Please go to www.speedtest.net - run the test and report your ping, together with ISP (for the novices, lower number is better).
Mine is 7ms - Virgin Media cable rocks
Mine is 7ms - Virgin Media cable rocks
What is your ping?
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BT doesn't restrict your connection whereas Virgin does at certain times. 
By the way, ping times for FTTC are obviously going to be much higher than an all fibre connection.
By the way, ping times for FTTC are obviously going to be much higher than an all fibre connection.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“By the way, ping times for FTTC are obviously going to be much higher than an all fibre connection.”
“By the way, ping times for FTTC are obviously going to be much higher than an all fibre connection.”
There is absolutely no reason why that should be the case. Most delays in ping times are due to the intermediate routers, the transmission speed in fibre is the same as that in copper.
Originally Posted by SteveMcK:
“There is absolutely no reason why that should be the case. Most delays in ping times are due to the intermediate routers, the transmission speed in fibre is the same as that in copper.”
“There is absolutely no reason why that should be the case. Most delays in ping times are due to the intermediate routers, the transmission speed in fibre is the same as that in copper.”
I never had a ping time of 5ms with ADSL and ADSL2. I've also used all the servers in Britain on the speedtest website. Explain how I never had a ping time lower than 30ms when on ADSL2 then.
Edit: by the way, when I say much higher, I mean 15ms is the quickest I've had with the website in the link in the first post.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“BT doesn't restrict your connection whereas Virgin does at certain times. By the way, ping times for FTTC are obviously going to be much higher than an all fibre connection.”
“BT doesn't restrict your connection whereas Virgin does at certain times.
By the way, ping times for FTTC are obviously going to be much higher than an all fibre connection.”
No one mentioned an all fibre connection though. The original poster is on Virgin Media cable.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“I never had a ping time of 5ms with ADSL and ADSL2. I've also used all the servers in Britain on the speedtest website. Explain how I never had a ping time lower than 30ms when on ADSL2 then..”
“I never had a ping time of 5ms with ADSL and ADSL2. I've also used all the servers in Britain on the speedtest website. Explain how I never had a ping time lower than 30ms when on ADSL2 then..”
What does ADSL have to do with a difference between FTTC and "all Fibre" ?
"ping" time (ICMP round-trip) is affected by many things, mostly the number of router hops, but also by general traffic load. You'd need to use something like traceroute to compare the hop count. The actual physical media, fibre or copper, won't have any affect over the link between a local exchange and a home. It's only over national distances where that would make a difference, since you can run fibre for hundreds of km without repeaters (which add delay). That's why companies install it in the backbone network, but are in no rush to install it for the "last mile", where it will make no practical difference.
Originally Posted by *MikeB*:
“No one mentioned an all fibre connection though. The original poster is on Virgin Media cable.”
“No one mentioned an all fibre connection though. The original poster is on Virgin Media cable.”
Cable is fibre, is it not? They didn't say anything about ADSL either. I made an assumption based on what they said. How the hell am I supposed to know if they don't make things clear?
Originally Posted by SteveMcK:
“What does ADSL have to do with a difference between FTTC and "all Fibre" ?
"ping" time (ICMP round-trip) is affected by many things, mostly the number of router hops, but also by general traffic load. You'd need to use something like traceroute to compare the hop count. The actual physical media, fibre or copper, won't have any affect over the link between a local exchange and a home. It's only over national distances where that would make a difference, since you can run fibre for hundreds of km without repeaters (which add delay). That's why companies install it in the backbone network, but are in no rush to install it for the "last mile", where it will make no practical difference.”
“What does ADSL have to do with a difference between FTTC and "all Fibre" ?
"ping" time (ICMP round-trip) is affected by many things, mostly the number of router hops, but also by general traffic load. You'd need to use something like traceroute to compare the hop count. The actual physical media, fibre or copper, won't have any affect over the link between a local exchange and a home. It's only over national distances where that would make a difference, since you can run fibre for hundreds of km without repeaters (which add delay). That's why companies install it in the backbone network, but are in no rush to install it for the "last mile", where it will make no practical difference.”
