Bob gets Virgin Media broadband & TV but is less than impressed with the installation

[Bob Crabtree]

Yesterday was the day when Virgin Media came to install cable TV and cable broadband (I already had a phone from NTL:Telewest - as Virgin Media was called until Feb 8).

My decision to change was brought about largely because my broadband supplier of old, Pipex (who also took over my BT line in a deal that got me 3,000 min per month of around-the -clock calls to 01/02 numbers) refused to let me upgrade to a cheaper, faster package unless I was willing to be without broadband - and possibly phone - for an unknown period of time.

The company had repeatedly told me over a period of months, "our [backend] software won't let us upgrade you - you'll have to cancel and sign up again".

Madness!

So, I'll be cancelling Pipex and getting rid of that BT line, too, producing a considerable saving - and in return, be getting broadband at twice the speed I've had until now.

Oh, and I'm dumping Sky, as well, so there will be a further big saving there.

Anyway, first thing yesterday morning, a parcel turned up from SCAN Computers containing among other things a Buffalo WHR-G54S wireless cable router.

Thanks, you lovely Scanners!

I'd ordered this after searching the HEXUS.community and finding an old thread where this product was suggested for use with cable broadband and had been bought from SCAN.

It turned out that SCAN had it at what I thought was a VERY keen price - £28.66 inc VAT with delivery free to me (and you and other HEXITES), so I ordered one.

Trouble is, I had second thoughts that perhaps even this small sum had been wasted because I might have been able to use an existing ADSL broadband router I already owned.

As helpful folk in that forum thread pointed out, though, these thoughts were quite wrong - the Buffalo or something like it was what I needed.

But Virgin Media offers no help I could see on its site about how to share a broadband connection with multiple PC and the person I spoke to prior to placing an order told me that the company didn't support the use of routers - effectively saying you can only use Virgin's broadband service with a single PC.

That's patently not true and a silly way to treat customers but, hey, maybe the Virgin Effect hasn't had time enough to reach all the parts that other company ethoses have made limp and dreary.

Around ten to one, I got a phone call from the Virgin Media fitter saying he'd be with me in about five minutes - and he duly turned up a little before 1pm (the company had said some time between 1pm and 6pm).

I showed him (and his mate) which route I wanted the cabling to follow and they hummed and haa'd for a while but agreed to clip-and-drill where I requested.

They made a bit of a mess, which they didn't attempt to clean up, and also did a pretty ropey job with some of the drilling - one wall had a couple of big chunks come out and their idea of making good is VERY different to my own.

Also some of the caps/plugs/grommets that seal up the holes and through which the cable passes are very sloppy fits and tend to pop out if you knock the cable. That's inside, though, not outside - there is a box outside the house where the cable enters and another opposite it on the inside.

Clearly, these guys were working under serious time pressure and all the drilling and cabling-clipping in my rather complex installation slowed them down and probably put them behind schedule.

But, bottom line, they needed more time to do the job properly and chose to get it out of the way - or felt they had to get it out of the way - as quickly as possible.

They made no attempt to set up the broadband apart from getting the cabling into the office and assuring themselves (and me) that the connections to the cable modem were all good.

As they left, one of them asked me if I had been sent a PIN number that I'd need for setting up the broadband and I said yes, not realising that what I had been sent was a PIN number that was only good for the TV side of things!

So, when I followed the instructions presented as the broadband installer CD ran, I hit a brick wall.

I input the PIN number I had (not realising it was only for the TV side) and ended up having to call the 0845 tech-support number cos the PIN wasn't being accepted - though the error message I was seeing also suggested there might be something wrong with my user name instead.

The first person I spoke to (on the Indian sub-continent, I think) quickly realised that he was out of his depth and transferred me to broadband support.

This, seemingly, was in the UK but the person I was put through to told me he couldn't help and put me through to someone else.

At that stage, it became clear why I had not been sent a PIN number for broadband - nobody had thought to allocate one to me!

So, while I waited on the line (at 6p a minute?) the guy I was now talking to said he'd get one set up for me.

The whole process - from first getting through to Virgin Media to having a PIN number created for me - was about 13 minutes which, given the nature of the problem, I thought was pretty good (even though I'd have preferred to have had the problem solved by the first person I spoke to, rather than the third).

