Virgin Media Community

[Mittell1]

Having the most disgraceful and awful Virgin experience. Had my new Fibre Broadband installed 36 hours ago and it's like having dial up. Download speed consistently below 20mbs (going as low as 9mbs - got picture evidence of all of this).

Have wasted hours trying to speak to technical support and even rang to cancel my contract. They've restarted my broadband and the speed momentarily goes to 350mbs as stated, but then drops every time to below 30mbs (which is at least half of what I had with BT previously). 

The broadband is utterly unusable. Playstation can't load any internet functionality, Netflix etc doesn't work in a useable way as takes forever to load, and then is pixelated due to lack of speed. Can't do work zoom calls. It's a farce! Please help.

I was told by the 'cancellation' operative that before leaving they would try and reset my broadband, and that he'd call me back an hour later to check if that had fixed it. Heard nothing from them and problem persists. Initially the speed went to 350 mbs 10 mins after the reset, but now 2 hours later and we're back to unusable 17 mbs (less than 5% of the speed I'm paying for). Obviously within my 14 day cancellation period so will be phoning back tonight to cancel contract and go back to BT. So angry I can't explain. 

Any final tips or advice from the community on what to do before I cancel to try and get this thing working would be greatly appreciated. Customer service and support is dreadful. Thanks in advance for your any help.

Rich 

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

Yes... dont panic yet... this community ought to be able to get you up and running... if not then you have 14 days in which to cancel (and we can advise how to do that).

What Hub model did you get (on the base sticker)?

Then,  are the issues only evident on wifi connections or do you see them at the same times on devices connected on ethernet cables? If you don't know, can you check to help diagnose whether it is just a wifi issue or it could be network connection related?

What are the various Hub lights showing/doing when this happens?

So first job can you do this....
___________________

First, do a quick check that all of your coax cable connections are in nice and "finger" tight - at the Hub and wall box and also at any connectors etc. Ensure there are no “unterminated cable loose ends or loose wires on the connectors . Disconnect all the connections and reconnect to be sure. Also check that the internal wiring is ok with no kinking or chaffing, check that all looks good with the outside cabling and wall box.

Then, do a Hub “pinhole reset” - make sure the 2 passwords on the Hub sticker are still there and legible first ! Disconnect any ethernet cables from the Hub (leave the coax connected), and then with the Hub still "switched on" throughout, press pin in firmly with paper clip/SIM tray tool or similar "thin thing" and hold it firmly for at least 60 (a timed sixty) seconds, release the pin, leave for 5’ to stabilise - dont manually switch it off at any time. Passwords will reset to those on the sticker. See if that sorts it.

Report back

[Mittell1]

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much for your time and help. You're an absolute legend and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. 

So I have a Hub 4 in the dining room and I think I've actually established that the connection coming into the house is fast, however the wifi is appalling! The download speed on the devices throughout the house is WILDLY different and non-existent in the lounge next door, both bathrooms and the bedroom (essentially the whole upstairs is a dead spot).

The house is only small, 8 metres wide by 8 metres deep. 2 floors. Standard Victorian semi. Is the router broken? Surely the wifi should be able to get to the room next door and the floor above? It was fine with BT

Below are some speed tests. All tests are carried out on speedtest.net

• Iphone 13 (wirelessly connected in dining room) = 375 mbps / 33.2 mbps
• Iphone 13 (wirelessly connected in bedroom) = 0.72 mbps / 0.88 mbps
• Iphone 13 (wirelessly connected in nursery) = 0.81 mbps / 2.83 mbps
• Iphone 13 (wirelessly connected in bathroom) = 0.74 mbps / 14.3 mbps

• MackBook Pro 2017 (wirelessly connected in dining room) = 255 mbps / 35.3 mbps
• MackBook Pro 2017 (wirelessly connected in bedroom) = 3.28 mbps / 0.00 mbps

• Playstation (wired into Hub) = 293 mbps / 9.4 mpbs
• Playstation (next to Hub wirelessly connected) = 49.2 mbps / 2.4 mpbs
• Playstation (in lounge next to dining room, wirelessly connected) = 8.1 mbps / 1.2 mpbs

• TV (placed next to Hub wirelessly connected) = 198.41 mbps / 34.15 mpbs
• TV (in lounge next to dining room, wirelessly connected) = 12.3 mbps / Error (on several occasions)

So clearly the connection coming in is absolutely fine, but the wifi around the house is unusable as essentially it’s only the dining room (where the router is located) that gets the speed. Every other room, and three quarters of the upstairs, is a dead zone.

I bet they’re going to try and sell me the wifi pods as a solution whicb is an utter con. You can’t provide wifi that works in just one room of a STANDARD house and then say you need an add on to receive the service you’re already paying for.

Any tips Mark on how I might be able to get wifi in more than one room would be greatly appreciated. And thanks again so much for helping me with this.

Best, Rich

[jbrennand]

Who's Mark ? 🙂

My Twopennyworth goes like this...

You have nailed the issue... you are suffering from the Poundland wifi performance of the VM Hub4. However, as the Hub works just fine for >95% of VM's 5.6m BB customers, their all-powerful Marketing and Finance Department deems that it isnt worth investing in better quality Hubs/equipment but just apply sticking plaster fixes for those affected (Boosters/Pods).

Now, VM arent alone in this - no ISP actually "guarantees" wifi coverage in your property. It makes sense if you think about it, e.g.  if HRH got a VM Hub located in the servants quarters they cannot guarantee WiFi in the upstairs of the west wing.

Even BT with its glossy ad's saying wifi is “guaranteed”, also charge £10/month for their "Whole Home Wifi" add-on and then say that if it isn’t sorted by that they will just give you £100 back.

Did you have that on your BT package - or just the BT Hub?

