UKVPN - poor service recently
 

We have been using UKVPN recently and until this last month or so it all worked well, however recently it really struggles on say, iplayer. It is buffering so much it takes 2 hours to watch a 1 hour programme, by which time I have given up :frown:

Download speeds are good and anything from iTunes when not using the VPN is fine.

Has UKVPN become victim of its own success and can't cope with the amount of users?

If I cancel it and go with another provider can anyone recommend one?

Thanks
TS

Re: UKVPN - poor service recently
 

I use Overplay which has worked quite well for me. Gives you access to 65 countries so you can watch BBC, but also RTE Ireland, ABC Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.

Overplay.net

Just a usage note: you might want to get the BBC iPlayer 'Desktop'. Leave it on during the day with 'Series Record' and it will download the full program for you while you are away at work or whatever. When you come home to watch the whole thing will be there already--not a single buffer incident or delay. Really the most effective way to watch the content.

Re: UKVPN - poor service recently
 

I use purevpn and have done so for a couple of years now.

It's been pretty much rock solid, occasionally (very rare) I've had buffering issues (perhaps 10 days out of a total of 2 years with them)

Mostly it runs just fine. My up/down speed on my connection (not-vpn) is 15Meg up/down.

Once connected to the UK VPN it's getting 10Meg down/up.

I did notice one weird thing though a few years back. If I ran the VPN under windows XP home edition, the vpn speeds were crippled to a max of about 1.5Meg up down, but on exactly the same machine, when I upgraded to Windows 7 Professional, the vpn speeds jumped to 10Meg up/down.

Still don't know why though.

Re: UKVPN - poor service recently
 

Thanks Guys,

Just been watching BBC News and it was fine, it does seem to struggle on an evening when the world (well US!) return from work.

Will update my iplayer download too and make sure I get some downloaded and stored rather than trying to watch them live.

Will check out purevpn too

Thanks again :)

Re: UKVPN - poor service recently
 

Windows 7 does a much better job than XP at specifying an appropriate TCP window size. An incorrect TCP window size really affects throughput as latency increases.
There are registry tweaks and freebie tools out there that will tweak XP to work much better than default.

Re: UKVPN - poor service recently
 

Been watching LOADS of snooker the past week or so, using iPlayer over ibVPN, occasional buffering but probably only a couple of minutes total per hour, if that.

Picture quality is at least as good as the non-HD channels over cable TV, if not better.

Very happy with it for $20 for 6 months.