Virgin Media Discussion Thread
- Thread starter macca40
- Start date
Soldato
Really looking forward to 50Meg, I always get 20Meg out of my current connection 
I always download everything overnight.
I always download everything overnight.
Not really had any internet problems with VM, Max speed Ive seen from this line is a solid 2.2 whilst DLing from multiple sources at the same time.
I do agree however with some of the comments in this thread...
Whats the point in hiking the DL rate to large amounts when the UL remains pitifully slow?
Most will see ooooh 50Mb MUST HAVE !
If they indeed have the space and technology to offer a 50Mb bandwidth why not offer it as 25/25, yes that bordering on a Business style line, but if the customers willing to pay whats the problem.
also as its on the new infrastructure the allocation of UL/DL should in no way affect users of the current BB,unless of course VM see this as a fallback system too,
e.g
Customer X has been complaining of slow since for a while, VM know that without improving the UBR then the EU will not be able to get to the 20Mb advertised, if they see this cost/fix as too finicky due to the amount of people complaining they may see fit to just wahack the EU a new modem and slap him on a throttled DOCSIS3 connection.
Im concerned about the upload though, one of my main bugbears with this apparant mother of all broadband is the goddamn amount of time it takes to upload anything, me and friends quite often make videos/recording of games were playing but they take forever and a day to upload, course uploading at max speed will pretty much saturate yer connection, slowing the incoming to a crawl.
I was originally told a while back they were looking at UL of around 5meg which would have been acceptable but with only 1.5 might be worth reconsidering
I do agree however with some of the comments in this thread...
Whats the point in hiking the DL rate to large amounts when the UL remains pitifully slow?
Most will see ooooh 50Mb MUST HAVE !
If they indeed have the space and technology to offer a 50Mb bandwidth why not offer it as 25/25, yes that bordering on a Business style line, but if the customers willing to pay whats the problem.
also as its on the new infrastructure the allocation of UL/DL should in no way affect users of the current BB,unless of course VM see this as a fallback system too,
e.g
Customer X has been complaining of slow since for a while, VM know that without improving the UBR then the EU will not be able to get to the 20Mb advertised, if they see this cost/fix as too finicky due to the amount of people complaining they may see fit to just wahack the EU a new modem and slap him on a throttled DOCSIS3 connection.
Im concerned about the upload though, one of my main bugbears with this apparant mother of all broadband is the goddamn amount of time it takes to upload anything, me and friends quite often make videos/recording of games were playing but they take forever and a day to upload, course uploading at max speed will pretty much saturate yer connection, slowing the incoming to a crawl.
I was originally told a while back they were looking at UL of around 5meg which would have been acceptable but with only 1.5 might be worth reconsidering
Commissario
IIRC it costs them a lot more for upload than download in bandwidth costs, and backbone capacity.
Most consumer internet connections and equipment is made based on the idea that you don't need to upload a lot, and as I understand it the cable standards work accordingly (you have say 10 channels for downstream bandwidth, and maybe 2-3 for upstream), and isn't something that can easily/cheaply be changed.
Most consumer internet connections and equipment is made based on the idea that you don't need to upload a lot, and as I understand it the cable standards work accordingly (you have say 10 channels for downstream bandwidth, and maybe 2-3 for upstream), and isn't something that can easily/cheaply be changed.
Personaly i think the upload is fine. The majority of customers will find download more important then upload, and although there are a few people who want decent upload it would be a bit unfair to lower the download just to increase upload for the few who want it higher.
Permabanned
None of Modems you use on service now are ok for 3.0 AFAIK, you pay cash to get a upgraded modem same as if you needed one from 10meg to 20meg (well it was free for self swap over).
Soldato
Just use OpenDNS
Permabanned
Yip DNS issues galore since NTL took over and then later took on VM branding,
Permabanned
Soldato
The wife and I are moving house in February and the new place can get the high speed virgin broadband service. What I want to know is, can I get static IPs with virgin?
I have 6 IPs free with ADSL24 at the moment and find it useful getting to my machines from the outside world and also running a pix inline with the connection therefore stopping all the uber-leet script kiddies who think they can hack causing my network problems.
