Virgin Media router/modem/internet problem

Humphrey10

I have Virgin Media broadband. Something strange is happening.
Every so often (once ever other day or so, the time this happens is not predictable), the internet will stop working.
This is what happens:
Everything (iPad, iPhone) is happily connected to the wireless.
But no pages will load. There is no connection to the internet.

Turning wireless off then on again on the iDevices sometimes fixes the problem. But sometimes it justs wakes it up again, then it will work for a few min, then it will stop working again.

Selecting 'Renew lease' on the iDevices has the same effect as turning wireless off then on again.

Turning iDevices off then on again doesn't seem to affect it all.

What does reliably fix the problem for a day or so is to disconnect everything from the wireless network, unplug the modem/router, leave it off for a couple of min, then turn it back on and reconnect everything. But then it will break again in a day or so.

My mother has Virgin and has the same problem. The only two other people I know who have Virgin have the same problem.

Virgin have been no help. They have sent out two engineers. The first thought it was a problem with the wireless for some strange reason, and changed the channel the wireless was using. That made no difference.
The second said the cables to the hub/box outside on the street needed replacing, he expressed surprise that the cable TV and internet were working at all. The cables have been replaced, but still the internet disconnects.

Does anyone have any ideas at all at what I could do to fix the problem?

custardy

does the internet disconnect for wired devices?

Humphrey10

custardy wrote: »

does the internet disconnect for wired devices?

No idea. I don't think I have an Ethernet cable, if that is the type of cable required.

When the internet has disconnected, and I watch the router/modem, and try to visit a website, I see signs of life, the lights flash briefly (but they don't flash for as long as normal). And I can see the wireless network when I search for wireless networks. So I don't think the problem is the wireless, but I'm not sure.

custardy

well the first thing to rule out is if its a wifi issue or not
so a wired connection would be the one to test that

macman

Humphrey10 wrote: »

No idea. I don't think I have an Ethernet cable, if that is the type of cable required.

When the internet has disconnected, and I watch the router/modem, and try to visit a website, I see signs of life, the lights flash briefly (but they don't flash for as long as normal). And I can see the wireless network when I search for wireless networks. So I don't think the problem is the wireless, but I'm not sure.

Then beg/borrow/buy one. An ethernet cable would have been supplied with the router. You need to rule out wireless issues, and connecting by ethernet is the only way to do that.

aliEnRIK

Can you please post the exact make and models of modem and router?

dizziblonde

Used to happen fairly regularly when we were on Virgin (every couple of days) - was definitely an internet issue with ours as both wired and wireless stuff all went out - rebooting the modem fixed it but was a minor pain in the bum (but less of a pain in the bum than ringing their tech support line and trying to get sense outta them generally). Think the modem (we a had modem running into router setup - from before they started pushing their own router products onto people and assumed we all only had one PC) was hitting the end of its life in our case.

custardy

dizziblonde wrote: »

Used to happen fairly regularly when we were on Virgin (every couple of days) - was definitely an internet issue with ours as both wired and wireless stuff all went out - rebooting the modem fixed it but was a minor pain in the bum (but less of a pain in the bum than ringing their tech support line and trying to get sense outta them generally). Think the modem (we a had modem running into router setup - from before they started pushing their own router products onto people and assumed we all only had one PC) was hitting the end of its life in our case.

whats the difference between them supplying a modem or modem/router with regard to how many PCs you have?

quinns2003

this used to happen to us on a regular basis.. so often infact we plugged both our router and modem to a remote control socket so we could reboot both easily which usually fixed it.. i even bought another router which seemed to make it worse so put the old one back on, rang virgin and no problem they could find but a few days later problem fixed so who knows.. this problem still exsists but nowhere near as bad as it was.. did look on the vm website and quite a few people were having this problem

dizziblonde

custardy wrote: »

whats the difference between them supplying a modem or modem/router with regard to how many PCs you have?

Because when we signed up with them it was pretty much before the wifi boom and easier home networking, therefore they were very much still in the mindset of providing you with a straightforward modem with one ethernet connection into your PC... and were never amazing at making sure once you got a basic modem that it was kept up to date - so we had a fairly ancient model.

As time went on I think all the ISPs woke up to people having multiple things online and started doing the whole router and everything you need offers more and more... but you're being unecessarily rude and confrontational (as usual) and just trying totally unconstructively to pick holes and contributing nothing useful at all.

Depending on how strong you're feeling (I'd advocate preparing a stiff drink in advance) I'd take it up with tech support and try to get a modem swap done - but it's a migraine inducing experience sometimes (when they did swap our modem over they managed to muck up the changeover so it didn't immediately fix the problem either until someone actually checked and they hadn't updated it on their computer system).

jayme1

to note, on the new Superhub, if the router part of it is playing up and not working then you can turn the Superhub into Modem Only mode and then use your own router to share the internet between all your devices, (therefore it would be exactly the same as 7 years ago when they only gave you the modem)

I would also suspect it is the router part of the superhub that is the OPs problem, if they don't have a superhub then I would still put the blame on the router too.