Virtual Path Checking

Virtual Paths (VP)

This article will cover the following;

• What Is A Virtual Path?
  
• How Do You Check Them?
  
• Does It Affect You?
  
• Looking For The Signs
  
• What Can You Do If Its Red?

So What Is A Virtual Path?

Virtual path is basically the bandwidth pipe at your local exchange that links to the central hubs.

How Do You Check Them?

Quite simply actually. Go to here

Type in either your full post code or your full landline telephone number and and then you will be represented with the main usertools screen for your exchange as show below



Click on the "here" on the "VP Capacity"



There you will see now dates your VP has been checked..If its green, its good, no capacity issues at the exchange, if its Red, means your exchange has a capacity issues which means your throughput speeds are completely screwed, even if you do sync at a high rate.

Your VP check will be rarely up to date as your ISP has to request it to be checked with their supplier (BT Wholesale)

Does It Affect You?

If you are an Ipstream customer and you are facing low throughput speeds, then you could be suffering from an VP issue.

If you are an LLU customer, does not apply to you.

Looking For The Signs

Best thing really yo do is check your sync rate on your connection, then complete a speedtest on the BT Speedtester site. If you have a low throughput such as a connection to the exchange of 8128kbps and an IP profile of 7150 and a throughput speed of 800kbps, you could be suffering from a problem. You then need to contact your ISP and ensure their internal speed profiles (if they use them) are correct on your account. If they are, then you need to get your ISP to request a VP Check via BT Wholesale.

What Can You Do If Its Red?

Only thing you can really do is report it to your ISP. Changing ISP will make no difference if you are transfering from Ipstream to Ipstream..However transfering to LLU will most certainly solve your issue.

When your ISP requests a VP check, there is nothing more your ISP can do apart from wait for their supplier to respond (99.9% its BT Wholesale) to see if your VP is over capacity and if they plan to upgrade it.

Don't be surprised when there is no upgrade for the capacity forthcoming. This is not down to your ISP, this is down to their Supplier who maybe are migrating end users to 21CN in which their is no point of doing an upgrade as there will be more capacity in the first instance.