Broadband Internet access is something that I tend to take for granted these days, so when it is taken away it comes as a bit of a shock to the system.
What triggered this tale of woe was when I contacted Virgin Media to try and get the date of my direct debit changed. This is the second attempt at this as the first one resulted in them changing the billing period on my bills, but the direct debit date remaining the same.
This has (hopefully) been changed now, but while I was on the phone I was offered a free upgrade to the 20 meg service (well, free for 12 months). I'm actually quite happy on the 10 meg service, but what the Hell, it's free so I'll have it!
Time passed and my broadband speed didn't increase. I phoned again and got them to check, yes, I'm on the 20 meg service, but I was still only getting 10 meg speed. "I'll give it 24 hours, reset the modem and see if the speed increases," I thought.
That very afternoon something happened to my modem. All connectivity went and the only lights showing on the box were the power, ethernet and a rapidly flashing "sync" light.
Following the instructions on the modem I powered it down, waited 30 seconds and brought it back online. . . . Still no sync.
Try again, three minutes. . . . Nope.
As there was the chance that Virgin might have been experiencing problems I left it overnight and tried again. . . . and still it didn't work. At this point I called the technical support line, who arranged for a technician to come out on Friday - after, of course, they talked me through turning off the modem, waiting a couple of minutes and turning it back on. Three days with no Broadband access! Dear God NO!!!
The technician arrived at the appointed time, swapped the modem and left. Total time taken: 3 minutes. It took a couple of attempts to get the sign-up working, but after that - full speed internet! YAY!
However there was a "hidden problem" but I'll post about that later.
Showing posts with label Virgin Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virgin Media. Show all posts
Friday, 11 September 2009
Monday, 14 April 2008
Net Neutrality is “A Load of Bollocks”
According to Neil Berkett, the new CEO of Virgin Media, “This net neutrality thing is a load of bollocks.” Mr Berkett followed this by stating that Virgin Media is already in negotiations with content providers (such as the BBC) to provide their media faster. For a fee, of course.
Those companies that refuse this commercial blackmail will find the "Information Superhighway" becomes the "Information Bus Lane."
Sometimes you wonder why CEOs are allowed to speak in public. The last time I saw this level of idiocy was from the then head of Ratners jewellery stores, Gerald Ratner. You may well be saying to yourself at this point, "Ratners? Who?"
Back in the 1980s Ratners sold "value" jewellery from high-street stores and were very successful. In fact, they had over 2,000 stores across the UK, and were making huge profits. The business was seen as one of the UK's great success stories.
That was until Gerald Ratner opened his mouth at an Institute of Directors (IoD) Conference in 1991.
So successful were they that Mr Ratner felt quite at ease describing what they sold as "crap."
"We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?" I say, because it's total crap."
He then went on to describe a set of 99p earrings that they sold as "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long."
As this was said at a private function you could be forgiven for thinking (like Gerald did) that this would be taken as a private joke amongst like-minded individuals.
Unfortunately for him the press did get hold of his comments and he made front page news, as did the subsequent collapse of his business empire. More than £500million was wiped off the value of his companies as people stopped shopping there.
Within a short time the Ratners chain was no more. This form of commercial suicide is now known as "doing a Ratner."
You've got to hope that Neil hasn't just "done a Ratner" by underestimating peoples distaste with internet traffic shaping. After all, people are paying for a fast service for ALL content, not just for those companies that can afford to pay more.
If they want to do this form of content shaping they had better look at dropping the price of their products or else they could find, like Gerald did, that the end of the line could be closer than they might think.
Those companies that refuse this commercial blackmail will find the "Information Superhighway" becomes the "Information Bus Lane."
Sometimes you wonder why CEOs are allowed to speak in public. The last time I saw this level of idiocy was from the then head of Ratners jewellery stores, Gerald Ratner. You may well be saying to yourself at this point, "Ratners? Who?"
Back in the 1980s Ratners sold "value" jewellery from high-street stores and were very successful. In fact, they had over 2,000 stores across the UK, and were making huge profits. The business was seen as one of the UK's great success stories.
That was until Gerald Ratner opened his mouth at an Institute of Directors (IoD) Conference in 1991.
So successful were they that Mr Ratner felt quite at ease describing what they sold as "crap."
"We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?" I say, because it's total crap."
He then went on to describe a set of 99p earrings that they sold as "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long."
As this was said at a private function you could be forgiven for thinking (like Gerald did) that this would be taken as a private joke amongst like-minded individuals.
Unfortunately for him the press did get hold of his comments and he made front page news, as did the subsequent collapse of his business empire. More than £500million was wiped off the value of his companies as people stopped shopping there.
Within a short time the Ratners chain was no more. This form of commercial suicide is now known as "doing a Ratner."
You've got to hope that Neil hasn't just "done a Ratner" by underestimating peoples distaste with internet traffic shaping. After all, people are paying for a fast service for ALL content, not just for those companies that can afford to pay more.
