Virgin media - any good?

[b0redom]

So today I had a marketing call from virgin media to say my road is now cables up. I explained that I need a static IP as I vpn in and out with work and the sales guy was adamant that they definitely did that on the domestic packages, but I can't see any evidence of that at all.

Anyone have virgin? They seem to be cheaper than my current ISP Zen, but I suspect you get what you pay for.

[Jonj1611]

I have virgin. The gamer 200 package.

The problem I think you will find is everyone has very different opinions about Virgin. For me its been rock solid, I regularly get 220mb + down and 21mb up and never had any problems. The gamer package is not traffic shaped at peak times, something all packages below that are.

Though I would take sales with a pinch of salt, they seem to say anything to get a sale and its only after you find things aren't as they same.

Installation was really easy, you can self install but I had an engineer come out which I was thankful for as turned out when they renovated the house they covered up the old telephone line so had a brand new virgin wall fitting installed and new telephone socket.

As far as I am aware Virgin don't offer static IP's on residential lines but they do on business. *Though apparently the IP's do not change very often, like every couple of years or something and you need to have your router disconnected for a week or so, they don't change after reboots. Anything after the star I read before I got Virgin myself, how reliable it is is anyone's guess

[Unique]

i've got the 200mb package, not the gamer version, i've had it since it was available and get 232mb down pretty much all the time and about 12mb up (apart from traffic shaping if you upload too much). i've had virgin internet for over 10 years and it's only been down a handful of times. once it was down at xmas or new year and the guys were outside fixing the box on xmas or NY day and it was back up quite quick for the time of year. i'm not sure if sky fibre is in my area but they don't offer as fast speeds. there is also a work from home package that gives 300mb and costs a bit more, that's not in my area yet but i think is coming shortly. included with that is a faster response time for fixes. i don't know about static IP addresses but typically your IP stays the same, but it's not guaranteed, so if you leave the modem off for 24 hours you may get a new one. so you may be able to live with that as it's 99% the same

the only two down points is it's pricey and hard to get discounts like sky, and the wifi on the router is weak so you may need a repeater. i use ethernet primarily

[nichomach]

I've been on cable since it was Telewest Blueyonder, and I'd have to say that overall they are very good indeed. The connection is rock solid, speeds are consistently good. The supplied router is a bit duff - it's a rebadged Netgear with Virgin's firmware on it, and it locks up when you use WiFi. That said, I just flipped it into modem mode and plugged my own router in which works fine; your router would need an ethernet WAN port, however. As a plus, that lets me use my own DNS settings, which Virgin's router doesn't.

[Smudger]

I'm on Virgin and used to get consistently high downloads, but I think they've signed a lot of people up in my area recently, so in the middle of the night I'll get 200+Mbps, during busy times it can drop quite severely. When I had my V6 box fitted, the engineer put a booster in, and it has improved things, but he did say my area was being upgraded at the moment, so until the works finished, speeds would be a bit patchy. I might put a complaint in anyway.

[g8ina]

Ask Dareo, he works/worked for them.

[DDY]

I'm currently with Virgin Media cable but have been with several ADSL providers in the past.

Regarding my VM connection, I started with the 50mb/s package a bit over two years ago which was recently bumped up to 70mb/s. Generally, the download and upload speeds have been good but the latency has been rotten, especially but not exclusively in peak times.

One of the most serious complaints about VM's internet service is over-subscription, of course YMMV, but I was hit by it. About a year ago, there was a period of three months where my connection would suffer severe packet loss during peak times, VM attributed the problem to over-utilisation of the line and offered to refund my internet bill for those three months. At the end of that, VM put me on another line, resolving the issue and dramatically improving latency, although the latency has since progressively worsened.

Compared to my ADSL providers in the past I'd say reliability and customer service is much of a muchness, except for latency. I don't use the internet for anything latency sensitive - e.g. I don't online game any more, but if I did, I'd seriously consider switching from VM.

[Dareos]

Virgin dont do static IP addresses on residential accounts. They have long term leases but not static.

Saying that, there's very little reason to have a static IP address to vpn. Static is useful at the receiving end but really not necessary on the remote end. Otherwise travelling business folks wouldn't be able to VPN in from hotel conference rooms etc. Have a word with your IP dept.

Oh and feel free to tell the sales rep he's an arsehole and has no clue about his product.

Also ping me your postcode and I'll check service status in your area.

[ik9000]

The only downsides I have with VM are i) customer service call centre not that great - a bit tedious and the first few tiers are overseas and involve much pulling of teeth.
ii) more importantly the superhub 3 is no good. Even in modem mode it frequently drops connections, kicks you out of gaming and Amazon Echo won't work stably. Latency is a joke. Speedtest says I'm well over 200mb/s down, 15-20mb/s up and 9ms ping, but the problem is spikes in latency courtesy of puma chipset - seriously google it, it's well documented. And the annoying thing is you have to use their hub as a modem. Unless you're lucky enough to have the superhub2 (which they won't send out anymore) you can't avoid it. No word on when the promised fix will be issued.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/1..._firmware_fix/
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php...-loss-bug.html

I've tried everything separately on a different network and it all works fine. I nearly sent back the echo thinking it was faulty, but no, the problem lies with the VM modem, or else the VM network behind it.

Other than that they're better than BT/Sky IMO.

[ik9000]

Virgin dont do static IP addresses on residential accounts. They have long term leases but not static.

Saying that, there's very little reason to have a static IP address to vpn. Static is useful at the receiving end but really not necessary on the remote end. Otherwise travelling business folks wouldn't be able to VPN in from hotel conference rooms etc. Have a word with your IP dept.

+1 to this, I regularly VPN in on my VM connection. I'm not on a static IP. It's fine albeit rather laggy at times, though as above I'm not sure how much of that is network and how much due to their modem. I doubt I'm getting 200mb/s for the VPN given how stuttery the screen refresh can be. At some point I'll drill down into what can be done to enhance that either at my end or the office. First on my list is getting everything onto matching versions of remote desktop which will hopefully help.

[g8ina]

Thanks DareoS (sorry bout the typo, poor memory)

[Jace007]

VM
Good
1) Good stable network, hasn't gone down much but when it has i've been compensated for loss of service 2)Nice options to get Help 3) Good mix of bundles to cater for most needs. 3)Line rental on par with others.
Bad
1) Talking to 'David' whos clearly in a Indian call center reading a script & makes you wanna bang your head on the Desks at times. 2) Quality of broadband is not good due to Ping spikes, its lame for competitive gaming but fine for casual gaming. Stream & downloading is good too but for alot of people the Ping spiking issue is so annoying. 3) Virgin media Hubs are crap, best to use them as Modem mode & get a separate router

[b0redom]

Oh and feel free to tell the sales rep he's an arsehole and has no clue about his product.

A salesman lying about his wares? When will this madness end?! :-)

To clarify the VPN thing. I need to VPN into end clients who sometimes want a static source IP for incoming firewall rules, but I also have ESx infrastructure at home which I VPN and/or SSH tunnel into, so I really need a static IP.

[GoNz0]

If you need a static IP you will need a business bundle. http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk...roadband-FAQs/