Tom41
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New type of fraud involving PAC?
I received a phone call from “No Caller ID”. The caller claimed to be working on behalf of O2, because our contract was coming to an end. I was passed through to a second person, who explained that while the provider would still be O2, all the customer service would be through their company. They already knew a great deal of personal information including our address, post code and even the amount of the previous bill. They needed to check if we had any outstanding balance on the account, and the way to do that was by texting PAC to a number, which I did. The reply text from O2 mentioned switching to another provider. At this point I got suspicious, and did NOT read out the PAC code that the caller was asking for. Is this a legitimate thing that companies working on behalf of O2 do? Do they need the PAC code to renew a contract or set up a new one through the company? Or did I narrowly avoid a sim-swap scam?57Views0likes4CommentsRemoving old phone wires myself
In the 1990s we had two cable telephone lines installed; one for voice calls and the other for the modem (dial-up internet). The second telephone line was disconnected many years ago, leaving redundant wires all over the exterior of the house. All we have now is a single master socket where the cable comes into the house, and I hear the old copper telephone lines are going to be switched off soon anyway. My question is, can I cut and remove the wires and extension sockets myself without impacting service? Or would it be better to have an engineer come out to make sure they are removed properly? If all else fails we can just leave the wires there, although they do look unsightly.49Views0likes3CommentsCables too old for high speed Internet?
I understand we are supposed to be on Gig 1 Broadband. However, I’ve tested at various times of day both wired and wireless, and only seem to get a top speed of 700-800 Mbit/sec. I’m wondering whether the cables coming to our house are too old to cope with these higher speeds. They were originally installed in late 1994 for analogue cable TV, and have not been replaced since then. If this is the case, would a re-pull be necessary to connect us with better cables? Or should I go straight for FTTP if it’s available in my area?84Views0likes4Comments360 turns TV on at night
I recently upgraded from a really old 1080p TV to a 4K gaming monitor; the monitor is hooked up to a 360 Mini box as well as to a games console. Normally the monitor turns off and goes to sleep when neither of the inputs are active. However, I have noticed that around 3am every day the mini box wakes up (presumably to download the latest schedule data and other updates). During this time, the monitor turns on with a black picture although the backlight is clearly visible. This often wakes me up in the middle of the night! My old TV never did this, and I’m wondering if there is a setting somewhere in the 360 box to stop it turning on like that. The 360 box is set to go into Eco mode (no light on the front) a few minutes after I turn it to standby. For the time being I’m having to either switch the monitor or the 360 box off at the mains for the night, but this is not ideal - and I sometimes forget!54Views0likes1CommentIntermittent broadband LS17
On Friday we had an engineer visit and he replaced my Hub 3 with a Hub 5. Everything appeared to work properly. Since Saturday our Internet service has been intermittent. When it's working, everything loads fine - but the service keeps dropping out at random. If there was an area fault, you'd think other people would be posting on here and other broadband forums about it. Can a Virgin employee clarify if there is a local fault, or is the new Hub 5 faulty? I've tried all the usual things such as power-cycling the Hub and reconnecting the cable input to no avail. I've also attached a ThinkBroadband monitor graph that I set up; you can see there have been many outages overnight. https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/c41adb7d9924cc62ea67b6287f0e88c6cb40e6f458Views0likes3CommentsUnable to stream on 360; error CS2514
I am a fan of reality shows - things like Body Bizarre and My Cat from Hell. 90% of the time when I try to stream one of these shows on the 360, I either get a horribly corrupted picture or it just fails and gives the error CS2514. This has been happening for at least the last week or so. I have tried all the usual things such as resetting the box and disconnecting and reconnecting the cables to no avail. The shows DO play properly through the Virgin TV Go app; it’s just via the 360 that it’s having trouble. Is my box faulty or is there something wrong at Virgin’s end?46Views0likes1CommentDisable bottom banner while fast forwarding?
Sometimes I like to watch recorded programmes in fast forward, to find a certain part. When I do this on a 360 box, a large progress bar pops up at the bottom and obscures part of the TV picture (including subtitles on foreign language movies). It doesn't go away until I switch back to regular speed playback. Is there any way to disable this and make the whole picture visible while using fast forward or rewind? I've checked the settings, and there doesn't seem to be any option to disable banners or status overlays.83Views0likes1CommentLandline dead LS17
Since 7am today our landline has been totally dead. I get no dial tone, and if I try to call it from another phone the call just fails. No ringing, engaged tone or recorded message. Earlier today we were affected by outage F011684324, but the TV and Internet has now come back on. We are still on the old copper lines, and have not received any information as yet about switching over to Digital Voice. The status checker shows no problems with the telephone service. Is this an area fault or has the cable running to our house become damaged?40Views0likes3Comments