Unimpressed with upgrade

[jswallow]

So I've been with Virgin way back since Cable & Wireless days in 1997, and had:

- 2 set top boxes, one at the front of the house and one at the back
- 2 phone points, again one at the front of the house and one at the back
- broadband running via the back room set top box.

I decided to change my setup last month and so went for the £54/month package (XL for all three) and ditching the second set top box. So far so good ...

Engineer turns up three weeks ago, but only manages to install a V+ box as whoever put my order on the system "forgot" to tell them that they'd need to do an internet installation. £75 to do that? I could have done that install with my eyes closed. But anyway, I get a new appointment for Monday 30th to do the internet job.

Which was promptly cancelled by Virgin last Saturday because of some mumbled reason down my answering machine. On checking on Monday morning it was because the engineers had "run out of quota" whatever that means.

So I'm now down for an install for Internet next Wednesday. Assuming that it actually happens this time.

But I have a question, how does the cable modem installation work? Does it mean yet another cable being routed into the house or can they just piggyback of an existing one? I'm not a cabling expert in any way shape or form, so sorry if it's a stupid question!

[sstainer]

ushally done via a splitter 1 into 2

[whydoIneedatech]

So I've been with Virgin way back since Cable & Wireless days in 1997, and had:

- 2 set top boxes, one at the front of the house and one at the back
- 2 phone points, again one at the front of the house and one at the back
- broadband running via the back room set top box.

I decided to change my setup last month and so went for the £54/month package (XL for all three) and ditching the second set top box. So far so good ...

Engineer turns up three weeks ago, but only manages to install a V+ box as whoever put my order on the system "forgot" to tell them that they'd need to do an internet installation. £75 to do that? I could have done that install with my eyes closed. But anyway, I get a new appointment for Monday 30th to do the internet job.

Which was promptly cancelled by Virgin last Saturday because of some mumbled reason down my answering machine. On checking on Monday morning it was because the engineers had "run out of quota" whatever that means.

So I'm now down for an install for Internet next Wednesday. Assuming that it actually happens this time.

But I have a question, how does the cable modem installation work? Does it mean yet another cable being routed into the house or can they just piggyback of an existing one? I'm not a cabling expert in any way shape or form, so sorry if it's a stupid question!

They use the same cable that your Set Top Boxes are connected to as the Digital Television Signal is actually piggybacked onto the existing Broadband Signal, you already have a connection you just need a Modem and your account provisioned for Broadband.

[jswallow]

Another question now. :)

The engineer has been this morning, taken away the set top box that was used for broadband (it wasn't really being used for anything else so I've stopped paying for it) and replaced it with a modem. The connection is fine, but the speed of it seems to be exactly the same as it was before -- I upgraded to XL Broadband when I asked for the new internet, as obviously I was on a very slow connection through the STB.

How long does it take for the increase in speed to take effect? Should it have been as soon as the engineer finished the job and set up the new modem or do I have to wait for something else to happen in the background automagically?

[whydoIneedatech]

Another question now. :)

The engineer has been this morning, taken away the set top box that was used for broadband (it wasn't really being used for anything else so I've stopped paying for it) and replaced it with a modem. The connection is fine, but the speed of it seems to be exactly the same as it was before -- I upgraded to XL Broadband when I asked for the new internet, as obviously I was on a very slow connection through the STB.

How long does it take for the increase in speed to take effect? Should it have been as soon as the engineer finished the job and set up the new modem or do I have to wait for something else to happen in the background automagically?

Try a couple of speedtests
www.speedtest.net and www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk are 2 that I use.

This below is the only speedtest that Virgin recognize.

Have you tried going to this link to check your speeds http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/

click on blueyondergames>demos>then click on at least 2 large files and run them wait a couple of minutes then write down the transfer rates on the files that are running> times them by 8 and you will get a truer download speed.

[jswallow]

Must have been a "wait overnight" thing. It's a total transformation this evening, browsing and downloading is blooming fast, if I'm estimating about 12x improvement on what I had! Won't bother running a speed-test for now as it looks sorted to me.

Thanks everyone for your help.