Updated broadband speed test - check your connection now!

As you may have noticed, the broadband speed check has been given a new design, a nice big button, and has been expanded so that it can  provide details about your exchange (such as the maximum speed you could theoretically get, and how far away from it you live) as well as information about products that are faster and/or cheaper than your current deal. Please leave us any feedback below.

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Comments

  • neutral

    by JS at 18:42 on 17 May 2007Report abuse

    I don't believe my result. I'm suffering what seems like slow broadband on a BT line that is meant to offer up to 8MB (your site says upt to 6.3 MB and that sounds reasonable). But your test gave a speed of 27.8 the first tiem and 21.8 the second time!

  • neutral

    by bernard Peel at 20:02 on 17 May 2007Report abuse

    Stay away from virgin media,i am a 4 mb user,and i am getting just over a dial up connection.This is fraud in a big way,how many of you out there are paying for a broadband that is realy disgustingly slow.

  • neutral

    by Damien Jorgensen - Cardiff at 09:22 on 19 May 2007Report abuse

    Virgin Media has gone to the dogs!

    in the evening I'm lucky to get 1MB download bandwidth and im on 10MBS!

    getup at 6AM and its great lol

  • neutral

    by gordon at 20:55 on 21 May 2007Report abuse

    can you add Sky broadband to th list of providers please?

  • neutral

    by chris at 00:45 on 24 May 2007Report abuse

    hi,
    is your speed test on dedicated servers, as it seems very low, only give me 2.5mb
    im with virgin media on the 20mb service, i have tried approx 10 different speed test sites and they all say between 18 - 20mb,
    there was another one but it was a complete joke, said i had a dsl conection of 300mb and my transfere rate was 32mb per second, still the most reliable way of assesing speed is to download 3 -4 large files at once from a server you know is good and stable add all the tranfere rates together, take of 10% for overheads, then work out your speed from the tranfer rate, simple and it works,
    i wish you well with your speed test and i look forward to seeing what mod you are doing to it and i will try it again soon

    cheers

    chris

  • neutral

    by thor at 23:27 on 24 May 2007Report abuse

    well i'm getting 2mb with virgin so thats spot-on and 4.8mb with tiscali so not to bad , as for why i have 2 connections , signed up with tiscali only to be port throttled to zero
    when using p2p ! be warned p2p includes gaming as i found out the hard way . so we all know Mr Branson has killed the best service provider Telewest but what other options are there ? both tiscali and bt port throttle and now virgin are adding to the list
    and how long till the proper sky service reaches your area !! think gaming and Mr Branson are doomed !!!

  • neutral

    by Harry at 19:34 on 25 May 2007Report abuse

    Good, quick and concise test. I can only get BT satellite broadband and would appreciate info on both download and upload. Do I have any satellite options in NI?

  • neutral

    by multiskilled at 22:35 on 27 May 2007Report abuse

    unbelievable 15.5 meg average on a 4meg connection! checked 5 times

  • neutral

    by Richard at 08:29 on 29 May 2007Report abuse

    NTL in Cardiff is awful, I pay for 10Meg and get under 1/2 a meg in the evening. But they wont admit it. Even though the engineer has seen it her in the house!

    :|

  • neutral

    by Brian at 18:25 on 4 Jun 2007Report abuse

    I have a contract with Pipex at 8meg with the local exchange in Kirriemuir limited to 5.4meg. The Genie test correlates with a number of other speed test sites and so far I am barely reaching dial up speed, except at 2am when I can get closer to 2meg. Advertising for nearly all providers borders on the fraudulent and at best is completely misleading. Broadband is just getting like dial up again overloaded and no where near the advertised specification. Where does the problem occur is it an exchange limited feature or poor lines ( I am 900 metres from exchange as the crow flies but maybe the is 900km away) or is my PC the key issue)

  • neutral

    by Terrier at 16:59 on 13 Jun 2007Report abuse

    I don't know what to make of the speed test. My router says it is 1184kbps AT THE SAME TIME as your speed test says it is 240.4kb. They can't both be right so which is it.

    Confusing unless someone can explain it

  • neutral

    by Dan B at 10:30 on 18 Jun 2007Report abuse

    Hi there,

    Same probs with sky broadband as everyone else, I waited nearly three weeks for my router because someone forgot to order it, used MAC code when i switched from Virgin, it took me nearly 8 weeks to get virgin cancelled, i had major probs with them, constant disconnections, horrible staff etc etc, but back to sky, had tv with sky for years with no probs, switched to their unlimited £5.00 per month phone service - excellent saving a fortune - recommended, took their connect broadband for special offer £5.00 per month £20.00 activation and free router, one day i lost my internet service with virgin, phoned them about 10 times before they could confirm that sky had taken over the line, i phoned sky was told equipment had been sent out, somebody cocked up!!, staff were very freindly and on the ball from sky except one, i was put though to technical help, clearly at the other end of the world, i spent 10 minutes explaining that i had no router and no username or password but could i set up a manual connection using my existing adsl modem as sky had blocked virgin from my line, after repeting several items several times i was put on hold for about five mins, he came back and asked me to plug my wireless router in that i had recieved from sky!!!, i again explained everything calmly and was then told after being put on hold again that he could help me as he did not know how to do a manual connection, i again told hime that i knew how to do it and i needed my username and password, eventually after nearly 20 minutes i told him he was about as much use as a ashtray on a motorbike which he did not understand and hung up.
    Move on nearly three weeks and another 10 or so calls i get my router, plug it in really easy and i on the net very very quick compared to virgin when surfing, went to downlaod and nothing no uploads nothing, did the port forwarding thing and manual set up the ip address etc, still very slow, and it kept disconnecting me? How always on?? i bought wireless dongle thing and moved the router to my main telephnoe socket now i do not get cut off as much but can only average around 1mb speed on the 8mb service, phoned and requested the 16mb service for £10.00, that went live last week according to a letter anyway, tried several tests including this one and guess what i get an average now of 200kb, the other night i managed to get 1.2mb but 10 mins later it was back down to 400kb.
    sorry about ranting on and i hope people can understand this, sky in my experience is a good company 100 times better than virgin or talk talk, but this internet thing they jumped in with two feet hopefully it will be as good as there phone and tv services but they have got 10 months to prove it or its bye bye from me.
    I am going now to vent my spleen to sky on the phone.

  • neutral

    by alan livesey at 19:08 on 24 Jun 2007Report abuse

    talktalk do not talk, their technical support responce is awful,on average 20-30 mins. I do not mind paying 10p a minute for help, unfortunately help is very hard to get from their call centres. So many times I have been told level 2 support will phone me back, they never do. my problem is, I am continually disconnected from the internet. tonight my speed test is 115 kps it is supposed to be up to 8mbs

  • neutral

    by Mr StayawayfromBT at 18:41 on 26 Jun 2007Report abuse

    BT did a pre-contract line test and said we would get 1MB download. It rarely runs over 200kbps, often less than 100kbps.
    Your site recommends that my location will bet 'up to 8MB'.

    Total Bullshit! You are probably all in this Arthur Daly computer con industry together!

  • neutral

    by ill leave you guessing at 22:12 on 26 Jun 2007Report abuse

    38.9Mb????????????? on a 16 Mb connection i dont think so!

  • neutral

    by fritch at 19:21 on 28 Jun 2007Report abuse

    Orange broadband I dont think so 2meg with Onspeed and still only get 663 kb after my contract runs out i'm off ,really cheesed off I feel as if everyones on the make...great speed test though.