Once I had the PIN number, I was able to continue following the instructions being provided to me by the installer CD but then I hit another brick wall that required me to phone the support number again.

This, too, was a problem that could and should have been avoided.

The installer was telling me it couldn't connect because of an IP error and that I needed to call the support number.

When I did that, the bloke (Indian sub-continent?) knew exactly what the problem was because, I'm assuming, it's one he's dealing with so often.

He told me that the error message I was seeing was not relevant to a cable modem installation only to an old-style phone modem installation.

The situation is that Virgin provided me, a cable-modem customer, with a broadband set up CD that is intended for use with a phone-type modem - and may be doing the same to everyone else who signs up for cable broadband!

D'oh!

My man on the phone told me just to cancel out of the error message (in effect, to stop running the installation CD any further) and see what happened when I fired up a browser window, because he reckoned, I'd be up and running at that stage - and, sure enough, he was right.

Clearly - and even ignoring the dodgy drilling and muck left behind - not really a very satisfactory broadband-installation experience:

* I'd imagined (perhaps wrongly) that the fitters were supposed to sort out everything with the broadband installation and leave me with a working internet connection

* No one at Virgin Media had thought to allocate me the necessary broadband PIN number

* The installer CD supplied by the fitters was the wrong one (mind you, it's possible there isn't a correct CD for cable modems) in that it was intended for use with phone-type modems.

Fortunately, once the broadband connection was seen by the PC, it was a doddle to set up the Buffalo router so that other PCs can get on the net, too - thanks to an on-CD wizard that shows you what to do every step of the way, and which actually worked exactly as it should.

Phew!

Now all I've got to do is:

+ Remember to cancel Sky before March 23 (or have to pay another month's subscription)

+ Email everyone relevant with my new non-business email address

+ Set up email accounts for wife and two kids - on the PC, once these have been set up on line (something I failed to do a couple of times because that side of the Virgin site kept on freezing up) and then explain that they need to email all their contacts with the new details

+ Tell business contacts my new business phone number (a SkypeIn number which is way cheaper than the £11 per month I'm paying to BT for a phone line)

And then,

+ Cancel Pipex

+ Cancel the BT line

And all because Pipex wouldn't give me the same sort of deal that it gives new customers!

Thanks for nothing, Pipex!

Things were a little better on the TV side, which the Virgin Media fitters did get working fully before they left.

However, the TV receiver box was set up in a very basic way - a Scart lead being run from the box's TV output to the TV itself.

There was no discussion at all about how the box would fit in with all the other AV kit there - not even the VCR.

That, seemingly, was my problem. Okay, that wasn't what they said but it was the implication and they had no idea, of course, that I eat problems like that for breakfast.

After they'd left, what I needed to do to get the TV side of things sorted was:

* Figure out how to get sound from the TV box through the VCR.

I'd assumed that with all the moving of kit that some cable or other had come loose, so checked the cabling that goes from the VCR to the AV amp and from the amp to the TV set before concluding that, since nothing seemed disconnected, there might be a setting, somewhere in the Virgin box's menu, that needed tweaking.

And, sure enough, the volume for the VCR Scart output was set to zero!

But why? What kind of stupid default setting is that?

* Get an RF signal from the Virgin box to the main TV and another in the dining room

That was necessary for two reason. Some family members are none too comfortable using the AV amp or switching between different AV inputs on the TV set, so I've made life easier for them in the past (even if it makes for rubbish picture and sound quality) by having the TV set tuned in on Channel 6 to the Sky box's RF output.

This same RF signal also gets fed through from the living room to a TV in the dining room.

I wanted the Virgin box to do the same - be accessible via RF using a channel setting on the living room TV set and also on the dining room set.

Sod's Law, though, the kit that Virgin supplied had no aerial cables and the less-than-fulsome instructions that were left with me after the fitters had gone gave no clue what RF channel the Virgin box output its signal on or, indeed, whether in fact it allowed anything more than an aerial pass-through.

Fortunately, I just happen to have a BIG box full of RF cables and, contrary to what I just said, there was actually one little clue that the Virgin box might have an RF output.

The single-sided A4 instructions that were left with me had three connections-scenarios, one of which shows how to connect the Virgin box to the TV by RF cable if the TV and or VCR have no Scart sockets.

