View Full Version : Virgin's New STM Policy
http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php
Bugger :(
I'll be honest and say that doesn't look hugely horrific to me, unless you actually attempt to max your connection all day long.
20Mb for example, if you download 6GB during the day, will get knocked to 5Mb (which will still provide over 500KB/s surely?) for 5 hours. Evening time if you download 3GB the same thing. So, just self cap your download speeds during day/evening so you won't fall foul of the limits and do your bulk downloads overnight...
To be honest it is pretty horrific to me.
They advertise the service as unlimited - when it clearly isn't.
20Mb for example, if you download 6GB during the day, will get knocked to 5Mb (which will still provide over 500KB/s surely?) for 5 hours. Evening time if you download 3GB the same thing. So, just self cap your download speeds during day/evening so you won't fall foul of the limits and do your bulk downloads overnight...
Quick bit of math..
20Mb / 8 = 2.5MB per second. (3*1024)/2.5= 1228.8 seconds, or just a whopping 20 minutes.
Whats the point of having a 20Mb connection if you're only allowed to use it at full speed for 20 minutes?
Even during the day time that's capping you to just 40 minutes.
Why waste money paying for a super fast connection when you can't even use it?
They keep getting more stringent with their limits. This has changed since the 4Mb users have been upgraded (free of charge) to 10Mb. I can't honestly see it changing till they get round to upgrading the back end of the system and they go to Docsis 3.
leowyatt
28-05-2008, 19:55
Well personally I think it's shocking, between 10am and 9pm you need to be very careful with your connection. Basically schedule any downloads between 9pm and 10am :)
Unfortunately for me Unison doesn't provide scheduling :(
leowyatt
28-05-2008, 20:17
It's a Mac usenet client Daz, the best around apparently. But I've looked and can't find anything in there to schedule anything with. I know you can do it in Alt.Binz.
To be honest it is pretty horrific to me.
They advertise the service as unlimited - when it clearly isn't.
It is unlimited, technically. You can still download over 500GB a month if you wish to.
You'll just have to do some of it at 5Mb :p
At the end of the day, being capped to 5Mb for a few hours is hardly the end of the world, it's better than a lot of ADSL services that will cap you to 256K for an entire day. It hardly cripples your ability to use the net, or even download still.
Also, bear in mind, this will only be a problem if you're doing something illegal or are on a mission to find every Linux ISO ever created ;)
It's a Mac usenet client Daz, the best around apparently. But I've looked and can't find anything in there to schedule anything with. I know you can do it in Alt.Binz.
You could handle it outside the app - make a script to kill the process at 9:55am and start it at 9:05pm :)
It is unlimited, technically. You can still download over 500GB a month if you wish to.
You'll just have to do some of it at 5Mb :p
At the end of the day, being capped to 5Mb for a few hours is hardly the end of the world, it's better than a lot of ADSL services that will cap you to 256K for an entire day. It hardly cripples your ability to use the net, or even download still.
Also, bear in mind, this will only be a problem if you're doing something illegal or are on a mission to find every Linux ISO ever created ;)
No, technically it is limited.
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/traffic-management-table.jpg
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/vmletterpt2.png
Looks like Virgin are having their 'PlusNet moment' - when is a FUP not a FUP?
Was inevitable that was going to happen. Infrastructure can't cope, product rollouts not planned to fit with capacity, capacity upgrades too expensive or too impractical, or more likely all the above.
My regular daily use wouldn't fall foul of their caps, and their downstream caps wouldn't bother me anyway, but the upstream caps are a killer for teleworkers like me.
I keep thinking about switching to save money, but frankly with stuff like that I'd rather stay put - at least PlusNet have learned that I (usually) behave and keep quiet if left alone, even if I do burst the official caps now and then. ;D
Can't say I'm surprised in the slightest. Oh well, I'll continue to rape the connection as much as I can whilst I can.