VM try and help with swapping the Hub (just in case!) and providing pods etc., but the reality is, that if the Hub wifi doesnt work well for you then you are far better sourcing your own wireless equipment. I did that >20 years ago as I dont want any BB provider controlling my routing preferences and wifi environment.

Regarding your property being "STANDARD".. it may well be.. but as soon as I saw the word "Victorian" a flag set off.  My pal lives in exactly one of those - and it is constructed from the classic hard as iron red Victorian bricks... and they are as hard as iron because they actually have a high iron content which makes an excellent "Faraday Cage" thus attenuating all wifi signals in his house.   As would thick stone wall builds, underfloor heating (electric wiring), modern foil-backed insulation on plaster boards, etc.    He solved his issue by using a TP-Link Deco M5 Mesh system.

That said... if a stand alone BT Hub worked fine for you in the same property, then going back to that would be one solution. Another is to try the procedure below and see if that improves the Hub4 wifi performance. If that fails then there is really no better option than taking charge of the situation and sorting it for yourself.

I wouldn't bother with the VM Pods - just go straight to your own kit.   The simplest and best solution is always to run cat5e/6 ethernet cables from the Hub to good quality wireless access points in your poor connectivity areas.  You still will have the poundland routing features though. So getting your own router would be advised too. You can combine both features and avoid the ethernet cabling, by getting a good Mesh.  Look at the TP-Link M4/M5 three packs - or - their "X" range for getting more knobs and whistles (Tri-band, Wifi6).

But first try this - and report back .....
________________________________________

Go into the Hub3/4 settings. Type in  http://192.168.0.1  into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it).

Then in Advanced>wireless>smart wifi (may be slightly different on the Hub4) - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or “Smart Wifi” box and save settings. 

Then, navigate to advanced>wireless>security,(or similar) and rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just change 'em by typing over them with whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - Mittell_2 & Mittell_5) -- use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want to connect to individually from the "available networks" list on each device. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.
5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less interference (and is better for iDevices ) than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one.
 
You should also use a wifi analyser App (or Airport Utility on iOS) to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but that wont help if there is other interference from other devices

See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

[Mittell1]

John I am so sorry! I was also whatsapping someone called Mark at the time of writing and in my sleep deprived, got a 6 month old child, brain...John became Mark! So terribly sorry. 

Thank you so so much. I'm going to look into the TP-Link M4/M5 solution you suggested. 

But as I'm an ignoramus, and while I've got you John, can you explain this to me. As I sit here typing to you the speed check on my registers 383 mbps / 35.3 (excellent), but on my laptop in the exact same location, that only a few hours ago was showing similar speeds, I'm now registering a speed of 22.7 mbps / 30.8? Why is it currently 10 times slower on my macbook pro than my phone (when previously it was fine)?

With BT it was a standard 70/20 the whole time. I just had one router with BT but it was in a different location to where the new Virgin router has come in (for dull reasons I won't bore you with)

Anyway, I'm still frustrated and annoyed by the VM experience and package, but you have been wonderful and so incredibly supportive. I feel like I should be paying you for this conversation! 

Thanks again John.

Rich

[jbrennand]

No probs 🙂

The different locations of the 2 Hubs can make a huge difference - some on here often pay the £25 VM charge to relocate their Hub in an attempt (often successful) to improve their wifi performance - usually due to interference from competing SSID's or electrical equipment (like leaky microwave ovens!).

Hence my suggestion to look with a scanning App to find the least crowded wifi channels to use in you location.

Also speed fluctuations often turn out to be due to a poor connection somewhere on the coax cable and connectors - hence me saying to check them as per message 2.

That said we cant totally rule out "yet" that there is an issue on the network connection - but you did say above that all was well on ethernet cable connected devices - so if that is true and the connections and speeds are rock solid on ethernet - then that strongly suggests its just a Wifi issue.

I note the iPhone and Pro are both recent and up to date so... I am guessing both speed tests are over wifi - correct?

If so... how are you testing - in a browser to a website - or are you using an App in some cases? There are lots of threads on here showing wide variations between those two methods and also from the sites that you test on. I would always do it on a browser at...

https://speedtest.samknows.com/

I am all Apple gear myself on a VM200 package, and, my two MacBook Air's & an Old Pro as well as my iPhone7 all get ~220mbps on wifi (and always 220 on ethernet of course). However, on wifi, they only ever get that when I put them onto the 5GHz network. Sat in the same spot if I then flick them over to the 2.4GHz network, they max out at 50-60mbps (others on here get even lower [<50] on their set ups) - it's just the limitations of the wifi technology!

So... have you separated the SSID's as I showed in message 4? If not try that and then see what you get on the individual bands at "samknows". The 5GHz band should always be maxed at ~350 when sat close to the Hub - assuming its the modern iPhone and Pro.

[Mittell1]

Well John you're a bit of wizard!!

I've separated the bands as you said and essentially put ios devices on 5ghz and TVs / Playstation etc on 2.4 ghz - and guess what! Problem solved!!! I've now somehow got wifi in the lounge running faster than ever on the TV and Playstation, and I've also got wifi on my mobile devices upstairs (the once black spot of our bedroom is now in the 200> range.  Thank you so much.

My laptop is still strangely inconsistent - sometimes getting 300>, sometimes getting <35 (in thee same position by the router), but my wife's work laptop is consistently above 200 mbps, so I'm thinking it's a problem with my Macbook as opposed to the network. 

Thank you so so much John - your advice has literally saved us from a diabolical connection and more importantly saved my sanity (plus I have the TP mesh up my sleeve in the future).

You're a superstar. Thank you so so much.

All the best John,

Rich

[jbrennand]

Happy to help 🙂

Post back on the forum if other problems develop