Internet download speeds a question

[swindonseagull]

Check my answer on page 1, your laptop is bottlenecking it.

any settings or updates to "un bottleneck it?"

 

[gullshark]

any settings or updates to "un bottleneck it?"

Older hardware unfortunately.

 

[Buzzer]

Fair play to these people with seriously fast speeds but what are you using them for that a bog standard internet can't provide? I'm using Virgin and get wi-fi speeds of 75 with my 5g and about 49 with my 2g connections and that is more than enough for streaming films, downloading music on my iTunes and generally surfing the internet.

I'm curious as to what the superusers are using it for.

 

[swindonseagull]

Fair play to these people with seriously fast speeds but what are you using them for that a bog standard internet can't provide? I'm using Virgin and get wi-fi speeds of 75 with my 5g and about 49 with my 2g connections and that is more than enough for streaming films, downloading music on my iTunes and generally surfing the internet.

I'm curious as to what the superusers are using it for.

I work from home so want a fast reliable service

 

[happypig]

I work from home so want a fast reliable service

I have a separate 16mb ADSL2 for homeworking and that's plenty enough. Do network sort of stuff though, nothing media-heavy.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Fair play to these people with seriously fast speeds but what are you using them for that a bog standard internet can't provide? I'm using Virgin and get wi-fi speeds of 75 with my 5g and about 49 with my 2g connections and that is more than enough for streaming films, downloading music on my iTunes and generally surfing the internet.

I'm curious as to what the superusers are using it for.

Yep - all that stuff is fine. I work from home and occasionally need to download (and upload) large files - usually installation binaries for large systems that I will subsequently upload somewhere else for installation. These files may be many gigabytes in size. The time taken to download these files is directly dependent on the download speed. But its not a big deal - as I said earlier, I've just halved my connection speed to Virgin and now I have to wait twice as long for these files. So what? Time for another cup of tea. All the everyday stuff is fine whether you have 50, 100 or 200. The difference is un-noticeable for the most part.

 

[¡Cereal Killer!]

I got virgin installed at my new house in Friday after having 5 years of bog standard Sky broadband at my old flat (couldn't get Fibre) and the difference is amazing. Like the OP though, I got a slightly older laptop so only really getting 50mbps on laptop but still far superior to what I had.
Only downside is that yesterday the broadband kept cutting out, had to ring them to get it sorted and a couple of hours later it went again (simple unplug and plug back in sorted it that time), hopefully won't be a regular occurance though or I will be ringing them up again and telling them to come and sort it.

 

[Buzzer]

Yep - all that stuff is fine. I work from home and occasionally need to download (and upload) large files - usually installation binaries for large systems that I will subsequently upload somewhere else for installation. These files may be many gigabytes in size. The time taken to download these files is directly dependent on the download speed. But its not a big deal - as I said earlier, I've just halved my connection speed to Virgin and now I have to wait twice as long for these files. So what? Time for another cup of tea. All the everyday stuff is fine whether you have 50, 100 or 200. The difference is un-noticeable for the most part.

Thanks for the reply, this is what I thought. I'm working from home today and providing systems support for our finance system. The reliability of the system isn't in my experience related to the speed of the internet and I'm able to work as well and as quickly here as I am on our wifi in the office.

 

[swindonseagull]

I got virgin installed at my new house in Friday after having 5 years of bog standard Sky broadband at my old flat (couldn't get Fibre) and the difference is amazing. Like the OP though, I got a slightly older laptop so only really getting 50mbps on laptop but still far superior to what I had.
Only downside is that yesterday the broadband kept cutting out, had to ring them to get it sorted and a couple of hours later it went again (simple unplug and plug back in sorted it that time), hopefully won't be a regular occurance though or I will be ringing them up again and telling them to come and sort it.

They just replaced my super hub 2 with a superhub 3 today,
apparently they have updated somewhere and its causing problems in that the hub2 disconnects or freezes every 15 -20 mins.

Of course they cant afford to replace all boxes so will wait until a customer complains.....some people might not worry that it freezes ( or might not notice) but it really hacks me off.

 

[clippedgull]

Yep - all that stuff is fine. I work from home and occasionally need to download (and upload) large files - usually installation binaries for large systems that I will subsequently upload somewhere else for installation. These files may be many gigabytes in size. The time taken to download these files is directly dependent on the download speed. But its not a big deal - as I said earlier, I've just halved my connection speed to Virgin and now I have to wait twice as long for these files. So what? Time for another cup of tea. All the everyday stuff is fine whether you have 50, 100 or 200. The difference is un-noticeable for the most part.

