Virgin Media Adopts Three-Strikes Rule for Illegal Downloads

[GReaper]

they use the same reseller as sky.

That's because it is Sky!

UKOnline was the residential branch of Easynet, but Sky now own Easynet.

 

[Draylor]

They're doing trials for even longer traffic management (from 11am to 9pm) in various areas of the country (details at whine thread).

So you can leech ~10gig between 10am and 10pm before that kicks in, and still be unrestricted outside those hours.

Where is the problem?

 

[Ch3tan]

You are currently capped after 4pm for exceeding 3gig. Altho lately i've not seen speeds above 10meg in the evenings regardless of how much you've downloaded.

Yep thats what pisses me off, capping me when I haven't actually done anything but basic web surfing :/

 

[GReaper]

So you can leech ~10gig between 10am and 10pm before that kicks in, and still be unrestricted outside those hours.

Where is the problem?

Mostly because the service for this so called unlimited connection has steadily got worse over the past year since the Virgin Media branding. I've had a 4Mbit connection for 2 years and instead of being upgraded everything has gone backwards with extra restrictions on how much you can download.

I don't abuse the connection with constant downloads day and night, however when I do have a large download I don't want to be classed as an abuser because I might occasionally want to download 1GB or so during the day or evening.

The fact that they haven't even announced anything about STM to users of the service just shows how sneaky they're pushing this in. The same thing with the trials, people were posting to support groups because they knew nothing about it.

 

[Tom]

STM Statement - Cable Forum

 

[bob269]

STM Statement - Cable Forum

Well done Tom, but you have to search for this, it isn't common knowledge to customers of virgin, they never sent a letter out (or even an email) to their customers explaining what they are doing.

 

[Yaka]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Virgin rapped on broadband speeds

 

[Scouse]

So you can leech ~10gig between 10am and 10pm before that kicks in, and still be unrestricted outside those hours.

Where is the problem?

Well, for a start I'd say that the problem lies with the ISP's selling non-existent bandwidth. If they didn't sell bandwidth they don't have then there wouldn't be a problem.

Secondly, apart from selling product they don't have, they tell the world that they've got so much of it that they're going to give it away "unlimited".

Then, when perfectly reasonable customers, who've been fooled into believing that they're buying one service when they're actually getting another, start getting throttled downloads they're, quite rightly, FUCKED OFF.


Dress it up how you want. Tell me that I have to "face realities". Whatever. But it won't take away the basic truth of the above.

Well done Tom, but you have to search for this, it isn't common knowledge to customers of virgin, they never sent a letter out (or even an email) to their customers explaining what they are doing.

I got a letter last week if I'm honest. 8 months after they'd broken their "unlimited" contract with me...

 

[Wazzerphuk]

When you sign up to Virgin Media, or ANY "unlimited" ISP you agree to a fair usage policy. If you ignore this policy, and download/upload constantly, this is nothing but your own fault.

As a fairly new Virgin customer, I have had utterly no problems at all. Why? Simply because I'm not a greedy arsehole who thinks it's acceptable to max out their connection constantly.

 

[nath]

They shouldn't advertise it as unlimited if it's not unlimited.

 

[Appollo]

I wondered why my dl speed was either 300 or 1200, i would ring and complain but i dont speak Gujarati.

 

[Appollo]

Well i can say hello, how are you, suck your mums tits. But i dont think that will get me far

 

[Ch3tan]

Why, are all Indian call enters based in Gujarat suddenly? I would think you meant that you do not speak Hindi.

 

[Appollo]

Yeh i thought about Hindi, but tbh i was only guessing.

 

[MYstIC G]

When you sign up to Virgin Media, or ANY "unlimited" ISP you agree to a fair usage policy. If you ignore this policy, and download/upload constantly, this is nothing but your own fault.

As a fairly new Virgin customer, I have had utterly no problems at all. Why? Simply because I'm not a greedy arsehole who thinks it's acceptable to max out their connection constantly.

Point

They shouldn't advertise it as unlimited if it's not unlimited.

Counterpoint

Nobody would give a shit if they'd drop the false advertising bullshit.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

True.

Although I think ISPs feel they have to list is as "Unlimited" because of the attitudes of internet users: as a LOT of stuff you want can be got for free from the internet, people have become complacent and lazy. Instead of hearing about a band, or a film through word of mouth, many users see something they haven't heard of/had access to yet, and decide to download it anyway, without much thought as to whether they even want it.

Internet users, like us, who have grown up with it and seen it develop and spread and become easier to use, are a little bit like unsupervised children in a sweet shop, grabbing fistfuls of stuff simply because it's there and it might taste sweet to us.

Also: expecting your "unlimited" internet connection to be maxed out downloading all the time is a bit like buying a fast car and insisting you drive it at top speed, everywhere you go, everytime you use it. What people seem to forget sometimes is that ISPs wouldn't have this problem to deal with if people could keep their foot off the accelerator sometimes.

That reminds me, I haven't seen this week's Top Gear yet. Time to see if BBC's iPlayer is any good.

 

[Appollo]

That reminds me, I haven't seen this week's Top Gear yet. Time to see if BBC's iPlayer is any good.

