thinking of changing to VM

[woody565]

Hi all

For the last 12 months i have been a sky max customer, but have recently moved house and the package is no longer available to me. I have searched around and Virgin seem to be the best deal for non cable BB, the deal is £10 a month for upto 8Meg unlimited DL's, my questions are 1. how reliable is there service and 2. i use my connection for a lot a file sharing (torrent) what are there policies on this and do they traffic shape?

Any advice about virgin BB would be gratefully received

Cheers
Danny

[spiderplant]

The service is 100% reliable for me. I've had it a year or so, and it has yet to let me down. Initially the speed was very poor at peak times, but since last summer I get a solid 2.2Mbps. (Too far from the exchange for anything better).

VM don't traffic shape. They do have peak-hour traffic management for heavy users on cable, but as far as I'm aware this doesn't apply to ADSL.

£10 for unlimited 8Meg is a very good deal. Where did you find it?

[woody565]

Hi spiderplant

i called them up today, the guy i spoke to offered me the deal as long as i get a mac code from sky, i was thinking about not going with VM becuase i thought there traffic management was a bit harsh but it doesnt apply to adsl i think i will go ahead and get it.
how sure are you about it? will their customer service be able to confirm this if i call them

Cheers mate

Danny

[VeNoM]

Why don't you want cable ???

are you in a unsupported area ??

[woody565]

yeh here is my exchange
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THAFD

im very limited to what package i can get

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by woody565

how sure are you about it?

Fairly sure. I've never noticed it happening, and I've never heard anyone else mention it either. And there's no mention of ADSL at http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...t/traffic.html

Remember it's only a one month contract, so if it does turn out to be crap you won't be tied in.

Originally Posted by woody565

will their customer service be able to confirm this if i call them

They'll tell you whatever you want to hear

Yes they use traffic shaping, yes they have STM (traffic management) and if you abuse (well, what they class as abuse, too much bandwith hogging) they limit your connection to 512k for a week.

[BenMcr]

From Beyond Cables T&Cs (HERE)

Fair Usage Policy: Whilst there are no specific monthly usage allowances on the Broadband Service, your Service remains subject to our Acceptable Use Policy set out in Section F. Further information about our Acceptable Use Policy can also be found in the FAQs on our website. Visit our FAQs at the following address: http://www.virgin.net/helpme/broadband/faq/. Virgin Media reserves the right to modify the FAQs at any time without prior notice and solely at our own discretion. Any changes will take effect when posted on the Site.

AUP is HERE

Traffic Managment page is HERE

[KungFuKitty]

Hey mate
To your questions yea they traffic shape on peak times and on a personal note.. since it switched to Virgin Media i havn't found them so reliable but there's plenty of others that have and havn't. I would think they could deliver the 8meg line properly though, only had 'less than quoted' speeds since i switched to the 20meg service.. give it a shot and if its crappy you can always terminate within' 30 days anyway.
Good luck
~ Kitty x

[clembart]

Dont go with v/m unless you want to go back to the old dialup days man there bad

[chickendippers]

As with all broadband it seems very region dependant.

Do bear in mind that these forums are where people come to complain, so you are bound to get a negative vibe. Happy customers don't make a much noise as unhappy ones.

Yeah VM ADSL connections are as good as any ADSL connections and there traffic management is alot more off putting 512k for a week between 4-midnight no thank you sir

[clembart]

well 23:34 hours still downloading from rapdidshare com @6.18 kbps 23 meg still 58 mins to go to complete download. Best of it was before v/m I was with an isp called newnet only changed to get broadband and phone in one package newnet were real good fast downloads anytime of day and reliable just 20 gig download limit per month and price spoiled it migrate to BT broadband on 31-3-08 cant wait

[christopherw]

If you want quality broadband, give Zen a go. One month contracts, like VM - but they're more expensive by comparison. Not a budget ISP, but the service they provide is real, pucker quality. Recommended them to my parents when their exchange was Max-enabled and they're still with them two years on.

Failing that, try an Entanet reseller - their ADSL Max packages have generous peak and off-peak allowances and from memory, some of them do one month contracts.

The old adage of pay peanuts, get monkeys applies perhaps moreso to ADSL than it does cable. Avoid Virgin.net ADSL like the plague though, their service has been godawful ever since 56k (I should know, I was on it for a short while).