Virgin Media Discussion Thread

xb8browney · 7 Jan 2020 at 13:34

New SH3 turned up today (I had the black one from 2017) this new one is the white one. My speeds are anywhere from 50-250 averaging at 90Mbps and still getting packet loss. Got a call saying I can have an engineer within 30 minutes but unfortunately I'm not free till tomorrow.

Had the BQM on for an hour then the new router turned up
New

Old

Avalon · 7 Jan 2020 at 13:36

joelk2 said:
is so frustrating that
A. New customers often get better deals, loyalty means jack turd.
and
B. existing customers get wildly different deals offered.

in fact. when i renewed i got 2 months free and the 3rd half price also.

i just went striaght to retentions and told them im happy with my previous service and price and that they needed to match it or i was gone. they ended up going better by the free months

Unless something has changed, then you used to be able to price match a new customer deal if you agreed to a new contract. Also existing customers get wildly different deals because individual circumstances are taken into account, believe it or not companies are as aware of people negotiating and comparing prices in discussions just like this be it with friends and family or online. The customer who has all three services, has been with them for years and paid every bill on time but has suddenly had three faults booked in 3 months because of a repeat issue with broadband that says they’re leaving because they’ve had enough of the recent issues is likely to get a more sympathetic response than the person who phones up once a week and complains he has dust on his box and is leaving because of it with three months left on his contract.

peige · 7 Jan 2020 at 17:58

I've been with them for years, with 1.5years on the current house on a 12 month contract, 5 years in the house before that. Not one phone call since it was setup and working.

They wouldn't match the online new deal of 49 a month for the same, the best they offered me was 59.

We shall see what they do, reading back it takes a couple of days for retentions to call. I'm not being unreasonable thinking it should be under £50 for what is currently costing £74 and evidence suggests they may well do better.

R3X · 7 Jan 2020 at 18:20

russ9898 said:
A quick update, I made a post on the Virgin Community Forum and included my TBB BQM and router stats as discussed. A fellow forum member and member of the virgin team have confirmed that my upstream power levels are too high and outside of acceptable levels. They have arranged for an engineer visit to take place tomorrow who will hopefully rectify. I suspect they will simply add an attenuator to reduce levels but we will see.

Thanks again,

Russ

Let us know how it goes and am keeping my fingers crossed. I too showed my figured on VM forums and someone said similar with my signal being a tad strong but within the range.

But I have now signed up to TBB BQM and switched it on, Id like to see if I get packet loss like that also hopefully the engineer checks all the wiring correctly your end and also the hub for faults, for some reason I always suspect its either line, hub or something going their end in the background !

xb8browney · 8 Jan 2020 at 08:10

This is my graph with a replacement SH3

I've got an engineer visit later today, I'm still getting packet loss (cant really see in graph though) and speeds have improved (seeing 170mbps average now but meant to be on vivid 350)

peige · 8 Jan 2020 at 11:00

Update after cancelling yesterday. They called today, got Mixit TV, weekend phone and M200 for what amounts to £44.50 a month for 12 months from the original £74 a month. Exactly what I was after really, less than £50, looks like I could have maybe done better but i'm happy with that, £354 a year less.

Ridiculous that you have to go through this, I'm going to put a calender reminder down for when the 12months is next up to make sure I don't roll on like I did before without realising it and I will cancel again if I need to!

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 12:55

Hi trying to get think broadbands quality monitor up and running to check for issues, reset my hub 3 to factory defaults and router only mode and gone to Advanced>tools>ping but there is no 'Wan ping respond box' or icmp echo either ?

My quality monitors blank when running

xb8browney · 8 Jan 2020 at 13:20

I had that issue aswell because my router blocks ICMP ping request. Just put the sh3 back into router mode (your can still use your 3rd party router)

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 13:24

xb8browney said:
I had that issue aswell because my router blocks ICMP ping request. Just put the sh3 back into router mode (your can still use your 3rd party router)

I still get nothing in router (default) mode after 1 hour looks blank to me, or did you mean put it into modem only mode and connect another proper router and enable ICMP/wan ping request?

