Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Kol · 9 Jul 2020 at 07:56

Without fail about 1am ish every night.

doodah · 9 Jul 2020 at 09:02

Ours has dropped for a short period a few times this week, including others on the street.

On another note, got our 350/35 package yesterday though whilst I am getting 37 for upload, struggling to push 150-160 for download.

Simon42 · 9 Jul 2020 at 10:04

Zenduri said:
Side question has anyone ever experiences an issue with the hub 3.0 where it seems to lose connection and takes about 3-5 mins to restablish its connection at roughly the same time every day?

I have dual WAN in fail over with VM as primary so I get notifications every time VM drops out for more than 45 seconds.

I do see some early morning fail overs but usually around one every 3 to 4 weeks from a quick scan of the log.

ik9000 · 9 Jul 2020 at 10:38

Zenduri said:
Side question has anyone ever experiences an issue with the hub 3.0 where it seems to lose connection and takes about 3-5 mins to restablish its connection at roughly the same time every day?

I upgrade from the 2.0 to 3.0 Hub as the wifi network would disappear on the 2.0 suddenly and ever since upgrading to the 3.0 Hub it drops the connection at 12:15-12:30 every single night and has done for over a month and aside from this restart every night the connection is solid. Virgin claim there is nothing wrong and are sending an engineer out but to be honest its a waste of time in my opinion as their forums are littered with basically the exact same complaint but no-one has ever provided an answer. Plus ive only had this issue since upgrading to the 3.0 Hub so im convinced the 3.0 hub is either a pile of **** or its a setting on their end and they have no idea what it is.

this is pure speculation but I wonder if it's anything to do with the software fudge (and I do mean fudge and not fix) they applied to try to mitigate against the inherent packet loss and latency spike issues with the puma6 chipset inside in the hub3. I wouldn't be surprised if it requires some sort of reset/purge every so often to keep things ticking over as well as the fudge can achieve. I'm still on hub2.5, just shoved into modem mode for more stable running off a better router.

moogle · 9 Jul 2020 at 13:06

Zenduri said:
Side question has anyone ever experiences an issue with the hub 3.0 where it seems to lose connection and takes about 3-5 mins to restablish its connection at roughly the same time every day?

Potentially a bad hub or faulty connection? Mine is quite stable but I'm using it in modem mode. My TBB graph doesn't show any dropouts either.

One thing to note is that VM's connection has way more latency

Although my FTTP line with TalkTalk isn't as good as it could be, the tightness and low latency can clearly be seen!

However during normal web browsing and just in general I can't tell the difference too much. So it only really matters for gamers I guess.

Kol · 9 Jul 2020 at 14:38

FTTP with TalkTalk? I thought they weren't releasing any FTTP products until mid-July? That's a lovely low-level ping.

I've just served my 30days with VM, looking to switch to FTTP but only BT offering it at the moment so holding out to see if TT do start offering or whether I just go direct to BT.

Rainmaker · 9 Jul 2020 at 14:52

That'll do pig, that'll do.

Ayahuasca · 9 Jul 2020 at 14:57

Is that an improvement in ping @Rainmaker or the same as before?

Be interesting to see a thinkbroadband graph on your line with DOCSIS 3.1.

Caged · 9 Jul 2020 at 14:58

Kol said:
FTTP with TalkTalk? I thought they weren't releasing any FTTP products until mid-July? That's a lovely low-level ping.

I've just served my 30days with VM, looking to switch to FTTP but only BT offering it at the moment so holding out to see if TT do start offering or whether I just go direct to BT.

They are apparently taking orders if you already have ADSL/FTTC with them and you phone it in

Rainmaker · 9 Jul 2020 at 15:03

Ayahuasca said:
Is that an improvement in ping @Rainmaker or the same as before?

Be interesting to see a thinkbroadband graph on your line with DOCSIS 3.1.

