Outages in Belfast?

[Meatbag]

I've been having probs since Thursday. On thursday i was getting a really slow connection and was unable to play any games online and websites took about 2 mins to come up. Today i kept losing connection, though the modem lights did not change. I was able to ping google a couple of times but not browse to it. Then i was able to browse to it by ip addy but then stopped working again. Wasn't able to ping anything for a while. When i called Virgin they were totally useless...

I explained to the guy i do tech support for another isp and iv'e checked the settings on my computer. Not only that but both Linux and Windows were having probs. All he could insist on doing was running line tests and checking my tcp/ip & browser settings. Though he put me on hold about 5 times...I tried explaining to him that i could access google by the ip addy and there seemed to be a problem with the dns server but he didn't really know what i was talking about.

Dunno really what the prob is. Can sometimes ping sites, sometimes reach them but then stops working. Sometimes reach sites by ip addy and sometimes not....I even removed my router and plugged the modem directly into the network port. I also have tried my other network adapter. So i'm 100% sure it's not my machine. Seems virgin have some explaining to do...

Any1 else having the same probs?

[surrealkid]

I've been having the same problems. Connection died completly on thursday night. All day today I've been having problems getting to any websites. Anything outside port 80 has been working, although a bit slow (proxy problems?). It cleared up a bit this afternoon but now it's back to being rubbish.

this was 10 minutes ago ...

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:


1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 6 ms 36 ms 29 ms 10.143.196.1
3 14 ms 8 ms 14 ms blfs-t2cam1-b-v105.inet.ntl.com [213.105.206.149]
4 30 ms 12 ms 45 ms blfs-t2cam1-a-v99.inet.ntl.com [213.105.207.9]
5 64 ms 106 ms 91 ms blfs-t2core-a-ge-wan64.inet.ntl.com [195.182.176.89]
6 * 52 ms 42 ms blfs-t2core-b-ge-wan71.inet.ntl.com [213.105.205.2]
7 * 46 ms 18 ms dbln-bb-b-so-200-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.237]
8 * 21 ms 29 ms man-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.174.45]
9 * 22 ms 24 ms lee-bb-a-so-200-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.175.141]
10 29 ms 76 ms 28 ms nth-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.101]
11 * 112 ms 47 ms nth-bb-a-so-400-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.193]
12 40 ms 33 ms 30 ms gfd-bb-b-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.98]
13 33 ms 102 ms 32 ms tele-ic-1-so-110-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.78]
14 43 ms 30 ms 38 ms 212.58.238.189
15 63 ms 30 ms * 212.58.238.133
16 31 ms 39 ms 36 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.

btw, I'm in Londonderry

[dOuGiE2K4]

Same problems here, sluggish connection since last week as well, I checked the website for service status and they said that they were performing network upgrades this morning until 6am.

Doesn't seem to have worked by the looks of it :(

Edit: I'm in Belfast

[DrStrange]

Currently my 4MB connection is so slow that my upload speed is twice as fast as my download speed.:( :p: Using a proxy server is even slower.

[DieDieMyDarling]

I've been getting 1mb speeds today, instead of my usual 8mb (on the 10mb service). Also in Belfast.

[sterritt]

im in belfast to and for over a week my 10meg connection moves at the speed of a 56k dial up modem.

extremely slow and has been for a while. Ntl said on the phone that their is no problem in our area. and when i asked why my 10 meg service was moving at 56k speed he replied 'there is no problem in your area and your speed should not be that slow'. he didnt take it well when i said 'well it is moving at 56k speeds now sort my connection out you ****'

[Your_da]

Upgraded to 10 meg last week and speeds have been terrible, tech support keep saying your on 10 meg , I can see that is what your modem is set up for, and just do nothing when I tell them my speed. 256k download (470k upload), absolutely terrible.
Think I had about 1 day were my speed reached 7 meg.
BTW : In belfast here to
Download Failed (1) (http://www.speedtest.net)Download Failed (1) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Download Failed (1) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Download Failed (1) (http://www.speedtest.net)

[James79]

Have noticed over the past few months that the connection is very inconsistent and totally unreliable at times!! :td:

Im in Belfast by the way.

Just did a Speedtest and this is what I got!! Very disappointed!!! :(

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/26.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[DieDieMyDarling]

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/25.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
10mb service. Upstream seems high, and i'm getting nowhere near 336k on newsgroups, lucky to get 120k.

