I've had internet connection problems since 29 December 2015.
I've had a nightmare trying to sort problems out since they started just after Christmas. I have BT Infinity with a maximum possible speed of 76 Mps - I actually get about 60 Mbps downloads (63 Mbps where I am) and 13 Mbps uploads with a maximum possible of 20 Mbps.
I have a BT Hub 5 and I have my computer connected directly to the Hub and other devices connected via a switch box.
The devices connected via the switch box don't seem to work most of the time but I've tried THREE other switch boxes without any change. I had a friend visit and he couldn't do anything other than set up tethering to my mobile phone when my computer couldn't get an internet connection. I had a BT engineer visit on 04/01/16 (that was the earliest they could come out) and he admitted that his knowledge was limited! He said he could only deal with the hub and as it worked to my computer that was it. I had my computer expert visit on 07/01/16 and he got most devices connected. After he left within three hours none of the devices connected through the switch box were working. My computer expert came again on 09/01/16 and with various combinations tried he decided that there was an intermittent fault with the BT Hub 5. We bought another hub (a Netgear Hub) and my computer expert and BT between them couldn't get the hub connected. BT agreed to send me another BT Hub 5 by tuesday.
This leads me up to my question. If things are not sorted out when I get the replacement hub I wonder whether I should get Virgin Media? They say that I can get up to 200 Mbps although they don't mention the upload speed. The cost is only £43.25 per month which is similar to my BT internet cost. I could even have both services and use one as a backup.
Replies (44)
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We are
supposedly having Virgin installed this week. We started the process back in September !! Our IT guy has been dealing with it for us. The reason we have gone with them is that one of the tenants in our building already has Virgin and I thought ( probably stupidly) that installation would be simple.
We have stuck with Virgin as we spend a fair amount of time working remotely and our present internet connections are,to be blunt, rubbish and hopefully the Virgin broadband will make that easier. In addition because our existing broadband is such rubbish speeds I hope that we will be able to use more cloud based applications over the very limited amount tha is possible now.
FYI we are not in some backwood but we are in North West London !!
I've just had Virgin Media installed at home.
Was previously with Sky and before that BT. Must say the connection and speed is much better than the two previous suppliers.
Have a couple of billing issues with them though so not the greatest start. They've billed a full month for the three weeks of January and February upfront to be paid by 26th Jan.
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. There are rumours that Liberty ( the owners of Virgin Media ) are in discussions with Vodafone with the aim of amalgamation. Oh dear !!!
Narrow down the problem
Before changing supplier, I would suggest that you first narrow down the problem. Is the issue with the hub's ability to connect to the internet (and, if so, is this caused by the hub or by a faulty connection from BT) or is the issue with the switch?
First, disconnect all switches and only connect your computer directly to the hub. You may also wish to switch off WiFi, so that you can test the wired connection in isolation. Keep that running for a while and test (and record) the speed at various intervals (you can maintain an ongoing record of your speeds here). If this works, then there is no problem with the hub or with the BT supply. If it drops out, check your Netgear hub and, if that too fails, your connection is likely to be the cause and BT will need to resolve it. Or it may be your PC that has a fault with maintaining a constant connection, so try another one, too. Only once you have resolved the issue with direct connection to your broadband supply via a wired connection directly to the hub should you investigate the issue with the switch.
You have said that you might consider getting a supply from Virgin in addition to BT. Instead of using another consumer service provider from whom technical support is poor (at best), I would strongly recommend using Zen Internet, whose service is second to none. I used them for my home and various businesses for about 12 years. Their support is excellent, as they hire trained, technical experts, rather than a bunch of mindless automatons whose only skill is to read a script of possible solutions to run through. I only moved back from Zen to BT at home when Sky launched its TV catch-up service which required a much larger monthly data allowance than Zen could offer at the time (except via a very expensive package). Since my broadband supply is very reliable these days, I have no problem being with a company (BT) whose support desk is poor, as I rarely (if ever) have need to call them. As you are experiencing problems, a supplier whose support desk truly lives up to the name would be my recommendation. And Zen is now able to offer unlimited data plans at very reasonable prices. If I had a problem with BT, I'd switch back to Zen again in a heartbeat.
We have Virgin
We have a 100Mb (10up) circuit and it's very stable. It's shortly to be upgraded to 150Mb I gather. The 'Super Hub' they supply is 'ok' but the wireless aspect is not great.
But this is easily solved; a lot of people just use the Virgin Hub in "modem mode" and connect another, better wireless router to the GWAN port (bottom port) on the Virgin device. Modem mode is a one-button change in the Super Hub's settings which are accessed via a web browser.
In this mode the Super Hub only acts as the modem to talk to Virgin's infrastructure and the 'other' device does all the real work (acting as an Ethernet LAN switch and a Wireless host). This all works very well indeed.
It is important to note that you cannot entirely replace the Virgin Hub device, it's the only thing that will talk to their back-end infrastructure.
