ADSL vs. Cable (Virgin)

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I'm a fairly happy ADSL customer (Entanet) but I have been reading lots of good stuff on the 20MB virgin media cable service.

Does anyone else use Virgin? Did you change over from ADSL?

Can you have a fixed IP on it?

Thanks all.

R.
 
You absolutely cannot have a fixed IP Address on Virgin domestic cable.

I have tried several times and always been turned down (I wanted to do my own webhosting and mailhosting).

If you upgrade to the business broadband (more expensive etc) then they will let you have a fixed IP Address.
 
barneyrubble said:
You absolutely cannot have a fixed IP Address on Virgin domestic cable.

I have tried several times and always been turned down (I wanted to do my own webhosting and mailhosting).

If you upgrade to the business broadband (more expensive etc) then they will let you have a fixed IP Address.
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Mines isnt fixed, but have been using remote desktop to the same IP address for a year now, so it might as well be :)
 
You usually do get better speeds with Virgin cable. But it does mean you are locked to the one provider. With ADSL you can switch providers fairly easily.

The question is, can you make good use of and obtain real benefit from the (slightly) increased speed to make up for the fact that you may have to deal their call centre?
 
2blue4u said:
You usually do get better speeds with Virgin cable. But it does mean you are locked to the one provider. With ADSL you can switch providers fairly easily.

The question is, can you make good use of and obtain real benefit from the (slightly) increased speed to make up for the fact that you may have to deal their call centre?
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Call centre? I have yet to call Virgin for anything.
 
I have Virgins 20mb broadband and its lightning fast and my IP stays the same as it has for two years through my netgear router
 
Been with Virgin since the year dot, never any trouble with the broadband. Did change the TV box once though. :)
 
I have been with Virgin since 1999. Before we had broadband we had what was called "Surf Unlimited" and this service was really slow and basically crap. I soon upgraded to broadband and have never looked back and like Gary says "What Call Centre?" I have never ever had to call them because their service is unbelievably reliable and would recommend Virgin to anyone!
 
There's always one, isn't there? Well that's me. I've had Virgin for a number of years (and Telewest/Eurobell before it became Virgin). I've also had Plusnet adsl for more years. I always meant to cancel the Plusnet service since getting the faster Virgin cable, but I wouldn't be without it now. Why? Because, although the Virgin is usually faster, it's so damned unreliable. It frequently dies for anything from a few minutes to 3 or 4 hours. Sometimes longer. It regularly slows to a crawl. Almost like old dial-up sometimes. Yes, I sometimes download tv progs and if it slowed significantly during that then I'd know what they are up to. But I do all my downloading overnight when it's not a problem. The service slows/dies afternoons and evenings when it affects normal internet access.

The Plusnet service, although not as fast, is solid and reliable. I can't remember when the last time was that it didn't work - years ago. If I had to choose and dump one, then the Virgin would go.
 
Been with Virgin/Telewest for years, now got 10mb connection and had a couple (2 or 3)of problems, one due to a Zonealarm conflict but soon sorted. Their support, if you need to use it is good.
Always a fast connection.

Highly recommended.
 
Yup have to say used them before they were virgin the old telewest people and they are working on improving call centre I believe they even have dropped the call charges to it.
 
I've been with NTL and Virgin since the start and it's never skipped a beat. There's been the odd day or two over the years where something has gone awry but it's always sorted itself out and I've only had to deal with the call-centre once and that proved to be a pleasant experience and resulted in the problem being fixed the next day.

If your street is cabled then Virgin is an excellent option in my book. There are some issues that pose problems for some types of internet users but on the whole I've not really found they affected me.

As a new customer it would be hard to pick Virgin over someone like Be or Eclipse on the ADSL side, providing the speeds were there to match.
 
MisterE said:
There's always one, isn't there? Well that's me. I've had Virgin for a number of years (and Telewest/Eurobell before it became Virgin). I've also had Plusnet adsl for more years. I always meant to cancel the Plusnet service since getting the faster Virgin cable, but I wouldn't be without it now. Why? Because, although the Virgin is usually faster, it's so damned unreliable. It frequently dies for anything from a few minutes to 3 or 4 hours. Sometimes longer. It regularly slows to a crawl. Almost like old dial-up sometimes. Yes, I sometimes download tv progs and if it slowed significantly during that then I'd know what they are up to. But I do all my downloading overnight when it's not a problem. The service slows/dies afternoons and evenings when it affects normal internet access.

The Plusnet service, although not as fast, is solid and reliable. I can't remember when the last time was that it didn't work - years ago. If I had to choose and dump one, then the Virgin would go.
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Have you tried updating your firm ware for your router?
Alternatively power the router off once in 24 with the help of a timer and this should help...

I used to be with Cable and have lightening download speeds, however now I live in the sticks and have to make do with 3 mg adsl.

I would recommend virgin for there cable, you may be able to max out your 20mb connection depending where you live.