  • neutral

    by Leyland at 21:52 on 28 Jun 2007Report abuse

    VIRGIN = RIP-OFF keep reading about how they are striving to achieve a better service, most people should be getting close to the 8Mbps..... I never ever connect at more than 5.1Mbps, which it is showing now as I type this, but your speed test has just returned a very slow 89.7 Kb ....... !!!!!!!!

    Someone cpmmented above about 38.9Mb from 16Mb connection, wireless connection makes a huge difference too, a PC I use at someone elses place has a 16Mb price structure, they are always on 48Mb connection, stuff flies in and out before you touch the keys..... AMAZING.....

    But I unfortunately go for trusting mysupplier..... MUPPETT comes to mind, guess I'll go to the suggested alternatives your site listed after the test......

    Many thanks for this - accurate - tester... Tried a few before and they had such varying results over 3 consecutive tests, your results only fluctuated by .01kb over 3 tests.

    I do believe my laptop on dial-up is far quicker than this configuration.....

  • neutral

    by Richard D at 10:52 on 2 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Hello,
    I think your calculations are fishy.
    I have a 4Mb ADSL max line.

    The nearest cable TV is in Edinburgh.

    Oh well.

    My results
    -------------

    Your speed test result: 170.5 Mb

    According to BT wholesale, your line should be able to support a 2.0 Mbps ADSL connection via ADSL max

    The following services are available to you: ADSL MAX
    Virgin Media cable
    Be Broadband LLU

  • neutral

    by Horus at 18:58 on 2 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I doubt the readings given. My speed was measured at 1.1 Mb. I know there is considerable variation in the speeds given by different speed checkers, but I used 5 others before this and 5 others after this. They all gave results between 1.7 and 1.9, about what I normally get on my 2 Mb connection.
    The maximum possible is also a bit doubtful. It may be supplied by BT wholesale but I suspect it is a calculated figure not a tested one, and it is based on the straight line distance from the exchange. I know my wiring is not straight line, and also that BT wired up my local exchange with aluminium cables, which degrade a broadband signal faster. I suspect they are calculating using straight line distance and assuming copper local loop, which in my case would be way out!

  • neutral

    by funky donkey at 02:40 on 3 Jul 2007Report abuse

    OK,my router says 8011kbps, tried lots of net based speedtests which say from 340 kbps tp 11000kbps .

    Why is that ?
    Had Bt test the line (engineer came round ) says it is just over 8meg

    Are these tests inacurate? which is correct?

    Its human nature ,I just need to know

  • neutral

    by Bernie at 18:23 on 3 Jul 2007Report abuse

    What a bunch of idiots they must think the public are,Virgin media has now changed its help line to 0906 a
    premium rate #,and they try to keep you on the phone as long as they possibly can.Slow speeds,yep they turn the buffers down,as soon as youve spent £10 to 15 quid trying to fix your comp which has nothing wrong with it anyway.They turn the buffers up for a short while then down they go again.I had an email saying they had found a fault with my modem,and would i ring the help line,"i told them no,why dont you just come and fix the modem."Never heard from them again.My speed 4Mb,600kbs to 1Mb if i'm lucky.
    STAY WELL AWAY FROM VERGIN MEDIA,DONT JOIN IT.

  • neutral

    by ma at 19:32 on 5 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Have spent several months on the phone with BT tech. hepline as my speed (on the option 3 = around 8mb) drops every single evening at 6.30pm to between 170-350kbps!!!!! and that's how it stayes until 1am. every time I call I get tons of apologies, promises of help and inability of the employees to find my previous notes. I'm so incredibly tired of all this issue.....a bt engineer come around and confirming that the line is ok during the day so the bt helpline should sort it out on their side. has anyone had similar problem????? I re-iterate - slow speed in the evening on 8mb bt broadband. To make the matters worse I have had my case closed several times now and I've completely lost the count of the number of the calls I've made and how many times I was promised to get a call back, which never materialised. Surely there either must be a solution or something that can be done about this! I always pay my BT bills, and as you know they are not the cheapest. And of course to add to the injury I don't get paid for the hours I spend on the calls with them nor any compensation for the energy and nerves that I loose during those hours!!!!!!!!

  • neutral

    by roger at 16:20 on 6 Jul 2007Report abuse

    you all sure you're measuring it right?

    I'm on 10mb virgin and get 1.2Mbps out of evening hours, which is the full 10Mb (x8 bit's to bytes convertion). I've had 8Mb adsl and got 800kbps which is sh t hot too. in the evening on virgin it can drop to 500kbps, but thats contention with the street..

    just waiting for 20mb to rollout now :)

  • neutral

    by Bernie at 20:08 on 10 Jul 2007Report abuse

    If you are going for broadband,dont go for virgin medea.I have a 4Mb speed,only troble is,on a good day i'm lucky to get over 1Mb most of the time its down in the Kbs.There help line No is a 0906 premium rate No,some calls cost a pound a minute.
    If you want to get ripped off then join it,if not stay well away from it.

  • neutral

    by Bernie at 20:52 on 10 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I have created a petition on the government web page for No 10 downing street,for broadband providers who do not give a fair service for the money you pay.When you phone these people's help lines 9 out of ten you cannot understand what the person is saying to you.They keep you on the phone for as long as possible.Then it turns out its not your computer
    its something else.

  • neutral

    by Bernie at 18:11 on 11 Jul 2007Report abuse

    http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/internetspeed/

    The above address takes you to the patition i placed on the No 10 downing street site,in ref to bad internet providers.If you have a complaint about an internet provider this is the place to go and air your views.

  • neutral

    by Peter at 19:20 on 11 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I have a 20 MB connection with Virgin Media and I’m lucky to get 1MB at peak times. My upload speeds are more than often faster than my download which is a waste as I don't upload unless you count sending e-mail. I only upgraded to 20MB because my 4MB was getting worse than dial up. The help desk is worse than useless and appear to work to a script with stock answers for everything which is of no use to anyone. I also have to ring a few times until I can get someone who I can understand and can understand me. They now charge a fortune to ring them even though the issues are on there side. I have had 3 engineers out in the last month which is a total waste of their time as they know as well as we do that the issue is with Virgin Media. I think its time Richard Branson came out and explained what is going on. I am currently using the small claims court on a monthly basis to get my subscription back as they are not supplying the services I am paying for. They cannot even get close enough to contest.

    I have just added my name to your petition Bernie

  • neutral

    by Alan Fearon at 21:36 on 11 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I can't make your speed test work. I'm using IE on an iMac and have enabled all cookies. I just keep being returned to the original speed test page.

  • neutral

    by Heather at 09:10 on 12 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I just did a speed check on our offices and although the speed seemed pretty accurate it said we were over 64km away from the exchange, which is clearly not very accurate as it's only a few miles up the road!

  • neutral

    by Alex at 22:18 on 12 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Just did the speed test & it said "You are approximately 5,771,256 metres from the exchange (straight line distance)"

    Bearing in mind Lands End to John O'Groats is 1200 miles(ish) (or 1931.208 km) how the hell am I nearly 3 times the length of the country away from my local exchange?????????

  • neutral

    by luz at 08:58 on 13 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Good test - also, the detailed information confirmed what AOL told me, that my phone line can't manage the speeds that Sky are promising. When they say you can get UP TO 16MB, it is really worth knowing that your phone line and exchange are the limiting factors -I don't want the hassle of moving suppliers, changing equipment, etc, if I'm not going to see a noticeable improvement in speed.
    I did get one very interesting result though - when I told AOL I was thinking about going over to Sky, they immediately matched the offer (so a reduction in price of £15/month with free phone calls thrown in) - quite happy with that!

