Virgin Media / VPN and traffic management

[mattx]

It seems that the idiots who run Virgin just don't understand what traffic management is all about as over the last 3 months everytime they turn on their traffic management policy in the evening my VPN connection refuses to connect. Or when it does it's so slow its unusable. On contacting Virgin they deny any throttling on VPN traffic but it's clear as there are now many many other people reporting silmilar problems.

Even when you chuck proof their way they still refuse to listen - if I logon using my vodaphone dongle I can get on, if I logon to someone else's ISP [ Talk Talk / SKY ] I can get on. As soon as Virgin's throttling is on in the evenings I can't get on. [ Same time, same laptop, different ISP - it's the same story ] - there are users who are ALL on Virgin who report the same problem as everyone else - no way can you get on the VPN in the evenings. Other work people on different ISPs, no problem.

My boss sitting in LAX Airport using their wireless network can get on, but me and others on Virgin can't.

I can get on first thing in the morning without any problems but come 3 / 4 pm when they start turning on their traffic management policy there is no way I can get on. I have to revert to using the company dongle for my connection.

Why do Virgin have to lie just to try and fob you off ? Various forums are ripe with users reporting similar problems but Virgin refuse to acknowledge or even investigate.

I think a letter now to Ofcom may be on the cards.

I'm due to fly to Milan, Stockholm, Frankfurt & Paris soon to do work in our offices there and I bet I don't have problems connecting !!

 

/RANT OVER

[mac_shinobi]

what or which vpn service do you use ?

 

Or is this a vpn you have setup yourself between work and home or something ?

[mattx]

The company I work for uses a firm called clearpath which is patnered by BT & other firms - BT provide us with the MPLS network and from those sites we use clearpath for local web filtering and also for remote access. The problem is not with clearpath, it's certainly with Virgin - the client we are using is called SNAP VPN Remote Access Client.

 

Remote Access VPN

[jamesfed]

We're looking at getting a SSTP VPN up and running (just need to sort out a problem with the SSL Cert) - as the whole thing runs over HTTPS it should be difficult if not impossible for anyone to throttle it.

 

One of the key selling points about it is that because its just plain old HTTPS its very rare that any public hot spot would have any reason to block comms over HTTPS.

[mattx]

We're looking at getting a SSTP VPN up and running (just need to sort out a problem with the SSL Cert) - as the whole thing runs over HTTPS it should be difficult if not impossible for anyone to throttle it.

 

One of the key selling points about it is that because its just plain old HTTPS its very rare that any public hot spot would have any reason to block comms over HTTPS.

 

Indeed - we have requested now that the VPN client be made to run over SSL - on checking there are users on Virgin who use a VPN over SSL without a problem [ well it would be really....I think Virgin would so go bust if they started blocking SSL !! ]