Topic ID 3936
I live in Bengeo and use Virgin (NTL) broadband since Wednesday (12th Nov) morning I have been unable to browse the internet. I am paying for connection speeds upto 10Mb but am getting nowhere near that. I am connected but am getting highly reduced performance. Anyone else on Virgin broadband in Hertford with a similar problem?
Reply ID 57057
Yep I use Virgin or as it use to be known NTL Cable and the only reason that I use them is the fact you do not need a landline telephone but their service is not very good only last night I was cut off and they do not give any warnings about them working on the supply lines and when this first happened I did not even know about having to reboot their modem and went for days with no conection and you are lucky to even get a sorry out of them, but I have had a go at them for sending their bill to the wrong address and managed to get a couple of hundred pounds back which they just credited my account with so I did not have to pay their bill for a few months but I do object to them billing £5.00 for just sending the bill out, just another example of companys in this country scaming the public and a government that does not care!
Reply ID 57058
quote:Yes - we're near Hertford East station, and our Internet service has been reeeaaallllyyyyy sssslllloooooooooooowwww on and off for over a week now.
Originally posted by theadmans
I live in Bengeo and use Virgin (NTL) broadband since Wednesday (12th Nov) morning I have been unable to browse the internet. I am paying for connection speeds upto 10Mb but am getting nowhere near that. I am connected but am getting highly reduced performance. Anyone else on Virgin broadband in Hertford with a similar problem?
Reply ID 57059
live in hertford think Virgin Media are excellent broadband no problem. have had problems with them in the past and they are very helpful on the phone. pleased they have made up with Sky and their channels will be back on Thursday woohoo
Reply ID 57060
sounds like you work for Virgin...
Reply ID 57061
Thanks for the replies guys - it's useful to know I am not the only one with problems in Hertford at the moment. It's all to easy for Virgin to convince you that it's your PC - and they get you to change aload of settings and it's never the same again. I am lucky enough to have two internet connections in my house - if I use the non-Virgin ISP everything is fine - switch back to Virgin and it runs like a dog. The chappie at Virgin I spoke to this afternoon suggested that something happened last night in our area (not clear what). They are sending an engineer tomorrow morning to look at the cabling in Bengeo Street. Hopefully they will resolve it, however, I find it disconcerting when you get a different story from whichever Helpdesk person you speak to - this morning they said it was my PC at fault. I can browse but only low bandwidth sites like this forum - I cannot load the homepage for eBay and the BBC website struggles.
Reply ID 57066
I'm in Bengeo and with Virgin Media. I didn't go on my computer last night, but might check it tonight. I sometimes have problems with internet access on Sundays.
Reply ID 57068
I`m with Virgin Media (NTL), Never had any problems. Been with them for over six years and the connection is in use most of the day/early evening. I pay for the 10MB package and test the speed regularly and always get around the 10Mb download speed.
Reply ID 57069
Home now and can't access home broadband. Lucky I'm going out tonight!
Reply ID 57085
Hi threadmans yes I have the same problem I can get out to this forum but I cannot get on Ebay Ect. I thought it was my p.c. virgin are a bunch of clowns, you can get on to Ebay if you use a link but the pages are slow to load.
Reply ID 57088
I haven't noticed a problem in Lower Bengeo but a few years ago it got slow and many times I was unable to connect. After many calls and going through many call centre scripts they finally sent someone out who changed my modem (from old NTL to new Virgin). This didn't help. After more calls they eventually sent another engineer out who tested the line, thought the signal was week, went out to the green box in the street and qucikly changed something and it has been fine ever since. The engineer told me that the gubbins in the green box was set to the slowest setting so he just changed it to the fastest. Apparently, all green boxes are "on slow" until someone complains as there is not really enough capacity on the network for the amount of users they have at the promised speeds. Maybe this has changed now...or maybe another area is reaching its limit?
Reply ID 57089
Im on virgin broadband too and the service is poor.I purchased a wireless router from them and it just crashes all the time."Speak to the manufacturer of the modem " they said, after countless calls to 'Tech support', even though I'd bought the thing off them.They sent an engineer around who made things worse.Eventually Id had enough and reconfigured the router myself and it works.Occasionally . They sell products for their broadband yet have no idea how to configure them and then tell you to do the donkey work when it fails to provide the service they sell you as well ? Strange.Do we have another broadband choice ?
Reply ID 57090
Wouldn't touch NTHell with the proverbial. The name might have changed but as they say, you can't polish a t***. I had some dreadful service from them in the past and they lost any chance of my business as a result.
Reply ID 57106
I'm with Virgin and haven't been able to use the internet at home since yesterday morning. Rang them today and they said there is nothing wrong with the connection and that there in no problem in the area ( I live in Bengeo). Having just read this there is clearly a problem in the area and Virgin obviously don't know about it. I have to say this is the first time it's happened in over 2 years and usually we get a good service. It's annoying when you rely on the internet and it goes the way of the pear!
