Slow VM Data Speeds

Slow..only on VC..and when VM GPRS is offline

Prometheus said:
It is very clear to me that some of the speeds people are getting are actually while on the Vodacom network. Vodacom's GPRS and so-called EDGE speeds are pathetic. I've mentioned it numerous times, but nothing has been done to it yet. My connection is a lot better since being on VM.
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Jip roaming on the VC network was realy BAD. No wonder there was people complaining,they could not realise that their roaming on VC! The speed difference is HUGE. No roaming today though,VM's GPRS is offline! http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=52234
 
i'm from ***amas in the northern cape and i don't believe here is a cellc tower nearby cause when i switch on my d500 it shows virgin and vodacom underneath. my speed is so slow when i connect it starts from 2.0 kbps and drop down to 0.5 and then it just freeze. the longest i stay connected was about 6 minutes
 
virgin needs to do something urgently about these problems.
at busy times like after 8pm in the night its terrible.
i stopped using them for the same reason about a month ago - hoping that they would sort it out somehow. from all these post it seems they havent though.
 
I would hate to see a direct competitor (VM) to Vodacom being blamed for what I think is essentially Vodacom's problems in most cases. The slow speeds and freezes talked about here are the same as what I get on Vodacom's GPRS network both when using them and when roaming through VM. Before anyone logs any complaint against them they should first make sure that the problem is indeed VM's fault by manually selecting Cell-C as the network operator if possible and checking that Vodacom does not show up as the network operator. It would be very sad if people didn't make use of the cheap data rates as a result of Vodacom.

What is ironic is that these problems on the Vodacom network are only surfacing now. I have heard of Cell-C's GPRS having a bad reputation, but at R2/MB also it didn't bother me much. After getting decent speeds on VM which runs on Cell-C's network I now know that they do have a reliable network and am actually wondering how many of Cell-C's problems are attributed to Vodacom. The reason not many people have been complaining about Vodacom's GPRS is probably because most people were using 3G and now that everyone is forced to use GPRS to get the cheaper rates all these problems are suddenly surfacing.
 
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Speed demon

Hi all,

I'm using edge connection.
Looking at browsing and downloading.
Going abroad then it becomes a hassel.
My downloading goes to zero and the backup to 15~20KB.:(
Now we have to ask how much bandwith do we have external to SA.

Going local it seems ok.
My local browsing is fast.
My phone is a nokia N70.

Regards
 
Network selection vs speed

got a query... now that u guys talking it 'might be' VC's connection, and not VM's that is bad, and the card might be roaming on VC.
If I keep the data card on auto network selection, with VM sim.... will it select VM (Cell-C) as the preferred network (CellC and VM being 'family'), or will it choose the best (strongest) signal (which might be the VC signal)?
From what I can see, best signal not always the fastest.
I get full signal if I manually select VC as network, but the speed seems much worse than if I select Cell-C (only +-75% signal).
So, which network does Auto network selection choose?
 
CeeBee said:
got a query... now that u guys talking it 'might be' VC's connection, and not VM's that is bad, and the card might be roaming on VC.
If I keep the data card on auto network selection, with VM sim.... will it select VM (Cell-C) as the preferred network (CellC and VM being 'family'), or will it choose the best (strongest) signal (which might be the VC signal)?
From what I can see, best signal not always the fastest.
I get full signal if I manually select VC as network, but the speed seems much worse than if I select Cell-C (only +-75% signal).
So, which network does Auto network selection choose?
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Very difficult question to answer. My signal is at 35% (3 bars) on a Nokia 6680 most of the time I look and it seems that only after it goes to one bar or less and nothing comes through it goes over to Vodacom. The problem is that it doesn't go back to Cell-C as soon as the signal is back up and sometimes stays on Vodacom for many minutes. When put on Cell-C manually the signal however only goes away for a few seconds really which I can live with over the crawl speeds I get on Vodacom which I have to wait for pages to load very slowly. Your device might work differently though. I would suggest putting it on Cell-C manually to get an idea of how the signal behaves and then putting it on auto to see how it behaves according to the signal. If your signal does not drop to an unacceptable level for too long you should really consider putting it on Cell-C permanently to see what that does to your speeds. I have to add that at 35% signal strength it is not uncommon for my connection to be ten times faster than Vodacom at 100% strength.
 
Prometheus said:
I have to add that at 35% signal strength it is not uncommon for my connection to be ten times faster than Vodacom at 100% strength.
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I've had id both ways,sorta.
100% on VM-Speeds Great!!
50%+ on VM-Speeds Great!
Roaming:
50%-60% on VC-Speeds as slow as hell.
60%-80% on VC-Speeds still as slow as hell.
never had 100% while roaming on VC.

Why does roaming on the VC network affect your internet speeds that much?
 
ld13 said:
Why does roaming on the VC network affect your internet speeds that much?
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Not just roaming. It's also when you're using their GPRS. When you roam on Vodacom you use their GPRS network as there is very little EDGE and you're not allowed to use 3G.
 
