Connection seems very random during peak hours

[Ratbiter]

I've recently had a problem with my internet connection which seems to be constantly dropping mostly during the hours 17:00 and 21:00, which I guess is peak times and slow down is expected but my browsing speed randomly drops to 5-10 kb/s for 20min then it picks up again to the normal speed and this happens 3-4 times during the peak time period, sometimes the connection just seems to totally drop and takes 1-2 hours before I'll be able to browse. This problem occured about 5-6 weeks ago and I called virgin media up and they say everything is working fine. I'm not downloading anything that would trigger the STU virgin media have and I download/upload max 100 mb during that period

Area/Country: Glasgow/Scotland
Service provider: Virgin Media
Download/Upload speed: 2MB download, Upload is at 200 kb/s
Make/Model: NTL:HOME 200 | Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Connection type: Wired
Make and model of your computer: Packard Bell CPU 2.8 GHz 1 GB RAM
Windows: Windows XP home edition, Service Pack 2


I took the line quality test during the "slowdown" period:
http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2385316

Although I took a second one where my connection seemed fine but it seems alot worse?:
http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2385320



Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

D:\Documents and Settings\Scott>PING 216.109.112.135

Pinging 216.109.112.135 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=97ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=96ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=96ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 95ms, Maximum = 97ms, Average = 96ms

D:\Documents and Settings\Scott>PING yahoo.com

Pinging yahoo.com [216.109.112.135] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=96ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=94ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=94ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 94ms, Maximum = 96ms, Average = 94ms

D:\Documents and Settings\Scott>NBTSTAT -n

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [86.11.171.165] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

D:\Documents and Settings\Scott>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : SN049826620310
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Eth
ernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-E6-13-A6-40
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 86.11.171.165
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 86.11.168.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.252.128.20
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 16 May 2008 22:26:53
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 23 May 2008 21:30:46


Hopefully someone can help, it's very frustating as it seems during peak hours my dial up connection would be better and I hate calling up virgin media...£1 per minute -_-

[johnwill]

Well, problems at peak hours on Internet connections is almost always an ISP issue, so I can't imagine how you're going to avoid calling them. I suggest getting a VoIP plan if it's that expensive to make phone calls!