Virgin Broadband

[Simcfc73]

Just had it installed today and all seems well. Read lots of reviews but wondered if anyone else uses the 20Mb virgin.

Just downloaded the Crysis demo which averaged 1.4Mb/Sec which I am pretty happy with.

Anyone fallen foul of the fair usage policy yet?

[maniac]

I've got virgin media here, not 20mb thou, only 4mb for us unfortunitely.

I share a house with 3 other people, all connected up on a LAN, we average around 60-100GB a month download, and havn't hit their fair useage policy yet. All in all been impressed with the service I've had from them, and it's definitely better now than when it was Telewest.

Mike.

[mattx]

Anyone fallen foul of the fair usage policy yet?

Yep, they cap my torrents quite a bit. I've been with Virgin since it was Windsor Cable Corp, got broadband when it first came out - it was good for a long time. Then Virgin took over and the service is nothing more than a joke.
I e-mail them last week informing them that one of their mail servers has been flagged and is listed on the DNS blacklist - they did not even bother replying.
Funny thing is, I then got a mail asking me to fill in a customer survey, so I did, telling them how shit they were. Now its being 'investigated' - pratts.

I am seriously thinking of dumping them for phone and telly and going to SKY but keeping the broadband - I don't fancy using ADShell.......

[Joedetic]

I've got the 20meg package. I live in a house with 3 other people and considering we're paying for 20meg, browsing and http downloads i get barely 2meg at times.

However, if i'm in on my own and everyone else isn't using the internet then i get >10meg. Torrents and other UDP traffic such as MSN Webcam put too much of a load on my crappy little router and it can't handle it.

It's going to be replaced with a cisco 2611XM for a few days to see if greater memory and processing power helps a little to bring the speeds up.

I've found that running my own dns server helps a little bit with browsing speeds. With regards to capping speeds, well...I can't tell because the speeds don't get fast enough.

[triggmiester]

I've got their 4MB service and I spoke to them the other day to reduce my bill (which I did!) and I asked them about network throttling. They told me that they don't throttle the network. What happens is depending on what package you have got, between 4pm and midnight if you download more than a certain amount then you loose you broadband speed for the next four hours. Although Virgin are unlimited downloads on my package I can only download 500MB between 4pm and midnight before I loose my speed.

On the plus side he reduced my bill by half for the next twelve months and then after that its guaranteed £27.00 less than what it should be for as long as I stay with them - cool

[dancingdruid]

On the plus side he reduced my bill by half for the next twelve months and then after that its guaranteed £27.00 less than what it should be for as long as I stay with them - cool

I've been on 1/2 price for the last 18months+. Just phone up, speak to retentions and mention sky broadband......

[Simcfc73]

I'm enjoying this speed, although it is half eleven

[mattx]

But since when has windows Transfer rates and estimated time left been accurate ? ;-)

[torledo]

But since when has windows Transfer rates and estimated time left been accurate ? ;-)

Transfer rates are actually a good indicator, particularly if you're downloading from microsoft.com

[torledo]

Just had it installed today and all seems well. Read lots of reviews but wondered if anyone else uses the 20Mb virgin.

Just downloaded the Crysis demo which averaged 1.4Mb/Sec which I am pretty happy with.

Anyone fallen foul of the fair usage policy yet?

We're looking to get their phone package. Free all weekend to 01 and 02 numbers last time I read, broadband is now an opption with a low add-on price top of the monthly phone package (Just £5 a month extra I think). Though not sure if they mean cable 'broadband' rather than dsl.

Anyone care to shed any light - I've been meaning to phone them to check but haven't had the opportunity. rather stick pins in my eyes than get cable internet much prefer if it is DSL.

Previous residents had phone and catv installed but disconnected when they left. Should I reconnect with Virgin, go with BT or go with one of Sky's internet package. Best advice for cheap phone and internet - not so bothered about TV. Budget is £20 a month max (exc. call charges)

[srochford]

But since when has windows Transfer rates and estimated time left been accurate ? ;-)

Transfer rates are actually a good indicator, particularly if you're downloading from microsoft.com

Agreed. The transfer rate it shows you at the end is simply the total bytes divided by time and is accurate. The estimated time at the beginning is just that and depends on all sorts of variables completely outside the control of your computer (or Microsoft!) which is why it's often wildly out.

[pooley]

My mum has the adsl service 8meg and its awful, very low dowload and pitiful
upload speeds.

Check out the forums at www.adslguide.org for customer reviews

[maniac]

Just had it installed today and all seems well. Read lots of reviews but wondered if anyone else uses the 20Mb virgin.

Just downloaded the Crysis demo which averaged 1.4Mb/Sec which I am pretty happy with.

Anyone fallen foul of the fair usage policy yet?

We're looking to get their phone package. Free all weekend to 01 and 02 numbers last time I read, broadband is now an opption with a low add-on price top of the monthly phone package (Just £5 a month extra I think). Though not sure if they mean cable 'broadband' rather than dsl.

Anyone care to shed any light - I've been meaning to phone them to check but haven't had the opportunity. rather stick pins in my eyes than get cable internet much prefer if it is DSL.

Previous residents had phone and catv installed but disconnected when they left. Should I reconnect with Virgin, go with BT or go with one of Sky's internet package. Best advice for cheap phone and internet - not so bothered about TV. Budget is £20 a month max (exc. call charges)

For £20 a month you'll get a cable internet service and phoneline fom Virgin, but remember they are exclusive and can offer you the internet without having to have a phone line, where as with ADSL packages, you still have to pay the line rental for the phoneline even if you don't want/use it.

Given the opportunnity, I'd go with virgin media, I rate it highly above ADSL services, I've had both in the past.

Mike.

[Grommit]

There is no customer loyality with Virgin...

I was very happy with Telewest.... then it all went wrong and we were handed to Virgin..

What did they do.. put my bill up to £18 per month for a2 mb line..

When I spoke to them saying I had been paying £14 pm they didn't care... when I said that other providors respect their customers and put thier bandwidth up evey year without the cost going up and here they did the opposite .. they told me to go then..

So I did and took up the sky 16mb for £10pm..

[mortstar]

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05...de_throttling/

Customers on the "M" package will be throttled from 2Mb/s to 1Mb/s download speed and 128Kb/s upload once they have downloaded 350MB during the eight hour period. "L" subscribers will be allowed to run at full 4Mb/s speed until they hit 750MB, when downloads will be capped at 2Mb/s and uploads at 192Kb/s. Premium "XL" punters, paying £37 per month for 10Mb/s broadband, will be rationed to 3GB at full clip: anything more will come downstream at 5Mb/s and go upstream at 256Kb/s.

I've just moved from a house that was Virgin cable and it was absolutely shocking. The above limits where just terrible, with a house share of 4 adults, only myself a "heavy" user, we would soon hit the throttle limits and then that was that for the evening.

I've always enjoyed ADSL more than I have cable. Currently on Be's ADSL package and getting peak download of about 16000kb/s (2MB/s) and upload of 1300kbps (120kB/s). Which is easily the quickest home broadband I've used and almost rivals the 100mbit fibre line my school has to the JANET.