Virgin Media broadband...anyone use it? • Non-Gaming • Science & Technology • Eurogamer.net

BurnoutJunkie 13 Aug 2007 21:55:20 1,222 posts
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Hey guys,

I've been considering a switch to 20MB broadband from Virgin Media but have recently been put off by the awful reviews here. Just want to get EGers feedback. Anyone use it? Online gaming, etc? I wouldn't be getting it via a phoneline, standard cable.

Thanks.

DrPhil 13 Aug 2007 21:57:00 694 posts
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It's not great. Cuts out for a few hours every now and then...

Phattso 13 Aug 2007 21:58:21 27,426 posts
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I've ended up on this as a Telewest Blueyonder customer of many years. Thus far it has been totally flawless for me. 2.2MB/s downloads, and impeccable pings for online gaming (frequently host massive Xbox Live games).

And yet my mate, who lives two miles away, has frequent outages and is lucky to get TV and internet working at the same time.

It's a roll of a dice, I'm afraid.

Whizzo 13 Aug 2007 22:01:01 44,810 posts
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Virgin is very dependent on where you are in the network, where I live I'm part of Guildford's network which is probably among the best in the country so I'm extremely happy, other areas can vary.

Probably best to take a look over the Cable Forum site, especially the forum and see what other people's experiences in your area are like.

I've been with NTL/Virgin/whatever they'll be called in the next take over for something like 6-7 years and haven't had too many problems.

manuel_garcia 13 Aug 2007 22:01:48 4,079 posts
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I've been on Telewest for the last seven years now, and barring one or two incidents they've been absolutely flawless throughout.

The switch to Virgin hasn't seemed to have brought on any crap service as of yet....

Knighty 13 Aug 2007 22:06:06 1,326 posts
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Also on Virgin, have had absolutely no problems here. I'd recommend em any day.
Although my brother decided to cut off his fone and Cable TV service from them while keeping his internet...they decided to cut the internet off as well (which he hadn't asked them to) and now they want to send an engineer round (at his own cost) to turn it back on. Not surprisingly he told them to jog on.

Mixed bag then, realyl.

deem 13 Aug 2007 22:27:48 31,667 posts
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I've been with them for over 6 years now. I think a lost my connection for nearly 2 hours in around 2003, apart from that, it's been perfect 24 hours a day, for the entire time.

And they're always increasing the speed, and reducing the bill.

Can't complain.

Carlo 13 Aug 2007 22:52:04 21,801 posts
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deem wrote:
I've been with them for over 6 years now. I think a lost my connection for nearly 2 hours in around 2003, apart from that, it's been perfect 24 hours a day, for the entire time.

And they're always increasing the speed, and reducing the bill.

Can't complain.

+1.

Had the cable connection for YEARS (like deem, 5+ easy!).

2 outages **ever**. More solid that a porn star on 8 viagras.

Deleted user 13 August 2007 22:56:11

I'm on Virgin - formerly ntl - in notts and absolutely no problems at all in a couple of years.

The customer service is completely wank though so be warned.

smugla 13 Aug 2007 22:58:56 2,303 posts
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Post deleted

Sid-Nice 13 Aug 2007 23:03:43 15,848 posts
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deem wrote:
I've been with them for over 6 years now. I think a lost my connection for nearly 2 hours in around 2003, apart from that, it's been perfect 24 hours a day, for the entire time.

And they're always increasing the speed, and reducing the bill.

Can't complain.

What a bunch of cunts cutting deem off for 2 hours.

+1; I've had great sevice for years. Speed.

MrSensible 13 Aug 2007 23:06:43 26,517 posts
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Was all fine and dandy here when it was Telewest. The service only went down once in four years. Then as soon as it changed to Virgin my internet was down six times in six days, often for hours at a time.

Luckily it's not that bad now, but it's so bloody slow more often than not. I would change service if I was staying in this house to be honest, it's ridiculous.

DaisyD 13 Aug 2007 23:07:54 11,816 posts
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Fozzie_bear wrote:
I'm on Virgin - formerly ntl - in notts and absolutely no problems at all in a couple of years.

The customer service is completely wank though so be warned.

Ironically I didn't have an issue with my connection when they were NTL. Although NTL accidently deleted my direct debit for my phone once which caused no end of problems.

I've actually had a good experience with Virgin's Customer Service when they first took over.

Hunam 13 Aug 2007 23:11:00 20,675 posts
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We are on the 20mb service, it usually floats around 13-17mb though, and the customer service is beyond awful, and now they expect you to fucking pay for it.

gazzy 13 Aug 2007 23:20:58 882 posts
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I'm on whats meant to be '20' MB - so thats 2MB for the first couple of gig that drops down to 500KB meaning a heafty download trundles along.

Traffic shaping cunts.

Hunam 13 Aug 2007 23:26:23 20,675 posts
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Ive not seen anycaps really, i downloads loads and never get dragged down.

MrSensible 13 Aug 2007 23:29:59 26,517 posts
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Mine doesn't go slow because I've been capped. I very rarely download anything. It just goes slow whenever the hell it feels like it and it's winding me up. Loading web pages can take ages and this is meant to be 8mb (I think, they keep upgrading it without telling me).

gazzy 13 Aug 2007 23:40:27 882 posts
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I like many others are being charged an extra three quid a month for a service we didn't ask for - giving it with one hand and taking it with the other.

