Virgin Media Problems

[m100]

Hi,

We have just had Virgin Media broadband and phone installed today. However, I am shocked at the very low speed of internet we are receiving, it is way below the speed we were promised.. Has anyone else had these problems? Hopefully not and its just teething issues.

Thanks.

[GinaG3]

I had the same problem. Its great now just took a few weeks to settle. We waited around 2-3 weeks before it got better. We still don't get proper speed but we are only about 3mb short of it.

[StooVee]

Hi, my girlfriend lives in Dulwich and has Virgin Media with both TV and broadband and I have to say I am unimpressed. Since getting the broadband connected her TV signal has dropped significantly causing some channels to be unwatchable and the BBC iPlayer service to be unusable.

The signal to my girlfriend's TV is much improved when I connect the main cable directly to the Virgin Media set top box. I haven't tested internet speeds with only the main cable connected to the modem as she doesn't use it that much.

As a single feed comes into your house and gets split (at least this is how it is for my girlfriend) I would try to disconnect the splitter and connect the main cable into the broadband modem. If you get faster speeds after doing this then the splitter is reducing the signal quality and affecting your speed. If so I'd suggest you call Virgin and complain.

I hope this helps.

[The Minkey]

I switched from BT Business Broadband to Virgin a few months ago. I have the unlimited calls and unlimited download package, no TV. I've been impressed by its reliability - I used to have to keep rebooting the BT router - and I've not noticed any issues with the speed. I'm on the New Cross exchange which may make a difference.

If I remember to do it this evening, I'll take a look to see what speeds I'm actually getting.

[Tonyotonyo]

When an ad, or say, a company say "20MEG BROADBAND SPEED" they say in the little print "up to...." Meaning they aren't breaking the law by giving you a really Shoddy speed.

This is doubled by problems when you have a router and splitting your own bandwith with house/flat mates. 20mgs = Really 5megs Diveded by 3 peeps... Stuff starts getting slow.

All the Internet companies do it and Watchdog are on their case. They'll just find a different way though.

Dont get me started on what "Unlimited" means to Mobile phone companies either... geeez!

[edcam]

I don't have any problems with Virgin - it's great and very fast. Maybe it's a problem in your street?

[StooVee]

m100, I just realised that you probably have Virgin Media broadband delivered over your phone line (ADSL) rather than via a cable connection. My post assumed you had cable and if you don't then my suggestions are of little use.

What Tonyotonyo has said is true, you rarely get what is advertised with ADSL phone line based broadband connections. This is because there are many factors than can affect the speed of connection - the quality of the cabling between your house and the street; the street and the telephone exchange; the distance, and therefore the length of the cable, between your house and the telephone exchange; the number of business and retail customers with connections to the same telephone exchange as you; the number and capacity of the network links from the telephone exchange back into the larger networks that make up the internet and even the quality and age of your ADSL modem.

Connection quality can also be affected by not having MicroFilters on other phone extensions you may have in your house.

Whatever speed you get day one is usually all you're ever going to get. You may be connected to a particularly busy exchange with high usage and therefore be contending with a lot of other people for the maximum capacity that the exchange can deliver. When it's quieter you might get better speeds.

Its because of all these varied fators - quite a few of which are often outside the control of your Internet Service Provider, that mean they can't say for certain that you'll get the advertised 20mb and they put the 'up to' in the small print.

The 20mb (or whatever you were told you could get) is a theoretical maximum in ideal conditions: for example you have modern ADSL and PC equipment, nothing other than your ADSL modem connected to your phone line, you live so close to the telephone exchange you can read the security guard's newspaper without binoculars, the wires go directly from your house to the exchange and are no longer than a skipping rope and you're the only customer using broadband services from that exchange. Only THEN you may get the maximum speed offered, but they'll still say 'up to' in the small print.

But unfortunately this isn't a realistic real world scenario.

What speed were you told you'd get and what do you think you actually get?

[The Minkey]

This site is a broadband speedchecker http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ to see what speeds you are actually getting.

[Thomas Micklewright]

Im using BTopenzone at the moment and the signal is also terrible - does anyone know where the local recievers are or how I can up my signal?

Thanks

Tom

[Penguin68]

You can find out about BT Openszone availability here http://www.btopenzone.com/find/uk/index.jsp - in this area most will be via BT Fon, which is spare capacity allowed by private BT Broadband users off their wireless systems. You would have to have a BT customer near you who has enabled FON to get a good signal. The strong Openzone signals are going to be in town - the West End and City.

I have checked on the map you can link to via the BT site http://btopenzone.hotspot-directory.com/results.php and there are no Openzone sites in ED - they are all offered via BT FON.

