Connection drops in/drops out periodically

[Rajie]

Back again. The same problems we had before came back within 48 hours of the engineer leaving. That was a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't contacted Virgin again yet as I wanted to make sure it wasn't a temporary blip - but I can safely say that the connection now is the worst it has ever been.

I don't understand what I can do at this point. If we get another engineer out aren't they just going to do the same thing with "power levels" and the "tap point" that the last one did? That didn't do anything clearly, in fact it made things worse if anything, so how can I trust Virgin a third time?

I've looked in to switching to Sky which everyone in the house is fine with, but since we just got the Superhub I'm just praying that this doesn't count as a new contract and we're locked in to some draconian 18 month contract until we can cut ties with Virgin. At this point I'd be happy to take even a significant speed drop by switching providers if it meant that the connection actually works. We've been with Telewest/Blueyonder/Virgin for 20+ years and this is the worst service we've ever had during that entire time.

[General Maximus]

you never posted your new power levels so we couldn't see what the difference was.

[Rajie]

Yes sorry, I've only just been able to reconnect and it's not much better than 56k!





These are from today. When the engineer came a couple of weeks back he said he adjusted the power levels (the work receipt he gave me says "signal levels incorrect levels") and also moved the tap point in the box on the street. So if it's the same problem as before he did all that - how and why?


And the connection died again just as I hit the reply button! Why am I not surprised!

[General Maximus]

your power levels are fine. The next thing to do is setup a Think Broadband monitor. I did it the other day and it is a 2 minute job. It let's us assess the quality of your connection and you get a graph that looks like this:

Go to this page and setup an account (username, email and password) and you are away.

[Rajie]

OK I've done that, should I give it a day or two to post the graph?

[General Maximus]

post the graph now and it updates in real time so we can come back and look at it whenever we want without having to wait for you to do anything

[Rajie]

[Jon22]

Your going to have to enable ping response on the superhub, otherwise you'll have a block of red on the graph, as can be seen (can't remember if your using that or your own router, still applies anyway). Thinkbroadband have a guide: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/g...b-vmdg480.html

[Rajie]

Right done that, I knew the big block of red meant there was something not right!

[Kushan]

It's updated now and looks ok. Do a wired speed test, please.

[Rajie]

That of course looks as it should, except today the connection has been perfectly fine with slow times but really no long disconnects as most days. I've had the odd slow loading/failed load page that has kicked in the red cross/yellow triangle on the network/sharing center, but as soon as I've gone to repair them it said the problem is solved. It's literally been the best connected day I've had in weeks, so I don't think any of this information is giving a true picture of the problem.

[Kushan]

There was an odd spike around 2PM, so hard to say. What devices do you have connected to your network? Both wired and wireless, everything from TV's to Xboxes.

[Rajie]

Just one wired computer, a laptop on wifi for a couple of hours on an evening most days of the week.

Today has been oddly, almost suspiciously, good connection and uptime.

[Kushan]

This is going to sound stupid...but have you tried doing a speedtest on the laptop with the computer turned off?

[Rajie]

I will try that next chance I get (the laptop isn't always in the house when I am).