Classic British Flight Sim

Hi Ben.
My NTL modem is connected directly to a fibre optic cable,and not via a radio link,so i dont think that is the problem,although some people have ways of hijacking your identity these days,that anything is possible.
I also know that a couple of times that i have shut down my computer,it as come up with a message that tells you,do not touch anything,as updates are taking place,even though i have manual updates selected,which makes me think that either NTL or MS where responsible for this,as they know the back doors around your security devices.
regards alan.

Hi Alan..

I get that with certain updates mate. Where I used to click on the icon to download and install critical windows updates.. the install would follow the download almost immediately.. this rarely happens now. I click to download and the icon disappears. Sometimes (last night being one).. when I go to close the pc down, I get the message click here to turnoff without installing updates or click here to turnoff and install updates. On other occassions.. I click to download the update and the icon will disappear and I can turn the pc off normally. When I turn the pc on the next day.. the icon will appear saying 'Click here to install updates'. :o :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Never really had a problem with Virgin. Started off as a 1mbit years ago and has been frequently upgraded to its current 20mbit. I see an average of about 16mbit and have seen nearly 20 a few times. I download quite a bit but never more then a few gigs in one go...
Bring on the 50mbit service and later the 100

alan cottrill wrote:Hi All.
Thanks for your replys,as for my usage,i should be nowhere near to the limit at which it would be throttled like it is,i am beginning to think they may be trying a fast one,to make people update to the fastest package,with tv and phone for £30 a month,just call me synical,but this problem as only started fairly recently,since they annouced there so called mega fast broadband package.
Also the times at which it is slowed down are more or less the same time each day,prior to it slowing down,it works as it should,so i know its there end and not mine,and when i took this ntl broadband,i never had this problem,except during maintanance work,and it was unlimited,and downloading the real weather every 15 min during a flight,would not even make a dent in my usage.
Regards alan.

Whilst people may be keen to point out that your connection has beeen "hijacked" if it's slowing down at the same time each day your connection won't be being utilised by anyone else, it's far more likely that there are more users connected in your local area at that time slowing up your connection. Every internet connection has a thing known as a "contention ratio". This is usually listed as 20:1, 50:1, 100:1 etc. This indicates how much bandwidth is shared by users, every ISP does it unless you are willing to pay huge amounts for a dedicated link for your own use. I've heard from people who use NTL that they have problems with this on occasion (I'm not sure exactly why) but I'd hypothesise that NTL's better traffic shaping software isn't up to scratch as it varies greatly depending on which ISP you are using. (Traffic shaping is a way of optimising network performance so during busy periods you don't notice the dreaded "internet slow down" anywhere near as much). Many newer ISP's have eschewed contention ratio's completely due to improved traffic shaping methods allowing a near-to-real parity of a 1:1 ratio for almost all users. My previous ISP was 20:1 and I really felt the internet slowing down at peak times.

Incidentally if you really want to see if someone has been poking around using your connection then simply check your router status when there is a period of slow-down (you will either have a piece of software you can use for setting up and viewing the status of the router or you will have an IP address you type into a browser, i.e for Netgears it's usually 192.168.0.1) and you will be able to see all of the connected devices using your network.

If anyone is worried about people stealing your bandwidth via your router then make sure you have WPA enabled and set with a decent, long password of mixed case and containing some numbers (WEP is useless) and you should be fine 99.9% of the time, it will keep out all "casual" bandwidth thieves.

Also consider the fact that if your internet slows down at the same time every day and you are adamant that it is not your internet connection getting busy (don't trust what your ISP tells you with regards to this) you may have picked up a little nasty from somewhere that is using your internet connection to transmit data. There is a tremendous amount of malware floating around designed to do just this. Some do it just to annoy you, others do it to eat up your connection and force your ISP to limit you when you exceed your bandwidth limit, others do it to carry out DoS (denial of service) attacks on various websites, there really is a plethora of reasons why. As rare as this is it is still more likely to be this than someone actually wardriving or deliberately using your internet connection.

I'm with ChrisH on this one - 1600 to midnight is when the bandwidth is going to have to be shared by more users - all those kids coming home from school and hitting the network :roll:

If you look at the PlusNet web site it shows the traffic shaping and all the other ISPs are going to have similar systems whether cable or copper wire.

Here on BT's copper wire (with no chance of cable) I see the same effect. Downloading 4Gb Linux distros on P2P crawls during the day but suddenly speeds up at midnight.

But never been down to the trickle that Alan describes so does sound like something is amiss.

Hi Alan

I had the same problem as yourself with Virgin....after the so-called upgrade my connection slowed down. After a few days of not being able to connect properly I phoned Virgin expecting the usual hassle. It turned out that my old Ambit USB cable modem was not compatible with their new speeds. They promptly sent me a new modem and all is fine again.
My only complaint with my episode is that one is not informed that their equipment is at fault until one complains about it. How many other users out there are struggling ?.

Love from one... :kissu:

Bye for now

I was with Virgin and am now with Sky. Nothing to do with speed but to do with Virgins' attitude towards its customers. I queried why new customers were on a cheaper rate and could they put me on it I was told no. Only new customers. I went and became a new customer elsewhere and then Virgin wanted to know, perhaps we could give you a new rate. Too late I said.