Internet problems for Virgin Media customers

My Virgin connection has been down only a few times in the 10+ years we've had it here. Certainly doesn't seem any worse than any other internet provider I've experienced. Shit, our work connectivity has been worse than my home connection.

Still, I resent the constant cost creep and having to call them every fucking year to haggle a lower price and I want to ditch the TV and landline options I don't use to try and max out my savings.

I'm on Three and my phone reckons it's 5G here so I guess that's pretty good.

Presume you need a specific plan to do tethering or use it all day though? Something that doesn't have data or use limits?

I could stick my missus on it (since her roaming is now fucked) and then try and work with it for a few days to test it out.

https://www.three.co.uk/why-three/unlimited-data

"No speed limits. No data caps. Just endless streaming, browsing, and sharing in the UK with our Unlimited data plans."

Unlimited Standard SIMO 24M
£24.00[1]
a month
What's included:
5G at no extra cost
Three+ Rewards

She currently pays £19/month for whatever her current Three plan is.

Just did two tests and got 60MB and then 32MB on my "5G" Three connection.

Did another near the window and got 115MB

I guess it depends where you are, when we had it the connection slowed to almost a stop in the evening peak (8-10pm ish), it was obviously a contention ratio issue. And I was talking to a lady on our current road (E17, was N1 back then) recently who was having exactly the same problem. Also the people on our road seem to have constant problems judging by the WhatsApp messages.

Cost creep is probably hard to avoid tbh, I had to do that every time my contract ran out with Plusnet before we got Community Fibre. And CF is £25 a month for 1Gbps for two years, but it's supposed to be half price so fully expecting it will go up to £50+ at the end of the contract, but we'll see...

If you go full 4/5G at home you're very unlikely to avoid cost creep as mobile networks are some of the worst for it!

I do wonder how much of the "Is Virgin down" is down to problems with their shitty wi-fi hubs. With mine in modem mode I have had issues a handful of times whereas some people nearby (possibly on a different cabinet I guess) seem to have countless problems.

Easier to move providers though. No kit, setup fee bullshit and less likely to try and lock in 18month+ contracts.

Oh, I'm only using my Virgin hub thing for the cable. I use a custom-flashed ASUS RT-N66U for wifi.

Unlike "normal people", I can also tell the difference between a wifi issue and a wider network issue. :)

Mines just gone in SE13, been fine all day

Just got another alert from home for going down (SG8)

Down again here. Teenager is raging.

Mate just said it's gone down again.

Mastodon 'tweets' confirms.

Mine is still fine, so maybe it's a DNS issue given I don't use Virgin's

Nope, mine's gone now. Hottie again

I dunno. I'm on their evil doer router which sits by the window. Connection is always pretty decent. Right now it's at 435/6.3 down and up.
I've not noticed any throttling at all. Downloading an 80gb game on the flash, followed by two more and no slow down.

It is about to go up to £24 because why the fuck not, they can, fuck you.
Overall though, It's been near zero maintenance in the 4 years I've had it. I can't complain.

It's been shit all day here.

Paying for 1Gbps, receiving barely 10Mbps.

If any other provider on this street could go above 30Mbps I'd switch tomorrow.

Turn your VPN off :)

So I ring these arseholes and they say, "hey you should SMS us, it's quicker" and then they immediately say "we need to transfer you to WhatsApp"

Um, go fuck yourselves Virgin.

EDIT: I fed this back to them slightly more politely.

.

A speedtest doesn't show any problems (although it defaults to Maidstone, not two nearer servers), but websites are noticeably slower to load than usual (wired connection).

I can't find any reports of network problems.

Any ideas?

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What are you using as your DNS server? might be worth trying an alternative if you are using the standard VM one (e.g. 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 - others available!)

I've been having low speeds for a couple of weeks, averaging around 70. This morning is the first time it has been, intermittently, above 100. Virgin's 'check your connection' page leads, eventually, to a blank white page.

I've probably mentioned it before but you get much better service on the Virgin forums than you do over the phone
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Broadband/ct-p/Broadband
Actually some technical people on there that understand what is going on with logs, etc.

02 and Virgin have combined and I've just got an e-mail saying they are sending me a new hub so that my speed can be doubled so I will see how that works out.

Thanks.

I'll try a different DNS and the Virgin forums.

End of contract time again, and I can't remember what we did last time to get a better deal. Do I just cancel & expect them to offer something reasonable?