[joemailey]

mine and a friends connection has been taking the **** for last 2weeks my 2mb n my 10 mb taken the ****

[SanFranCrisko]

My connection has been woeful for the past 6 months, if not more. I live in North Belfast, but friends in East and South have reported back similar problems, although not as bad as mine. Seems like we have a time limit on our connection. It cuts out at about 1am but its very patchy all day. I have a 2Mb connection, by the way. Did that speed test and today seems crap enough:

1st 512K took 21875 ms = 23.4 KB/sec, approx 193 Kbps, 0.19 Mbps
2nd 512K took 13687 ms = 37.4 KB/sec, approx 308 Kbps, 0.3 Mbps
3rd 512K took 10688 ms = 47.9 KB/sec, approx 395 Kbps, 0.39 Mbps
4th 512K took 16531 ms = 31 KB/sec, approx 255 Kbps, 0.25 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 288 Kbps, 0.28 Mbps

[GandX]

Yeah mine to been like this for over a week now.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/24.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[thenewsman]

I'm in L'Derry and I'm getting less than 1mb on a 10mb connection it has been like this for a few days now , I feel like I'm back on dail up again , but when I phone CS they tell me all is well , it might be in where they are but not here .:mad:

[a_t_jackson]

Based in Newtownabbey

Generally my 4Mb service is fine but since yesterday its been terrible.

200-300 Kb/s download, upload about 360 kb/s

[ivanwilson]

Also in Belfast and very poor speeds. Glad to see this thread though, I discovered my son had been downloading some TV shows and thought we'd been throttled back.

[Tir]

I am also in Newtownabbey and my speeds on a 10mb line have been very poor as past 3 weeks. I have noticed that the speeds are much better during the day and then drop like a stone at night. For example early Saturday morning past I was running at full speed but yesterday evening I was back to the usual slow speeds.

Tonight has been really poor!

If this keeps up much longer I will be looking towards ADSL as £35 a month is too expensive for this sort of service.

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:01:56 GMT

1st 512K took 29406 ms = 17.4 KB/sec, approx 143 Kbps, 0.14 Mbps
2nd 512K took 25297 ms = 20.2 KB/sec, approx 166 Kbps, 0.16 Mbps
3rd 512K took 22531 ms = 22.7 KB/sec, approx 187 Kbps, 0.18 Mbps
4th 512K took 16141 ms = 31.7 KB/sec, approx 261 Kbps, 0.25 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 189 Kbps, 0.18 Mbps

[infomad]

Have seen the quality of service drop dramatically over the past week from ntl. i live in derry, and have been a loyal customer of ntl for many years, and there was never much trouble before.

however over the past week i have been unable to play online games at all (the main purpose of this connection) , because of the shockingly high latencys (2-3k to some game servers based in sweden). i have tried all the usual tricks to sort this out, all to no avail. i am and have been on 10mb bb since it has been available in my area..and as i said i never had any problems b4. However i see nothing on their website with regrads to repair work being carried out on the network in this area, yet there is so clearly problems when my speed test comes back as -

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/19.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

also have been doing some pings on various websites in the uk, only to average about 25% loss no matter which website. I do hope ntl / virgin whatever they are now, decide to fix this problem swiftly. Also i find it laughable with all the talk of 20mb lines when they clearly cant even manage to keep 10mb lines functional at the moment, also if this is the kind of service we can expect as newly signed virgin media customers, i cant see myself and lots of other people sticking around for long.

On another note, altho i said i never had any problems with ntl in the past, and i dont even know if the same customer service team is in place since the takeover or not, however the current customer service can only be described as woeful, totally unable / unwilling to give any details as to problem being there, or any sort of date for it to be resolved by. Anyone else have any similar problems in the area?

-a very unhappy customer :dozey:

[JMcB]

Belfast Again! im fine getting great speed But i only have 2Meg

[mackers8923]

Me too 50kbps for most of today! Engineering coming out as per the CS Telephone Dude not sure what they can do if we are all suffering the same trouble!

[briggsy]

south belfast, was getting the full 1280kb/s up till this morning, now its woefull, was only getting about 20kb/s on usenet, speedtest seems a bit better :

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/16.png

hopefully its fixed soon :cool:

[nolly]

Everything's fine here now. Downloading at 3556 kb/s on a shared 4Mb/s deal - 10 times faster than an hour ago. Happy Days!

nolly in Belfast

[Albie]

Mine is back to normal too. :clap:


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/12.png

[briggsy]

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/11.png

back to normal here to :cool:

[Fingy]

Hmm, checked mine in the house this morning and it was back to normal but I have been advised by people in the know that there is a known issue in Belfast currently. Lets hope it stays back to normal. :)

[Meatbag]

Yep, mine seems back to normal too...Just hoping it stays like this, don't wanna go back to bt :Yikes:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2007/02/8.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[spiritusmundi]

I'm the same. Also in Belfast and 2MB connection has been slow or non existent for a week. Glad I found this forum as I have been tweaking my PC thinking there was something wrong at my end. I wonder if NTL/Virgin read these posts? Thinking of sending them a link and asking for some feedback on behalf of customers over here. It's not a very good start for Virgin Media in terms of customer relations. Why pay for a service that is so unreliable when there are plenty of other ISP's to choose from?What bugs me is the lack of information from Virgin/NTL when things go wrong.
...Rant over! Will send link

[joemailey]