Its not bad, i dl'ed the Top Gear file rather than stream it.

 

[nath]

You make some good points Waz, but the fact of the matter is there are users out there who are always going to want to download shitloads, and to a certain extent there's nothing wrong with that. It's not their problem that what they're doing causes issues for the ISP - it's the ISP's.

I have no problem with ISP's offering cheaper capped services, seems like common sense, but ultimately if someone wants an unlimited superfast net connection s/he's going to go for one that's advertised as such. I don't download nearly as much as I used to, but if I did my attitude would be that I don't mind paying more for a service that is genuinely unlimited. ISP's advertising unlimited services are just trying to have their cake and eat it - look as though they're offering an amazing deal, yet not willing to suffer with the issues it causes to have people exploiting it.

 

[Trem]

Ok but why do VM have to throttle the bandwidth, it surely is not the same as ADSL is it?

Its an independant optical line into each customers house so where does the problem lie with bandwidth all of a sudden? All of a sudden as soon as Virgin buy NTL it seems.

I cannot get better speeds than I get with VM, I am too far from the exchange for anything decent on ADSL so I have to suck it up but fuck me it is so annoying.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

You make some good points Waz, but the fact of the matter is there are users out there who are always going to want to download shitloads, and to a certain extent there's nothing wrong with that. It's not their problem that what they're doing causes issues for the ISP - it's the ISP's.

This is the correct usage of ISP's. It needs an apostrophe because the "problem" belongs to the ISP.

I have no problem with ISP's offering cheaper capped services, seems like common sense, but ultimately if someone wants an unlimited superfast net connection s/he's going to go for one that's advertised as such. I don't download nearly as much as I used to, but if I did my attitude would be that I don't mind paying more for a service that is genuinely unlimited. ISP's advertising unlimited services are just trying to have their cake and eat it - look as though they're offering an amazing deal, yet not willing to suffer with the issues it causes to have people exploiting it.

Unfortunately, you stumbled here though. As in these contexts, the ISP is plural, there should be no apostrophe, meaning the correct answer is: ISPs. They aren't DVD's or CD's (when plural - that means more than one folks!).

Really nath, I expected more from you.






(Forgive me I'm being silly. But yes, you are right. They shouldn't be advertised as unlimited. A bit like the all you can eat fish bar in The Simpsons )

 

[GReaper]

Ok but why do VM have to throttle the bandwidth, it surely is not the same as ADSL is it?

Its an independant optical line into each customers house so where does the problem lie with bandwidth all of a sudden? All of a sudden as soon as Virgin buy NTL it seems.

No. ADSL is a dedicated line from the exchange to the user. Cable is shared between all the people on a particular segment of the network.

Yet again Virgin's advertising must be confusing you as well. The current cable network is hybrid fibre-coaxial, it's fibre to certain points and then it's coaxial to the home. Sadly this is why customers have limited bandwidth with cable as it's shared over coaxial instead of fibre to the home.

 

[Scouse]

When you sign up to Virgin Media, or ANY "unlimited" ISP you agree to a fair usage policy. If you ignore this policy, and download/upload constantly, this is nothing but your own fault.

When I signed my contract with NTL (before Virgin bought it off them) the fair usage policy didn't resemble anything like it does now, it was advertised as "unlimited" and there wasn't a problem with that.

NTL sold so many internet connections it doesn't have the bandwidth to cope - why is that MY fucking problem? They refused to stump up the cash for proper bandwidth...

Nobody would give a shit if they'd drop the false advertising bullshit.

I still would.

 

[Wij]

Ok but why do VM have to throttle the bandwidth, it surely is not the same as ADSL is it?

Its an independant optical line into each customers house so where does the problem lie with bandwidth all of a sudden? All of a sudden as soon as Virgin buy NTL it seems.

I cannot get better speeds than I get with VM, I am too far from the exchange for anything decent on ADSL so I have to suck it up but fuck me it is so annoying.

The big cost is peering to other networks so it doesn't matter if you're on cable or adsl tbh.

 

[nath]

This is the correct usage of ISP's. It needs an apostrophe because the "problem" belongs to the ISP.



Unfortunately, you stumbled here though. As in these contexts, the ISP is plural, there should be no apostrophe, meaning the correct answer is: ISPs. They aren't DVD's or CD's (when plural - that means more than one folks!).

Really nath, I expected more from you.

I've dismembered men for less than this. I'd do the same to you if you weren't chock-full of AIDS!

 

[TdC]

indeed. actually touching the Wazz is a health hazard. you'll just have to use a big stick, Nath.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Not that you'd know, skank0r!

 

[TdC]

bah, I had to work then

 

[rynnor]

I think the big problem with ISP's is the crazy un-realistic inflation of speeds that has gone on due to the marketing battles.

To combat this and allow fair competition there needs to be an outside body that surveys the ISP's and sets the true speeds they can use in adverts including revealing contention ratios - otherwise its clear that things will just get worse if left to the ISP's to be truthfull.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

You lie! That's the third different excuse you've given me now.

I'm going to cry.

 

[TdC]

bah, in that case I don't even know any more. there's been so many times I've tried to meet people here and haven't been able to make it for whatever reasons (mostly work, I admit).

you'll have to come over again