  • neutral

    by Bernie at 20:27 on 17 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Hi all,
    still having problems with Ntl,or virginmedia,or one of the other two names who now own it.Its a ruddy mess,they cant sort out who should have what and when.With four IP's using NTL cable,how the heck are we going to get what we are supposed to get.I'm 4Mb my mate is 10Mb and is getting less than 2Mb same as me.Branson is trying to upgrade to 20gb,some hope i recon 2 klbs yep 2Mb maybe if you are exstreamly lucky.
    Thanks for signing petition,it covers all IP providers as they are all the same,BT say have us in my town 8Mb,i know for a fact there lines will only support 2Mb,so they say UP TO,the all out get out clouse.

  • neutral

    by Alex at 11:05 on 18 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Interesting test, especially the part that tell me how far away from the exchange I am, however the actual result seems to have no meaning, it claims my speed is 452.9 mb, but does not say of what, is that per minute, hour, day? I found that another site, dslreports.com is better, informing me that me connection speed is around 1.6mb per second upload, and 200kb per second download, which I think is quite an accurate assessment of my connection, especially as it measured the downloads from an american server, which is more relevant because most websites are based abroad.

  • neutral

    by gaz at 10:22 on 22 Jul 2007Report abuse

    maybe you lot are thick but you just dont seem to understand. I have Virgin media cable broadband and can tell you i receive between 15-20 mbs.

    The tech helpdesk number is a 090 number carged at 25p per minute. If the fault is virgis they refubd the cost of this call. there is another 090 number which costs 1.00 per minute this is a number for resolving pc issues not bbi issues.

    cable vs adsl well considering bt's line is copper cale and very poor even with the fibre optic upgrade bt are harping on about is only replacing the major trunk line.

    fact bt lines have reached their max speed for years to come
    fact virgin media trialling 50 mb as we speak
    fact virgin traffic manage top 5% downloaders and their bbi isnt capped
    fact virgin media simply put have a better broadband service and customer service

    if there is any doubt about this check out the awards virgin have won for their bbi service

  • neutral

    by Barb Cook at 12:17 on 23 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I've got real problems using the Internet. My download speeds are reasonable for my 1MB service but my upload speeds vary wildly. Frequently they are so low that I can't get any figure at all. The worst times are typically in the morning from about 8 o'clock and if the weather is bad but later in the day things are fine. BT tell me that either my router or my firewall are to blame. If the router works fine at night how can it be the cause? And if I run the computer in safe mode with the firewall and antivirus off, the problems persist. Any ideas please?

  • neutral

    by sportygenie at 09:31 on 24 Jul 2007Report abuse

    Hi Alex,
    The speed test gives you a result in Mb / second, although you are right to note that this isn't stated on the test (we are updating it now infact to help any users in the future).
    With regards to using an overseas speed test- the speed test measures how fast your broadband is, rather than how quickly you can download from sites in America, so it's not really relevant to say that using an American site is more accurate- in fact it could be less accurate...
    Thanks for your post

  • neutral

    by BRUCE at 22:21 on 27 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I have wireless does your test cover that????????????????

  • neutral

    by Kindra at 17:39 on 29 Jul 2007Report abuse

    I have been a telewest blueyonder saccount holder for may years. and have now got there 20m connection. And ever since virgin media took over they have been absolutly shite.. If i get 5mb then im lucky. And getting a tech support to sort this out is like getting blood out of a stone.. for the first time ever I am looking to go elsewhere.. Be warned keep away they are crap now.


    K............

  • neutral

    by David Harris at 10:34 on 14 Aug 2007Report abuse

    Seems a very accurate test, most tests tell me what I can receive NOT what I actually get because of distance from exchange. A great help thank you.

  • neutral

    by Stevearno at 01:18 on 20 Aug 2007Report abuse

    my speed test is as below and I can well believe it...... I'm signed up to talktalk broadband and they run a test for me when I signed up and it was 6meg.....

    having gone over my limit of 40gig in a two month period about 4 months into my contract ... they began to throttle me
    I have run other speed tests also and the figures are generally the same... I only live 477 meters away from my exchange so there should be no excuse to way I'm not achieve greater speeds...

    talktalk have throttled me ever since month 4 .. when i went over my limit... as time has gone by my broadband has now been reduced to 10kbps (if I'm lucky)
    at all times......
    they used to open it up @ 3am-6am when everyones in bed, but who downloads at that time......????

    being curious I stayed up, one night to check on my speeds to find even now it is throttled through the night.....

    I can no longer stream any video clips as they don't buffer.. I can't have any more than 1 internet screen open at anyone time... and it takes for ever to load sites hich use extreme advertising or hosted media..

    which before never happened, when I joined....... wonder why they want you to sign up for a 18 month contract......... 'THEY KNOW YOUR NOT GOING TO BE BACK'


    'DON'T SIGN UP TO THIS COMPANY' i shall be taking my business else where....

    there really should be laws against false advertising ( unlimited there's no such thing), and manipulating common perception...

    on signing up, they should run a test , I was told I would get 6 meg by the sales guy( how naive I was at the time) but infact i recieved 2.3meg .. which i could still live with.....

    ###JUST THIS MINUTE THIS PAGE HAS FINISHED LOADING#######



    ####ARRRRRRRRR NEEDED THAT RANT!!!!! I FEEL MUCH BETTER, thanks for listening#####

    Stevearno... 'the forum whore'

    Your speed test result:

  • neutral

    by brian at 02:27 on 21 Aug 2007Report abuse

    im with virgin media for my broadband and it is excellent service,fastests and most reliable yet,itried bt broadband,it was too slow,tried orange broadband,too slow,tried aol broadband,too slow, when i tried virgin media broadband,hey,i got a result!superfast,cheap,reliable un-interupted service and excellent value pricewise!keep it up virgin broadband,your the best service around! you deserve a medal for your fabulous service virgin media,well done! from brian,gorton,manchester! mcfc football club is tops too!

  • neutral

    by m jeeves at 16:51 on 21 Aug 2007Report abuse

    ive been with bt for 3 years as aol could not supply system we needed at the time, that is 3 pcs 1 laptop and xbox live all on plus phone and bt softphone at the same time,we live 3 thousand metres from exchange and your test showed 3.8 meg which we are happy with,in all the time we have been with bt on total broadband NOT A SINGLE PROBLEM! that has probably gone and done it now! we live in village that does not have cable so perhaps we are lucky

  • neutral

    by Doctor Fonz at 09:24 on 24 Aug 2007Report abuse

    STAY WELL CLEAR ON VIRGIN BROADBAND

    Crapist service ever, useless customer services...

    Signed up in June 2007 for upto 8Mb - did line tests and said I was 1km from exchange and could get 5-6Mb so I thought I would go ahead. The guy at Virign when I ordered said maximum would be 1/4 of a Mb - 256k, which is impossible because ADSL now can do any distance at upto 512Kb.

    Anyhow, started servce and was getting 7Mb so I was chuffed. This worked well for about a month and half to two (until your out of the consumers rights period) and now my speed has dropped, sometimes to 100Kb/s in the evening. Pages time-out like dial-up and I am really ****** off cos they've got me on a contract.

    Funny how it worked for just over a month fine - Just until they've got you out of the grace period. If the problem had appeared before them you are within your consumer rights to cancel under the sale of goods act.

    VIRGIN MEDIA ARE THE WORST ISP EVER

  • neutral

    by Jannoth at 23:30 on 29 Aug 2007Report abuse

    Nice site and great speed test, well done :-)

    I thought that you (the folks at broadbandgenie) might wanna know that the link to SKY.COM in the "Faster / cheaper broadband in my area" box is broken (ie "Go").