Captain
Have Virgin at home
And have always seen in excess of the advertised 200MB when I've tested. All works fine for me, came away from Talk Talk as never got the advertised speed and would drop out in the evenings to nothing and worse late at night. Right now, ping 12, download 203, upload 12, in Oxfordshire.
Have tried to put two price increases through since I switched in June but called and got a credit to take me to the end of my fix.
Cheers
Pat
Good once you get going
I've got Virgin at home, and we've had it at the office for about a year now.
Speed is great, reliability is very good (when it's down, it's rarely down for long). Wireless connection is rarely a problem.
Customer service is not good, but no worse than any other company that size that I have to deal with.
The only real problem we had (at the office, not at home) was with getting confirmation of the installation and getting the account/direct debit sorted out.
Having dealt with both BT and Virgin, personally and in business, I'd probably rate Virgin higher overall.
WS.
Virgin with Fibre Optic Cable
I've got Virgin at home.
Speed is great, reliability is very good (when it's down, it's rarely down for long). Wireless connection is rarely a problem.
Customer service is not good, but no worse than any other company that size that I have to deal with.
I have had the same experience but would stress this is with fibre optic cable, not copper wire. Do you know if Virgin has fibre optic cable in your area?
One of the things I like about Virgin is they supply the line, the modem and the service, so they cannot fob you off by telling you the fault is with your equipment or the BT line.
Virgin media speeds are great with direct connection to the Superhub but the WiFi only a 1/4 of the speed which in most cases does not cause a problem
I have a client
Who operates a restaurant and needed top notch broadband and WIFI as they use WIFI ipads to takes orders etc.
They had a lot of hassle getting virgin in as the cables had to be brought quite far to the site and took a lot of arranging permits with local authorities and Virgin where not ideal to deal with this part of it. After 3 months they got it in and its been excellent for them and is super fast with no issues around till operation and order taking. They have 2 WIFI networks through it one public and one locked for internal use and its now all working spot on.
I would get it in myself but Virgin cover is sketchy at best "up North"
Virgin media
We've found their broadband to be excellent, totally constant and reliable, we have their 100Mb connection which has 10Mb upload.
As so much these days depends on internet, eg RTI and VAT and self assessment filings, we also have a 40Mb ADSL over a "BT" landline.
Both connections go into a router which will normally spread any load between the connections, but if one or other connections go down it will send everything down the working connection. Although rarely needed, it is effectively an insurance policy against someone digging up a road and breaking a cable which happened once before and left us without internet for over a week.
Bridging
How do you bridge the two connections, would be interested to know. I have both BT and Virgin, and would love to know how to bridge the two connections as our phone system is VOIP.
Grr
We were supposed to have had them pitch up today to do the install. However they are apparently having a problem getting a cherry picker. We are on the fourth floor and have been ever since we moved in some three years ago. The words organise and brewery spring to mind
@Peter
Glad to hear it's sorted. It must have been very frustrating.
Is there a general conclusion you can take from this experience? Or is it just a case of trying all angles, asking around, etc?
Bridging
Purchase a router which can handle it, and use Virgin's hub in modem mode.
eg we use this one http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860
We also use VOIP and the way we have actually programmed the router is to send all VOIP traffic down one connection, and all internet data down the other connection, so that any sudden large downloads don't affect the VOIP data. But either connection will fail-over to the other in the event of a connection going down.
The draytek business routers are very configurable but you do need someone with an understanding of networking to set them up with this type of config.
Can't comment on the quality/reliability of Virgin Media as an ISP but I can say that their junk mailing department is excellent. Rarely does a week go by without them sending me an A4 envelope stuffed with sheets of colourfully printed advertising blurb.
Re Phil
Can't comment on the quality/reliability of Virgin Media as an ISP but I can say that their junk mailing department is excellent. Rarely does a week go by without them sending me an A4 envelope stuffed with sheets of colourfully printed advertising blurb.
Sorry, I disagree about the quality of their junk mailing department as I'm a current customer and they still keep sending me junk! They could save themselves money by cross referencing their marketing list against their customer list (or use the budget to send more to non-customers)! Bless 'em... ;-)
Pat
A possible alternative?
On moving house where wired broadband was not possible we went with 3's 4G mobile. I have to say I impressed with the 20 - 30 download and 10-15 upload. I run up to 10 devices on it. I work remotely and speed is not an issue. Might be worth looking into?
More than one router!
Your initial post said that you "have a BT Hub 5 and I have my computer connected directly to the Hub and other devices connected via a switch box." It made no mention of other routers. I'm not surprised that you (or I) might be confused by having more than one router, but how on earth did your computer expert think it was OK to connect two more routers (either downstream from the BT Hub or via additional BT sockets around the house) and not think that they might have been the cause of the problem. Instead, apparently "he decided that there was an intermittent fault with the BT Hub"!
All what Charlie advised had be checked previously by my computer guy.
