Change to Virgin phone with Broadband, confused

Sapphire

I was paying Virgin £17.99 per month for Broadband connection only, and cottoned on to the fact that there were far cheaper deals available.

I therefore phoned Virgin and they have put me on to a deal that includes phone - free weekend and evening calls - and Broadband, though line rental will still be about £11 charged directly by BT. The Virgin deal will apparently cost £6 for 3 months, then £12 per month. Is this a good deal? :cool:

I also got an email from Virgin saying I was being sent something called a 'Virgin Broadband Wireless Kit includes one ADSL filter'. I have no idea what this is since they did not mention it to me over the phone. Do I have to install this or something, or can I just use my existing modem and phone connections, which function perfectly well?

Any help appreciated.

mizzbiz

Hello,

The line rental is charged by Virgin, not BT. It is a good deal, considering you get the phoneline which you were paying anyway through the higher broadband costs. You can, at the moment, pay £16 per month for phone, broadband (10mb fibre optic) and basic TV, plus £11 line rental, which is what we got.

With regards to the wireless kit, it's up to you if you set it up. Your broadband works fine without it, however you have to be connected to your broadband modem by cable to use it (as you will be doing now). If you use the wireless kit, you'll get a router, which means you can get an internet connection anywhere in your house without wires, providing you have wireless enabled on you laptop. It also means you can add more than one computer to your network, either through the wireless or via the ethernet ports (cables), which will allow you to add 4 static computers/printers/devices. They will send you a CD which automates setting up the wireless if you want or need it. You can also use your existing equipment, no problem. The wireless kit is just a free bonus, worth £30-40.

Hope this helps.

billsavings

mizzbiz wrote: »

The line rental is charged by Virgin, not BT.

The OP appears to be referring to Virgin Media NON Cable where the line rental remains with BT.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/noncable.html

BexTech

As above, the OP is referring to ADSL they even mention the extra ADSL filter supplied with the wireless kit.

The wireless ADSL Modem/Router will replace the current ADSL modem you are using now.

You don't have to use the new kit, but you are probably using one of those crappy USB modems, the new ADSL Modem/Router will allow you to connect by the superior Ethernet connection or via wireless if you have wireless enable machine, you can connect up to 4 computers via Ethernet wires and several others via wireless, you don't have to enable the wireless side, you can just use the wired side.

The added benefit of using Ethernet rather than the crappy USB bodge, is you don't have to bring up the 'connection dialling' the connection will be there for you, the ADSL modem/router keeps the connection for you - a much better setup.

Sapphire

BexTech wrote: »

As above, the OP is referring to ADSL they even mention the extra ADSL filter supplied with the wireless kit.

The wireless ADSL Modem/Router will replace the current ADSL modem you are using now.

You don't have to use the new kit, but you are probably using one of those crappy USB modems, the new ADSL Modem/Router will allow you to connect by the superior Ethernet connection or via wireless if you have wireless enable machine, you can connect up to 4 computers via Ethernet wires and several others via wireless, you don't have to enable the wireless side, you can just use the wired side.

The added benefit of using Ethernet rather than the crappy USB bodge, is you don't have to bring up the 'connection dialling' the connection will be there for you, the ADSL modem/router keeps the connection for you - a much better setup.

Thanks for all the helpful information.

At the moment I am using a D-Link modem, which I have had for a few years. It doesn't seem to be malfunctioning in any way and the Internet connection is quick.

I am not sure if I will need to connect any more computers on top of my standard work computer (a Mac), or what the point would be of connecting up a printer.

Presumably if I wanted to change to the new router, it would be possible to use it with a Mac? (The instructions don't mention Macs.)

In response to a post above, Virgin definitely told me that my line rental would still be collected by BT. (I think Martin recommends this.)

Why would you pay for TV as well through Virgin? I have an excellent flat-screen TV with a very good picture…I suspect that may seem like a dumb response to some. :rolleyes:

P.S. Amazing how late some of you are still functioning on your computers. Just like my sister, who is now like some troglodyte who emerges from her cave as daylight is about to go…

BexTech

Yeah, the router will work fine with a MAC, works with anything really that has Ethernet connection as you don't need to run any software, just connect it up and then type in the IP address in your web-browser, usually 192.168.1.1 for example to go to the set-up page.

