teuchter
je suis teuchter
I thought cable / fibre meant the same thing.
Virgin Media - Crap/Not Crap
- Thread starter UnderOpenSky
- Start date
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
They do.
bi0boy
Power User
No, cable is a network of coaxial cables (like a TV aerial cable) that is entirely separate from the BT network. Virgin are the only ones to use it as their predecessors (NTL/Telewest and others) paid to dig up roads etc and install it.
Fibre is where the BT network of copper wires has been upgraded or partially upgraded to fibre-optic cables. Any ISP can offer connections over this, including Virgin, who tend to use it in areas where they haven't got their own co-axial cable network.
To confuse things some parts of the cable network are upgraded to fibre-optic cables.
sim667
All aboard the 303 bus.
When people get added to the network, often it throws your attenuation out and it needs adjusting. Log on to your superhub and check your power levels.
POWER LEVELS & SNR: A TECHNICAL PRIMER (updated Oc... - Virgin Media Community
Put the superhub in modem mode and get your own router...... it makes a world of difference.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
I had them for years, it regularly needed a guy to come out and fix the box, something you never get with fibre. They also signed a load of people up without upgrading their infrastructure. Avoid.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I think (although I may misremember) that when I signed up with VM that BT fibre wasn't available for my street, so I don't know if that means I'm on the VM cable network. How do I find out?
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Check your bill to see what you are paying for.
If you want BT put your postcode in their website.
If you want BT put your postcode in their website.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
The Virgin Media site is pretty opaque - it just seems to talk about optical fibre. I'm on VIVID 152.
19:50 and the speed is now up to 161mbps. Supposed to be a 150mbps connection.
WWWeed
Bandwidth Bandit
I cant echo this post enough.
Get your own router and get an engineer out about once every few years to tweak your power levels for the reason sim667 has said. teuchter it sounds like you should probably give this a go when you have a spare day off. It could be the area is overloaded but with docsis 3 this is less of a problem.
To really confuse things virgin are rolling out genuine virgin supplied/owned fttp (fibre to the premises)
Virgin Media Commits to Huge UK Rollout of Ultrafast FTTP Broadband - ISPreview UK
teuchter
je suis teuchter
teuchter
je suis teuchter
It seems it's acknowledged that the area is oversubscribed, and my connection is fine during the day. So do you still think having settings tweaked would really make much difference?
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
Thanks - interesting that my own thread didn't prompt such an honest response from Virgin - they just said my power levels etc. are fine.
I'll piggyback on this thread (and look into switching to BT).
Virtual Blue
ready
19:50 and the speed is now up to 161mbps. Supposed to be a 150mbps connection.
Very impressive.
In my neigbourhood, the fastest was about 73mb/s
teuchter
je suis teuchter
ChrisD
.
I've been with them for several years (their own fibre network) very fast and only 1 day not working ni 3 years... BUT - they keep nudging the price up. I'm out of contract but used to the speed so any other supplier won't be able to match that. I did complain once and threatened to move but they didn't offer a reduced price. TIme to try that again.
dervish
if you flibble when you wibble, don't wobble
Yeah I need to do that. When I last renewed/threatened to leave they tried very hard to upsell me on the TV packages, she was most disappointed when I insisted that freeview and 30mbs was fine and I was completely uninterested in anything else.
I've just looked at my bill and it appears they have put the tv package back on and I'm paying about £50 p/m, this is going to be a fun conversation.
I've just looked at my bill and it appears they have put the tv package back on and I'm paying about £50 p/m, this is going to be a fun conversation.
WWWeed
Bandwidth Bandit
Yeah it can make the world of difference! I cant say that it's the problem for certain you are having for certain but it is likely, and is something that can be more or less fixed in a few minutes with a tweak of the taps in green box on your street.
One of the biggest downsides with the VM coax based stuff is it is very susceptible to power changes which occur when people join or leave, and you only get the speeds you pay for when the attenuation power is in an 'ideal range' - if your power levels go above or below this range then you wont get the speed you pay for. And I've seen peoples connections go from being unusable to over the paid for speed with a simple engineer power tweak.
cybershot
Well-Known Member
For what it's worth, over the past week I thought my connection was a bit slower than normal, finally got round to doing the speed tests etc and was getting 30mb on wireless downstairs. Im on the 100mb package, i thought this should be better so stated messing with my wifi settings on my laptop. Made it worse. Of course what I should have done was connect right into the router to see what I was getting on the wired connection first to ensure it wa all ok that side. So did that next. To my amazement, I was getting 10mb, yes 10mb, my wired connections were slower than my wireless. Tried different speed test servers, to be sure, didn't make much difference. Ok, so rebooted router, started getting 50mb, better but not ideal, and came to the conclusion i prob ned to get them out to adjust the power levels as someone has mentioned above if there's suddenly been an influx of subscribers to the cab.
Anyway, not got round to phoning them and noticed last night it was dreadful again, back to the 10mb on wired. Logged into my account, and there's this feature now that's there called 'test my line' so i ran this, it said it found a problem and thy will try and fix it and to reboot my router in 10 minutes, ok then, rebooted, back to 50mb like the other night, ran the test again, still said there was a problem, and to reboot again in 10. Did it again, low and behold, I now have 100mb again on wired, and even getting 100mb on wifi in the room next door and has remained stable some 12 hours on.
So doing that may be worth a bash if like me you need to psych yourself up before having to deal with the call centre. I'll update if it goes shit again!
Anyway, not got round to phoning them and noticed last night it was dreadful again, back to the 10mb on wired. Logged into my account, and there's this feature now that's there called 'test my line' so i ran this, it said it found a problem and thy will try and fix it and to reboot my router in 10 minutes, ok then, rebooted, back to 50mb like the other night, ran the test again, still said there was a problem, and to reboot again in 10. Did it again, low and behold, I now have 100mb again on wired, and even getting 100mb on wifi in the room next door and has remained stable some 12 hours on.
So doing that may be worth a bash if like me you need to psych yourself up before having to deal with the call centre. I'll update if it goes shit again!
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Box arrived today. Speed test done at 18.30 this evening reports 105mbs. Which is rather nice as I'm paying for 100!
Not had time to set my desktop up yet, but will probably need to upgrade the WiFi card to make full use of this.
Not had time to set my desktop up yet, but will probably need to upgrade the WiFi card to make full use of this.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Sighs. Ultra fast broadband and a Tivo box. Sat down after dinner. My girlfriend is using it to watch X Factor.
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