Just saying what ping times I've had when doing speed tests.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“Cable is fibre, is it not? They didn't say anything about ADSL either. I made an assumption based on what they said. How the hell am I supposed to know if they don't make things clear?”
“Cable is fibre, is it not? They didn't say anything about ADSL either. I made an assumption based on what they said. How the hell am I supposed to know if they don't make things clear?”
You said "all fibre". Cable has a similar amount of fibre to FTTC. Cable is Hybrid Fibre Coaxial, so it is fibre to the cabinet and then coaxial copper from the cabinet to the customer.
They did make it clear, they said Virgin Media cable.
on chiltern railways, birminghan to london with their free wifi i was getting 5ms ping times actually on the moving train.
Originally Posted by *MikeB*:
“You said "all fibre". Cable has a similar amount of fibre to FTTC. Cable is Hybrid Fibre Coaxial, so it is fibre to the cabinet and then coaxial copper from the cabinet to the customer.
They did make it clear, they said Virgin Media cable.”
“You said "all fibre". Cable has a similar amount of fibre to FTTC. Cable is Hybrid Fibre Coaxial, so it is fibre to the cabinet and then coaxial copper from the cabinet to the customer.
They did make it clear, they said Virgin Media cable.”
Oh, whatever. Can't be bloody bothered. I'm not going to argue because I don't know whether you're lying or not.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“Oh, whatever. Can't be bloody bothered. I'm not going to argue because I don't know whether you're lying or not.”
“Oh, whatever. Can't be bloody bothered. I'm not going to argue because I don't know whether you're lying or not.”
Lying? Why would I lie? It would be easy enough for you to check if I'm lying anyway just Google "Virgin Media HFC" and you will see I'm not lying!
You seemed to think that Virgin run a pure fibre network and I just corrected you and told you it was HFC. What's the big deal? Not sure what you're getting ratty about.
Originally Posted by emptybox:
“Ping 291ms 4.28Mb/s download 0.38Mb/s upload. Orange.
Doesnae sound too good?
”
“Ping 291ms 4.28Mb/s download 0.38Mb/s upload. Orange.
Doesnae sound too good?
”
You can't have fibre cabinets in Scotland as they have to discover electricity first!
Originally Posted by *MikeB*:
“Lying? Why would I lie? It would be easy enough for you to check if I'm lying anyway just Google "Virgin Media HFC" and you will see I'm not lying!
You seemed to think that Virgin run a pure fibre network and I just corrected you and told you it was HFC. What's the big deal? Not sure what you're getting ratty about.”
“Lying? Why would I lie? It would be easy enough for you to check if I'm lying anyway just Google "Virgin Media HFC" and you will see I'm not lying!
You seemed to think that Virgin run a pure fibre network and I just corrected you and told you it was HFC. What's the big deal? Not sure what you're getting ratty about.”
So why do Virgin advertise that you don't need a phone line with their cable broadband?
Originally Posted by zx50:
“So why do Virgin advertise that you don't need a phone line with their cable broadband?”
“So why do Virgin advertise that you don't need a phone line with their cable broadband?”
Probably because you don't !!!!!
MikeB is spot on though with what he's saying.
Cable broadband is fibre to the node then delivered to your house via a coaxial cable completely separate from your phone line , with BT's FTTC its fibre optic to the street cab then delivered over your copper phone wire hence why you need a phone line.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“So why do Virgin advertise that you don't need a phone line with their cable broadband?”
“So why do Virgin advertise that you don't need a phone line with their cable broadband?”
Did you even Google what I suggested? Why do I have to explain this all to you whilst you accuse me of lying?
I don't see what relevance your question has at all about the phone line but I'll answer it. Virgin have their own separate network. It IS HFC, it isn't pure fibre. It is theirs and they don't share it with anyone. So it's up to them if they don't want to require you have a phone line with their broadband.