Reply ID 57111
I guess I am nicking all of your bandwidth! I'm with NTL and (touch wood) haven't had any problems.
Reply ID 57116
I'm with Virgin too and my broadband speeds have been woeful for the last few days.
Reply ID 57119
Hi teddylad do you have any idea how much your phone call cost to virgin on their premium rate number as when I used them last I spent the best part of £10.00 phoning them up and then they sent out a crap engineer who did not know how a modems I.P. number works and had to send another engineer to fix it and still had a problem and I had to make repeated phone calls to get my I.P. number registered with them and this is their modem not mine. Has anyone manged to get through to them as there is clearly a problem in Bengeo, has someone else been doing road works around here or has one of their green and grafitti boxes been vandalised? [xx(]
quote:
Originally posted by teddylad
live in hertford think Virgin Media are excellent broadband no problem. have had problems with them in the past and they are very helpful on the phone. pleased they have made up with Sky and their channels will be back on Thursday woohoo
Reply ID 57123
dialled 150 from my Virgin home phone, think its free but could be wrong. and no i don't work for Virgin Media or any associated company. just really happy with the service they provide. No problem with modem, have had problem with wifi connection but that’s to do with my laptop and netgear not chatting to each other.
Reply ID 57125
My internet is fixed now. Had the engineer round earlier - he swopped the modem to the latest model (although I had already done this yesterday). Engineer claimed the new modem was the fix - I'm not so sure. The Engineer was out in the road fiddling with stuff for a long time. Anyone else with problems yesterday - now OK?
Reply ID 57128
The problem I have is that I get an unable to connect screen of the dnsname not found style when I navigate through sites.And only when I use the virgin service, nowt wrong with my set up then.Try telling them that.
Reply ID 57133
Hi Virgins tech support costs £1.00 a min what a rip off, I have tried phoning Virgin on 0845 4541111 but after going through all the choices like are you moving home ect. I finally got through to Calcutter and told him my account number and that there is a problem here in Bengeo and warned him I was running out of phone credit and he could not find any problem listed and then I was cut off no credit as the call cost approx 7.5p a min, is there a problem then with their modems as I have got a small black one which shows four green lights and two more lights that flicker when I am on line, is this an old modem? [V]
quote:
Originally posted by teddylad
dialled 150 from my Virgin home phone, think its free but could be wrong. and no i don't work for Virgin Media or any associated company. just really happy with the service they provide. No problem with modem, have had problem with wifi connection but that’s to do with my laptop and netgear not chatting to each other.
Reply ID 57135
quote:Your modem sounds exactly the same as mine. I had swopped to one of these new style modems yesterday but still had a problem. The engineer arrived and replaced my new modem with another identical new one and also did some stuff in the road. At some point after this the internet started working again - very strange?
Originally posted by night owl
Hi Virgins tech support costs £1.00 a min what a rip off, I have tried phoning Virgin on 0845 4541111 but after going through all the choices like are you moving home ect. I finally got through to Calcutter and told him my account number and that there is a problem here in Bengeo and warned him I was running out of phone credit and he could not find any problem listed and then I was cut off no credit as the call cost approx 7.5p a min, is there a problem then with their modems as I have got a small black one which shows four green lights and two more lights that flicker when I am on line, is this an old modem? [V]quote:
Originally posted by teddylad
dialled 150 from my Virgin home phone, think its free but could be wrong. and no i don't work for Virgin Media or any associated company. just really happy with the service they provide. No problem with modem, have had problem with wifi connection but that’s to do with my laptop and netgear not chatting to each other.
Reply ID 57140
I'm in Bengeo and some sites load fine, but most don't and any attempt to downlaod or send mail fails. Yet a speed test indicate a 6-8mbs connection. As I cannot ftp to virgin but can to other sites and the webmail site also fails I suspect the problem is with virgin broadband rather than my setup or hardware. Every time I call 151 I am told that they cannot help as their system has gone down!!!
Reply ID 57146
Hi Andrew that sounds identical to mine, when I try to access microsoft or ebay or google maps it just comes up page not found dnserror yet I can get on to here with no problem pages open normaly but other stuff just does not work, my mail account does not work first go but it checks every 10 mins for mail and this is @live.co.uk but I am still trying to figure out is this a problem through out the area of Bengeo or is it the modem that needs changing?
Reply ID 57149
quote:Same here also.
Originally posted by theadmans Your modem sounds exactly the same as mine.
quote:Hmm, maybe the green box throttling still goes on...
The engineer arrived and replaced my new modem with another identical new one and also did some stuff in the road. At some point after this the internet started working again - very strange?
Reply ID 57151
I couldn't get on any sites last night again. I didn't try this morning but may have to give them a call if this continues much longer.
Reply ID 57152
You might find it useful to try different DNS servers, since the Virgin ones are not great. I have been using openDNS for ages. See https://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/start for instructions. You may find that the underlying network is OK, but that your computer is unable to resolve names due to the flaky Virgin DNS setup. Apologies to all those to whom this is complete gobbledegook...