But what it didn't mention was the need for you to tune in the TV (or VCR) to whatever RF channel the box was outputting - something I knew must be the case but most folk might not have a clue about.

Fortunately, a quick tune on the main TV located the right channel (around 56 as I recall) and the same was true for the TV in the dining room.

Sure, none of this was a problem for me but I can see that anyone who's not really comfortable with AV kit might end up in a situation where they'd need to call someone out on a chargeable basis simply to be able to record to a VCR with sound as well as pictures, never mind having RF access to the Virgin TV channels, not just access via AV inputs.

[Steve B]

Good blog there Bob!
Definitely an interesting read
the only thing I would say is that in all the years we've had ntl broadband, i've never needed to use a CD to install it once; its just plug and play.

[MD]

Half the stuff you have said isn't really VMs fault though.

Broadband :

Routers are your gig, not VM's, they provide you with the modem, you can do what you like with the connection.

You don't need to use the software CD, you can install it just like a standard ethernet connection.

TV:

They provide you with TV, if you chosoe to attach other stuff again you can't expect them to connect all that up for you.

Its not up to Virgin to provide you with the cable or access to routing TV to two screens, thats why they sell multi-room boxes.


Its a good blog, but you gotta be careful with some of the things, likewise I had issues with the state they left the install in etc etc and time was an issue - but don't knock them for using their kit outside the scope

There are issues with installs, I know this, I taught the guy how to connect my V+ box up using HDMI only the other week.

Matt

[Funkstar]

How were Sky when you got that installed? I've seen a few really bad sky installations, much like you discribe about Virgin, large holes in walls etc. But i think this depends on the installer. The house the company rents up in shetland got 4 sky multiroom installs last month, very neat and tidy. But then the guy was local and probably not on the time restrictions other installers are.

Originally Posted by Bob Crabtree

+ Email everyone relevant with my new non-business email address

Or you could just get a domain with your own email address. I've not used an ISP email address in about 9 years

[Tom Scott]

Virgin Media is just still NTL, except they have Virgin branding. Mr Branson got a 17.5% share in NTL in exchange for Virgin Mobile, plus £9M a year to Virgin for using the brand.
I do wonder why people seem to have come to the conclusion that its Virgin now so things will get better. Its far more likely that Mr Branson will just be sitting there, laughing all the way to the bank with£175k per week being deposited into his bank account for the use of the name.
Oh also the name has been sold for 30 years to NTL so thats a mere £270 million pounds to Mr Branson, just for a name!

Just to clarify the NTL and Sky comparison, afaik NTL engineers are employed by NTL, Sky engineers are all sub-contractors. So the subbies are liable themselves for all the mistakes they make, where as the NTL engineers aren't liable for squat, its their employers that foot the bill. I've got 2 NTL 'points' in my house, both are an absolute mess, still got brick dust falling on the floor from the one in my bedroom thats after 8 years. The Sky install we had years ago on the other hand was completely and still is very neatly done.

[father smurf]

ntl have always been crap at installing - i dont think that will change just cos of a name change

[Bob Crabtree]

While attempting to create some additional Virgin Media email accounts with my new cable-internet set up (and this time succeeding), I noticed that the company had sent me a welcome-aboard email.

Sweeties, aren't they?

This is what it said - and you may notice one daft error in the first par (I've highlighted it, just in case):

Hi there,

Say hello to your new, no-nonsense Dial-up internet service from Virgin Media.

Now that you're with us, you.re going to get a whole lot more from the internet. Here's a quick taster of what's in store:

15 email addresses - enough for you and the whole family

Webmail - access your email from anywhere in the world

55MB of web space - so you can have your very own website

The best of online entertainment at www.virginmedia.com

Need a hand? There's loads we can do to help you out online, including:

Account management tools - to help you with things like setting up new email addresses.

Up to the minute service status information

Helpful advice so that you can get the very best from your service To find out more ,just log on to www.virginmedia.com/help

We make staying safe online easier than anyone. Here are a few of the things we can give you to help out.