I have 6 IPs free with ADSL24 at the moment and find it useful getting to my machines from the outside world and also running a pix inline with the connection therefore stopping all the uber-leet script kiddies who think they can hack causing my network problems.
Permabanned
Used to be only Business users VM would give Static IP's to, not sure now though.
Soldato
Permabanned
Why wouldn't you just "want" to
Why should I need to when it used to work perfectly without 3rd party ?
Ah well, it's out now: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/50Mb/index.do
Watch as I don't rush to spend £52 a month!
Watch as I don't rush to spend £52 a month!
Soldato
Why should I need to when it used to work perfectly without 3rd party ?
Because it's slow as a dog in comparison, the Virgin DNS servers are just overwoked.
@ Times I have to.
By your own admission the Virgin DNS servers are flakey, why not just use ones the work all the time
Virgin Media launches 50 meg broadband service
Monday 15 December 2008 11:14:59 by Andrew Ferguson
After what feels like months of being drip fed minor details about the Virgin Media 50 meg product, we finally have the official details.
It is to be known as the XXL package and will have a monthly fee of £51 (including VAT). As expected there will be a 12 month contract for those migrating onto the product from an existing Virgin Media broadband package, or signing up for the first time. Subscribers to the XXL package will receive a N wireless router with their new cable modem to ensure the wireless network in the home is not the bottleneck. Upload speeds will initially be 1.5Mbps with options to increase this in the future.
The monthly price of the XXL product is actually lower if you take an optional telephone line from Virgin Media, with this double play bundle costing £46. The triple play bundle of television, 50Meg broadband and a telephone line works out at £66 a month.
The product will be rolled out in phases, with some 1.3 million customers having the product available to order from today. 10Mbps (L) and 20Mbps (XL) customers will also be moved onto the new network, but will not get a new modem which means that while their connect speeds will not increase, they may find that congestion is less of an issue. The capacity this frees up on the old DOCSIS 1.0 network may also resolve some of the local congestion that people see currently.
The roll-out to cover all the 12.6 million homes passed by the Virgin Media network will complete during the summer of 2009.
By taking a gamble and launching a product with no traffic management suggests that Virgin Media is confident that it has created a large enough network to cope with hundreds of thousands of people downloading the internet. Of course if the majority do decide to try and build the worlds largest repository of internet data at home, they may change their minds, but for now we have a next generation product that people can go and use, and the content providers may now have a market to whom they can sell true HD online video.
[ Topic: Internet Service Providers | 23 comment(s) | link to this item ]
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Virgin Media 50Meg product - is it a revolution?
Sunday 14 December 2008 19:39:31 by Andrew Ferguson
The Virgin Media 50Mbps cable broadband product that relies on DOCSIS 3.0 to offer 50Mbps speeds initially and could run at 200Mbps by bonding channels together in the future is the worst kept industry secret of December 2008.
The unanswered questions are what price will the service be, and whether it will have traffic management like the other products in the Virgin Media cable range. We think there are two likely options for the product:
1. A monthly fee of £42 per month and retain the existing traffic management scheme but with different amounts, perhaps 10GB during the day, and 6GB during the evenings.
2. Alternatively they may plump for the more catchy 50Meg for £50 and drop all forms of traffic management, at least until take up of the product starts to fill the capacity that the new DOCSIS 3.0 network will have.
The 50Mbps product will, once roll-out is completed, bring the option of next generation broadband speeds to some 46% of UK households. The big question that everyone is wondering is how popular the service will be. Currently 10% of Virgin Media broadband customers opt for the most expensive 20Mbps product, with a massive 71% watching their pennies by opting for the slowest 2Mbps product.
If within 18 months, Virgin Media can have 10% of its customers on the 50Mbps product, this is likely to encourage its competitors to push on with next generation investment. A price point that makes it unpopular may impact on how willing investors are to spend money on getting next generation services to the remaining 54% of UK households.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/
Monday 15 December 2008 11:14:59 by Andrew Ferguson
After what feels like months of being drip fed minor details about the Virgin Media 50 meg product, we finally have the official details.