It's slightly lower, but nothing massive. I'm seeing 8-9ms where before it was 10-12. It still has jitter though, obviously, being cable. A ping -c 10 1.0.0.1 gives a spread between 6ms and 12ms at times, but mostly it clusters around 8ms. I'll be happy to post up my TB graph with the before/after tomorrow. I kept the same IP as I use a stand-alone x86 router running OpenBSD so my graph will continue on.

Ayahuasca · 9 Jul 2020 at 15:05

Rainmaker said:
I kept the same IP as I use a stand-alone x86 router running OpenBSD so my graph will continue on.

Perfect

Zenduri · 9 Jul 2020 at 15:12

There is a tonne of noise on ym line so it needs looking at regardless, se below but it seems to be a common issue re it dropping connection every day breifly so it may be a software or setting or issue

moogle · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:16

Kol said:
FTTP with TalkTalk? I thought they weren't releasing any FTTP products until mid-July? That's a lovely low-level ping.

I've just served my 30days with VM, looking to switch to FTTP but only BT offering it at the moment so holding out to see if TT do start offering or whether I just go direct to BT.

Caged said:
They are apparently taking orders if you already have ADSL/FTTC with them and you phone it in

That is correct I saw they were doing trials in March and put an order for a phone line in. Obviously COVID-19 screwed those plans but I ended up going live in June and then called the trial team and got my ONT installed.

It was mainly to get cheaper FTTP internet on the trial as my VM contract ends this Oct so if I don't get a good deal I can leave. I believe I'm with them for 12m now.

Sky also do FTTP if you call them up. I could get the 150 package with them for £39.99 I believe or the 80/20 one on FTTP for £29.99 on an 18m contract.

It was just to demonstrate that the FTTP latency is way better. I remember my graph when I was on BT was just as low but with no regular spikes (80/20 FTTP).

I only got both installed so I have the options to switch whenever without having to be tied in.

HEADRAT · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:20

Rainmaker said:
That'll do pig, that'll do.

Very nice

Kol · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:28

Cheers @moogle ... I think I'm just going to go with BT for now. 150 for £39.99, I could go for the 900mbit but I genuinely don't use the speed, my 350 with VM is already wasted as it is.

Caged · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:34

I'd like to have around 50Mbps upload so would buy whatever downstream was needed to hit that

dulcificum · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:34

Ayahuasca said:
Yeah, 3.1 is on the downstream only, not sure Virgin even have plans for symmetrical connections.

Shame. I would pay the extra for Gig1 if they offered better than 52 MBps up.

And that's even though service has been shocking recently:

b989eaf0071df4d9a2ae2268b7324c6f71071463-07-07-2020.png

e08b5e0faf3b5d10c9e95e0e82dc76312ead1a81-08-07-2020.png

b141a9652528552c1f84273dd36b7f60c311704a-09-07-2020.png

moogle · 9 Jul 2020 at 16:35

Kol said:
Cheers @moogle ... I think I'm just going to go with BT for now. 150 for £39.99, I could go for the 900mbit but I genuinely don't use the speed, my 350 with VM is already wasted as it is.

No probs, try phoning if you want to get a better price. I remember I got a few quotes last year but it was only £3-5 off for FTTP products. However that was back when only they could supply FTTP.

I'm only with VM 350 as it's £33 for me and the upload is decent. But like you I don't need the extra speed. I would prefer the lower latency and upload if FTTP offered that at a cheaper price

Ayahuasca · 9 Jul 2020 at 17:17

This is why they need to get on top of the latency issues and dropouts. I know Virgin have project lightning but Openreach are covering millions of properties a year with FTTP, giving providers not only better speeds, latency and uptime than Virgin but also better pricing.

dulcificum · 9 Jul 2020 at 17:38

What are the main improvements in the SH4?

Ayahuasca said:
This is why they need to get on top of the latency issues and dropouts. I know Virgin have project lightning but Openreach are covering millions of properties a year with FTTP, giving providers not only better speeds, latency and uptime than Virgin but also better pricing.

Also, does anyone have a list of the expected minimum speeds and thresholds for getting out of contracts without having to pay the free? They quoted me 361-380 Mbps (or similar) down but I don't think they gave thresholds for latency or upload speed.