So if you want signal locally you will be relying on the generosity of those living around you (people who offer FON connectivity themselves can then access FON spots nationwide on their travels)

[jamster]

If you are getting poor speeds via Virgin Media Cable (as opposed to the ADSL variant) then make sure you call Virgin Media out to get them to take a look at it.

If it is a problem with the line into your house then they can fix that pretty quickly. It usually involved moving you up the priority in the street cabinet (well, almost: they move you to a position in the cabinet that will benefit from higher signal strength so the effects of attenuation are reduced).

If it is a problem at their network level (the UBR, where all the local connections are aggregated) - i.e. because they've sold too many connections in your area - then they will never usually admit to that. This is characterised by very poor speeds at peak times. It is just a waiting game to see when they improve it.

All consumer broadband is sold contended, or another way to put it - all consumer broadband is oversold. There are various points along the network where efficiencies can be made by relying on the principle that not all users will use their connection at the same time. Some are worse than others and of course the big consumer players - Virgin Media, BT, Talk Talk - who compete on price - are incentivised to run their networks as close to the invisible line between acceptable and poor performance as they can. This goes for various 'traffic management' technologies employed too.

On a macro level, most network providers will keep an eye on network loads and make adjustments and add capacity over time to deal with problem spots. Unfortunately, few providers will give any insight into their plans and you can be left waiting. You are best to vote with your feet and move to another provider if good quality broadband is important to your work or life.

[Seir]

Virgin is just shite.20meg cable gives me whoping 1.56meg average 6 weeks left and i will never look back that company(6)

[StooVee]

Thanks for the info re Virgin Media cable jamster.

My girlfriend has already called them and had a visit once before she even got broadband because the TV signal was next to useless and now with the splitter/attenuator that is put in to provide the feed to the broadband modem the TV signal is back to being poor.

While I appreciate that broadband is contended you shouldn't have to lose TV quality just to get broadband otherwise VM are selling a product that doesn't work.

I think I'll call VM on my girlfriend's behalf to have a chat with them. The broadband isn't used as much as the TV, but sometimes to ensure a good TV signal we have to bypass the splitter and plug the cable straight into the set-top box - unacceptable really. And obviously it means you can't use broadband while in this setup.

[Narnia]

I find this strange as we have their broadband which is pretty good and have a TV in my son's room which has a perfect picture. I measured the bb speed the other day and I'm on wireless and I got 16mg's approx or whatever they are called.

[StooVee]

Narnia, is your broadband delivered over your cable connection? If so, maybe you are lucky and my girlfriend isn't.

I'm not complaining about broadband speed here - it's fast enough - roughly a 10Mbit connection which is fine for what we use.

I'm just disappointed that the broadband splitter/attenuator or whatever it is in the cable reduces the signal to the TV sufficiently to cause picture breakup on certain channels and in fact makes the on-demand services (via the set-top box) like BBC iPlayer unusable.

As has been said in this post previously, broadband speed is often a lottery of contention, cable quality, distance and of course as in any lottery, luck.

[Narnia]

Yeah it is via cable which doesn't appear to affect the TV. I have Sky in the living room so don't watch the other.

[zephyr]

StooVee = the engineer definitely needs to come back. The splitter should not be doing that. You need to check the power levels

May I suggest this site Chetnet

This unofficial site is run by current and ex virginmedia staff and is excellent. There are cable specialist who can point you in the right direction.

The only connection I have with the site is that I am a forum member and have got excellent help from them.

Another suggestion which I have mentioned on here before is (if you are on twitter) to tweet @virginmedia. I recently did this about a peak time low speed rate earlier this year.

They were very helpful and admitted the problem - as mentioned above - too many customers but that they were working on the infrastructure. Its all resolved now and I got a refund on my bill.

Both are worth a try for any VM customer

[Narnia]

Just wondering if anyone has Virgin's broadband only and if so how much you pay? I currently have up to 20 mb's plus phone, but Sky has a much better phone deal so I'd like to change to them for that. I was once paying ?37 for broadband which they reduced to ?20 when I saw they were offering that to new customers. However if I stop having their telephone service they say they would charge me ?30 pm just for the b/b. I'm reluctant to lose their b/b service as it appears to be the best I can get in this area but I don't really want to pay ?30 for it.

[The Minkey]

Narnia, can't answer your question about broadband only but this is what I pay for broadband and phone, I have unlimited download and anytime free calls lasting less than an hour (excl. 0845 and mobiles).

?10 broadband

?11 line rental

?5 call package

So ?26 p.m. plus usually about a fiver on top for other calls.

[The Minkey]

Just checked the Sky site, Broadband only is ?15 p.m. - no calls, no TV: http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/broadband-options/