I'd rather have the old 10MB if this is the future. At least its better than ADSL though!

Walshicus 14 Aug 2007 00:44:05 268 posts
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I'm on Virgin formerly Telewest formerly Eurobell. The service isn't bad by a long shot. If you want to host games then you'll enjoy having 768kbs upload for sure, and latency is rarely an issue. Just be aware that you should schedule your big downloads for overnight; the traffic shaping shit cuts out at midnight. With uTorrent you can make this easier.

neosalad 14 Aug 2007 07:55:57 971 posts
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i've been with Telewest (now NTL and Telewest are VM) for 5 years now. on various packages, thopugh now just the broadband.
i'm on the 4MB, and just to clarify the situationw ith download speeds. since it went to VM they have implemented a system of "fair usage". it's still UNLIMITED but their "traffic shaping" does the following.

If you download more in a certain periopd of time continuously , what they do is between the hours of 4pm and 12:00 midnight your spee drops. so i am on 4MB and my speed will go to a 2MB. i hear 20MB ones go down to a 5MB speed. aparantly it's to be fair on those near you because your hogging bandwidth... i say balls to it..
thing is. the ADSL would be worse because they do actually have a bandwidth cap, so anyone complaining about VM and the traffic shaping.. you're not gonan get a better unlimited downloads on a ADSL imho.

X201 14 Aug 2007 09:17:05 22,150 posts
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As per deem, I've been a customer of Telewest/Virgin for 7 years and can only remember three outages, only one of which was an all evening job.

Fozzie_bear wrote:
The customer service is completely wank though so be warned.

I've heard a rumour that the Virgin Mobile call centre people will soon be in charge of the phones and that is great news because Virgin mobile have been brilliant every time I've phoned them.

LPXO 14 Aug 2007 09:38:43 25 posts
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Been with Virgin/Telewest for over a year now and where I am (in Edinburgh) there is sever slowdown at peak times during the week. Outside of this the service is very stable if not particularly fast. Customer service was horrendously bad, although it seems to have imporved not it is virgin.

If you are in an area where you can get a decent adsl speed then, aside from the cost, i can't quite understand why you would bother with cable.

semprini 14 Aug 2007 09:43:23 3,144 posts
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I use it (the 20MB one), and don't get any problems. All very good in fact.

Deleted user 14 August 2007 09:44:05

Been with NTL since the original trials in Manchester. And apart from having to reboot the modem once every few weeks, no problems here and can highly recommend it.

figgis 14 Aug 2007 09:44:51 7,721 posts
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2mb connection here only had it 1 year but fairly fast and constant speed connection. South Staffs / West Midlands area.

gazzy 14 Aug 2007 12:41:52 882 posts
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neosalad wrote:
i've been with Telewest (now NTL and Telewest are VM) for 5 years now. on various packages, thopugh now just the broadband.
i'm on the 4MB, and just to clarify the situationw ith download speeds. since it went to VM they have implemented a system of "fair usage". it's still UNLIMITED but their "traffic shaping" does the following.

If you download more in a certain periopd of time continuously , what they do is between the hours of 4pm and 12:00 midnight your spee drops. so i am on 4MB and my speed will go to a 2MB. i hear 20MB ones go down to a 5MB speed. aparantly it's to be fair on those near you because your hogging bandwidth... i say balls to it..
thing is. the ADSL would be worse because they do actually have a bandwidth cap, so anyone complaining about VM and the traffic shaping.. you're not gonan get a better unlimited downloads on a ADSL imho.

I'm probably one of the few people on Virgin in my area everyone is on BT/SKY judging by the amount of routers I pick up.

Its unfair that its being advertised as "unlimted" when it clearly isn't.

12AM downloads it is then.

macksed 14 Aug 2007 12:46:34 3,800 posts
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i've been with ntl / virgin as long as i can remember and i have found it very reliable.

back in the day their service was rubbish but its a lot better now - although they seem to make a lot of billing mistakes, most of which they sort out themselves in the next bill, but you should still check your bill every month.

Psychotext 14 Aug 2007 12:56:38 70,652 posts
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I'm on the 20mb (temporarily for work use) and once I got a new modem it's been solid as a rock. Apparently the old one was supposed to support the 20mb but it kept dropping connection.

Anyone else get this problem, don't take their crap and get them to send you the new model.

BurnoutJunkie 14 Aug 2007 19:32:38 1,222 posts
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Thanks for the responses guys. I will be sticking with UK Online for the moment, especially with this dodgy fair usage policy and dropped connection stuff I keep hearing about. I don't download like crazy, but I do go on torrent binges now and again. UK Online also advertise unlimited with a fair usage policy, but their fair usage policy is 500GB per month...which is a mammoth amount. I'm on their 8MB service at the moment and will soon be switching to their 16MB service.

Jono62 11 May 2020 19:13:17 27,356 posts
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Mega bump!

Anyone having issues with Virgin Media today? Broadband has been down since 12pm.