CeeBee said:
Ohno... this is starting to look not nice... so many negative threads (including my own).
Come on VIRGIN MOBILE! I had such a positive start and good experiences,... Pleeeeze don't let our high hopes of a better & cheaper alternative internet connection die a s-l-o-w and 'poor quality' death.
We've all been spreading word-of-mouth of VM's service.
Please don't let us come 2 believe that the price is only 50c/Mb coz it's only worth 50c! :(
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About three weeks ago, when i got my VM sim card and changed my number (my contract with Voda ended last month) i bragged to my friends about VM (especially the 50c/MB). But come to think of it, their call rates are expensive, they're not really bringing in the much needed competition.

i'm starting to get Gat Vol nou.:mad:
 
Yesterday evening and this morning (06h30) Virgin was CRAWLING! I had to wait about a minute to open this forum ::mad:
 
Zax said:
Same last night (6/90) NW of Jhb - but couldn't achieve anything - even a snail in mollasses was faster!
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I would associate that with Vodacom as well. Can send my data on the back of a snail and it would not only be quicker but cheaper as well. :rolleyes:
 
Prometheus said:
Not just roaming. It's also when you're using their GPRS. When you roam on Vodacom you use their GPRS network as there is very little EDGE and you're not allowed to use 3G.
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Jip!! Normal Vodacom GPRS was realy slow...i just never knew it before i tried VM! I just cant go back...i cannot see the sense in paying R2/MB for slower internet.
 
ld13 said:
Jip!! Normal Vodacom GPRS was realy slow...i just never knew it before i tried VM! I just cant go back...i cannot see the sense in paying R2/MB for slower internet.
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Naaah - I cant get anything out of VM this morning - even roaming on Vodacom at least gets pages loaded but slow - expected GPRS speeds. But I'm paying 50c/mb so at least I am connected. We have a power outage this morning.


EDIT: Well GREAT, I could not even post this with VM/Vodacom - had to swop out to MTN and getting decent speeds at least. Wonder how long we going to be powerless this morning.
 
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Here is something worth a try. I'm using my phone with EDGE during the day on VM, and I have not had issues with speed yet. The connection drops maybe 2-3 times a week, but usually after rebooting the phone (maybe unplugging USB) it works again.

My colleague had speed issues with his phone, or a more like a total lack of data coming through. (Not roaming on VC's network.) When I connect with his phone, it seems fine, even on GPRS.

We changed his TCP/IP settings to my settings, and now he is happy too. I guess his MTU setttings were wrong by default. (These are settings I used for sentech but seem to work fine for VM too)

Download and run "Dr. TCP" (Write down the current settings in case these changes make it worse)
TCP Receive window: 522560
Path MTU Discovery: Yes
Window Scaling: Yes
Black Hole detection: No
Time stamping: No
Max Duplicate ACKs: 2
Selective ACKs: Yes
TTL: 128
Dial up RAS MTU: 1472

These might not be perfect settings, but it sure helped my colleague.
 
adsl3g said:
Naaah - I cant get anything out of VM this morning - even roaming on Vodacom at least gets pages loaded but slow - expected GPRS speeds. But I'm paying 50c/mb so at least I am connected. We have a power outage this morning.
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Well all seems FINE now....i'm browsing this forum with VM while pulling a 53MB file @ speeds of about 7-11 KB/s....from a International server in the USA!!!!!! i've never had speeds like that on GPRS :eek: :D
 
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I really don't see the reason for using any other mobile network besides vc at the moment, the infrastructure behind cellc/vm is seriously lacking in comparison. If you want speed (and can spend a bit), go adsl. If you want to go mobile go vc hsdpa.

Have been using vc 3g/hsdpa for a while now and it started off really rough, but it seems they are doing something as it has become a lot more stable over the past few months - its actually really great having it now. I get between 40KB/s and 100KB/s on downloads (using a d/l manager).

Hope I dont jinx myself now!
 
ld13 said:
Well all seems FINE now....i'm browsing this forum with VM while pulling a 53MB file @ speeds of about 7-11 KB/s....from a International server in the USA!!!!!! i've never had speeds like that on GPRS :eek: :D
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Lucky you lol. I'm running at about 3kb/s on local! In St Francis at the moment, running on Virgin/Cell C itself going to try roaming on Voda now and see if it gets any better.
 
Syndyre said:
Lucky you lol. I'm running at about 3kb/s on local! In St Francis at the moment, running on Virgin/Cell C itself going to try roaming on Voda now and see if it gets any better.
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Note:All my speeds was on the VM/cellc network, No roaming on VC!

My local top speed on a local hub was 7KB/s DIRECT...The 53mb file downloaded @ 7-11KB/s with DAP,lol

Where and with what are you getting that 3KB/s download?
 
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