As you are ADSL, then the TV service they'd offer you is simple a Freeview box. If you were in a cable TV area, then you'd get access to digital cable TV (their Video On Demand is very good). If you have a flat screen TV and it is an LCD for example it might be HD ready, then you'd get a much improved picture from HD channels - though Virgin only has 1 HD channel and a few HD VOD, where as Sky has a fair number of HD channels. HD will be coming to Freeview, however you'll need a new HD Freeview box.

If you are happy with the USB modem, then maybe stay with it, however the Ethernet connection is more stable and offers a better throughput and a lot less a resource hog.

Sapphire

BexTech wrote: »

Yeah, the router will work fine with a MAC, works with anything really that has Ethernet connection as you don't need to run any software, just connect it up and then type in the IP address in your web-browser, usually 192.168.1.1 for example to go to the set-up page.

As you are ADSL, then the TV service they'd offer you is simple a Freeview box. If you were in a cable TV area, then you'd get access to digital cable TV (their Video On Demand is very good). If you have a flat screen TV and it is an LCD for example it might be HD ready, then you'd get a much improved picture from HD channels - though Virgin only has 1 HD channel and a few HD VOD, where as Sky has a fair number of HD channels. HD will be coming to Freeview, however you'll need a new HD Freeview box.

If you are happy with the USB modem, then maybe stay with it, however the Ethernet connection is more stable and offers a better throughput and a lot less a resource hog.

Thanks very much for the info - I'll probably install the router at some point.

When it comes to the TV, I do have an HD-ready one, so probably don't need a box (seem to remember people getting these before HD TVs were around).

BexTech

Sapphire wrote: »

Thanks very much for the info - I'll probably install the router at some point.

When it comes to the TV, I do have an HD-ready one, so probably don't need a box (seem to remember people getting these before HD TVs were around).

If you have a HD Ready TV, then you definitely do need a box.

HD Ready just means the panel is capable of displaying a HD picture.

To get a decent picture (if you haven't had a HD picture on it, then you'll be amazed at how poor you'll think the non-HD you currently have looks in comparison) you need a HD box, at the moment this is either a digital cable HD box (V+) a Sky+ HD box or a Freesat HD box. In a year or two's time there will be Freeview HD, however as this uses DVB-T2 and MPEG4 you'll need a Freeview HD box for this as no TV is currently built for this new standard, they are all SD DVD-T MPEG2.

HD Ready TVs are really only any good when you have a HD channel or at least an upscaled picture sent to it, on non-HD channels, an old fasioned CRT gives a much better picture.

Sapphire

BexTech wrote: »

If you have a HD Ready TV, then you definitely do need a box.

HD Ready just means the panel is capable of displaying a HD picture.

To get a decent picture (if you haven't had a HD picture on it, then you'll be amazed at how poor you'll think the non-HD you currently have looks in comparison) you need a HD box, at the moment this is either a digital cable HD box (V+) a Sky+ HD box or a Freesat HD box. In a year or two's time there will be Freeview HD, however as this uses DVB-T2 and MPEG4 you'll need a Freeview HD box for this as no TV is currently built for this new standard, they are all SD DVD-T MPEG2.

HD Ready TVs are really only any good when you have a HD channel or at least an upscaled picture sent to it, on non-HD channels, an old fasioned CRT gives a much better picture.

I shall have to investigate all this. However, the Sony TV I bought some months back now has an incredibly good picture – really sharp and fantastic colours. I get all the extra channels like BBC3, Virgin, Film 4, etc., which you once had to have some sort of box to watch (from what I can remember of my sister's set-up).

BexTech

Sapphire wrote: »

I shall have to investigate all this. However, the Sony TV I bought some months back now has an incredibly good picture – really sharp and fantastic colours. I get all the extra channels like BBC3, Virgin, Film 4, etc., which you once had to have some sort of box to watch (from what I can remember of my sister's set-up).

If you think you have a good picture now, with decent HD channels you'll be blown away then.

With the channels you are watching through it at the moment, think of it like using a LCD/TFT computer monitor without it set at the correct settings (native resolution) when you set the PC to the monitor correct native setting, the picture becomes perfect. The channels you currently watch are a lot lower resolution than your TV is, so your TV has to fudge the input to upscale to the screen. With HD you will have a lot more resolution and pin sharp picture.