What ISP are you on? Are they good?

[Bex]

Firstly, not 100% sure if this is the right section, but seems most apt.

I was about to come on here and ask this question, as well as complain about Virgin Media (which I'm on), first ad from adsense is advertising Virgin Media 10mb broadband (also what I'm on and also what I complain about :p)

Does your ISP provide you with what they sell they will?
Like I said, I'm on Virgin Media, on the 10MB bundle, very rare we get 10MB though, can get it though so it's not like my area doesnt support 10MB speed. It's just Virgin don't like us having it :p.

They also do traffic management, I'm presuming other ISPs do too?
I'm allowed to download 800mb during peak times without being traffic managed, and then, it's only the top 5% of over downloaders who get punished.

And me, if I download 100mb, that's it, I'm usually traffic managed. And internet goes off constantly.

This is however, according to Virgin, because others in my area, are also downloading, my area can cover up to 1000 addresses apparently. So if everyone downloaded 10mb, we're stuffed it seems :mad:. Unfortunately still under contract with them, but, are other ISPs as bad?

[Kev]

I'm with Virgin Media too. I was with Telewest from the start and was actually one of the first to try out their broadband package when it was introduced. Telewest were then bought over by Virgin Media.

With regards to download speeds etc, I've always been very happy with that aspect of it.

However, service has went downhill big time. I'm pretty clued up on most computer aspects and fix a lot of friends computers. When telewest was there I would phone up and be put on with someone from the UK. When I said the net was temporarily down or whatever they would start their usual rundown of what could be wrong however at this point I'd usually say, i've tried all that (releasing ip, renewing it, switching the modem on off etc). they would then say cool and get to the root of the problem (ie. the person realised I knew what I was talking about).

It's now different. My next door neighbour had a problem with their virgin media connection last year. I went round and tried everything I thought could be causing their connection to go down. I then went back to my house and got my modem and went round and the connection was ok.

So I called Virgin Media up and was on the telephone for ages (at 10pence a minute or whatever...it quickly added up). I told that I had tested this, that and the other and that I was 99% sure that the modem was broken. Their call centre is now based in India. I don't have any major problems with companies outsourcing jobs like this however I've found that workers there never stray from the list they are given to fix each problem.

So I was talking to the guy and told him that it was the modem which was wrong. However, he still made me switch the modem on and off, switch the pc on and off, release and renew the ip using ipconfig etc. He then said that it must be a setting on the computer. I told him that my neighbour had two pcs and they both couldn't get a connection and previously did so that definately wasn't the case.

This yo-yoing back and forward went on for about 40 minutes no joke. At the end I said, listen, I'm not trying to be cheeky but I'm sure it's the modem that is broken and we're going round in circles and not getting anything done. Can you please let me speak to your supervisor. The answer no. I stressed again, I want to speak to someone with power to do something. No I'm sorry. He then changed his answer from no to 'No there is no one else here'. I was already pissed off and the guy just said 'Sorry theres nothing more I can do' and hung up!!!

I was so angry I was close to cancelling my contract with virgin media and it wasn't even my connection which had problems. I had been on the phone for close to an hour when he did this so you can imagine my frustrations. We then called again and still got nowhere. Went through the same thing and I said, im pretty sure the modem is broke but the only other thing that is wrong is a problem with the broadband cable from your end....ie the data is being sent. Once again the person was unhelpful.

So I spoke to my neighbour about it and kind of apologised that I couldn't get it resolved (obviously he understood and knew where the problem lay). He called up a local computer shop and the IT guy came round. He did the same checks as me and then tried a new modem and it worked and straight away said that the modem was the problem. Somehow they managed to speak to a normal person at virgin media and 2 days later they sent a new modem and everything has been fine since.

Thankfully I've not personally had to deal with any problem like this since Virgin Media took over but if I something like that happens to me I'll probably just cancel my contract and go with someone else.

With regards to download speeds, this is not something I was aware of to be honest. I play games online however I don't think that uses a lot of bandwidth so it's not something I've had to deal with.

[Bex]

Ahhh, that routine, yup, I go through that every time I ring them. I once rang them 3 days in a row because of the constant disconnecting and slow speeds, and hadn't even been downloading (one day I had a lie in till 11am and soon as I went on it was super slow (cuz the peak time isn't just 4pm-9pm any more, it's also 10am-3pm), traffic managed for sure.

Thing is, I tried everything they told me to, and didn't work, or, worked for 5 minutes. I ring them, they tell me to do exactly what I've already done, it mysteriously works then, so i don't know what they do in the time it's off and on. Makes me wonder though how it only works after ringing them.
As for online games, don't get me started lol. I often have connection problems on my 360, about the same time as the net goes off on the computer :|.