Can I have both Virgin and Community Fibre broadband?

beckstar1975

We are locked into a package with Virgin which includes 500gb broadband. It is awful though, crashes frequently taking up to 30 mins to reboot during this time, and despite a mesh network and Powerline extender is v v flaky upstairs. I lose hours of work time a week due to this (all my work is via a VPN and on the work network).

I don't have the mental headspace to try and get Virgin to come and sort it so can I just sign up for Community Fibre and have both? Neighbour has CF and we can access it from everywhere, and we would all for extra sockets to be installed in upper two floors too.

littleboo

Yes, you can have both, they are separate networks and Community Fibre will install a new feed into the property.

WillPS

To save you some money - would it be worth trying a decent router of your own, connecting it your existing Virgin router (switch it to 'cable modem mode') and seeing to what extent that solves your problems? It won't solve any Virgin network issues but it sounds like a lot of your problems could be downstream (i.e. in your home, caused by the rubbish router Virgin issues).

Possibly something you could return easily if you find it makes no difference.

beckstar1975

I'll give it a go, are all compatible? I'll search for reviews . . 

WillPS

beckstar1975 said:

I'll give it a go, are all compatible? I'll search for reviews . . 

Sorry for delayed response - almost any, yes - just needs to have a normal RJ45 (ethernet, rather than RJ6 phone style) WAN/internet port.

Log in to your Virgin hub, change it to Cable Modem mode. It'll restart.
Unplug any devices directly connected to the hub. Plug them in to the numbered ports on the new router instead.
Connect the Virgin hub to the WAN/internet port on the router.

Then connect everything to the new router instead. See if it makes a difference.

I don't check this board regularly so feel free to tag me @WillPS if I don't respond.

beckstar1975

THanks @WillPS, I've done it and it's not made a huge amount of difference (bought an TP-Link AX3000) but I'm yet to set the Wifi extenders to the new network

victor2

beckstar1975 said:

THanks @WillPS, I've done it and it's not made a huge amount of difference (bought an TP-Link AX3000) but I'm yet to set the Wifi extenders to the new network

You can set the new router to have the same SSID that the Virgin hub had before you put it into modem only mode. Then other devices will just connect to the new router. 

WillPS

It's quite possible that your VM connection is rubbish (plenty of rough experience of that I can tell you) but my gut is that your internal networking setup is just a bit flakey; Powerline stuff in particular is notoriously hit-or-miss depending on your electrical wiring. No doubt this wouldn't have been helped by VM's very weak hub previously.

These problems won't go away with a new ISP - it's worth getting your internal network absolutely fit for purpose however you can; this has the bonus effect that you can then chop and change between ISPs free of the 'will the wifi be rubbish' anxiety.