Free personal firewall

Free Anti-Virus software

Helpful tips and advice on protecting your computer

To learn more, log on to www.virginmedia.com/security

And don't forget, once you're up and running, there's loads of great things you can do with your internet service - from starting your very own website to finding the best bargains on the web - it's all ready and waiting for you on our big, shiny homepage, www.virginmedia.com

Enjoy.

Kind regards,

The Virgin Media Team

Oh and I've realised I forgot to mention something that puts my earlier comment about the mess made by the installers into a sensible context - when they appeared at the front door, they made great play of putting on elasticated plastic over-shoes, so as not to mess the place up as they went in and out!

Stupidly, what I didn't think to do was see if, in fact, they removed them whenever they left the house and put them back on before coming back in but at the back of my mind (and I absolutely wouldn't swear to this), I don't think they did.

So, I'd be keen for others to tell me whether or not their fitters did actually put 'em on/take 'em off/put 'em on as they should have done - or whether they just left them on all the while.

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by Tom Scott

Virgin Media is just still NTL, except they have Virgin branding. Mr Branson got a 17.5% share in NTL in exchange for Virgin Mobile, plus £9M a year to Virgin for using the brand.
I do wonder why people seem to have come to the conclusion that its Virgin now so things will get better. Its far more likely that Mr Branson will just be sitting there, laughing all the way to the bank with£175k per week being deposited into his bank account for the use of the name.
Oh also the name has been sold for 30 years to NTL so thats a mere £270 million pounds to Mr Branson, just for a name!

Just to clarify the NTL and Sky comparison, afaik NTL engineers are employed by NTL, Sky engineers are all sub-contractors. So the subbies are liable themselves for all the mistakes they make, where as the NTL engineers aren't liable for squat, its their employers that foot the bill. I've got 2 NTL 'points' in my house, both are an absolute mess, still got brick dust falling on the floor from the one in my bedroom thats after 8 years. The Sky install we had years ago on the other hand was completely and still is very neatly done.

Tom,

Interesting to see your take and those figures you quote for Virgin's/Branson's cut of the deal. Where did they come from? I ask because I tried VERY hard to locate such info to include in my news piece.

However, I'd like to think that anyone who had read my original piece would have fully understood that ntl:Telewest was, in effect, renting the Virgin name - albeit making some changes to the quality of customer service as part of the deal.

The opening page said this:

At yesterday's briefing, it was openly admitted that the quality of customer service had been unacceptably poor for ntl users and far inferior to that enjoyed by those who'd signed up in Telewest areas.

However, it was claimed that things would be far better from now. According to the two top bods from ntl:Telewest (chairman Jim Moody and CEO Steve Burch) and Richard Branson himself - all with hands on heart - this was because there had genuinely been more than just a name-change.

An extra 300 customer-care staff had been recruited, training had been greatly improved and the whole company ethos was being changed to reflect the customer-centred priorities of a Virgin company.

To us, though, more telling still was the statement that 19 out of 20 of the company's top executives have changed in the last year.

It all sounded very plausible - and calls we made yesterday to the company's support lines showed that front-line staff seem to think there really has been a sea-change.

But we can't help wondering just how certain anyone can be when Virgin Media isn't owned and run by Branson himself - it uses the Virgin brand on a sort of franchise basis, with Branson lending his support and name.

Time, of course, will show whether the fine words reflect genuine changes but there's little doubt that the company appears to be thinking and acting smarter than in the past.

[EasterEEL]

Hi Bob, Good blog interesting to read your experience.

In truth I think things went reasonably well for you. All of these installers are under ridiculous timescales and customers get a bodge job as a result.

When I had Sky upgraded to HD last year also adding multi-room. Sky advised me that I would get call on morning of the install advising a time. I duly got a call advising 11:00-13:00 forcing me to take the day off instead of half a day.

The installer actually arrived at 16:00 and then advised he could fit the HD but could not do the multi-room because he did not have a ladder long enough to get to the satellite dish on my roof. My house is a typical 3 bed semi. He said he would visit on Sat morning to complete.

Stupidly I agreed to this and there was a no show on Sat. When I phoned the mobile number he left me a voice message said he was on holiday for a week. This took several calls to Sky and three weeks and another day off work for my wife, to resolve.

