Dizzy Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 How can I see what Broadband speed I am actually getting withough having to download any software onto my PC ? Just upgraded to 10 meg broadband today and I want to make sure that I'm getting it... although it does seem a lot faster tonight so it must have changed in some way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 http://tinyurl.com/c5tdly Try this Dizzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted April 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Thanks Ran it a few times as suggested on the link and I seem to be getting between 8600 and 9058 at the moment. I'm happy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 ran this one and averaged 946 which is not bad as i am on virgin medias 1meg unlimited. curious thing is my local area connection shows me at 10.0 Mbps. might call them up and see just what i am supposed to get as their website now only has three broadband packages. the smallest being "upto" 10 meg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 I think you're looking at the wrong thing there Sid? The 10meg your seeing is the speed of the local network i.e. the speed that the computer talks to things like the router or other computers and has nothing to do with the speed of the internet connection. I had a letter last week informing me that all Virgin customers are getting free upgrades. I don't know what the 1meg will move up to but the current 2meg users move up to 10meg and the 10meg move up to 20meg. I checked mine the other night and it was just a tad under 2meg. So Dizzy, did the speed just change or did you have to change anything? I'm at work just now on BT so maybe my home one's been upgraded already? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted April 4, 2009 Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 Mine on wireless is 1.6 - 1.8 but seems to go up and down like a yo yo - depends on how many others using broadband apparently! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted April 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2009 I had a letter last week informing me that all Virgin customers are getting free upgrades. I don't know what the 1meg will move up to but the current 2meg users move up to 10meg and the 10meg move up to 20meg. I checked mine the other night and it was just a tad under 2meg. So Dizzy, did the speed just change or did you have to change anything? I'm at work just now on BT so maybe my home one's been upgraded already? Bill Currenty running at between 8933 and 9088 still Virgin are phasing out their size 'medium' broadband and are upping everyone to 10 meg but I actually changed my package two weeks ago which included an upgrade to 10 meg and it was ACTIVATED yesterday. The broadband speed difference only became apparent after yesterdays activation by the virgin bloke who installed my v+ box so it definately didn't happed as standard or without intervention I'm getting a lot more for less ? each month now including free phone calls 24/7, faster broadband and a HD V+ box (now that is good !!) after a bit of wealer dealing but not sure I'll get used to my family constantly pausing and rewinding live TV though Guess it's a novelty for them at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Ah that explains it then. Just a coincidence that you changed packages just as I received the letter about the upgrade. I checked again last night and I'm still on 2meg. It's a pitty I can't get cable speeds at my office because we use the Internet quite extensivly and the adsl is poo with upload speed never much more than a quater of a meg. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 had an interesting conversation with my virgin media advisor (somewhere in India as far as i could tell). it came about because i had a message to contact them about my account. i thought it may have been about the phone business a few weeks back but it turned out to be about my broadband. they are doing away with the 1 and 2 meg broadband and are upgrading me to 10 meg (it means i get a faster connection but pay more for it). anyhow after a few minutes discussion i am now expecting a guy to turn up and fit a broadband modem. i wondered in that case about getting a router and putting mrs sid's wii on the net. debating on which way to go. wired or wireless and wanted to know what people's experience of either were. another interesting thing i came across was the fact that they are operating a traffic management scheme. if you have a 10 meg connection and download 1200 meg between 4pm and 9pm your download speed would be temporarily set to 2.5meg for a 5 hour duration and the upload set to 128kb for the same period. virgin media customers can see this info by logging into the my virgin media website and looking around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted April 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 had an interesting conversation with my virgin media advisor (somewhere in India as far as i could tell). If you ever phone them always phone and select the 'I am thinking of leaving you' option and you always get to speak to an English person they are doing away with the 1 and 2 meg broadband and are upgrading me to 10 meg ..... i am now expecting a guy to turn up and fit a broadband modem. Why ?? If you already have the lower broadband package you must already have one of their broadband modems installed at your house. We went from 2meg to 10 meg without needing a new one installing they just upgrade your connection speed from their end. i wondered in that case about getting a router and putting mrs sid's wii on the net. debating on which way to go. wired or wireless and wanted to know what people's experience of either were. My sons xbox 360 is on then net via a router (from my pc/virgin broadband) but from our experiences you are better hardwiring it to the router rather than going wireless if you can. The wireless connection on the xbox often cuts out and it's frustrating especially of you are part way through an online battle with your mates probably the same for the wii too Never had a problem all being hard-wired in and using it at the same time even when we were only on 2 meg. Interesting info about their traffic management scheme though. I don't download things but will keep an eye on it anyway as I was never told that bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 When I upgraded my Virgin broadband they had to fit a new modem because the one in the set top box wasn't up to the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted April 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2009 Mine has always been seperate from my old set top box.. hence my obvious confusion. Sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 A wireless link should work just as well as a cable provided the signal strength is reasonably high. Last week, we did a promotional event for work and used a wireless link from my home router to a hotel about 150 yds away. Initially, we had a very weak signal but adding a directional antenna (?20 from Maplin) got a reasonable connection but not quite good enough for our application. In the end we used an access point and directional antenna together and got full strength and excellent connection speed. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted April 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 What do you mean by access point Do you mean one of those places like the Golden Square or coffee shops where you get free wireless connection ? As for people who like online gaming on Xbox or even PC's (although not into that myself) the bloke in Maplin told us to hardwire it if we could as it was faster, cheaper and far more reliable even though I had actually gone in looking to buy an expensive xbox 360 wireless connector I like Mapin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 The access point was the same sort of thing but ours couldn?t be accessed by anyone else but us. As for network cables being faster that depends on what?s at either end. We normally use gigabit networking but it?s only as fast as the slowest bit on the network as we found out last week much to our embarrassment when we plugged in an old 10meg hub into the system. The speed of a wireless network is normally very good provided the signal is strong but it can slow down if the signal gets weaker or signals from other nearby devices such as routers, mobile phones, microwaves etc start to interfere with it. I can?t say I?ve ever experienced any speed issues via wireless both at home or at the office and any case the links always faster than the Internet. It?s just a more hassle plugging leads into things when it can all be done without them so sort of defeats the point of using a laptop. Internet speed is still 2meg here by the way, wonder when they're going to up it Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted April 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 Thanks Must admit if I was using a laptop I'd probably try the wireless connection route again for ease. But in our case the pc's and xbox stay in the same place so hardwired is not really a problem. As for you still being on the 2 meg broadband, don't worry about it as to be honest my 10 meg seemed to be really fast at first and things seemed a lot faster and I couldn't keep up with it but now it seems to have slowed down a bit.. or maybe I've just got quicker Noticed on my bill that my 10 meg is now down as costing me ?25 a month but then they take a discount off becasue of my package In your case it should only go up by ?2 a month when they automatically switch you over according to what their sales rep told me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 well i hope that it does only go up to the twenty pounds per or i will be having a few phone conversations with rashid about it. going to be fun though as the point he will need to access is in my back bedroom behind a bench that i will have to take apart fopr him to get at it. i will then have to sort out a power socket and hope the fuses don't go pop when it is plugged in. will probably go the wired route as nothing really moves around here.(except me occasionally when i have to take the dog for a walk ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted May 18, 2009 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Just got the upgrade tonight so I'm now running at a blistering 9.6Meg . Can't honestly see that much of a difference though (apart from the speed test sites.) I ended up having to ring them and ask them to do this and of course had to go through all the security loops. When they were happy they just said fine, then two seconds later it's all done. Well if it's that flippin quick, why on earth do I have to spend 15 mins on a national rate call, hang on I'm answering my own question here! AND am I going senile? but didn't the origional letter they sent say this was a free upgrade? So what's all the extra costs about? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted May 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Just checked mine and I am currently running at 3.8 meg I'm supposed to be 10 meg !!!! First couple of weeks seemed a lot faster when using my internet but now it doesn't seem to be as impressive or any different really. Was on my dads PC last week and he's on BT (2 meg I think)through a phone line and his seemed faster than mine PS... I got caught out with their national rate phone number too. Didn't realise until my other half asked if I knew what some odd and costly numbers on our bill were spanning 2 days. EEK that was me wealing and dealing with them for a better deal... no wonder they were so patient with me. Always used to be able to ring them for free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted May 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 ... just checked again and I'm now down to 1.5 meg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted May 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 ... and now my speed is down to 867k (less than 1 meg and not much better than my old dial up internet) BILL... CAN YOU GET OFF YOUR INTERNET PLEASE... STOP MEDDLING....YOU ARE SLOWING ME DOWN..... IT MUST BE YOUR FAULT !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted May 18, 2009 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Must be me sucking up all the bandwidth in the town. The porno downloads nearly finished anyway so it should be back up to speed soon. I think the problem is that while it might be faster, we?re probably sharing it with a lot more people. Before the upgrade, it was rock solid at 2 Meg but reading the forums many people have experienced exactly the same thing as your seeing. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted May 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 I've just checked again and I'm now upto 8.3 meg..... .... just as I'm about to switch off and go to bed Typical. I might monitor it for a week and then complain and see what their excuse is I'm good at moaning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted May 18, 2009 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 a lot depends on where the test goes to. if you use speedtest then you can select to test anywhere in the world. just checked mine and got the following results on speedtest download 2.72 mb/s upload 0.33mb/s ping 309 ms server napier distance 11500 miles download 9.7 mb/s upload 0.48 mb/s ping 70 ms server dublin distance 150 miles the first is about a third of my isp average. the second is about a third faster than my isp average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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