Small business broadband

[Mark M]

I'm in the process of buying an office so looking at broadband options. There’s 5 of us and don’t do anything heavy online, emails, few online programs and light internet usage. I am considering voip phones so that will need to be factored in but phone usage is relatively low too.

From a quick search it looks like virgin is available in the area as well as the BT network.

Is there anything I should look into?

The main issue is time of installation, how long does it usually take and what can I do on day 1 when we move in as I assume I’m not going to be able to get it installed that quickly? There might be a bit of an overlap depending on when it completes to my rented office running out but depending on how long the solicitors drag it out we could be looking at a week tops!

Any advice appreciated thanks

 

[MissChief]

If your business depends on Internet then you absolutely MUST look at response times and compensation if the issue can't be resolved. If you're going for Fibre of some sort it might also be a good idea to get another line put in on DSL as a fall back if the Fibre goes down. Or have a fat 4G option on standby.

 

[WJA96]

Virgin can put a line in within 10 working days of you placing the order. If you’re taking over an existing line then BT can generally transfer it to you the same day you take possession. And if BT can do it, so can pretty much anyone else that can access Openreach. If you want a leased line, I’ve found Daisy excellent, but not always the cheapest. Installation with Daisy is 3 days to 6 weeks depending who they subcontract the line out to.

 

[pcfarrar]

Be careful with Virgin business Voom Fibre if you want a static IP. It’s fine with dynamic, but the static option really kills performance. I have loads of Voom connections at work with static IPs and they don’t perform anywhere close to 350Mb.

 

[WJA96]

Be careful with Virgin business Voom Fibre if you want a static IP. It’s fine with dynamic, but the static option really kills performance. I have loads of Voom connections at work with static IPs and they don’t perform anywhere close to 350Mb.

True. We have several remote workers experiencing exactly this issue. And even at 230-250Mbps for the £30+VAT we’re paying for the 350/20 service it’s MUCH cheaper than anything else on the market. So we’re still actually very happy with Virgin.

 

[Mark M]

Be careful with Virgin business Voom Fibre if you want a static IP. It’s fine with dynamic, but the static option really kills performance. I have loads of Voom connections at work with static IPs and they don’t perform anywhere close to 350Mb.

We’ll definitely need a static ip for a couple of reasons so will bear that in mind thanks.

 

[pcfarrar]

We’ll definitely need a static ip for a couple of reasons so will bear that in mind thanks.

I just tested one of the spare Voom 350Mb lines we have at work and it's running at 69 Mbps. They keep saying they have deployed fixes to resolve the issue but it never really improves. I believe it's due to the GRE tunnel Virgin use for static IP's and lack of performance at Virgins endpoints.

 

[WJA96]

I’ve

I just tested one of the spare Voom 350Mb lines we have at work and it's running at 69 Mbps. They keep saying they have deployed fixes to resolve the issue but it never really improves. I believe it's due to the GRE tunnel Virgin use for static IP's and lack of performance at Virgins endpoints.

I’ve got 3 remote users in Greater Manchester, one in Glasgow and two in London, all on the Voom 350/20 service with 3 fixed IPs at each (NAS, teleconferencing system and a UTM device) and none of them are running less than 225Mbps. Virgin have been upgrading cabinets all over recently and I’d say we get at least one Friday per month where we lose connectivity for 60-120 minutes between midnight and 09:00. But we don’t see line speeds as you describe. Where are you based?

 

[Glanza]

If your thinking of going VOIP you could go direct to a supplier and get a lease line that trunks directly into their network.

 

[Mark M]

If your thinking of going VOIP you could go direct to a supplier and get a lease line that trunks directly into their network.

I’ve been recommended Voipfone who do their own broadband I noticed. Will see if I can find any further info on it.

 

[Glanza]

I’ve been recommended Voipfone who do their own broadband I noticed. Will see if I can find any further info on it.