Stretlow · 8 Jan 2020 at 15:31

xb8browney said:
This is my graph with a replacement SH3

I've got an engineer visit later today, I'm still getting packet loss (cant really see in graph though) and speeds have improved (seeing 170mbps average now but meant to be on vivid 350)

Mine looks very similar to this but im not sure whether its good or not

IM on the 200 meg and it maxes out at 220 though

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 15:37

Ok think I solved it did the following to get hub 3 and total bb quality monitor running:

1:Hub 3.0 to modem mode then ethernet cable from ethernet port 1 (top port) to Asus router or similar WAN port
2:Ethernet cable from Asus or similar LAN port 1 to PC or laptop
3:Log into Asus router or similar via 192.168.1.1 or router direct address, Admin>Firewall>General and enable "Respond ICMP Echo (ping) Request from WAN"
it may be somewhere else in the menus or sound similar.
4:give it an hour or two and try TBB quality monitor should show something.

Did virgin update the hub 3.0 firmware to remove the ping ability so customers could not check their lines or something

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 15:41

How does my fair ? Only been running 1-2hrs though and early in afternoon

xb8browney · 8 Jan 2020 at 15:50

Looks good to me

MarkeR · 8 Jan 2020 at 15:55

peige said:
Update after cancelling yesterday. They called today, got Mixit TV, weekend phone and M200 for what amounts to £44.50 a month for 12 months from the original £74 a month. Exactly what I was after really, less than £50, looks like I could have maybe done better but i'm happy with that, £354 a year less.

Ridiculous that you have to go through this, I'm going to put a calender reminder down for when the 12months is next up to make sure I don't roll on like I did before without realising it and I will cancel again if I need to!

11 months, as you have to give 30 days notice, so make sure you cancel on the first day of the 12th month..

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 16:08

xb8browney said:
Looks good to me

Spoke too see, got some yellow spikes just now not even downloading or doing anything think I need to leave it running for a day or two to get a proper idea!

How did you get on with the VM engineer ?

xb8browney · 8 Jan 2020 at 18:19

R3X said:
Spoke too see, got some yellow spikes just now not even downloading or doing anything think I need to leave it running for a day or two to get a proper idea!

How did you get on with the VM engineer ?

Sods law my speeds are fine, he said over the weekend some local issues were live but all tickets closed down. He checked my line from the cabinet and said it was spot on, he disconnected the splitter that used to be upstairs but other than that he said its great but I am still seeing packet-loss, so I'll call back in a few days, for now I'm just happy to be back on normal speeds as 20mbps was awful.

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 19:22

xb8browney said:
Sods law my speeds are fine, he said over the weekend some local issues were live but all tickets closed down. He checked my line from the cabinet and said it was spot on, he disconnected the splitter that used to be upstairs but other than that he said its great but I am still seeing packet-loss, so I'll call back in a few days, for now I'm just happy to be back on normal speeds as 20mbps was awful.

oh yeah I know how you feel 20mbp is like almost going back to dial up, if you are still seeing packet loss that is no good still sounds like the engineer just checked wiring, ran speed test and that was his tick or job done for the day, did you show him the packet loss graph to show the quality of line was not there?

I would post on VM forums under speed section and ask vm staff member to look at your graph and to see if the quality of line can be fixed.

I have read putting the hub into modem mode and using another router to handle the grunt work of the networking greatly assist or works around the hub 3 latency issues if there still is any, so I think that is also a good option to keep or try and see how it goes.

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 19:22

here is mine after half a day so far:

And this is with a utilization fault which apparently won't be fixed for another 2 more weeks

xb8browney · 8 Jan 2020 at 20:05

R3X said:
oh yeah I know how you feel 20mbp is like almost going back to dial up, if you are still seeing packet loss that is no good still sounds like the engineer just checked wiring, ran speed test and that was his tick or job done for the day, did you show him the packet loss graph to show the quality of line was not there?

I would post on VM forums under speed section and ask vm staff member to look at your graph and to see if the quality of line can be fixed.

I have read putting the hub into modem mode and using another router to handle the grunt work of the networking greatly assist or works around the hub 3 latency issues if there still is any, so I think that is also a good option to keep or try and see how it goes.

I already use mine in modem mode

R3X · 8 Jan 2020 at 20:32

xb8browney said:
I already use mine in modem mode

may not hurt to post on vm forums the staff there are UK based and can still do a bit more checking on the line but its your call, staff there re-checked my line and gave me a different response from call centre team and said I had an utilization fault in my area and gave me a reference number and due fix date.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/bd-p/Speed