They do however stream their traffic between 1600 & 2400 so if you are a heavy down loader your traffic will be restricted, you also have to be aware they were one of the company's who signed up to the recent antipiracy charter with three strikes and your out.

However I would jump at the chance of cable broadband.....:love:
 
With the IP address they are held for 24hrs after switching the modem off before begin released. So if you never switch your modem off, you should never have a different IP address. If you only use your modem once a week, then you're likely to have a different IP address every time.

I've used virgin for several years, with the modem giving up the ghost twice, replacements with me with 48hrs :thumbs:

MisterE some areas can get over subscribed, which may explain the problems you are having.

Yes I used to work for them and was more than happy with the bb service.
 
MisterE said:
There's always one, isn't there? Well that's me. I've had Virgin for a number of years (and Telewest/Eurobell before it became Virgin). I've also had Plusnet adsl for more years. I always meant to cancel the Plusnet service since getting the faster Virgin cable, but I wouldn't be without it now. Why? Because, although the Virgin is usually faster, it's so damned unreliable. It frequently dies for anything from a few minutes to 3 or 4 hours. Sometimes longer. It regularly slows to a crawl. Almost like old dial-up sometimes. Yes, I sometimes download tv progs and if it slowed significantly during that then I'd know what they are up to. But I do all my downloading overnight when it's not a problem. The service slows/dies afternoons and evenings when it affects normal internet access.

The Plusnet service, although not as fast, is solid and reliable. I can't remember when the last time was that it didn't work - years ago. If I had to choose and dump one, then the Virgin would go.
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Funnily enough, we had exactly the same issues. Got rid of Virgin 8 months into the contract because it was so unreliable. They admitted that it was there fault, they couldnt repair it and gave us our money back. We are now with BT and cant recommend it highly enough. It never misses a beat and runs brilliantly.
 
For IP Resolving issues you can always use a dynamic dns provider like 2mydns.

I've got one with one of there domains so I can hit my home pc by going to myusername.2mydns.org - or something like that.

There are services that allow you to use your own domain name as well
 
Been with Diamond Cable, NTL and now Virgin since the early 1990's. Never have any major issues with my 10mb BB. Just a reset of the router now and then but that isn't the fault of Virgin.

This is my speed test from just now with Virgin

 
On a Virgin 20MB line and it's very fast and reliable. Best part is the upgradability and being an XL subscriber I'll be getting a free upgrade to their 50MB internet according to their press release and apparently their current cables can potentially get speeds up to 150MB!!!! :)

BT are apparently looking into high speed internet also but alas they need to install fibre optics to do it which is expensive and judging from their disgraceful attempt at getting us to pay for their ISDN30 lines from the junction to exchange (wtf, we aren't paying for their 'effing infastructure!!!!) I'm guessing it'll take them a long time to catch up with Virgin.
 
gman said:
On a Virgin 20MB line and it's very fast and reliable. Best part is the upgradability and being an XL subscriber I'll be getting a free upgrade to their 50MB
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I'm not sure you'll get a free upgrade,
I'd heard that they were going to call the 50Mb service XXL and it would cost around 50 quid a month (you'd also need a new cable modem)

But back to the topic, i also have 20Mb cable and can say that its fast and reliable. One down side is that when i did have a fault, the call centre in India were rubbish.

cheers
 
according to their press release :nono: ;)
 
EdinburghGary said:
Call centre? I have yet to call Virgin for anything.
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In the ten years or so we've been with Virgin I've called Virgin's call centre three times; and that was last week. We should be getting 10Mb and we were only getting around 4Mb.

I rang them, the call was answered pretty quickly and the person knew what they were doing. They sorted it out faster than I expected and were actually surprisingly pleasant to use.

Virgin is OK by me.

PS and I don't work for them or anything like that! hahaha
 
Virgin 20mb rocks, had it since launch and no complaints. I would never go back to ADSL now, its far too unreliable and slow in comparison
 
contrastingLight said:
Have you tried updating your firm ware for your router?
Alternatively power the router off once in 24 with the help of a timer and this should help...
Click to expand...

I've tried it with the old usb modem (which has an on/off button that gets used) and a recent ethernet modem. No difference. A couple of weeks ago I was doing an install of windows on a friend's new pc across town. He's also got Virgin, and an ethernet modem. I spent the best part of 2 hours one Sunday evening messing about with his connection settings and firewall trying to get an internet connection before discovering via a neighbour that it was Virgin all along.
 
Thanks all for the feedback.

I've since found out that by boss has just ordered Virgin for his place and they gave him a fixed IP. Dunno if that is a new thing, but it is crucial for me. I'm going to give them a call.

Thanks again.
 
If you find out they do then let me know - coz that's what i want.

Make sure he hasn't ordered the Business broadband though, as you can't get the 20mb on it but you can get a fixed ip.
 
ive always been an NTL customer and cant really complain about their service, i did once have trouble with downloads/slow operation so i just changed my portforward and selected different/higher port (60,000 range). reading into it most traffic comes through port 80 and another (cant remember others). never had trouble since. im also on 20mb
 
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