XBL unuseable on Virgin Media.

[MiaBocca]

I wondered if anyone else here was with Virgin Media and could give their experiences with online play (PC, PS3 or 360).

For the past few months, XBL has been unplayable for me, the lag is astounding. I have 20mb, 360 connected by ethernet direct to modem, no other connections. Haven't downloaded anything all day, so "traffic management" is not in effect.

I boot up SF4 for a few matches, and 3 and 4 bar connections play like sub-1 bar. There is a 1/2 second lag every 3 to 4 seconds where the play freezes but the button commands then all come at once afterwards. In short: unplayable.

I've read all sorts of reasons for this, and solutions, but nothing seems to work. My download speed on the PC is same as always (can reach 2MB/second on a good day) - so it does seem it's only when I'm gaming.

I'm looking at alternative ISPs, but I never had a big problem with VM before Virgin took over Telewest/Blueyonder.

Any other VM users have similar or unsimilar experiences?

[Paulos G]

Unsimilar here. I have very few problems using virgin media and I'm connected via a router. Do you have an open NAT?

[averybluemonkey]

I'm on VM and don't have a problem with either service in my area.

[MJ]

Virgin Media L package here and never have any problems with Live. My 360 is wired to a Linksys router, which in turn is connected to an old NTL Ambit modem.

[Brats]

Been with NTL/Virin for years and it's been fine.

Have you called them? I know the standard VM staff are pretty brainless, but if you get through to the Broadband tech support, they can be pretty good. At the very least, insist that they send an engineer round so you can show him yourself.

[C']

Whilst I've not had any problems with VM on XBL (albiet not played online for a couple of months) the only game I ever played was Street FIghter IV and can't say I suffered the way you report.

I have never ever gotten anywhere near the 20MB DL speeds I'm supposed to be getting though when it comes to PCs.

[MiaBocca]

Thanks for your input guys.

Unsimilar here. I have very few problems using virgin media and I'm connected via a router. Do you have an open NAT?

I keep reading 'NAT' being Open or Moderate etc, but I can't find reference to it any where. I've followed various tutorials online on how to open the NAT, but as to if it opened or not I couldn't say!

What I have done:
- Given 360 a static IP
- Enabled UPnP
- Enabled port forwarding for the 360 port ranges UDP/TCP
- Enabled DMZ for 360 static IP
- Tried with third party firewall, defining 360 IP as trusted zone
- Tried with Windows firewall (shutting down 3rd party firewall)

In between each step I've rebooted the modem/router and 360, and connected to an XBL game in SF4 - each time the problem persists. This is on 3 or 4 bar connections (or so it says in the match-making area, once in the match lobby that usually drops to the bar below, so 4 bar becomes 3 bar etc).

This all started about November IIRC, before that at peak times I could still have great 3/4 bar matches, and off-peak anything except 1-bar was playable, with 3 and above pretty much perfect.

It's driving me nuts tbh, and with Super SF4 round the corner, I wanted to get some practice in
I'm on the brink of looking for a new ISP, but then there's the whole hassle of getting a BT line reconnected etc, etc.

[EvilBoris]

Don't use UPNP DMZ and Port forwarding. Only use 1, it can confuse routers because you are telling it to do the same thing in different ways.

What does http://www.pingtest.net/ say for you?

My girlfriend had been having trouble with her Virgin Media connection but she does live in a purely student area which is death for net connections. I live just down the road and have very few problems, particuarly with XBL.

[Matt]

VM were once excellent. Before they became Virgin, I had great speeds. Then it went downhill for me, loads of latency issues. They couldn't help. Got so bad I went to BT. Then a year or so later I went back to Virgin, and when re-connected it was back to it's original latency and was great again. I assume something was wrong their end, but only through being re-connected later was the problem sorted.

So I'd suggest calling them up and seeing what they advise. Trying another router wouldn't hurt either.

[speedlolita]

No problems here.

[MiaBocca]

What does http://www.pingtest.net/ say for you?

I have no experience of what these numbers mean, so I don't know if it's good or bad. The problem isn't when I'm using the PC though, it's only on XBL.

[EvilBoris]

Well if it was an ISP problem it you would be getting some weird problems on the PC too when you ran this test.

I get a similar result to you, a slightly lower ping (which is a little better) but that isn't that bad a result.

Do you have a separate modem and router?

Do you have any problems with other games or is it just SF?
Does it happen if you play friends?

[Kieran76]

I have Virgin and find them good, the only problem is I have lost connection a couple of times in bad weather!
My brother, who is back in Sheffield, has had a nightmare with his 360 with Virgin though. He made a Virgin engineer come round on Monday to sort it out but I haven't spoken to hime since then though so couldn't tell you how it went.

[Brats]

I'm a bit confused. You say you are connecting directly to the cable modem, yet you have set the 360 on a DMZ.

Surely that requires a router, no?

[MiaBocca]

I'm a bit confused. You say you are connecting directly to the cable modem, yet you have set the 360 on a DMZ.

Surely that requires a router, no?

Sorry, I should clarify; I've tried both connecting the 360 direct to the modem, and also using a wired router connection (modem -> router -> PC/360).

When I've used port forwarding, DMZ etc, it's when I'm using the router - but the problem is same either way.

I've contacted technical support through their forums and they're telling me:

"I can see that we are having some intermittent spikes in upstream
utilisation which could cause spikes in latency, however this issue is
already under investigation on reference: F001155806."

When asked for more info or an estimate on when it will be fixed, I got:

"The issue is still being investigated, there is no fix date available as present."

There were plenty of other posts with similar problems, one of which they were saying 8-10 weeks for it to be fixed! Bearing in mind I've experienced this problem since November at least! (It was so bad then I just gave up with XBL altogether until a week or two ago).

I'm kinda dumbstruck how blase they are about it tbh, it's basically lump it or leave it - I wonder how long they'd lump it if I didn't pay my bill

Do you have any problems with other games or is it just SF?

It's OK with UNO!