    Scary about the clearest message from forum visitors so far: "stay away from Virgin". I pity the poor folk who are stuck on that service, especially as the Government's reply to the formal petition about misleading promises by ISPs was "it's all okay - what are people moaning about?". Who's susprised??

    Also, I might seem like a geek but do wonder whether people know anything before leaping into computers / internet etc. Some of the questions are quite shocking ... hope this helps someone :

    1. speeds quoted in routers are NOT download speeds. They simply display the upper limit at which the router is able to download. So, a router may display 7116 Mbs but the actual download speed could be as little as 600 Kbs - totally unrelated.

    2. internet and transmission speeds are ALWAYS measured in "units per second", so it isn't unusual not to see "per second" after a speed rating. So if your result shows "4.0 Mb" then you should read "four megabits per second". Likewise, your ISP may quote "up to 8Mb" ... "up to 8 megabits per second".

    Best wishes to everyone and good luck with the site. I may pop back in a week or so to run the test again and see whether the link has been fixed ... tho I'm actually quite pleased with DEMON :-)

    J

  • neutral

    by Hazzer Fazzer at 15:13 on 31 Aug 2007Report abuse

    Re Doctor Fonz

    Your comments are very familiar however I suggest it is since the Virgin take over. I have been with NTL , not top of the list for customer services, but the cable broadband was brilliant. Never had a problem in the years I have been with them. Free Customer services etc.

    Virgin Media is completely naff. I canot eve contact them to cancel the service! Call their customer services at 25 p per minute at the lowest cost VAT and you get put through to India. Then you speak at HUGE expense to some polite but useless person speking broken English working from prompts on a computer screen They spend half the call repeating the same old customer services babble and you get NOWHERE!

    I wonder whether there is a national strategy to target old NTL customers to kill off the NTL email address/domain?

    STAY AWAY FROM VIRGIN MEDIA IT IS HOPELESS>

  • neutral

    by Waqar at 14:41 on 1 Sep 2007Report abuse

    Hey guys. I may have a solution to your slow internet speeds. I've been bustin my balls trying to work out an answer and I think I found it. I upgraded from 2MB to 20MB (XL) on Virgin Media so it should work for all XL Customers. Type the following link into your address bar:

    http://192.168.100.1/

    In the top left you'll see Login. Click on it and and it'll come up with with a username and password. Type in root, all lowercase in both boxes and press enter.

    You'll know you're in when you get some links on the left hand side saying things like Status, Downstream, Upstream etc.

    Click on the link "Operation Config".

    When you click it, you'll see a message saying maximum downstream length and maximum upstream length etc.

    My downstream says 20480000 and above it it says allowed. That means that I can get my 20 MB connection.

    So if you're XL your number should say that too.

    You then need to click on Tools in the top right hand corner and it'll ask you to reset to defaults, click it and then check yes then apply. Close down internet explorer or Mozilla and restart internet again.

    Go onto speedtest.net or speedtest.bbmax.co.uk to check your internet speed.

    I really hope it works for you guys cos it's working for me. I was on 2 meg downloading at 225-240KB max. Now I'm download over 1.5 - 2.2MB per second!!! Definitely worth it when it's working :)

    If it works drop me a line at qaari786@gmail.com so that I know it did work :) P.S I ain't some lame Virgin Media Technician or anything. I'm 19 so if I could work it out in a couple of hours, it'll probably take them another 6 months or so at least. lol :)

  • neutral

    by coom3r at 15:12 on 9 Sep 2007Report abuse

    i dont get it i do a speed check everyday and on many sites all say i am on 11 meg but i am paying for 20meg with virgin media yet this site says i get 28 meg vigin media says my connection is fine cos when i download a file it starts at 5 meg then drops to 1 meg can anyone explain how virgin media work out what u r receiving.

  • neutral

    by Bill Miller at 18:22 on 17 Sep 2007Report abuse

    Hi,
    I was with ntl when Branson took over. Since then both the broadband and tv services have deterioated. My broadband should be nominal 2mb but the best I have measured with this test ( or any other) is 230 kb. We have just installed BT adsl at work and it achieves on average 2.3 mb down a phone line 3 miles from the exchange. Virgin are cutting back on everything because he wants the costs to look good because he is selling up. Do not go near them!

  • neutral

    by liar liar liars at 20:42 on 23 Sep 2007Report abuse

    I have been reading the people who say they are getting 20mb download when they are paying for 20mb BB package. Unless you connect through the exchage you will not get 20mb on a 20mb package you will lose a small percent through your cables, gold plated platinum plated, whatever!
    and then the percentage loss to get to your door, these are not fibre optics.
    Virgin are on a scam, they have not got the resources to supply everyone with this speed, and keep it up at peak times. you should ponly pay for high speed BB if like an earlier comment you are up at 6am while all the yanks sleep.

  • neutral

    by footiegenius at 16:54 on 26 Sep 2007Report abuse

    Not sure about this test - says I am getting 780kb on my 8Mb broadband through a wired network router. If I plug the ADSL into my PC direct the network connection says I am getting a 7.8Mb connection. Even through the router I have downloaded at speeds in excess of 800kb/sec. is broadband genie a marketing wing of someone ?

  • neutral

    by Flitwickflyer at 17:28 on 10 Oct 2007Report abuse

    Just checked my broadband speed at 5.3Mb which is not so bad.
    I was confused by the site response, offering me alternatives which were not available.
    Recommended Sky Max for my area,
    Although when I went to the Sky link, they said only Connect was available.

  • neutral

    by whasupppp at 12:50 on 17 Oct 2007Report abuse

    i am supposed to be on a 20 mb connection done his test and it says i am 1.5 mb connection and this is with virgin media i am paying 37 pound for this rubbish a mnth what a rip off.

  • neutral

    by eddie at 22:07 on 29 Oct 2007Report abuse

    did you upgrade from a 2mb service ?
    check with customer services cos you could still be on 2mb
    also check out virginmedia wed site for the 20mb optimiser configs for xp users it may help.average speed for 20mb is approx 14mb

  • neutral

    by coom3r at 15:03 on 3 Nov 2007Report abuse

    vigin media are a scam for the 20mb connection cos they run a thing called traffic checking and peak time limits wich they keep hush about so during peak times and u download large files ur speed will he halved again and again untill u have a speed of 250kb and a transfer rate of 40kb untill the next day. and any cable connection is supposed to be costant and no matter where u r from the exchange u should get that spped.
    i am going to leave as soon as i can but i am bound by the contract which is fabricated and twisted but just legal.
    if u want to see what i mean use a site called speedtest.net and do multiple test over a 5 hour period say one a hour or more and if it is a good connection it will be constant and only differ by about 500kb-1mb but if like mine u do the tests and the differ considerably like from 16mb at 5 down to 6mb at 6 and 2mb at 7 and then 10mb at 12 it is a rip off and to see better results use podcasts for download speed tests i.e. do one then browse the web and then do another podcast to see results.

    u should look for transfer speeds when downloading:
    "these can vary depending where u download from"
    excellent=2.19mb up
    good=1.25mb upto 2.00mb
    ok= 800kb upto 1mb
    poor=750 down

  • neutral

    by coom3r at 16:44 on 3 Nov 2007Report abuse

    Virgin are on a scam, they have not got the resources to supply everyone with this speed, and keep it up at peak times. you should ponly pay for high speed BB if like an earlier comment you are up at 6am while all the yanks sleep.

    yanks have nothing to do with uk internet they have there own surppliers

    wich r amazing uk is toss for cable for decent internet get adsl 2

  • neutral

    by Hubert at 23:49 on 8 Nov 2007Report abuse

    On 20mbit Virgin Cable in Manchester City Centre. Used to get excellent speeds just after the upgrade to 20mbit (over 2000kb/sec downloads) but it has gone to shit recently. I'm currently getting about 150kb/sec max downloading from fast UK ftp servers at 11:48 PM on a Thursday, even in the middle of the night I don't see more than a few hundred kb/sec... Quite disappointed and hope they get more bandwidth soon

  • neutral

    by anne peters at 21:00 on 12 Nov 2007Report abuse

    If you want the government to step in and do something then sign the petition in the link.
    Started by computeractive magazine, and thousands already signed, give your support .........
    quoted from Vnunet forums;

    Our aim is to get the communications regulator Ofcom, to investigate the discrepancy between advertised broadband speeds and those achieved in practice. We think the watchdog should force ISPs to advertise introduce a typical rate, much like that advertised by credit card providers instead of just the maximum theoretical speed.
    In other words, they need to be more honest about what speed you are likely to get given your line, exchange etc, not tie you into a contract where you think your going to get almost 8 meg or at least more than the 2 meg you may be already contracted to and quite happy with.
    How many have upgraded only to be left with a slower connection than they previously had?