We've dealt with a company called Qudo in the past for VOIP and lease line internet (granted they use Talktalk Business as the supplier)

 

[Caged]

If the speed of the install is important then BT Business Fibre with the 4G backup option will run using the 4G service as the primary until the FTTC can be installed, at which point it uses the fibre as your primary connection unless there’s a problem with it.

If your office is in a building with other offices then there’s probably already Openreach fibre in the basement, and leased lines are very competitively priced now.

 

[pcfarrar]

I’ve
I’ve got 3 remote users in Greater Manchester, one in Glasgow and two in London, all on the Voom 350/20 service with 3 fixed IPs at each (NAS, teleconferencing system and a UTM device) and none of them are running less than 225Mbps. Virgin have been upgrading cabinets all over recently and I’d say we get at least one Friday per month where we lose connectivity for 60-120 minutes between midnight and 09:00. But we don’t see line speeds as you describe. Where are you based?

Most of our Virgin connections are around the Stockport / Manchester area. I tested another in Romiley this morning and that was running at 90 Mbps. We keep getting the email notifications of the downtime and upgrades but it never really seems to make a huge difference.

They also upgraded the firmware of the Hitron earlier this month:

https://www.virginmediabusiness.co....nned-Outage-Business-Broadband-Hitron-Router/

 

[WJA96]

Most of our Virgin connections are around the Stockport / Manchester area. I tested another in Romiley this morning and that was running at 90 Mbps. We keep getting the email notifications of the downtime and upgrades but it never really seems to make a huge difference.

They also upgraded the firmware of the Hitron earlier this month:

https://www.virginmediabusiness.co....nned-Outage-Business-Broadband-Hitron-Router/

That’s shocking. You’re basically getting 25% of the advertised speed. All our guys live in the Salford Quays or Stretford areas so maybe there isn’t so much contention there or something. We also have to use the Hitron router in modem mode into Netgate SG-3100 to handle the IP forwarding.

 

[Caged]

Modem mode loses you the static IPs, though. You can get a routed block but the Hitron is still routing, it's just not doing NAT or Wi-Fi.

The issue seems to be the way Virgin do static IPs by tunneling your traffic back over their cable network. The Hitron boxes / VPN concentrators don't have the poke to do it at the full speed, it reduces the MTU as a result, and their network is just dire in a lot of areas of the country. It's such a horrible design.

 

[Avalon]

I’ve been recommended Voipfone who do their own broadband I noticed. Will see if I can find any further info on it.

They re-sell Plusnet and as such you'll get near enough the same support if you have a problem and they are familiar with plus net hardware. personally I went this route and was happy with the results, plusnet business and enhanced care was only a few quid a month on top, well worth it if you need faults fixed quickly.

 

[Shawreyboy]

I'm in the process of buying an office so looking at broadband options. There’s 5 of us and don’t do anything heavy online, emails, few online programs and light internet usage. I am considering voip phones so that will need to be factored in but phone usage is relatively low too.

From a quick search it looks like virgin is available in the area as well as the BT network.

Is there anything I should look into?

The main issue is time of installation, how long does it usually take and what can I do on day 1 when we move in as I assume I’m not going to be able to get it installed that quickly? There might be a bit of an overlap depending on when it completes to my rented office running out but depending on how long the solicitors drag it out we could be looking at a week tops!

Any advice appreciated thanks

Trust me for some details on the company I work for. We can sort you a solution out that meets your requirements and future demands.

Shawrey

 

[Shawreyboy]

I'm in the process of buying an office so looking at broadband options. There’s 5 of us and don’t do anything heavy online, emails, few online programs and light internet usage. I am considering voip phones so that will need to be factored in but phone usage is relatively low too.

From a quick search it looks like virgin is available in the area as well as the BT network.

Is there anything I should look into?

The main issue is time of installation, how long does it usually take and what can I do on day 1 when we move in as I assume I’m not going to be able to get it installed that quickly? There might be a bit of an overlap depending on when it completes to my rented office running out but depending on how long the solicitors drag it out we could be looking at a week tops!

Any advice appreciated thanks

Trust me for some details on the company I work for. We can sort you a solution out that meets your requirements and future demands.

Shawrey