Apparently not. In any complex (by which I mean more than one element exists) system, the simplest way to solve the problem is to isolate each element. Your "expert" should have looked to see what else was on the same line and isolated them. He would then have solved your problem on his first visit.
Fast but Wi Fi flakey
We have Virgin's basic 60mbit Broadband and it consistently delivers the advertised speed.
However while cable connected computers enjoy reliable fast connection the Wi Fi is much less reliable. It often seems to stop or go ultra slow, disconnecting and reconnecting generally sorts it for a while. We tried buying their latest router recently but it doesn't seem to have solved it.
We also have a Synology NAS connected directly to the router (with all PCs connected via at least one Netgear switch). File transfers to and from the NAS are very fast (perhaps 50 Mbytes/sec) for a while when everything is restarted but then drop to less than a tenth of that. Restarting the router or power cycling a switch will restore speed for a while.
I suspect the Virgin Router is to blame for this but it is hard to be sure (I have also replaced the primary switch) so Thanks to Captain Black for the modem mode suggestion and to cjtrevor for reminding me what excellent routers Draytek make.
I have Virgin at home
and my speeds are generally excellent. I currently pay for 100mbs and clocked it at 103mbs the other day but Virgin are actually doubling all speeds in my area in the next 2 months so 200mbs here I come!
VM-Vodaphone merger talks were "terminated" last October although it seemed a sensible move to merge the UK/EU business at least but the regulators may have disagreed.
Ours is going up to 200 mbps in March too (.. and the price)
Onwards & upwards
VM-Vodaphone merger talks were "terminated" last October although it seemed a sensible move to merge the UK/EU business at least but the regulators may have disagreed.
Ours is going up to 200 mbps in March too (.. and the price)
According to my sources the talks started again over Christmas and are proceeding
Virgin Media
Been with them for a long time. Originally with NTL. Very good service over all areas i.e. tv, phone and broadband. Broadband very fast. Importantly, regarding broadband speed, you get what they claim you will get.
BT Hubs
I had 3 BT hubs replaced. They come preset correctly for SP security but that is their only advantage. The LAN and wifi seems awfully bug-ridden. Eventually I bought a TPLink hub, went through the pain of configuring it myself to login to the SP, and everything has worked perfectly ever since.
Virgin
When I had Virgin everything technical worked perfectly 24x7x52. Fast and smooth.
Their Admin systems were the worst in the world though. Billing problems all the time, and impossible to talk to anyone sensible.
I'd also recommend Zen - outstanding customer service. I tried BT and had no end of problems with the connection dropping. BT eventually replaced the cable coming in and that seemed to solve the connectivity issues. We had a copper cable which should be ok for fibre but in our case wasn't up to the job.
"copper cable which should be ok for fibre"
a copper cable which should be ok for fibre
What does this mean?
Two flavours of Fibre
Fibre comes in two options:
Fibre to the door - this is a fibre connection right into your building and gives the eye-watering 200mbs speeds some are quoting.
Or Fibre to the cabinet - this is a fibre connection that only runs to your exchange cabinet (the green boxes on street corners). This then utilises the existing copper cables to get to your building. Our office is good for 70mbs on this type of connection.
If I were business reliant on internet access I would investigate a primary fibre connection and a secondary ADSL connection using the Draytek routers mentioned earlier - but I would get an IT Support company to install and configure the failure options etc.
@thomas
We concur Zen is brillant. Been with them since 2006. NOticed that when we went to 70mb BT could not do it for three weeks but Zen go us up and runing in 7 days. I guess youget for what you pay for.
Best laugh was when there was a lightening strike. BRoadband was up in 15 mins but BT phones took two hours.
Lock down by MAC Address
I don't want to be at the mercy of rogue routers any more. Is there away to not allow people to connect their routers to the network? I can't believe big companies are helpless to this problem.
You could configure your router to only allow specified MAC addresses to connect (an ID programmed into each device) but you would then need to take extra steps each time you or a tenant want to add a device.
VOIP over Virgin
We use Siemens Gigaset cordless phones which automatically route outgoing international calls and calls to mobiles through a VOIP provider (Sipgate) which offers lower rates for those calls.
Recently had a problem where there was no incoming sound on outgoing VOIP calls. Incoming calls to the VOIP number were fine.
I solved it by setting up a DMZ (de-militarized zone) on the Virgin router which would indicate that the router had been blocking that VOIP traffic. Whether that was by Virgin's design to increase their telephone revenue or just an unfortunate accident I couldn't say.
Virgin media
I've had similar issues with connection but not speed. After several visits by various Virgin Media engineers they seem to have the problem resolved. Very frustrating though!
Virgin upload speeds
I have 200mb Virgin fibre at home. The download speed is very good - I get 180mb or more usually. The problem is the upload speed which is only 12mb. This is an issue if you have a lot of uploads do services like Dropbox. I think you can get up to 40mb upload speeds with BT fibre which unfortunately is not available in my area. My office connection is fantastic - 100mb up/download speed on a leased line