    Support them and stand up for your rights;

    http://www.computeractive.co.uk/campaign/

    Just click the button that says "sign our petition".

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    by Robster at 21:58 on 18 Nov 2007Report abuse

    Having a nightmare with Virgin Media. Have done the BT Speedtester as requested by Virgin. This was bad enough as it took ages to even get onto the site, regularly kicked off as it is too busy (how many others suffering slow speeds that they have to test it??????) then given data showing download speeds of 700kbps to 1.5mbps.

    This is above the acceptable minimum of 600k (YES 600K IS THE ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM ON AN UP TO 8MB BROADBAND CONNECTION!!!!!!!!) So there it is, whilst I am subscribed to a 8MB package at the best part of £20 a month, there minimum standard equates to the equivalent of £1.50. Now here is the best bit - all the other speed tests I have done show download speeds of around 100 to 170k. The lowest I got was 92k, at which point I nearly threw the modem out of the window.

    I have stopped my direct debit and am waiting for my day in court with Virgin. I suggest you all do the same.

  • neutral

    by Chris at 18:11 on 20 Nov 2007Report abuse

    Well....
    This morning I was on 6.5 meg

    Now its dropped to 0.1
    Can't even videocall my mates!
    Id dread to think what my BT vision box would be thinking if I wanted to waste some money on it.

    I spoke to the BT fair usage department today, I have downloaded 47gig this month and im on unlimited and they say it will be the end of the month and will be limited down to 2meg.
    Obviously its not 2meg, not even 1/2.

    Anyone give some advice?

  • neutral

    by brian wilkinson at 19:50 on 21 Nov 2007Report abuse

    Robster
    I chalenged virgin to take me to court i.e.
    sales lne said "yes its cofirmed 6 to 8 mb on your line" that constitutes a verbal contract, never had that speed well i did for 2 hours after telling them i had no connection, the BT engineer said you have no connection, er yes i know!!!

    Virgin, state on price & charge another higher price, so they have by definition "intentionaly" miss sold to me, again thats a breach, so you are stealing from me, "you cant say that sir",,,er no well sue me

    they other guy Brian in Manchester getting good service, i am pleased you are, but a word of caution, (on one blog site, one happy user was someone working at Virgin!!!) i am not suggesting you are mate, but its easy to come on here and say things!!.

    I can assure you i am a genuine frustrated virgin media customer my (humourous, as i am desparetly trying o hang on to my santity & try to give them a chance,) find it on www.myvirginmediahell.co.uk )

    I just wish that companies delivered what they say they can & if they cant say so, is that too much to ask?????
    Regards
    p.s. "all i want for christmas is my 8mb connection at the price i was told"
    Brian J Wilkinson

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    by brian wilkinson at 19:55 on 21 Nov 2007Report abuse

    sorry i was wrong about robster beig happy, have said misread it ,sorry long day trying to sort virgin out & driving in and out of manchester every day melts your brain.

    aplogies brian
    maybe i can sue virgin for mental torture!!!!!!!!!

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    by coom3r at 21:54 on 21 Nov 2007Report abuse

    no they r in breach of contract 600kb is not right for 8mb that is not even accepted on a 2mb line. they can do nothing to u and they should take full responsability to fix it or allow u to leave i am making them dig up my street to fix mine they will put a whol;e new cable in they r on the edge of the law at the moment anyway

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    by Fred at 20:00 on 2 Dec 2007Report abuse

    With regard to Virgin Broadband. I have been with Virgin for almost a year. For the first eight months it was fine- I'm only signed up for 1Mb service so download speeds of 900 kbps were very acceptable. Then, in September of this year, the speeds suddenly dropped to 100 kbps on average. I bombarded Virgin with emails, phone calls etc. They sent BT Outreach around who could find nothing wrong with this set-up. So I gave up. And then, very suddenly, about a month ago, everything reverted to it's normal speed. The trouble was obviously at their end but I have had no apology, no explanation and certainly no offer of telephone-call refunds.
    It it with some reluctance therefore, that as soon as my contract has run its course, I shall migrate, as they say. I look forward to explaining my reasons for doing so, as I shall use very plain and non-ambiguous language in order to express my feelings regarding Virgin. Having said that, we (the UK) are probably the laughing stock of Europe when it comes to Broadband. I have contacts of some of the Eastern European countries whose broadband services are far in advance of ours. They are also treated with courtesy and respect, and are given excelent feed-back.
    And this, in countries with standards of living far below our. It is our fault for putting up with sub-standard services. It is high time everyone got together and laid out in no uncertain terms just what we think of services. Sign the petition- at least it's a start. Write to your MPs. Bombard your ISP with emails- long ones, every day. Create bad publicity. Write to your loocak newspapers. Phone your local radio stations. Eventually, the message will get through. Take care, Fred.

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    by AA at 12:40 on 15 Dec 2007Report abuse

    virgin media broaband - stay away even if they offer it for free im paying for 8mbs and i get speeds less than a dial up connection, infact whan i was on dial my connection was faster. virgin sucks all they want is your money.

  • neutral

    by DukeofEarl at 16:49 on 19 Dec 2007Report abuse

    Virgin Media seem to take a lot of stick, possibly because people don't understand there are two completely different systems out there in cyberspace. In cabled areas you can have the up to 20Mbit (some testing 50) connection. I live in an area where few seem to be connected and I get near enough the full 20MBits without contention when downloading from big iron server sites, Microsoft, Adobe etc. and when file sharing through Torrents. I don't notice any traffic shaping either.

    In non-cabled areas Virgin provide the usual ADSL style connection over the 'phone line suffering from the usual "upto 8Mbits" marketing, the same as any other ADSL provider who could provide a connection from that exchange.

    They just aren't the same thing...

    I've had cable in various forms and speeds from NTL, then Virgin for the last 15 years or so and it's probably been down for no more than a few hours in that time. Never have to reboot or reconnect. It's just a shame more areas of the UK aren't cabled.

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    by Colin (Brighton) at 10:25 on 20 Dec 2007Report abuse

    Lo Guys
    This VM service is discraceful, I just paid £5.00 for technical on BBand problems, (after refusing to call Premium No for about 2 weeks of slow line) Anyway I diligently did what I was told. Remove the router & Connect straight to the modem. no hubs nothing do reboot & reset Etc. Results several downloads from Download.com that I was instructed to do. several 4meg, 6meg * n so on till Finally I got one that gave me a peak 12 meg. the bloke said see that's better isn't it. FGS I told him I am paying ofr up to 20 megs £37 a week NOT UP TO !2 MEGS. he replied oh well don't forget you got antivirus and other things running so that will slow it down. Ya know what VM are absolutely crap and I am going to cancel my account a go BE £18.00 up to 24 megs Can't possibley worse than what I got.

