Help!!!! virgin broadband

lipsthefish

Hi all
I am using virgin broadband (via bt line, not cable), today I have been having problems opening ebay and gmail. Just now when I went to gmail I have been redirected to /cache-removal.virginmedia.com// and it gives me the following message :

We're giving your browser a boost

We're always looking for ways to make technology simpler and better for our customers, and right now, we're making some changes to improve web browsing on our internet service.
We've noticed that the internet software you're using needs a little fine-tuning before you can start browsing again.
Don't worry, we've set out some simple instructions for you, and it will only take a couple of minutes to change your settings.
How to make the changes:

What you're doing here is removing any proxy server settings in your browser. Don't worry if you don't even know what a proxy server is - we'll take you through it step by step. Ok, here goes...



It then goes on to tell me how to do this. My question, is this legit? should I just follow the steps and do it?



Many thanks

CHR15

Virgin have removed almost all their proxy servers.

A lot of automatic installs from them pre configured your browser to use thier proxies (it speeded up your browsing)

as they have removed them, they are simply removing the settings from your browser.

Nothing to worry about (although I didn't know they were doing this)


Edit: found this in wiki

Proxy servers

Virgin Media previously redirected web-browser traffic on port 80 through transparent proxy servers with a view to improving browsing performance. This did not apply to any other form of traffic. Up to 15 proxy-server addresses hosted each area[24] The use of proxy servers (generally, not specific to Virgin Media) also caused problems for websites which use less sophisticated methods to identify IP addresses to ban and/or track users. Users of Mac OS X had also experienced incompatibilities when using some sites (including myspace.com).

Virgin Media removed the use of all transparent proxy servers (except in Cardiff) in Spring 2007 — with Cardiff scheduled to switch in June 2007 [25]

lipsthefish

Thanks Chris, I have followed the instructions but still cant access either ebay or googlemail so not sure where to go next!

CHR15

Have you tried with a different browser (firefox, opera, safari?)

When you make any changes to network settings, I always reboot. Playing with net settings can cause havoc with connections.

lipsthefish

Hi, yes I have tried all three browsers, I didnt actualy have to make any changes as my settings were as they had recommended. User JayMarsh has kindly contacted virgin from me and it appears it may be a problem at there end so heres hoping!

cledor

As an interim solution, you can try entering the ip addresses instead of the www required for the DNS lookup.

EG. 66.135.192.87 for eBay or 64.233.161.83 for Google.

There's a list of ip addresses for popular sites here http://www.coolwhois.com/popular/1

frivolous_fay

Similar situation for me - I await the solution from Virgin but just fyi, I have some differences:

- Google, ebay and gmail load up fine for me
- I'm seeing this message about boosting your browser in some forums, very odd
- I'm using firefox

BexTech

lipsthefish wrote: »

Hi all
I am using virgin broadband (via bt line, not cable), today I have been having problems opening ebay and gmail. Just now when I went to gmail I have been redirected to /cache-removal.virginmedia.com// and it gives me the following message :

The .virginmedia.com gives it away that it's genuine.

VM are having network issues at the moment due to a fault, it could be this.

lipsthefish

Thanks everyone, it seems to be back up and running now. I was maybe a bit cautious but there are so many scams going around that I thought at first it was some type of virus.

BexTech

lipsthefish wrote: »

Thanks everyone, it seems to be back up and running now. I was maybe a bit cautious but there are so many scams going around that I thought at first it was some type of virus.

Yes, best to be cautious on the net.

BexTech

From the virginmedia.feedback newsgroup:

virginmedia.feedback_Newsgroup wrote:

Hopefully I can add some insight on this.

With the work done in Cardiff over the last few weeks (thanks to Tim
and the other capacity chappies), the sufficient network capacity was
in place to remove transparent HTTP caching there, and this was done
(I think) at the start of last week in Cardiff, which means that there
is no longer any transparent web caching in place on any part of the
network.

We're in the process of looking to decommission the actual physical
kit that the old web caching service sat on on the xNTL side of the
network (the xTW side having been done when transparent web caching
was removed there some time ago), with the longer term goal to be to
consolidate into one single webcache farm for those who choose to use
it - with the service to look something similar to the farm that's in
Knowsley.

That's where the holding page (http://cache-removal.virginmedia.com)
comes into play. We're running a programme on a cache-by-cache basis
to identify those who have the old caches set in their browser and
getting them to remove them as there's really no need to have a cache
manually set now - so this page is displayed to get people to change
their settings, walking them through what they actually need to do.

The issue yesterday was a hiccup (i.e. a problem) with the deployment
in some regions that affected even those who didn't have a cache set
in their browser. This change was backed out (a forced browser
refresh - CTRL + F5 in most cases restored access once the change was
backed out) and steps have been put in place to ensure that in the
future that this page will only be seen if people do have a browser
manually set.

Hope this clarifies - off to make some calls!



Alex

--

Alex Brown
Senior Product Manager
Product Management, Virgin Media