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Moving from residential broadband to business broadband

cy1
Tuning in

Mainly to have static IPs but also to enjoy guaranteed fix SLA I am considering to move my residential  broadband to a business one. I don't use/own TV or landline subscriptions if this matters. Furthermore, have got a business if this of importance.

My question is, has anyone gone through this process of switching a home broadband to a business one ? How painful is it ?

Given the fact that they use different modems and different services I am worried that it will turn into "cancel residential first, wait until it is decommissioned, order business and wait for new router to arrive and suffer in between" ?

Looking forward to hear any experiences you might have.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

I have a couple of customers who were using VMB with the static IP service. The way that static IPs are delivered is via a GRE tunnel over the existing cable modem network. These GRE tunnels are then terminated in a Virgin Media datacentre somewhere. The device at the other end of the tunnel either doesn't have enough beans to cope with the traffic going through it, or the Hitron modem doesn't. I've never seen a static IP setup get over around 200Mbps, but taking the GRE credentials out would bring things back up to the 350Mbps tier that the service should be operating at.

The static IP service would also have frequent outages and packet loss issues (observed on a BQM). One of these affected customers reverted to a dynamic IP as the static IP setup was preventing IKEv2 tunnels from working properly, and the other customer moved to 400Mbps Community Fibre.

If you need a static IP then Andrews and Arnold can give you one for £10 a month with a 2TB allowance, which should cover all your inbound needs https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/l2tp-service/

You cannot change the Hitron modem as it takes the place of the existing Hub. Have a look at the SLA document I linked - the 24 hour fix is an ambition, they don't pay out anything if they miss the targets. It's not what I'd ever call an SLA.

This is a good post that summarises the issue with the GRE service, as far as I know nothing has improved since it was written http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2017/05/virgin-media-business-cable-and-static.html

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

8 REPLIES 8

Christy_D
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi,

Happy to assist with this

What we need to do is to create a duplicate account so that there is no delay in swapping over from resi to business. 

We can do this but it need to be done manually

I'll pop a private message over to assist further

Thanks

Christy 


Here to help! I'm a technician helping out whilst working from home. Find out more


Jonny-M
Fibre optic

Unless things have changed, the Hitron modem is absolute trash and there is a severe performance hit from running static IPs. Also whenever people post in here asking for help with their VMB service they get told the forum is only for residential services and to call the VMB support number, which I think is all offshored to the Philippines.

If you really need the SLA then I would be looking at proper business-grade services delivered over more reliable networks. Or just add a 4G backup to what you have currently.

Bear in mind that an SLA for a guaranteed fix doesn't mean the service will be fixed within that time period, it just means you get some of your monthly payment refunded to you when those targets are missed. https://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/pdf/legal-documents/Business-Broadband-SLA.pdf 

You may be better off adding Home Works onto your existing residential service.

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

Read the Business Broadband SLA very carefully.  It doesn't guarantee any fix time, it does promise response times which are a different thing, and you get very modest compensation if the fault isn't remedied within the guaranteed response time.  The business broadband uses largely the same network and kit as residential, and the SLA won't help with area faults which already get priority over individual faults.

Bu all means, if it works for you go for it, but might be worth checking out Trustpilot for Virgin Media Business.  Trustpilot is a whinger's heaven, but that's true for all companies, read the reviews, see if that strikes a chord, and how that compares with your experience of VM Residential.

Hi Jonny-M,

Have you been using Hitron modem in the past ? Would there still be an issue if I used my own modem ?

I wouldn't expect static IPs themselves to cause a performance hit however can you please elaborate if this was your experience ?

I am not specifically looking for an SLA, however given that like for like business BB is only £4 more expensive than its residential counterpart and it comes with 5 static IPs and 24 hrs fix commitment it sounded like a no brainer. Please let me know if I am going down the wrong path here 🙂

Thank you !

I have a couple of customers who were using VMB with the static IP service. The way that static IPs are delivered is via a GRE tunnel over the existing cable modem network. These GRE tunnels are then terminated in a Virgin Media datacentre somewhere. The device at the other end of the tunnel either doesn't have enough beans to cope with the traffic going through it, or the Hitron modem doesn't. I've never seen a static IP setup get over around 200Mbps, but taking the GRE credentials out would bring things back up to the 350Mbps tier that the service should be operating at.

The static IP service would also have frequent outages and packet loss issues (observed on a BQM). One of these affected customers reverted to a dynamic IP as the static IP setup was preventing IKEv2 tunnels from working properly, and the other customer moved to 400Mbps Community Fibre.

If you need a static IP then Andrews and Arnold can give you one for £10 a month with a 2TB allowance, which should cover all your inbound needs https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/l2tp-service/

You cannot change the Hitron modem as it takes the place of the existing Hub. Have a look at the SLA document I linked - the 24 hour fix is an ambition, they don't pay out anything if they miss the targets. It's not what I'd ever call an SLA.

This is a good post that summarises the issue with the GRE service, as far as I know nothing has improved since it was written http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2017/05/virgin-media-business-cable-and-static.html

You said it all Jonny-M, thanks. I am aware of A&A's L2TP offering however it is obviously more expensive compared to VMB. Either GRE or L2TP they both seem to be tunnelling your traffic to offer static IP, would you disagree ?

I didn't mean changing Hitron modem but running it in modem mode and using own router, would this still have the mentioned drawbacks ?

The difference with the A&A tunnel is that it's operated by a company who you can talk to and will help you with any performance issues you're seeing.

If you want to operate the Hitron device as a router only then you need the block of 5 IPs - the first usable public IP will end up on the LAN side of the Hitron modem, and the rest are available for you to configure on your own router. My prediction is that you'll turn the static IP service off though as the performance is really poor.

Is your existing broadband reliable? If so this is a good sign as the only hardware change is the hub with all cabling, cabinets and CMTS being the same.

You'll have to decide if using VMB for static IPs is a good thing, but there is probably a cooling off period during which you can cancel the contract at no cost.

As for SLAs: be aware of the limitations as nothing can be recovered soon if a vehicle were to smash into your distribution cabinet.

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Hub 5, TP-Link TL-SG108S 8-port gigabit switch, 360
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