    Colin:- A very unhappy Vmedia user.

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    by Colin (Brighton) at 10:45 on 20 Dec 2007Report abuse

    Hmm I just Dun your Speed test I mean to say?? is it right??

    Your speed test result: 252.5 Kb

    According to BT wholesale, your line should be able to support a 4.9 Mbps ADSL connection via ADSL max

    I am spose to be getting 20 meg (Up to) and it's costing £37

    Colin:- Even more unhappy

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    by Sue Fisher at 17:17 on 20 Dec 2007Report abuse

    Why do you give results in Kbps and then our target speed in MB. What sort of arithmetic am I meant to do to compare the two? Are MB in seconds or minutes? Do 1000 kbs = 1 MB?

  • neutral

    by Tony Furniss at 11:45 on 21 Dec 2007Report abuse

    I am getting around 450 - 500 Kbps, with 2 Mb package from Virgin media.
    This site gives my phone number a 3.6 Mb rating
    If I put my phone number into a BT web site, I get 0.5 Mb rating.
    If I put in my neighbour's phone number, he gets 4.5 Mb rating.
    We both get our lines from the same pole.
    Because my line is arbitarily rated at 0.5 Mb, Virgin Media say that they cannot do anything.
    I have had speeds as low as 12 Kbps.
    Any ideas would be much appreciated.
    Tony Furniss

  • neutral

    by Wayne at 20:47 on 4 Jan 2008Report abuse

    im supposted to be getting 20mb on virgin media, ive ran these online tests 10 times and tried every site i can get on, the max i am recieving is 3.5mb!
    .......

  • neutral

    by KIRSTY at 23:09 on 9 Jan 2008Report abuse

    I am in Stoke-on-Trent and signed upto a sky package almost 12months ago. It has never worked right from the beginning. DONT put McAfee anti-virus on it is c*ap, it will cause your computer more trouble use a free be off the internet and dont expect the email account to work and when you compain dont be surprised if they call it an extra. DONT listen to the technicians in teir one because they read off cue card and can nearly destroy your computer when they tell you to reset you computer back to factory settings. expect to be transfered around the world to different call centres and dont be surprised if they make up departments and phone numbers. ONLY telephone the technicians after 11pm because then you go through to a British call centre. The only sky technicians are located on tier3, if they allow you to be put through and expedt to wait an hour to be connected on the phone and weeks of call backs to get the problems fixed. I need broadband for my studies and to have the sky package at £25.00 per month for broadband, phone and tv seemed a bargin but it wasnt, ive had problems with all three and evn dropped out of a course because of it.

    I checked and double checked my speed before joining and I was told that I could expect 4MB on my line but my line has been down graded to about 2MB because they say my line recieves the maximun number of errors before it cuts out but neither shy nor bt are interested in fixing the problem and I have tried several times to run the gaget show speed test but I cannot down load it and my computer is more than capable.

    So beware if you sign upto sky. I have waited years to get broadband and go to university justified the cost but to say that they didnt keep to there contract and that it was the worst decision I exer made doesnt do justice to the problems I have had. I dont know who to join upto as all companies are over subscribed and our lines and exchanges are not up todate enough to cope with the traffic but they keep selling people the hype of upto 8MB but probally only if your located next to the exchange.

    This test stated that I am recieving 840.1kb but my DDSL connection via ADSL Max should support 3.4MBps and I am 2,288 meters from the exchange. I should be greatful for anything at this point.

  • neutral

    by Swede at 20:53 on 15 Jan 2008Report abuse

    Something seriously wrong with this speedtester I think! I am experiencing much slower speeds than I should on my new 16 Mb connection. Ran this speedtest about 8 timest straight after another and got results ranging from below 56 Kb to 563 Mb!! I would have been very happy with that last speed...had it been true.

  • neutral

    by coom3r at 17:52 on 16 Jan 2008Report abuse

    use this if u r with virgin it will give u a accurate speed www.speedtest.d04.net
    my line is working finally it took months to sort and i have made freinds in the company so i now get great help from uk tech not india the speed has increased greatly i have been reimbursed only in credit tho so i got 3 monthes practically free due to cost of phone calls adding up and lack of speed that i was paying for got me half my money back in credit which then paid for the next month and so on now i fell it has vastly improved i am on 20mb speed test say 13.5-15.3mb
    transfer rate can vary
    public server 300kb -900kb

    private server 1.4mb-2.4mb

  • neutral

    by Terryco at 00:54 on 18 Jan 2008Report abuse

    HI I'm with Virgin Media, supposedly on a 2mb line. Your first test was 240KBS which is about what I get. The fastest it has ever been in real life is 270KBS. Generally its 250 or less. Talk to Virgin and they do a ping test in which they pull a number out of a magicians hat. This bears no resemblance to real life, on any site, at any time. If I upload something even at 10KBS, the slowest snail is fast in comparison. I phoned BT the other day with a view to going back on copper line instead of cable. They want £125, I asked them if they wanted me back as a customer they would be over the moon if I paid them £125. Whatever you do don't sign up to Virgin. Terryco

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    by Dot at 10:06 on 19 Jan 2008Report abuse

    I would like to see the upload speed as well as the download speed on your test as most of my problems appear to be with sending not receiving - one speed test I have just done as a 2mb user gives my download at 1982 kb/s and my upload at 193kb/s!!!!

  • neutral

    by coom3r at 18:29 on 24 Jan 2008Report abuse

    www.speedtest.net

    for upload and download but test on diferent servers i.e closest to u then go further away

  • neutral

    by guncha at 23:38 on 25 Jan 2008Report abuse

    it used to be more faster but now it is very slow whats going on

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    by Bill at 10:27 on 3 Feb 2008Report abuse

    Unfortunately, I live in the Kingston Communications (KC) area and, therefore, cannot get alternative phone or broadband providers. I hope I can in the future because I can guarantee that I will dump KC for the poor "take it or leave it" attitude it has with its customers. I agree with a number of your contributers when they say that the customers are "ripped off" by all the providers. What it must be like to be an American where services are really competitive and not rigged by the "old boy" network of British business.

  • neutral

    by Brian at 18:51 on 4 Feb 2008Report abuse

    According to BT wholesale, your line should be able to support a 2.4 Mbps ADSL connection via ADSL max,than why do i only get 267.6kb?Madasafish (BT owned) you can do better .

  • neutral

    by Pete at 19:21 on 7 Feb 2008Report abuse

    I'm with Sky Broadband 16Mb costing £10 a month. I just tried the speed test 20 times and each time it gave results between 15Mb and 45Mb

  • neutral

    by Gwyn at 09:28 on 16 Feb 2008Report abuse

    aol download speed only getting 2266 kbps should be 5.4 mbps contacted aol changed netgear router settings, download speed now 5639 kbps

  • neutral

    by Derek at 23:29 on 28 Feb 2008Report abuse

    Interesting results. You tell me that I can't receive Virgin Cable, even though that is what I currently have. BT claim my line is ADSL compatible, even though I am not on BT, and finally I get this very interesting result:

    "You are connected to the Willingham telephone exchange

    You are approximately 5,816,509 metres from the exchange (straight line distance)"

  • neutral

    by kezzie at 08:31 on 29 Feb 2008Report abuse

    I am with virgin paying for 4mb and i am getting 4mb so no complaints there. And to all the people that are with BT yes it says up to 8mb but that what it mean UP TO with virgin you pay for a specific speed with bt you get up to 8mb but it depends on your area and what the connection restrictions are in that area that is why some people get 1mb or 4mb it cant be fixed it is to do with the area.