I'm the same. Also in Belfast and 2MB connection has been slow or non existent for a week. Glad I found this forum as I have been tweaking my PC thinking there was something wrong at my end. I wonder if NTL/Virgin read these posts? Thinking of sending them a link and asking for some feedback on behalf of customers over here. It's not a very good start for Virgin Media in terms of customer relations. Why pay for a service that is so unreliable when there are plenty of other ISP's to choose from?What bugs me is the lack of information from Virgin/NTL when things go wrong.
...Rant over! Will send link

Plenty of ISP's to choose from?
Most ISPs have simliar issue's from time to time.
I've been with BT,PlusNet,BullDog,Pipex + others.
All ISPs have simliar issue's at some stage. So complaints like this are expected no matter were you go.

http://www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/ServiceStatus/

As you can see the planned maintaince (maintaince never goes a splanned :-) )


Description Planned Maintenance Thursday 22nd to Thursday 29th
Details Virgin Media is committed to maintain and upgrade our Broadband network, There is a requirement to carry out maintenance and upgrades to parts of the network that may cause customers to experience a brief loss of connection, while the work is carried out.
The following work will take place between 12am Thursday 22nd February and 12am Thursday 29th February
On the morning of Thursday the 22nd February between midnight and 6 AM,
Network improvements will result in a loss of service in the Oxford and surrounding areas.
Network updates will result in a loss of service in Portsmouth, Poplar, Lichfield and surrounding areas.
Virgin Media customer may also experience degraded performance when trying to register for the service
On the morning of Sunday the 25th February between midnight and 6 AM,
Virgin Media customer may also experience degraded performance when trying to register for the service
On the morning of Monday the 26th February between midnight and 6 AM,
Network improvements will result in a loss of service in Bolton, Wirral, Addlestone, Belfast and surrounding areas.
On the morning of Tuesday the 27th February between midnight and 6 AM,
Network improvements will result in a loss of service in the Fareham, Belfast, Hartlepool, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Derby and surrounding areas.
Network updates will result in a loss of service in Cambridge and surrounding areas.
Updates to the Virgin Media homepage may cause slow performance when browsing the Website
On the morning of Wednesday the 28th February between midnight and 6 AM,
Network improvements will result in a loss of service in the Hemel Hempstead, Hartlepool, Papworth, Luton and surrounding areas.

[spiritusmundi]

I looked at that service status a few days ago. But when planned maintenance suddenly becomes unplanned service outage at different times of the day why can't someone tell us? A number of people on the forum have reported that Virgin were insisting there was nothing wrong with the service.

[a_t_jackson]

I looked at that service status a few days ago. But when planned maintenance suddenly becomes unplanned service outage at different times of the day why can't someone tell us? A number of people on the forum have reported that Virgin were insisting there was nothing wrong with the service.

Completely agree, and if I interpret the status page correctly they wait until 25th Feb to inform people that maintenance started on 22nd Feb. Not exactly timely information to customers...

[joemailey]

I looked at that service status a few days ago. But when planned maintenance suddenly becomes unplanned service outage at different times of the day why can't someone tell us? A number of people on the forum have reported that Virgin were insisting there was nothing wrong with the service.

Your talking to stupid 1st line support. People they pick of the street.
Who read from a script. Instead of them muppets asking NTL. They read from there script.

Example, Play.com support is in belfast. Sky Broadband support is also based in belfast(at least some of it)

how do these guys know what is going on?

What most people have to realize is planned maintenance does not always go smoothly. But i understand how it goes wrong. Which is why it doesn't brother me.

Its like doing a task. Need to go to shop. (simple 5-10mins task) you need to go to cash machine oops its out of order. so you travel to next one. adds on unexpected time. Somethings never go smoothly even if you've done it million times before.


The slow down people have been recieving for last 3-4weeks has been noticed on other ISPs(last few days = NTL last few weeks incurrs something else)

Friend on BT noticed slow downs. Friend on Pipex slows downs. My old company BT 2mb leased line slow downs. My current company VERIZON BUSINESS 4mb leased line(which they also have planned maintenance for).

Which points me to the fact its just not NTL(virgin) with issue's.

[Meatbag]

Funny you mention sky support. I work on their second line support and the people they hire are just a joke. Most of them have never touched a computer before. They don't even bother going through their checks or even use their brains....Some of the calls they try to pass to me are ridiculous...

And they're promoting these muppets to 2nd line...hence why i'm leaving :angel:

[joemailey]

Funny you mention sky support. I work on their second line support and the people they hire are just a joke. Most of them have never touched a computer before. They don't even bother going through their checks or even use their brains....Some of the calls they try to pass to me are ridiculous...

And they're promoting these muppets to 2nd line...hence why i'm leaving :angel:


Yea, I'm network engineer for company hence i understand the kind of trouble you can encounter when you plan for maintenance.

Things never go as planned. If your working on server and you even do a simple windows update. That can hose the server and cost your hours of downtime for operation that would take 10mins max.

People don't understand that. Same with 1st line support. People do not use there heads. Its all scripts, The odd time you would get someone who does understand your issue and try to help you(im guessing that would be the person having same issues as you haha)

But simple things can go wrong when your trying to improve stuff.