Best broadband bundle.

[camallison]

It's a warm dry day - don't the electrons go faster in those conditions ..... there's no snow or leaves on the line!

Colin

[pwdrive]

They might do Colin, the hill that gives access to our place has an escape lane in case of brake failure, the hill that leads out to the north a couple of miles away has two escape lanes, the other side of the hill which heads east also has an escape lane.

Not sure how our broadband speed compares to others but that's what we've got, I doubt if we will see our copper line upgraded any time soon.

Lawrence.

[Nick]

At the time of writing this our connection speed with BT is 3.16 mbs, download speed is 2.74 mbs, upload speed .82 mbs.

That includes the pushing the electrons up the hill factor.

For those that haven't tried this, a good site for testing your *actual* throughput rather than the clock rate, is http://www.speedtest.net.

I'm surprised by your "Upload" speed - if you are using ADSL1, I'd expect that to top out at 0.48Mb/s, realistically at about 400kb/s - there are many variants of ADSL (aka "ADSL 1"), and more of ADSL 2 and ADSL 2+. BT Infinity is a different technology (VDSL2) - it uses fibre to the cabinet, then copper for the tail achieving a theoretical maximum of up to 76Mb/s download and 19Mb/s upload.

I get about 6.7Mb/s download and 380kb/s upload out of a theoretical maximum of 8Mb/s download and 480kb/s upload - this is pretty good for a rural location but we're quite lucky in that the "Tail" (the bit from the exchange to our house) was renewed a few years back as I use some commercial services from BT that meant that they had to re-lay all the cable.

I'd love to get BT Infinity, but we're not even on the list yet, let alone have a date...

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks for your continued replies. Virgin Media is now just becoming silly. At around 1:15 this afternoon my computer was as slow as a snail so I decided to run a speed test but although I tried four different speed tests not one worked; one stated unable to connect to server so I switched it off to settle down with Bron for dinner. Once dinner was ready I switched on our brand new TV to watch a downloaded episode of Dallas; five minutes into this the picture started to break up so I then switched over to watch Gaslight on channel 428; once again just getting into the plot the picture started to break up then it froze but not wanting to be like a yo-yo I let it alone and eventually it corrected itself.

I'm going to start sending daily emails to Virgin regarding the phone line trouble but as this problem has now dragged on for so long I'm becoming more blunt which is unlike me but politeness doesn't appear to cut it any more; here's my latest email which I've just sent to Virgin Media; they can either sort this problem out or simply dump us and I no longer care which they choose?

Hi, Sorry to trouble you once again but another reminder to say our phone line was disconnected by you without warning and to our knowledge has not worked since 01/03/2014.
On 04/03/2014 your technician Tom 24122 visited us and could not re-connect us because our connection was being used elsewhere but we cheerfully accepted that it would be re-connected within 24 hours. Comments; "Passed to Mark + Duty planning to attach more pairs in cab"

This has now dragged on for so long I've opened a thread on an Internet forum to chart progress or lack of. I now ask
you to either permanently disconnect the phone; broadband and TV if you are unable to re-connect the phone then we can get on with our lives and find a new supplier who doesn't treat such long standing loyal customers the way you are treating us.

Kind regards, Colin.

I've just sent this email and I'll quickly check because I'm sure I'll have received a standard reply saying they are already on the case and will have given me another reference no? I'm getting used to this so here is the reply;

Hi Colin

Thanks for your email to our team about the Loss of your Virgin phone service.

Our team is on the case right now, and we'll contact you shortly.

Kind regards,

The team at Virgin Media

If you have any questions about your services just go online to www.virginmedia.com/help for all the answers.

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All this hassle through absolutely no fault of ours; just disconnect our phone then ignore us after a single visit when Tom was unable to re-connect us; so much for being valued customers to Virgin Media?

We had an annual boiler service due today so I've had to contact British Gas to please not try to phone us before visiting because we are being messed around by Virgin Media. British Gas quickly replied acknowledging the email and the service has now been carried out.

Right; I've got a nice Lorch lathe to play with and it's a beautiful afternoon outside so time to play out; life's too short to mess around with Virgin Media.

NOTE TO OUR FRIENDS TRYING TO CONTACT US: VIRGIN MEDIA ARE UNABLE TO RECONNECT OUR PHONE; SORRY.

Kind regards, Col.

[Tedzed1]

Hi Colin, you could also try contacting virgin, and request a A MAC (Migration Authorisation Code).

It might get them moving if they think you are planning to swap to a different provider, surprising what dealscan be done when mentioning a request for a MAC code, I managed to negotiate a reduction in my monthly payments of £10.00 to Plus net just by mentioning this to them.

[pwdrive]

'tis no good being polite Col if you are getting hassle, he who shouts loudest usually gets, we have been with BT or whatever it was earlier since the early 1980's, very little problems in all these years, anyone who does have a genuine gripe quite often phones our local BBC radio station on the phone in program, they have a "friendly" man in BT who usually sorts things out.

Talking of telephone service I applied for my state pension by phone a while back, totally spot on service with me I have to say.

Lawrence.

[camallison]

Not sure a MAC request would help in this case as Col is served by the Virgin Media cable system, not a conventional phone line, which Mac requests cover.

Colin

[pwdrive]

At the time of writing this our connection speed with BT is 3.16 mbs, download speed is 2.74 mbs, upload speed .82 mbs.

That includes the pushing the electrons up the hill factor.

For those that haven't tried this, a good site for testing your *actual* throughput rather than the clock rate, is http://www.speedtest.net.

I'm surprised by your "Upload" speed - if you are using ADSL1, I'd expect that to top out at 0.48Mb/s, realistically at about 400kb/s - there are many variants of ADSL (aka "ADSL 1"), and more of ADSL 2 and ADSL 2+. BT Infinity is a different technology (VDSL2) - it uses fibre to the cabinet, then copper for the tail achieving a theoretical maximum of up to 76Mb/s download and 19Mb/s upload.

I get about 6.7Mb/s download and 380kb/s upload out of a theoretical maximum of 8Mb/s download and 480kb/s upload - this is pretty good for a rural location but we're quite lucky in that the "Tail" (the bit from the exchange to our house) was renewed a few years back as I use some commercial services from BT that meant that they had to re-lay all the cable.

I'd love to get BT Infinity, but we're not even on the list yet, let alone have a date...

Just checked again Nick, give or take a point or two it's the same, same upload speed too. .82 mbs.

BT did something to the box of tricks down in the village a couple of years ago, things improved from then on, occasionally it seems slow, maybe them, maybe my setup, no real inconvenience.

A vast improvement from downloading census images on dial up...

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

Oh dear, what a tale of woe. It all smacks of Nationalised Industry of old. I sometimes think that Privatisation doesn't always work.

An example from today:
The old Dog - no, not SWMBO - had run out of his anti-creak medicine. We called in at the Vet on the way back from town and made an appointment for 4:30. Turned up with the Dog and were seen on time. John examined him, clipped his Claws and issued Medicine. I paid the Bill and went on my way.
Try that with the NHS, unless you're having a Heart Attack or some such.

I fear you'll have to get more bolshie young Col, but I fear they really have got you by the provebial.

Alan

[camallison]

You'll have to move up here Alan - we get that sort of treatment at our GP and also at the local hospital. On the odd occasion, they run late if there has been an emergency that they were called to. Mind you, we don't get a bill, as you did for the dog's visit.

Most days, I can phone the surgery before 9am and be seen same day.

Colin