broadband connection

mamaduke

Hi, I recently swapped to virgin broadband from virgin dial up. They sent me a box to plug into my BT socket.
I couldnt get a connection. My neighbour can.
Our PC is upstairs on a BT phone extension so they said to take it downstairs & plug it directly into the BT test socket via the box they sent.
I still could not get a connection, virgin tested the equipment & said all was ok & it must be a phone line problem.
Bt tested the line & said that was OK so we had to ditch the broadband & go back to dial up cos neither could sort it.

Can anyone offer advise - is there a pay as you go broadband rather than a contract to try? can I get wifi with a dial up connection?
All suggestions gratefully recieved but in simple terms please, many thanks Mamaduke

cledor

mamaduke wrote: »

Hi, I recently swapped to virgin broadband from virgin dial up. They sent me a box to plug into my BT socket.
I couldnt get a connection. My neighbour can.
Our PC is upstairs on a BT phone extension so they said to take it downstairs & plug it directly into the BT test socket via the box they sent.
I still could not get a connection, virgin tested the equipment & said all was ok & it must be a phone line problem.
Bt tested the line & said that was OK so we had to ditch the broadband & go back to dial up cos neither could sort it.

Can anyone offer advise - is there a pay as you go broadband rather than a contract to try? can I get wifi with a dial up connection?
All suggestions gratefully recieved but in simple terms please, many thanks Mamaduke

It would help if you tell the forum what equipment you are using and how you are connecting your PC to the net. Are you using USB or network cabkes, do you have a wireless router or modem only?

You will probably need to configure your box to connect to the Virgin BB (ADSL) service , but instructions should have been sent to you on how to do so, on at least a CD or a setup wizard. Info such as username and password are required to allow your PC access to the network.

Don't understand what you mean by your neigbour being able to get a connection. On whose line and using what equipment.

You can only get wifi on broadband, this is acheived by setting up your own wireless (wifi) router and connecting the pc to a wireless adapter (or use a wireless enabled laptop)

At the moment broadband is only offered on a contract basis, but terms vary between providers, many of which have a cap on the download volumes after which extra charges are made . For a full explanation & a comparison of adsl service providers take a look at https://www.thinkbroadband.com

Jzpop

Yes, you can get PAYG broadband - just Google for 'payg broadband'. You can also get broadband on a monthly contract - just Google 'pay monthly broadband'.

Once you have broadband installed and working, you can change your setup so that instead of connecting directly from the BT socket to a broadband modem and then to the PC, you instead connect from the BT socket to a 'black box' called a wireless router. The router then talks via radio waves (i.e. wirelessly) to a small receiver plugged into your PC.

Does that make sense?

U've_been_framed

You are confusing two separate things. Broadband and dial up are ways of connecting to the internet. Wi-fi is a way of networking two or more computers without using network cable.
However, it is possible to buy a wireless modem/router which combines the two functions.

When I had problems connecting to Virgin broadband it took some perseverance, but they did eventually sort out the problem - BT's system wasn't connecting to Virgin's server properly.
If you phone Virgin up on 0870 ask them for their 0845 number.
Good luck.

chibo82

Was the previous broadband TCP/IP configured manually? If yes... go to Network connections, properties, then internet protocols properties and set it to automatic...
Your pc has to connect to the router with the correct IP.

But it could be another problem.... Just thought u should try this.

chibo82

I just noticed, u had dial up... nevermind

mamaduke

Hi & thanks for you replies, just to clarify -
The box is a router.
My neighbour can get a broadband connection so we are in a broadband area.
I am using a usb cable & a modem router.
I had a disc from virgin to change all the settings & also did it manually with them over the phone.
I know Bt or virgin SHOULD have sorted it out but neither did, both said there wasnt a problem at their end.
I spent a fortune in calls to both without success.

stevemcol

What make/type of router?

albertross_2

so you haven't gone back to dial-up, you are using a usb adsl modem instead of the router (i.e. still broadband?).

If you are still using BB, then post the router model, and people here will advise on how to set it up.

JonnyThunder

This is entirely the job of your ISP. If you put in an order to get broadband and they say it's connected, then it's up to their support to tell you why it doesn't work. For a start though, i'd do the following....

1. Make sure you have all extensions in the house unplugged, EXCEPT the main line into the house (the first socket from outside the house)

2. Make sure you have your filter connected to this socket.

3. Lift up the phone and manually check how 'noisy' the line sounds. If it sounds crackly then you may need to get in touch with your phone provider to up the 'gain' on the line.

4. Not sure about nowadays, but if your line quality is bad - it's possible your line is split (dax box I believe it's called). Are you in a rural area? If not, then it's unlikely. If it IS the case however, there's not much you can do about it. I did manage to fool BT into putting me on my own line, but it took some white lies to do it.

5. While everything is unplugged (including skys connection to the phone) try to connect again.

chibo82

I wonder how old is your computer is, since you still only manage to switch from dial up to broadband....I not sure if it was to do with a computer, but when broadband first came out, I helped my friend to install it and could not get it working.

I went through techincal support and even they couldn't help. They advised on getting a new pc, which I thought myself would do the trick aswell, since i checked the adsl modem with my pc...

Got her to buy a new pc and it solved the problem....