Is Virgin Broadband any good?

jwil

I've been with Orange for years, and although I know they've been slated, I've never had a complaint until recently when the connection and speeds have suddenly become dire.

There isn't cable in the area but I've been looking at virgin broadband amongst others. Does anyone know if they are any good? I know people who are on the cable services in other parts of the country and they are happy, but I don't know anyone using the broadband through the phone line.

spike7451

I suspect with Orange,you've been moved over onto either the IP Stream Max or the WBC networks,hence the slow speeds as these are basically re-sold BT services.
The Virgin connection should be on par with what you were originally getting with Orange as you'd be back on LLU service.Check on samknows.com to see what bband services you can get.

Wee_Pilsbury

Hi there

I used to have Virgin's cable service and moved to an area that didn't have it so I took their broadband national service (via the phone line). I rarely if ever have a problem and my speed is fine. I'm quite happy with their service anyway

jwil

spike7451 wrote: »

I suspect with Orange,you've been moved over onto either the IP Stream Max or the WBC networks,hence the slow speeds as these are basically re-sold BT services.
The Virgin connection should be on par with what you were originally getting with Orange as you'd be back on LLU service.Check on samknows.com to see what bband services you can get.

Thanks spike, it's good that we could potentially get our speeds back. I shall have a look at samknows.

Wee_Pilsbury wrote: »

Hi there

I used to have Virgin's cable service and moved to an area that didn't have it so I took their broadband national service (via the phone line). I rarely if ever have a problem and my speed is fine. I'm quite happy with their service anyway

Thanks Wee Pilsbury, it's good to know, I am tempted to switch to them.

kwikbreaks

These are old reports but you should do some research before taking any 12 month contract.

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

jwil

kwikbreaks wrote: »

These are old reports but you should do some research before taking any 12 month contract.

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

Thank you. I'm not doing anything without researching hence posting on here as well as looking elsewhere. The reviews in the link you provided are all from 2009 and before so I'm hesitant to base my opinion on them as things could have changed significantly since then (or of course, they may not have...)

It's helpful to see though, so thanks!

Mark_In_Hampshire

Virgin National (ADSL) does not have a particularly good reputation for speeds, and on top of that, you've then got the speed curtailed to whatever the phone line can manage.

The speed estimator is on steroids and tends to (when I've tried it) come out with an estimate of about double what the line can actually achieve and is more optimistic than most.

That said, believe Virgin Media ADSL is one of the cheapest and if I were looking for a backup ADSL solution it's probably what I'd go for if price were more important than performance.

On poor quality lines like ours which can't manage much anyway, on a Market 1 exchange, the difference between ISPs might well be almost negligible. On the other hand if I couldn't get cable (entirely different) and I had to have ADSL, and had a line about 500m long which was capable of 15Mbps+ I'd probably go elsewhere.

kwikbreaks

You should look on specialist broadband forums such as http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/login.php which has sections for many ISPs. Bear in mind that there will be lots of complaints though as people go to boards like that because something has gone wrong.

I think the DSLZone forum is probably still active even though a lot of the parent site has fallen into disuse - http://www.dslzoneuk.net/dslforum/

I've been on cable a while now and am out of touch with ADSL matters but certainly Virgin National were not well regarded a couple of years back.