I've seen people suggest that they'll drop STM when they switch to DCOSIS 3.0. I think there is more chance of be becoming Prime Minister than that happening.
leowyatt
28-05-2008, 22:31
Burble for PM!!!!! Burble for PM!! :p
I can't do a worse job than that **** we currently have in number 10.
leowyatt
28-05-2008, 22:46
You'd rock!!! :cool:
I'm not sure the other 60million or so people in the country would agree with you :)
leowyatt
28-05-2008, 23:03
Who gives a crap :p the government don't care what the people think so why should we ;D
LeperousDust
29-05-2008, 00:45
It is unlimited, technically. You can still download over 500GB a month if you wish to.
You'll just have to do some of it at 5Mb :p
At the end of the day, being capped to 5Mb for a few hours is hardly the end of the world, it's better than a lot of ADSL services that will cap you to 256K for an entire day. It hardly cripples your ability to use the net, or even download still.
Also, bear in mind, this will only be a problem if you're doing something illegal or are on a mission to find every Linux ISO ever created ;)
While i agree with you mostly, what about me. In a flat with 5 guys, we're only on the smallest option because we dont need blazing fast internet, 2mb shares between 5 easy. What if we're independantly watching iplayer a youtube throughout a day plus browsing? I can see us topping 900mb /450mb (or whatever it is) pretty quick :) Then all being throttled back to essentially 1mb between 5 (which then works out pretty shocking) doesn't really seem fair now does it?
What is annoying is that I'm being stm'd till 10pm at night now for some reason, at first I figured it was because of the time change, but it still happens, so if there is something I need to download that will cause the STM to kick in, I have to wait till 10pm.
On the plus side though, I do get the full 10Mb all day.
LeperousDust
29-05-2008, 12:16
Yeah thats the kick in the teeth with the 5 hour slowdown, its 5 hours even after the period is up, so if you go over your limit 1 minute before 9pm you're throttled until 2am =/ Which is a little sucky!
It is unlimited, technically. You can still download over 500GB a month if you wish to.
More like 4TB.
Try doing that every month on any other ISP and see how long before they "have a word", regardless of what their terms may say.
Del Lardo
02-06-2008, 22:49
We're on the 20mbit connection and we must download over 1TB of data/month and Virgin haven't said a thing. Having said that we are probably going to move to the 10mbit business connection as there are no restrictions and 10mbit is fast enough as most of our downloads are slow burners.
While i agree with you mostly, what about me. In a flat with 5 guys, we're only on the smallest option because we dont need blazing fast internet, 2mb shares between 5 easy. What if we're independantly watching iplayer a youtube throughout a day plus browsing? I can see us topping 900mb /450mb (or whatever it is) pretty quick :) Then all being throttled back to essentially 1mb between 5 (which then works out pretty shocking) doesn't really seem fair now does it?
See how far that £3.60 per person gets you elsewhere though.
£18 per month would probably not even get you a 512K connection on ADSL, when you take into account the £11 per month going to Line Rental. Never mind a 1Mb connection that you could leaving downloading for hours on end and not have a word said to you.
LeperousDust
02-06-2008, 23:47
You are definately right, i'm just use to the wonder years.... They're over for the time being, but tbh virgin are still pretty darn good value as you point out :)
We're on the 20mbit connection and we must download over 1TB of data/month and Virgin haven't said a thing. Having said that we are probably going to move to the 10mbit business connection as there are no restrictions and 10mbit is fast enough as most of our downloads are slow burners.
There is STM on the business line, but it's in the evening.
You are definately right, i'm just use to the wonder years.... They're over for the time being, but tbh virgin are still pretty darn good value as you point out :)
Also, it may be worth firing off an email explaining, they might consider making an exception, considering I imagine they're trying to cut out the people just solidly torrenting/newsgrouping, all day, everyday.
LeperousDust
03-06-2008, 13:44
Nah, i'd rather they didn't look to closely at my account, as i definately download over the average share of usenet content, hence i shouldn't really be complaining :p
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