I have large 'installation' files to download too. Cut mine from 200 mbps to 50mbps but schedule for overnight so don't really miss the speed.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

They just replaced my super hub 2 with a superhub 3 today,
apparently they have updated somewhere and its causing problems in that the hub2 disconnects or freezes every 15 -20 mins.

Of course they cant afford to replace all boxes so will wait until a customer complains.....some people might not worry that it freezes ( or might not notice) but it really hacks me off.

Hmm that's interesting. I've had a totally trouble-free service for about 2 years until about 2 months ago. In the last 2 months though its been up and down a bit.

 

[perseus]

This seems like the thread to post in...im currently with Bt infinity, which I found out doesn't mean unlimited, with a speed of up to 52mbps.

We use BBC I player and the like to watch some tv. But never download anything, should I drop to the 17mbps or will I notice it with my everyday use

Yep.

 

[Mr Putdown]

They just replaced my super hub 2 with a superhub 3 today,
apparently they have updated somewhere and its causing problems in that the hub2 disconnects or freezes every 15 -20 mins.

Of course they cant afford to replace all boxes so will wait until a customer complains.....some people might not worry that it freezes ( or might not notice) but it really hacks me off.

There is a huge problem with latency and jitter on the super hub 3 which apparently makes gaming dreadfully laggy. Take a look on the virgin media forum, hopefully a firmware solution is on its way.

 

[Munkfish]

I previously had Virgin and had a MBPS download speed of roughly between 110-180 it varied. It really depends on what you use it for but 50 MBPS is more than enough you could have about 10 people connected without seeing a difference in quality!

I currently live in a shared house and we pay for something like 20MBPS we get roughly between 1 and 3MBPS. Sky is a complete Joke. As soon as i can i will get Virgin.

 

[¡Cereal Killer!]

They just replaced my super hub 2 with a superhub 3 today,
apparently they have updated somewhere and its causing problems in that the hub2 disconnects or freezes every 15 -20 mins.

Of course they cant afford to replace all boxes so will wait until a customer complains.....some people might not worry that it freezes ( or might not notice) but it really hacks me off.

I've got a the hub 3.0 but dont know if that is the cause.
I have probably had internet for 30 minutes yesterday and it not worked since. Got someone coming out tomorrow to hopefully sort it out.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Im looking for a new broadband deal, currently with sky as part of package.

Have a BT Phone line.

Any suggestions ?

Avoid BT at all costs!

 

[clippedgull]

Avoid BT at all costs!

Surely that's subjective!

I've had BT, SKY, and currently on Virgin and all three have given me no serious problems. I moved from Sky to BT through a house move, and because BT couldn't give me the 200mbps that I wanted I moved to Virgin.

I appreciate people have had problems but that happens in all businesses big and small.

 

[beorhthelm]

Avoid BT at all costs!

you can't! they provide the local loop and most exchanges, the vast majority of ADSL and fibre is rebadged BT service. and they offer some very good deals with the Sainsbury's vouchers. their service can be crap, but then so are all of them, so throw them in the mix.

 

[nicko31]

2MB in central Reading, you are very lucky

 

[Bwian]

I've got a the hub 3.0 but dont know if that is the cause.
I have probably had internet for 30 minutes yesterday and it not worked since. Got someone coming out tomorrow to hopefully sort it out.

Be prepared for numerous visits... This year alone I have had 3 x Virgin Superhub 2 and now on Superhub 3 number 2. Virgin will only rate their download speeds via an ethernet connection and they will not use WiFi connections for any diagnostics. You can have the latest hardware (laptop, tablet, phone, etc.) and their stock response/answer is that WiFi speeds are not part of their advertised "up to" speeds.

We have an issue with their local cabinet-every time it rains there is a 99% probability that our broadband will crap out and die. It has been like this for about 8 years. Every time it happens they say they need to send an 'engineer' out to check our equipment despite being told that 8 visits this year alone and multiple replacement hubs show the fault is outside somewhere.

Virgin always blame their customer's devices even though we have experienced more problems since getting Superhub 3, so much so that I asked for the Superhub 2 back. No chance of that.