  • neutral

    by Pete at 13:35 on 12 Mar 2008Report abuse

    The test seems to work fine. The only problem is the - three faster/cheaper broadband suppliers in my area - bit.
    First one's Sky - which I can't get as i don't have Sky tv.
    Second and third are both from O2, both sound great, but neither are available at my exchange.

  • neutral

    by DJ CrAsH at 01:42 on 14 Mar 2008Report abuse

    I am with VM as well on 4Mbps. After months with them I am so disgusted. Speed slowing down frequently and you really cannot do nothing with this as their support is brainless and I've got more knowledge then them! MUPPETS and that's all folks. Let them swim in their own ****! I am just awaiting my contract will be finished then I will switch to Be Broadband.

    May the Force be with you.

  • neutral

    by Yax at 21:05 on 20 Mar 2008Report abuse

    This speed test is inaccurate. It tells me my speed is 4.7megabits/second, while I can download at speeds of just over 2 megabytes/second, which equates to ~ 16 megabits/second.

  • neutral

    by Dave at 18:00 on 13 Apr 2008Report abuse

    Just in case you are thinking of changing your internet to Virgin Media......

    DON'T DO IT !!!!!! If you haven't guessed by now, they are totally disgraceful
    when it comes to broadband speeds.

    I'm supposed to be on an 8mb service and (as it has been pointed out above)
    after about a month and a half, the speed has now almost vanished. After the grace period. I mean less that DIAL UP at 'normal' hours. At 3 in the morning it's great, but that just isn't what I'm paying for. I now have to pay their stupid premium number to try and sort out what's going on. Notice that you can't seem to email them about this ???

    They are not providing the service that they advertise.


    Shocking. Totally disgraceful.

  • neutral

    by Alex at 18:22 on 17 Apr 2008Report abuse

    Ok this can't be right I am with Tiscali unlimited broadband as I have been for a few years now and I have been having probelms with the connection in the past. What I am supposed to be getting is 8 mb broadband but what it actually reads as is 614.5 Kb! Which I am assuming is the reason for the connection problems. The majority of the time I can do normal things with the internet but sometimes it just shuts off whilst running on the internet.
    And yes I do have wireless, no other laptops xboxs or otherwise were attached at the time of the test and I seriesly doubt that this is right. I am seriously annoyed at my connection at the moment and dont know what to do, any help or suggestions would be awsome.

  • neutral

    by Dan Brookes at 23:09 on 30 Apr 2008Report abuse

    Tiscali are LAME!!!!!!!

    Got the 8MB package. 2 weeks for router, fine. Check speed 0.5MB ??????
    Check again 0.4MB ??? WTF? Call tiscali 001 (no help "try turning anti virus off", turn firewall off")

    call 02 rubbish again
    call 03 "
    call 04 "
    call 05 "an engineer will call you back"
    call 06 "
    call 07 "there is a probelem with the line speak with tiscali talk" can you just transfer me? no ring this 0845number"
    call 08 "can you make calls?" yes "nothing wrong then speak to tiscali broadband"
    call 09 "speak to tiscali talk
    call 10 somewhee in india - phone hangs up after me getting annoyed
    call 11 "an engineer will call you"

    Engineer finally calls "you can only get 2MB", you said i would get 6-8mb befor i signed up now only 2MB? furthermore that still does not explain why i'm getting 0.5MB???? "An engineer will call you"

    wa**ers

  • neutral

    by Lips at 22:17 on 26 May 2008Report abuse

    Yeah this speed test is inaccurate. If you know anything about networks you will know how and why it is . From experience of two different Broadband providers most give what they say if you look at the small print. BT line up to 8mb - got about 6.8 , thats fine. Virgin Media (cable connection), by far the best, get between 18 - 20mb on a 20mb connection.

  • neutral

    by ian giles at 17:08 on 3 Jun 2008Report abuse

    I am sorry to say that I found your broadband speed site quite useless. It did not seem to know I was on cable and, despite typing-in my postal address, it continued to advise about an imaginary telephone link.

  • neutral

    by peebs at 23:45 on 7 Jun 2008Report abuse

    as far as i can work all this out think of bits instead of bytes i.e 1000bits =100k/bs=1m/bit=100 k/bytes my downloads run at 200-50 k/bytes which=2.5 m/bits what they are doing is using lower case letters i.e 1kb means 1 bit while 1 KB means 1byte therefore 1mb means bit while 1MB means bytes i think all u folk
    s should work it all out it means we are all getting shafted

  • neutral

    by Digi at 07:33 on 9 Jun 2008Report abuse

    The test isn't accurate at all. My connection is 1800kiloBits/s which roughly (!) translates to a download speed of about 180kilobyte/second. And this is what I'm getting. Yet this test tells me anything between 6.5 and 9.8 Mb/s. Now if by Mb you mean megabits, that's very inaccurate. If you mean Megabytes, then it's totally off.
    And no, I'm not using a proxy.

  • neutral

    by Qwik at 02:08 on 20 Jun 2008Report abuse

    lets stop all the confusion check out connected internet speed test then all will be clear i have a 20mb virgin line an on average recieve a 15mb d/l speed which is reasonable from what ive read so far plus you will notice no trying to sell you another ISP who might have third party interests in the site any way good luck with your connections ;)

  • neutral

    by Mru at 22:02 on 20 Jun 2008Report abuse

    i think all these internet companies are taking us for fools thikning we do not know what is going on. they promise a certain speed of 1mb to 20mb but they do not dilever this connection. i think they are jus making lots of money from us and not giving us "good customer service".

  • neutral

    by Duncan at 17:46 on 30 Jul 2008Report abuse

    So . . .
    Is the result is bytes or bits????

    I am either getting exactly what I paid for or have a really really bad link. I knew things are bad, that why I tried the speed test. but now???? I have no clue!!

    PLEASE DEFINE THE SPEED TEST UNITS!!!!!

    I just wasted 5 mins of my life.

  • neutral

    by greengenie at 10:42 on 31 Jul 2008Report abuse

    Duncan

    Broadband speeds are always expressed in bits, e.g. 2Mb broadband = 2 megabits per second = approx. only 0.25MB (megabytes) per second. Cynics often make the point that this is deliberately intended to mislead and to make broadband sound faster than it is.

    Broadband usage allowances, however, are described by the more common bytes (as opposed to bits).

    There's an article in the Broadband Genie help section that explains how broadband speed is measured in more detail.

  • neutral

    by sweet t at 17:59 on 15 Aug 2008Report abuse

    virgin media if u can get in ur area is the way forwad

  • neutral

    by baffled at 21:08 on 21 Aug 2008Report abuse

    Your test said that my maximum bandwidth on the line is 4.4Mb - but you suggested that I changed to ISPs that were offering 16Mb - how can they do this when the phone line will not support those speeds? Crazy

  • neutral

    by Christopher Bowes-Lyon at 22:03 on 28 Aug 2008Report abuse

    I have had BT Broadband for just 2 months now and the fastest speed I can get is 160Kb and i'm promised 5.7Mb by BT who even made me wait 3 extra days before they turned the Broadband on saying they had to fit equipment to ensure I got the promised speed !!!!!But I still pay the full price for just over normal dialup speed...1Mb is were DSL starts and 2Mb I thought was were ADSL started and I get 160Kb haha very funny BT this is supposed to be an ADSL broadband service not turbo dialup....