Reply ID 57154
My god, this thread is such a revelation. We're with Virgin and I've not been able to log on to this forum or pretty well anything come to that since Wednesday afternoon so until a few minutes ago I assumed it was our problem. I did spend 40 minutes on the line to Virgin on Wednesday (the 150 no.) at the end of which the nice lady concluded that she couldn't offer me any help! I've been lying awake at night thinking that people have been discussing the Bengeo rat-run behind my back!
Reply ID 57155
Not local to Bengeo, I live in near Hertford east and suffer the virgin broadband service.They always seem to be around here fiddling with the green boxes.
Reply ID 57168
For what it is worth when the Virgin Engineer attended my house yesterday I showed him the contents of this thread. The Engineer was a nice guy and he took the time to read all your comments - at least 'he' knows there is a problem in the area (Engineering call # 1041712 if you want to quote it). The Engineer did 3 things :- 1) Fiddled around with connections in the road for at least 20 minutes. 2) Replaced the attenuators on my coax cable socket (which go into the modem) - said the old one had burnt out (?). Also added an extra attenuator (have they increased the power of the signal which has caused the problems - maybe?) 3) Replaced my new modem with an indentical one. ...and hey presto EBay works, BBC iPlayer works, Email works. Speed reported as 6Mb (although it often did this when I had the fault). Internet has now been running sweet as a nut since the Engineer did all this. Hope this is helpful to you all - if you continue to have problems demand an enginneer (quoting my engineering # as an example of someone who had the same problem in Bengeo).
Reply ID 57173
Hi my internet started working normaly last night and it still seems ok now, this must be virgin messing around but I did phone them up, so they may have taken notice of my phone call, I am not to sure but I did miss out on some items that I was bidding on, on ebay and I am selling my friends car on there but lucky for me my email was just about working so I was still able to answer questions on this car.
Reply ID 57181
quote:Had the same done running a lot quicker PS. Are we all enjoying sky 1 and sky sports news being back on.
Originally posted by theadmans
2) Replaced the attenuators on my coax cable socket (which go into the modem) - said the old one had burnt out (?). Also added an extra attenuator (have they increased the power of the signal which has caused the problems - maybe?) 3) Replaced my new modem with an indentical one.
Reply ID 57185
I had problems with my broadband being really slow the other week and an engineer came out and explained that the signal is very high in Hertford and so the attenuator that you talk about is a filter to slow it down as over time it blows the modem. I've been with Virgin for 4 and a half years and if I've had a couple of problems which they have sorted propmptly and now we have the Sky channels back I am very happy. A few of my friends moved to Sky but regretted after being let down by BT who they had to change to as part of the package.
Reply ID 57189
quote:..odd that we are all having to replace the attenuators in the same week. I suspect they did something this week that ramped the power of the signal up and wrecked all our systems. However, must be costing tham in terms of engineer visits - that'll teach them to fiddle!
Originally posted by hertford born and bredquote:Had the same done running a lot quicker PS. Are we all enjoying sky 1 and sky sports news being back on.
Originally posted by theadmans
2) Replaced the attenuators on my coax cable socket (which go into the modem) - said the old one had burnt out (?). Also added an extra attenuator (have they increased the power of the signal which has caused the problems - maybe?) 3) Replaced my new modem with an indentical one.
Reply ID 57194
If you're having problems with bandwidth during the evening and you download a lot of videos/music, play a lot of games and/or watch a lot of BBC iPlayer/4OD etc, then the slow down might be because you're going over your bandwidth allowance and Virgin is strangling the bandwidth.
Reply ID 57232
When I spoke to Virgin Media there was a polite denial that it could be to do with them, and somwewhat sceptically I followed their advice to bypass the router and have direct access to one PC on the home network via the modem and it worked. On saturday I reconnected everything via the router and again everything worked. So no equipment replaced or repaired and everything back to the normally good service. I still think Virgin Media were doing something but seemed reluctant to say so. I do wonder with their announcing 2000 job cuts last week if there was some unofficial "system changes" being implemented by disgruntled employees?
Reply ID 57304
I won't waste my breath/fingers saying anything about the Support VM provide, or lack of it. Damn well ask if your on the phone to Tech Support ask for the money to be refunded off of your next bill, they did it for me. *Ahem* let me stop before I go on a 3 page rant about the Tech Support... On a different note, I've not had any problems with VM for quite some time now *touches wood* - I live in the SG13 postcode area and the broadband has been fine for me. By the way, you guys can identify the brand of your modem by either:- a) looking on the label on the underneath of the modem will say something like "ntl home:120" - that is the brand of your modem. b) I think it normally says the brand name of the modem on the front of the modem as well, somewhere! Cant remember off the top of my head. Sorry to hear so many of you are experiencing problems with VM though, I'm one of the lucky ones, though in the past I've been far from lucky .... :(