Their broadband isn't delivered over a phone line, it is delivered as I've said via fibre to a cabinet in the street and then coaxial cable from the cabinet to your house. So it's a good differentiator from the competition for them to be able to advertise that you don't NEED a phone line to have their broadband.
Originally Posted by muppetman11:
“MikeB is spot on though with what he's saying.”
“MikeB is spot on though with what he's saying.
”
Thanks for backing me up.
BT Infinity 76Mb:
Peak times:
10-15ms
69-70Mb
Off-peak times:
10-11ms
74-75Mb
I used to have Virgin Media 120Mb up until October 2013 at my previous address, the only real difference i notice is Youtube works much better with BT Infinity. On VM there was constant buffering issues normally at peak times especially at 720/1080 quality, which i barely notice with BT.
So i dont know which i prefer. If BT Infinity matched the speed of VM, then id prefer BT... just based on the youtube thing (and other similar streaming video websites). Ping was about the same.
Peak times:
10-15ms
69-70Mb
Off-peak times:
10-11ms
74-75Mb
I used to have Virgin Media 120Mb up until October 2013 at my previous address, the only real difference i notice is Youtube works much better with BT Infinity. On VM there was constant buffering issues normally at peak times especially at 720/1080 quality, which i barely notice with BT.
So i dont know which i prefer. If BT Infinity matched the speed of VM, then id prefer BT... just based on the youtube thing (and other similar streaming video websites). Ping was about the same.
Originally Posted by *MikeB*:
“Did you even Google what I suggested? Why do I have to explain this all to you whilst you accuse me of lying?
I don't see what relevance your question has at all about the phone line but I'll answer it. Virgin have their own separate network. It IS HFC, it isn't pure fibre. It is theirs and they don't share it with anyone. So it's up to them if they don't want to require you have a phone line with their broadband.
Their broadband isn't delivered over a phone line, it is delivered as I've said via fibre to a cabinet in the street and then coaxial cable from the cabinet to your house. So it's a good differentiator from the competition for them to be able to advertise that you don't NEED a phone line to have their broadband.
Thanks for backing me up.”
“Did you even Google what I suggested? Why do I have to explain this all to you whilst you accuse me of lying?
I don't see what relevance your question has at all about the phone line but I'll answer it. Virgin have their own separate network. It IS HFC, it isn't pure fibre. It is theirs and they don't share it with anyone. So it's up to them if they don't want to require you have a phone line with their broadband.
Their broadband isn't delivered over a phone line, it is delivered as I've said via fibre to a cabinet in the street and then coaxial cable from the cabinet to your house. So it's a good differentiator from the competition for them to be able to advertise that you don't NEED a phone line to have their broadband.
Thanks for backing me up.”
Just forget it. I won't bother you again.
Originally Posted by muppetman11:
“Probably because you don't !!!!!
MikeB is spot on though with what he's saying.
Cable broadband is fibre to the node then delivered to your house via a coaxial cable completely separate from your phone line , with BT's FTTC its fibre optic to the street cab then delivered over your copper phone wire hence why you need a phone line.”
“Probably because you don't !!!!!
MikeB is spot on though with what he's saying.
Cable broadband is fibre to the node then delivered to your house via a coaxial cable completely separate from your phone line , with BT's FTTC its fibre optic to the street cab then delivered over your copper phone wire hence why you need a phone line.”
Right. Thanks.
Originally Posted by zx50:
“Just forget it. I won't bother you again.”
“Just forget it. I won't bother you again.”
Why are you getting so offended? You haven't bothered me at all. Maybe you shouldn't be so sceptical about what people are saying. I've no reason to come on here and make things up as I've got better things to do.
I just don't get your logic at all. Someone says something on a forum and it doesn't sound correct to you-surely you'd check for yourself before accusing them of lying? I would anyway.
Originally Posted by Jesse Pinkman:
“You can't have fibre cabinets in Scotland as they have to discover electricity first!”
“You can't have fibre cabinets in Scotland as they have to discover electricity first!
”
They're a rare breed, right enough.
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