life hardware / dated software is contributing to the problem for existing customers that take an upgrade.

ED E

CH7465LG-NCIP-6.12.18.26-3p7-1-NOSH Thats the current FW.

ondafly

ED E wrote: »

You dont perhaps have three dells do you?

I'm curious - what can the 3 Dells cause ?