Internet connection

[artyman]

My phone line has been stable for quite a while but over the last few days my connection has been up and down like a yo yo. So in frustration with BT's seeming incompetance at maintaining a couple of copper wires to my house I'm thinking of switching to Virgin and fibre optic. Has anyone any experience of their service and line performance.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Don't know about Virgin, but I swapped from BT to Sky and I've never looked back. No loss of connection and speedy downloads...

 

[moonloops]

Virgin - out of the frying pan into the fire... best of luck..

 

[artyman]

Virgin - out of the frying pan into the fire... best of luck..

That bad Eh !

 

[verytalldave]

I swapped from Virgin to BT.

MUCH faster and MUCH more reliable.

Virgin was hopeless. Always getting disconnected - sometime 4-5 times a day.

It seems everybody has a different tale to tell and what may be true for one may not necessarily be true for another. Its very local the quality of service you get. Your best bet is talk to your very local neighbours and see what they say.

 

[artyman]

There seems to be little choice then, a rubbish BT line or Virgin cable who seem to sound just as bad

 

[moonloops]

That bad Eh !

rate limited at peak times and packet shaped to death is what to expect

 

[moonloops]

do you know if it is the line,exchange or just the BT service that is cr@ppy ?

 

[artyman]

I'm guessing it's the line, started about a week ago, feels like someone is rattling some keys amongst the wiring at the exchange, prior to that it was fine. Had the usual Calcutta helpline stuff...............

 

[Geezer]

See if you get BT Infinity any time soon. I was getting around 4 Mbps but now get over 37 Mbps and I think I am only paying a quid a month more. :bannana:

 

[artyman]

By the time BT get round to installing that here I shall ne past my sell by date and probably won't need an Internet connection

 

[crockers]

I switched from AOL (TalkTalk) to BT. Much better connection and speed. But more expensive.

 

[Satch]

There seems to be little choice then, a rubbish BT line or Virgin cable who seem to sound just as bad

Well it varies because there is the Virgin cabled network (which in my case has actually been pretty good because I am on a cable end with few users. On a 20Mb package which now actually delivers about 19.5Mb) and then there is the "Virgin National" network which uses ASDL down, yes, BT lines.

So first off need to work out if you are in a cabled up area:

Fibre Optic & ADSL UK Broadband Wherever You Live - Virgin Media Shop

 

[artyman]

I'm in a cabled area

 

[jepho]

I'm in a cabled area

Me too. Just taken on a Virgin Media 50Mbit package with associated TV and phone. I can report some teething problems but the installation is only two days old so I am prepared to wait a week and see what the service develops into.

Broadband is not what I expected. (see attached image) and I have yet to understand the average of 42.98% of the expected download speeds. The upload speeds average out to 82.4% of the expected and are seen to be far more consistent. The latency is about what I had experienced with Sky so no surprises there. As this is the much trumpeted fibre optic cable, there is no issue with my distance from the local exchange, which is just under half a kilometre.

The TV is not properly set up. Heavy compression artifacts are visible on all channels. The standard definition channels are all beset with swirling artifacts that look similar to far too heavily compressed jpeg images. The high definition images are almost as good as standard definition TV pictures.

All of the fixed text such as menus or on screen displayed texts of the type you might see at a sporting event are heavily blurred (in both definitions) by dint of extreme pixelation. Logos of Virgin and TV networks are also pixelated. There is a lot of pixelation in moving images with some tearing of the image.

The TV is unwatchable and makes me suspect that Virgin are in cahoots with Specsavers.

This is my first experience of Virgin Media and I have just complained to customer services (at my own cost... which irritates me no end) and I understand that there will be an installation muppet standing on my doorstep... in the fullness of time. I cannot say anything about the telephone service because I have not yet tried to use it.

Make of that what you will. It is early days yet and I take this as another sign that the country is slowly going to the dogs. What does it take to have a conscientious and well-provided service these days?

 

[jepho]

Having had a poor connection to the internet (it had fallen to less than 20% of the advertised speed) I contacted customer services. After some variable and time-wasting messing about, which I found irritating, and being cut off by no less than two of the customer services technical support team, I found a guy who could answer all of my questions and talked me through changing some of the hub settings. That did it and I now have a rapid and consistent throughput of ones and zeroes. :bannana:

see the attached: http://speedtest.net/result/1276089111.png

 

[Satch]

The TV is unwatchable and makes me suspect that Virgin are in cahoots with Specsavers.

This is my first experience of Virgin Media and I have just complained to customer services (at my own cost... which irritates me no end) and I understand that there will be an installation muppet standing on my doorstep... in the fullness of time. I cannot say anything about the telephone service because I have not yet tried to use it.

Make of that what you will. It is early days yet and I take this as another sign that the country is slowly going to the dogs. What does it take to have a conscientious and well-provided service these days?

Suggest you repost this here:

TV - Help & Support Forum

When you call up Virgin will end up speaking to a first line support muppet, who have a script with predictable results.

The CS people who monitor these forums are second line technical support and can access your box/test connection quality remotely.

May not get an instant fix if it is an installion problem or duff tuner in the box but cuts out one (highly) variable.

 

[bolide]

I would say that for 95% of people, 95% of the time, the Virgin cable broadband is really good

It's their network from end to end so everything is their responsibility. Tech support is poor but, in my experience, you will need it very infrequently

I would recommend you connect via Ethernet, not WiFi. Wireless is just another variable and using a wired connection, at least at the outset, enables you to get setup & working at full speed

Nick Froome

 

[artyman]

I am connected with Ethernet, it's just the crappy BT line

 

[npuk]

Switched to Virgin 50MB at the begining of the year and have been getting 50MB down and 5MB up pretty much all the time. It may drop a bit during peak periods but not by much and it has been reliable. It does vary from area to area and will depend on the level of utilisation in your lcoal UBR.

You get 28 days to cancel once your connected so give them a go. Purchase through Quidco for a bit of cashback. On Quidco it says cashback is for bundles but even if you get broadband alone you will get it, mine was paid recently.