Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2017 at 09:13

the SH3 is receiving a firmware upgrade to fix the issue. it popped up on an article within my google now on my phone last week.

no need to panic or write letters to your MP

Steampunk · 16 Mar 2017 at 09:59

Psycho Sonny said:
the SH3 is receiving a firmware upgrade to fix the issue. it popped up on an article within my google now on my phone last week.

no need to panic or write letters to your MP

Is there some more recent news you can link to? The last I heard is that Intel are writing some new drivers, which had been shown not to fix the issue for several US ISPs. As far as Virgin are concerned, these drivers would have to go to Arris (who make the SH3), who would then have to write new firmware (along with all their other customers), and then send it to Virgin for testing before deployment, which normally take VM a very long time. As with all these sort of things, Virgin doesn't really seem to care about doing it in a timely fashion, because AFAICT, they no longer have the staff and resourcing to get it done quickly.

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2017 at 10:35

Steampunk said:
Is there some more recent news you can link to? The last I heard is that Intel are writing some new drivers, which had been shown not to fix the issue for several US ISPs. As far as Virgin are concerned, these drivers would have to go to Arris (who make the SH3), who would then have to write new firmware (along with all their other customers), and then send it to Virgin for testing before deployment, which normally take VM a very long time. As with all these sort of things, Virgin doesn't really seem to care about doing it in a timely fashion, because AFAICT, they no longer have the staff and resourcing to get it done quickly.

like I say it was something popped up in my news feed on my phone last week i didn't go looking for it. possibly googling it yourself would yield results?

Steampunk · 16 Mar 2017 at 11:21

Psycho Sonny said:
like I say it was something popped up in my news feed on my phone last week i didn't go looking for it. possibly googling it yourself would yield results?

Yes, but I get things like

A Spokesperson for Virgin Media told ISPreview.co.uk:

“The firmware update is currently being tested and should be issued in the coming months.”

Which could mean six months away knowing VM. These latency issues were reported to VM a year ago on the initial and second SH3 trial, but that didn't stop them going ahead and deploying a faulty piece of gear to customers ie, don't hold your breath.

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2017 at 11:43

They are aware it's an issue so I think they will solve it one way or another. firmware or new hubs. firmware will likely be a lot cheaper.

antijoke · 16 Mar 2017 at 13:03

mrk said:
You guys seen that VM are forcing people from the end of April to upgrade to SH3?

https://keepup.virginmedia.com/hubupgrade

I'll be writing another complaint letter before that date to make sure my account is not touched by this, and making sure to mention it when the complaints dept person calls me back mid April.

FML, they better not touch my account either.

Let me know how you get on.

bremen1874 · 16 Mar 2017 at 15:22

Doesn't this only relate to the people still using stand-alone modems and the Super Hub 1? Something to do with a lack of DOCSIS 3.0 support on the older kit.

My Mother has Virgin broadband (Super hub 2ac) and hasn't been contacted. If I try to start the process using her details I just get a message that says 'Sorry, we can't find you in our system. Please check your details and try again.'.

APM · 17 Mar 2017 at 18:20

My Virgin bill ran until the 24th of the month but I switched to BT on the 15th,what are the chances I'll see a partial refund on the months billing?

wam7 · 19 Mar 2017 at 12:20

SH3 VIVID GAMER 200Mb (in modem mode w/ Asus AC68u)

SH2ac VIVID GAMER 200Mb (in modem mode w/ Asus AC68u)

Encouraged by Mrk's earlier post and with his advice I finally managed to get my SH3 replaced with a SH2ac. This is what I did.

· Call and ask to speak to Level 2 in Swansea
It took me 20mins and going through 4 customer services people in India, a few telling me it was not possible but I eventually got there. Another way would be to go through retensions saying you want to cancel your Virgin account due to the latency spikes.

· Insist on them replacing your SH3 with a SH2ac due to poor latency which affects gaming, Skype etc
Level 2's initial response was that the SH2ac can not work with 200Mb Gamer. Even after I told them about Mrk's experience they still insisted it was impossible. When I asked when a firmware would be available then the person I spoke to who was called Michael, went away to check. Upon his return he said he was told by colleagues that it was possible and that a SH2ac would be with me within 3 days.

Be aware that VM do not want to be sending out SH2ac as they will not work with the new VOIP services that VM wants to sell us in the future. Only the SH3 will work with them.

I recorded my conversation and have a small sound clip of the instance that Michael agrees that the SH2ac works and he will send one out. If anybody comes up against any resistance and needs it just drop me an email via trust.

After nearly a year my broadband is finally working smoothly.

ChrisD. · 20 Mar 2017 at 15:23

Christ. I don't think you could pay me money to be with VM at the moment, it's utterly shambolic.

Caged · 20 Mar 2017 at 19:47

Yup, the network is a pile of junk.

8% packet loss during that dip on the 19th. YouTube can only stream without buffering on a 2Mbps video bitrate. It's utter toilet.