  • neutral

    by Archer at 23:57 on 26 Sep 2008Report abuse

    I have had Virgin 20meg con now for nearly a year and
    i find no fault with it 99% of the time i get 19.5 meg per sec and have had it go as far as 20.2 meg per sec but as always it slows at peek user times but nothing to bad prob down to 14 odd meg P/S but i can handle that so all in all I am very satisfied with the package i have.... and any of u guys on BT or Talk Talk forget it waste of space and good money espically Talk Talk and thats just it they r just talk had to threaten Talk Talk with the national newspapers which didnt go down well and they refunded a years subscription just a bunch of ******s...get Virgin u wont regret it i know i dont

  • neutral

    by More at 19:39 on 28 Sep 2008Report abuse

    i got 20mb virgin connection i get 15mb up2 20mb on speed tests i had BT before 8mb and i always got just over 1mb and that made me mad they said its your phone line its how far u are from the exchange so now im with virgin 20mb i dont always get what i pay 4 but its always fast even when i get 10mb when its busy its still the best 2 get so if you want 4mb get 8mb if you want 10mb get 20mb then when its busy with everyone going on there pc and your connection slows down u still get what you wanted and the rest of the time you will have even better connection GET VIRGIN GET VIRGIN not the 2mb thats free get MORE GET VIRGIN

  • neutral

    by James Quinn at 17:25 on 25 Nov 2008Report abuse

    Virgin Media limit your speed between 4pm and 9pm because : there are users with No download limit who can download unlimited amounts of files, songs,videos per month, while some users are limited to downloading 4gigs a month or Whatever the numbers are. So, Virgin Media limit your speed during this time of day to stop there BB lines from Exploding.
    I dunno why they limit speed but they do, and its at the peak time of day from 3pm to 9pm roughly.

  • neutral

    by Ross Spencer at 09:45 on 30 Nov 2008Report abuse

    A big big suggestion for all you out there thinking of switching to Virgin Media, I literally signed up for 20mb Cable broadband 2 weeks ago and have had the service now for three days, the first day I reached top speeds of 20mb, but for the past two days I have only been recieving just a little under 1mb, i looked into their speed throttling and decided to give them a call...

    The techinal support line, well lets say that they know jack about computing (i'm a VB software developer with over 6 years technical experience) and instead of doing any detailed tests which I expected them to do: I was advised firstly to reset my broadband modem and router, which I did to amuse them and to no avail may I add. Next I suggested they did a ping test to my modem to check the speeds, to which the advisor added "I'm sorry sir we dont have the capability to do that kind of test". The next request they had was that I test the connection with a UK sever based download, which I did and again only got just under 1mb connection speeds. After advising of this, the support person said that the connection speeds was caused as there must be heavy usuage in my area, and to "Wait it out".

    I stated that I was very unhappy with this, as I took on a contract for 20mb internet with unlimited usuage, and am now effectively recieving 1mb services with intermittent drops, to which I was told that I should have read the small print in the contract and if I'm unhappy to discuss it with customer relations.

    The customer relations were rude, and unhelpful telling me that as for the service provided there was nothing I could do, and if I wanted to terminate the contract I would need to pay the full 12mths up front.

    Be advised, having tested several internet connections in the past, Virgin media are proving to be the worst all round provider with the least interest in customer service. They promise everything in the sun, but when it comes to the crunch are unable to deliver on guaranteed selling points. Stay well away, as although their services may seem cheap and give good value for money, it is overpriced for the actual speeds and service.

  • neutral

    by Fred at 01:41 on 15 Dec 2008Report abuse

    This speedtest says that am getting 603kbps D/L and the best that I can get is 6.3Mb
    I'm with Be and am getting real D/L speeds of 2500KBs

  • neutral

    by Sparkatb at 19:56 on 9 Jan 2009Report abuse

    Bad speed tester, its as if their server is located in Australia or something. Says im getting 4mb, even though im getting 40-55mb from other sites. Virgin Media.

  • neutral

    by Mary Rose at 14:43 on 12 Jan 2009Report abuse

    Keep getting error on page messages and cannot move from the broadband check to "cheaper" or "faster" products.

  • neutral

    by Mary Rose at 14:44 on 12 Jan 2009Report abuse

    WHY WHY WHY do you have to go the END of the messages to leave a message?????

  • neutral

    by The Editor at 09:48 on 15 Jan 2009Report abuse

    Hi Mary Rose: Sorry about the comment thing - that just tends to be how these blogs work. However, I have put a link in the message now to the comment form on this post.

    As for those two broken links, we are currently implementing a new speed tester which will solve all such problems. Until then though, to check for cheaper and faster deals simply visit www.broadbandgenie.co.uk - all the same information you need will be found there.

  • neutral

    by yaqoob at 11:49 on 31 Mar 2009Report abuse

    im on 20mb , thats true in morning you get better speed around 16mb 17mb, which is acceptable , but at night it goes down to terrible speed at 4mb. virgin media made excuse that so many people using line that time thats why speed to slow.
    Bull. What is point to providing customers 20m and getting 4MB. absolutly SCAM.

  • neutral

    by Soap at 14:39 on 9 Apr 2009Report abuse

    Virgin sucks bad people dont use it i am paying for it no point they just are like oh and then dced u !

  • neutral

    by sri at 07:44 on 6 Jul 2009 | registered | 2 postsReport abuse

    Hai,
    It's nice way to know the broadband speed.
    I found the site ip-details for checking the broadband speed.It's useful for me.I always checked my speed by using this.
    Upload speed 583kbps
    download speed 934kbps.

  • happy

    by steve at 10:32 on 14 Sep 2009Report abuse

    i have the 50 meg and i get 50 meg 24/7 - nice

  • unhappy

    by John Taylor at 18:40 on 20 Sep 2009Report abuse

    Virgin broadband have just announced a claim that they will make only honest claims about speed.

    My speed with Virgin is now the worst it has ever been. Can't even watch a 5 minute YouTube. Speeds less than IM for most of the evening.

    Avoid Virgin if you want good speeds.

  • unhappy

    by physc at 02:08 on 18 Oct 2009Report abuse

    Had telewest back in 1998, finished just gone 2000 as i found they had provided me with a 2mb connection. Payed £18.99 for it whilst downloading thought it was slow - checked it online and both came back 512kb; said well i should be getting a 2mb to customer support and came back 2mb was'nt available in my borough at that time, so said i want my money back for the 18months since that refund and upped 2mb for that next 6 months.

    After i have lived where i am with virgin 20mb twice installed: the first install was shutdown by my mate as not providing the speeds, now this connection had been quick till 9 months ago and has shown this morning on 5 or 6 tests at less than 512kb when should be 20mb. Have called them before and know they give not 1 s**t let alone 2 s**ts about any paying customer.

    I repair pc's and set internet on them and i know the score with speeds. I believe the guy mentioning faster speeds at 3am is certainly true and the buffering is the cause; they should be investigated and customers should say to them under the sales of goods act that they are not providing the service they have agreed to in a contract. Test connections over time (different hours) and use word or print desktop free software to take screen prints from several tests and get their money back, else you'll be providing that information to a member of trading standards for further investigation - let's see how they like that then. lmao (laugh my arse off). physc, kiss my ass virgin

  • unhappy

    by Sarah at 22:06 on 13 Jan 2010Report abuse

    Im a virgin media customer paying for 50mb and all im getting is 18 !!!!

  • unhappy

    by PauloF at 13:14 on 8 Nov 2011Report abuse

    I'm Virgin media customer, got 30Mb Pack, far as i know, i only get 10 or less Mb DL and 150 Kbps Upload in a lucky day, in a non lucky day i get 2 Mb DL and 10~25 Kbps (10 up to 25 Kbps), Virgin starts sucking.

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