Additional problems I was left with were he had not matched my existing Sky card to my HD box, but had matched the second card for the multi-room card to the HD box. This meant the Senanta subscription channel was only working on the wrong digi-box. Also both digi-boxes are required to telephone home and there was no telephone line in the bedroom. To save time he ran the telephone line back out of the ground floor up the outside of the front of house and into the bedroom. He should have run the cable through the house. None of this was explained to my wife.

I also go no help with my AV set-up and in fact he said this normal as HD takes up to two hours to become available after an install.

Still I have wanted to get this off my chest for a while.

regards....Roger

P.S. The first cabler was asked to take his shoes off and ony then went and got the elasticated plastic over-shoes. I am sure he took them off when he went out to inspect the height of the roof.

[BUFF]

Originally Posted by Tom Scott

afaik NTL engineers are employed by NTL, Sky engineers are all sub-contractors.

NTL had a lot of sub-contracted engineers too so I assume that in it's new guise Virginmedia does too.

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by Steve B

Good blog there Bob!
Definitely an interesting read
the only thing I would say is that in all the years we've had ntl broadband, i've never needed to use a CD to install it once; its just plug and play.

Thanks for the kind words.

As for your caveat - what you need to realise is that I was given a Set-up guide package, consisting of a DVD library case containing a booklet - Virgin Broadband Set-up guide (Get going in a flash) - and a CD, labelled, Virgin Broadband Set-up CD.

What I did was what the company, presumably, wants and expects all new Virgin Broadband customers to do - read the book and use the CD to carry out the set up.

There was NOTHING provided to me - and doubtless, the same will be true for other customers - about how to do the set up manually.

And, for sure, there seemed to be things that the CD got to happen that I personally wouldn't know how to do manually (even though I'd be comfortable setting up an ADSL broadband router installation from scratch, having done that many times before).

The only step within the CD I didn't follow (you have the option to skip it) was to download and install the company' preferred security app - PCguard.

That's because I have very good anti-nasties software in place already.

There's AVG Free Edition, plus Spybot Search&Destroy (also free) and the paid-for version of Ad-Aware (Ad-Aware SE Pro). Oh and Hijack This is sitting around, too, to get me out of a hole if all the other protection fails.

As a broadband M user, the version of PCguard I could have installed for free had an anti-virus element, a dedicated firewall (I don't like third-party software firewalls) and a pop-up blocker.

There's also a chargeable version of the software package - PCguard Total - that comes free to broadband L and XL customers and which provides anti-spyware (in my view the most important element in protecting a PC today), parental control (not needed here) and "Identity Theft Protection".

[Tom Scott]

Bob source is: http://informitv.com/articles/2006/0...irginmarriage/

[chis]

Originally Posted by Matt D

You don't need to use the software CD, you can install it just like a standard ethernet connection.

You MUST install the connection using the software CD, if you are doing it for the first time, or have moved house.

Trust me, I've had to install NTL broadband for many clients now, and it's the same deal every time.

[Steve B]

so tell us chis, what happens when you put the CD in the drive?
the only time you would need to use the CD is if the modem is being connected via USB. Thats the advantage that cable broadband has over adsl, theres an ethernet port on your modem, so use it.
a) its a more stable connection
b) its driverless
c) did i mention its more stable?

heres a run down of what i do, whenever i configure peoples cable broadband.
Plug in modem
Optionally plug in router, if there sharing
Plug in ethernet cable to pc.
Connect into modem using engineering IP to check communication with the modem is possible, if using a router, connect to default gateway first, then to engineering IP.
Connection to cable modem successful, internet operational.

Where do i need the CD?

[jimborae]

Welcome to the NTL world of non customer support.

There used to be a guide on NTL's old web page about sharing your internet connection with a router but they've obviously taken this down now.

Also chetnet forums used to be a great place to get NTL Broadband help, don't know if it's still as good.

[Tom Scott]

Originally Posted by Steve B

so tell us chis, what happens when you put the CD in the drive?
the only time you would need to use the CD is if the modem is being connected via USB. Thats the advantage that cable broadband has over adsl, theres an ethernet port on your modem, so use it.
a) its a more stable connection
b) its driverless
c) did i mention its more stable?

Not true, the CD Virgin/NTL give you runs internet explorer to a specified IP address to get to the registration website. They don't tell you how to get to that website (well the IP) manually, and therefore you have to use the CD.