I see you're only in South Yorks.. PM me and I could swing by and give you a hand if you like? What time are Virgin open 'til?

I see you're only in South Yorks.. PM me and I could swing by and give you a hand if you like? What time are Virgin open 'til?

Think they are open 'til 8.00pm, but SWMBO has just told me that they left a message on the answerphone today, to say "they are testing the settings in the next 24 hours and hope to have it back up in the next 48 hours". So... wondering if this may resolve it?!?!?

If not... then your help may be very much appreciated!!

Are you using PPOE or PPOA?

Are you using PPOE or PPOA?

PPoA

Arrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!

Came home today to find a message on the answer machine from Virgin Technical, asking if I was now happy with my internet as the "intermitant sync" had been resolved. Checked everything & still no internet????

So I called them to ask what was happening, how come they were saying it was now intermitant? They told me it was because their log showed I'd had a 6 minute connection at 4.00am. Cos of this they had classed it as improved and only needed monitoring, no further action!!!!!

I pointed ot that i'd actually had 23 hours and 54 minutes with no connection in the last 24 hours and that in reality those six minutes was the best service i'd had from them in nearly 3 weeks!!!!! I was told they couldn't tell me how long it would take to send it back to the second line technical as their only aim is to try and fix most faults within 5 days. After that it takes as long as it takes!!!!! I was advised to contact customer services and make a formal complaint as this would help speed thigs up, so i was put through to custer services.

I told them i wanted to make a complaint & was advised they couldn't offer any help as it was a technical issue. I said I knew that but wanted to make a complaint about the lack of progress & the service recieved. I was then told that I couldn't do that as that wasn't what customer services did. I asked for an email address or phone number of some one who could take my complaint and was told I could only make it via post! The customer services guy wouldn't give me his name of pass me onto his supervisor, but put me back through to the technical support instead!

However this time i was told that they were inudated with calls about the ADSL2+ upgrade! Ok, so how long could it take to resolve it? "oh the worst case I've had was 8 months and required road works!"!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREAT!!!!!! Told to call back on Good Friday to see what was happening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like I believe thats going to say anything different!!

So can i go elsewhere even with this fault? As I need my BB as I home work, would I be better getting a business BB package or a fixed ISDN line? I didn't want to move as I had been happy with Virgin, but now i'm at serious risk of not being able to work! And no work means no pay!!!

Advise virgin you will be getting a second line installed, putting an ADSL (not 2+) provider on it (Plusnet, BT, Zen etc) and billing them for it until they get it all working? That may speed them up.

If you *need* the dsl then that might be the only option.

Have you got a virgin supplied/approved modem you can borrow to try, because there are a couple of chip types out there that just sdon't work together properly on ADSL2+

Wish I had another "approved" router to try as that would help to rule out another possible issue! I had read that some chipsets didn't like ADSL2+ and I did wonder if that was the issue. A friend has offered me his to try, but it's not on virgin's list and i dont know what mdel it is to see if it is ADSL2+ compatable in the first place!

I've already been onto other providers and think that business BB might be a solution as the backup seems much better.

I've been offered an 8mb line which is not affected by capacity/peak times, 24 hour response time & unlimited downloads for a few quid more. I can also have a static DNS & although they supply a router, happy to support what i've already got! I do wonder if this would be a better long term solution

Now I don't want to get too excited, 'cos it can all go wrong, but I've got an I ternet connection again!

I'm not sure what they have done, but when I re-booted the router for the nth time tonight, it started working!

So thank you all for your help, it kept me sane!

Might have been a bit premature with my excitement!!

I've now got an internet connection, but only if I reboot the the router once or twice a day!?! I've had no further calls from Virgin to say that the issue is resolved, but have moved the router back to it's normal place (away from the test socket). This hasn't made it any worse or better!

Any thoughts?

It could be worse, you could be with BT. My connection is about a stable as a jelly on a trampoline and my BRAS profile has, as a consequence stuck itself down at 128kbps, but then it only shows on those few rare minutes that the modem syncs at more than 408kps down. BT engineer say "they have fixed the problem." My ****.

Strangely, though, I seem to be getting a *lot* of actual work down this weekend. I wonder why...

Might have been a bit premature with my excitement!!

I've now got an internet connection, but only if I reboot the the router once or twice a day!?! I've had no further calls from Virgin to say that the issue is resolved, but have moved the router back to it's normal place (away from the test socket). This hasn't made it any worse or better!

Any thoughts?

Sounds like your line is under test to find it's stable speed. For the first 14 days yu will notice it a bit up and down.