It is to be known as the XXL package and will have a monthly fee of £51 (including VAT). As expected there will be a 12 month contract for those migrating onto the product from an existing Virgin Media broadband package, or signing up for the first time. Subscribers to the XXL package will receive a N wireless router with their new cable modem to ensure the wireless network in the home is not the bottleneck. Upload speeds will initially be 1.5Mbps with options to increase this in the future.
The monthly price of the XXL product is actually lower if you take an optional telephone line from Virgin Media, with this double play bundle costing £46. The triple play bundle of television, 50Meg broadband and a telephone line works out at £66 a month.
The product will be rolled out in phases, with some 1.3 million customers having the product available to order from today. 10Mbps (L) and 20Mbps (XL) customers will also be moved onto the new network, but will not get a new modem which means that while their connect speeds will not increase, they may find that congestion is less of an issue. The capacity this frees up on the old DOCSIS 1.0 network may also resolve some of the local congestion that people see currently.
The roll-out to cover all the 12.6 million homes passed by the Virgin Media network will complete during the summer of 2009.
By taking a gamble and launching a product with no traffic management suggests that Virgin Media is confident that it has created a large enough network to cope with hundreds of thousands of people downloading the internet. Of course if the majority do decide to try and build the worlds largest repository of internet data at home, they may change their minds, but for now we have a next generation product that people can go and use, and the content providers may now have a market to whom they can sell true HD online video.
[ Topic: Internet Service Providers | 23 comment(s) | link to this item ]
Digg this Add to del.icio.us
Virgin Media 50Meg product - is it a revolution?
Sunday 14 December 2008 19:39:31 by Andrew Ferguson
The Virgin Media 50Mbps cable broadband product that relies on DOCSIS 3.0 to offer 50Mbps speeds initially and could run at 200Mbps by bonding channels together in the future is the worst kept industry secret of December 2008.
The unanswered questions are what price will the service be, and whether it will have traffic management like the other products in the Virgin Media cable range. We think there are two likely options for the product:
1. A monthly fee of £42 per month and retain the existing traffic management scheme but with different amounts, perhaps 10GB during the day, and 6GB during the evenings.
2. Alternatively they may plump for the more catchy 50Meg for £50 and drop all forms of traffic management, at least until take up of the product starts to fill the capacity that the new DOCSIS 3.0 network will have.
The 50Mbps product will, once roll-out is completed, bring the option of next generation broadband speeds to some 46% of UK households. The big question that everyone is wondering is how popular the service will be. Currently 10% of Virgin Media broadband customers opt for the most expensive 20Mbps product, with a massive 71% watching their pennies by opting for the slowest 2Mbps product.
If within 18 months, Virgin Media can have 10% of its customers on the 50Mbps product, this is likely to encourage its competitors to push on with next generation investment. A price point that makes it unpopular may impact on how willing investors are to spend money on getting next generation services to the remaining 54% of UK households.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/
How much will it cost?
You can experience the fastest broadband in the UK for just £35 a month when1 you take a Virgin Media phone line for £11 a month. Want broadband on its own? It's yours for £51 a month2. Free PCguard Total internet security is included with both (not compatible with Macs), and we'll even give you a wireless 'N' router and wireless 'N' USB adaptor as part of your package. They'll be sent directly from Netgear (the people who manufacture them for us), and should be with you within 2 weeks of having your 50Mb service installed, but it could take up to 28 days, so please bear with us. A one-off activation fee of £50 applies along with our standard £30 install fee.
That is £50 + £30 (just to get 50Mb installed) + £35 + £11 (if you also have phone) = £126 for first month?
You can experience the fastest broadband in the UK for just £35 a month when1 you take a Virgin Media phone line for £11 a month. Want broadband on its own? It's yours for £51 a month2. Free PCguard Total internet security is included with both (not compatible with Macs), and we'll even give you a wireless 'N' router and wireless 'N' USB adaptor as part of your package. They'll be sent directly from Netgear (the people who manufacture them for us), and should be with you within 2 weeks of having your 50Mb service installed, but it could take up to 28 days, so please bear with us. A one-off activation fee of £50 applies along with our standard £30 install fee.
That is £50 + £30 (just to get 50Mb installed) + £35 + £11 (if you also have phone) = £126 for first month?