Fortunately the contract is up in July and Hyperoptic are installing

Nick1881 · 20 Mar 2017 at 21:32

I think I'm regretting switching to VM. I enjoyed around 4 years of flawless service with BT and generally always got 75mb or close to it, since moving to VM 200mb Gamer I probably average at best 100mb or less, at quiet times like early in the morning it will run at 220mb. Right now I have about 30mb and it's fairly common that it runs a lot slower than I used to get from BT.

I wish BT would have just given me more speed, then I wouldn't have wanted to move. I also begrudged paying £18 a month for a pointless landline, VM's only positive is that you don't need a phoneline.

bingham67 · 20 Mar 2017 at 22:01

Virgin being installed in our village next month viewing these post recently it really off putting the latency problems.

ChrisD. · 21 Mar 2017 at 08:29

bingham67 said:
Virgin being installed in our village next month viewing these post recently it really off putting the latency problems.

Recent? I had issues 5 years ago, it's not a new thing. All VM seem bothered about is headline speeds to advertise rather investing in the current infrastructure to improve it.

Psycho Sonny · 21 Mar 2017 at 20:20

wam7 said:
SH3 VIVID GAMER 200Mb (in modem mode w/ Asus AC68u)

SH2ac VIVID GAMER 200Mb (in modem mode w/ Asus AC68u)

Encouraged by Mrk's earlier post and with his advice I finally managed to get my SH3 replaced with a SH2ac. This is what I did.

· Call and ask to speak to Level 2 in Swansea
It took me 20mins and going through 4 customer services people in India, a few telling me it was not possible but I eventually got there. Another way would be to go through rentensions saying you want to cancel your Virgin account due to the latency spikes.

· Insist on them replacing your SH3 with a SH2ac due to poor latency which affects gaming, Skype etc
Level 2's initial response was that the SH2ac can not work with 200Mb Gamer. Even after I told them about Mrk's experience they still insisted it was impossible. When I asked when a firmware would be available then the person I spoke to who was called Michael, went away to check. Upon his return he said he was told by colleagues that it was possible and that a SH2ac would be with me within 3 days.

Be aware that VM do not want to be sending out SH2ac as they will not work with the new VOIP services that VM wants to sell us in the future. Only the SH3 will work with them.

I recorded my conversation and have a small sound clip of the instance that Michael agrees that the SH2ac works and he will send one out. If anybody comes up against any resistance and needs it just drop me an email via trust.

After nearly a year my broadband is finally working smoothly.

been on the phone 25 mins he's making me change all sorts on the router

clocka · 22 Mar 2017 at 15:17

new speeds officially announced it seems...

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...ltrafast-broadband-standard-adds-300mbps.html

Virgin Media’s New Broadband Speed Tiers

VIVID 300 = 300Mbps Download / 20Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £47.25 (Standalone)

VIVID Gamer * = 200Mbps Download / 20Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £42.25 (Standalone)

VIVID 200 = 200Mbps Download / 16Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £37.25 (Standalone)

VIVID 100 = 100Mbps Download / 12Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £32.25 (Standalone) or £40 (Phone + Broadband)

* No traffic management. Upgrade to 300Mbps available for £5 extra.

Caged · 22 Mar 2017 at 15:31

Cool, so they will just miss the headline speeds by a higher percentage at peak times now, otherwise nothing changes

Psycho Sonny · 22 Mar 2017 at 16:42

clocka said:
new speeds officially announced it seems...

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...ltrafast-broadband-standard-adds-300mbps.html

Virgin Media’s New Broadband Speed Tiers

VIVID 300 = 300Mbps Download / 20Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £47.25 (Standalone)

VIVID Gamer * = 200Mbps Download / 20Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £42.25 (Standalone)

VIVID 200 = 200Mbps Download / 16Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £37.25 (Standalone)

VIVID 100 = 100Mbps Download / 12Mbps Upload
Standard Price: £32.25 (Standalone) or £40 (Phone + Broadband)

* No traffic management. Upgrade to 300Mbps available for £5 extra.

I'm on Vivid 200 atm and paying £47ish.

So I take it my new one will be vivid 300?

MG42Maniac · 23 Mar 2017 at 10:02

Still not improved the upload speeds :mad:

mrk · 23 Mar 2017 at 13:56

I just phoned VM to find out if my current bill for the Gamer (£47) will automatically drop to £42.50, she said they don't automatically price adjust for all customers, they try to do as many as they can manually, but obviously customers will likely have to chase up.

I was told they can't manually make any change until the first few days of April as it all goes live on their system from the 30th March.

So basically, people will be overcharged until they make an enquiry with customer services about the new lower price if they wish to remain on their existing package. Obviously you'll want to get a credit put on your account if you have overcharged.

I will be sticking with the SH2ac, so can't get 300Mb anyway,. not that I'd want it due to the exact same upload speed anyway, and the 25MB/s download rate is way more than enough for my household usage.