If you can hammer it when speeds are good with streaming etc, this will help.

A heavy dose of BBC iPlayer it is then!

LOL.

There are many so called experts who say its bad to do. But as the system needs a large chunk of data at each speed to measure stability, you'll get more tries at each speed and *should* get a better average is it's done by time.

If that makes sense. I'm sure the networking/BT gurus can explain it a little better.

At the moment, i'd go on anything with blind faith alone!

Re-booting the router every 1/2 hour or so is becoming a real pain Still i gues it IS better than the 2 1/2 weeks with nothing!!!

That sounds like a chip in the router not talking to the DSLAM properly as it uses a different chip issue that I've seen a few times on LLU lines now.

Basically the chips in some routers don't support the full range of values that the DSLAM offers and the LLU people use the higher values, which the other routers don't support. This is why they have a supported routers list.

I'm beginning to suspect this too! I've tried my neighbours DG834PN with no improvement. However I believe they only "recommend" the DG834G (no idea which version though!).

I'll give their technical helpline a call again to see if they can advise

Don't they include a router with their service?

Yeah, it was the old Thompson Speedtouch. However it died years ago!

So i've used Netgear 834 Series ones ever since. I spoke to them yesterday to be told that "any of DG 834 series should be fine". They now offer the Netgear DG 834G as their main router for new subscriptions, but are also happy to sell "at extra cost" the DG 834PN, which i'm using at the moment.

The service still drops all the time and is a real pain, so it's a daily call to the tech line to tell them as such!

I'm hoping that my continual approach will raise some sort of flag in their performance audit trail, which they say they don't have!!!

A Netgear DG834N IS ADSL2+ Compatible so you've no worries there.

If i remember correctly a DG834N will have have eight lights across the front. The lights you are concerned with are the second and third (One looks like two change links and represents "ADSL Synchronisation" and the second being an i with a kind of swoosh represents, well "internet" i suppose. An Activate session).

If your showing "sync" then its likely to be a settings issue in the router. If your not since the switch over then you've a DOA issue or a failed upgrade (however the provisioning team want to word it).

Edit: Sorry, didnt realise there was a second page to this! :rolf: The router should be connected directly to the main socket. If your using a long telephone extension cable then your shooting yourself in the foot. If this is the case, get it back to the main socket and use a long ethernet cable or go WiFi!

It is the DSL sync light that keeps going out. The router is connected directly to the main socket & has spent most of it's time in the "test" socket behind the face plate, with no evidence that this has improved things either. Unfortunately when the porch was built (by the previous owners) the main socket stayed in the same location & therefore it is now almost impossible to get to & leave the router plugged in near by & still use the front door!!!! Potty I know, but there we have it!!!

So when ever Virgin need to do tests, they have to call me to double check it's in the test socket & i have to faff around for half an hour! When we re floor the ground floor I'm tempted to get BT to move the socket and then I'll run proper network cables & sockets so the router can stay put & I can "plug-in" around the house, but that may have to wait a while!

The main issue here was I had a rock solid stable service untill I was "upgraded"!! Since then it's been pants!!

Ohhhhh DSL sysnc dropped while I was typing this!!! So had to re-boot AGAIN!!!!

Seriously, it's a real pain at the moment!

So when ever Virgin need to do tests, they have to call me to double check it's in the test socket & i have to faff around for half an hour!!

UB - could be preaching to the knowledgeable ,but if so ,please forgive .

BT line arrives at you're place as two wires ,terminated inside the BT master socket .(Usually a NTE5) -large socket with split front .NT = network termination point , jargon for last point of BT responsibility ,something insisted on by OFTEL )

Inside the rear a capacitor splits ringing to pin 3 ,the line is on 2/5 (there is also a resistor -but having been out of telecomms between hard wired and socketsc ,I can only gues that it's for testing).The front plate ,which you can remove is a plug connected directly to socket on front .This is so you can provide you're own extension wiring (without playing around with BT kit).It's also so that in the event of a fault you can remove front to isolate house from outside line .

If you've not got any extensions - then removing the faceplate ain't going to make much (if any difference )- however Virgin script will(i'm certain ) make them insist that the front is removed .Sort of standard test proceedure - for reasons mentioned above .

Put this in to try and give folks with no knowledge of telecomms ,basic idea of the socket .(I even had one BT guy come to my house on a fault ,remove front - plug into front and try to tell me that fault was in my house (oh -yess -there will be a bil :eek:l)

Not really going to help you -but shows the reasoning