If they want to do this form of content shaping they had better look at dropping the price of their products or else they could find, like Gerald did, that the end of the line could be closer than they might think.
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Back Online
We are back online.
I arrived home today to find a note from the postman that a parcel had been returned to the sorting office. Luckily for me it's only a twenty minute walk there, so I was able to go straight back out and collect what turned out to be my replacement modem.
So back home, unplug the old one, plug in the new one, and make a call to Virgin Media's tech support to enable the new modem.
Pretty painless when alls said and done, and considering it was Monday evening when I placed the support call, I think they've managed to sort things out pretty quickly.
I arrived home today to find a note from the postman that a parcel had been returned to the sorting office. Luckily for me it's only a twenty minute walk there, so I was able to go straight back out and collect what turned out to be my replacement modem.
So back home, unplug the old one, plug in the new one, and make a call to Virgin Media's tech support to enable the new modem.
Pretty painless when alls said and done, and considering it was Monday evening when I placed the support call, I think they've managed to sort things out pretty quickly.
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Those Offline Blues
Ah, a life without broadband. How did we ever survive?
At the moment I'm learning to cope without internet access at home, thanks to a dead cable modem. Internet access is one of those things that you don't really think too much about these days, until you can't use it that is.
So what happened? Well on Saturday when I tried to go online. . . . . . Nothing. Oh well, sometimes the connection does go down (usually for maintenance) so no need to worry. Sunday - still nothing. No internet (sniffle). NO INTERNET! (sob!)
By Sunday evening it was looking less like an issue with my provider (Virgin Media) and more like something more local. So after checking cables etc, powering off for a couple of minutes, trying with and without my router and so on I was fairly certain that the modem, although it was showing a "sync", "rdy" and "enet" lights it wasn't actually communicating with their servers.
A couple of things I have learn't about my modem that I didn't know before. One is that there IS a difference between just quickly disconnecting and reconnecting the power, and leaving it for a minute or two before restarting (it doesn't do a full reboot unless you leave it off for a while). Another is that whilst it is coming up from cold it allocates a temporary IP address (with a 30 second TTL) to allow you to connect into the Modem's configuration pages (username root, password root). It only gives you a real IP address once it connects to the service providers upstream servers, and returns 0.0.0.0 if it doesn't.
Just to make that it wasn't my provider, I called Virgin Media's broadband status line. This used to give a run-down of problems around the UK that might affect your connection. What it now does is tell you to disconnect your modem, wait for two minutes and reconnect it. And if that doesn't work then call their support line (25p per minute, 10p connection charge).
With a lack of options available it was time to call their support line. Except I can't because it is a premium rate number which is blocked (by default all Virgin Media phones used to block premium rate numbers). As I couldn't find the phone number for help with this (and I couldn't go online to check) I'd have to make notes of all this at work on Monday.
On Monday I was able to check their website - nothing was listed for where I live that would explain why I didn't have any internet access. Also no freephone number for technical support. Once I got back home it was time to phone Virgin Media to unblock the premium rate number. On phoning their number I got to speak to a very nice Indian lady, who, once we were able to understand each other's accents, was able to allow me to call premium rate numbers.
So finally I was able to phone for help. As a full time Systems Technician I look after things like this as part of my job, so I am probably a helpdesk's nightmare to deal with - because I already know the answer before I phone. You can pretty much guarantee that if I'm phoning your support line you'll be getting your equipment back because it will be beyond repair. Honestly. Trust me, I'm a Technician.
So getting through to another Indian gentleman who was obviously reading from a script is an exercise in restraint. On the upside the phone was answered almost immediately and I was straight through to a real human operator. On the downside he then spent the next couple of minutes explaining just how much this phone call was costing me (10p connection, 25p per minute from a Virgin Media landline, call charges from mobile phones or other providers may vary).
So after giving some personal information (account number, name, address, what services do I buy, how do I pay for them) it is on to the script. At this point I usually just turn off and try and do what they say, "yes, I've turned off the modem. . . . Yes, I've turned the modem back on again. . . . . No, it isn't getting an IP address."
As a side note those of you who have been paying attention will know that I usually use Linux when at home. One thing I have learned in the past is that if I want to get anywhere with tech support then booting into that old Windows XP partition is a benefit - because their script doesn't usually cover Linux. And If I'm paying through the nose for the help then I want to get things resolved as quickly as possible.
Back to my friend in India. After a couple of minutes I'm given an update of how much this has already cost me, do I want to continue the call? As I want to get this working, what choice do I have really?
On with the script. We basically go through everything that I'd already checked (disconnecting the ethernet cable, rebooting the modem, reconnecting, disconnecting the coax cable, rebooting and so on). This takes us to the end of the regular script. "I need to check some things, can I call you back in ten minutes?" he asks.
"Sure, no problem."
Time for a cuppa whilst I wait. Around ten minutes later, as promised, he's back. "Your modem appears to be broken."
(deep breath, big smile before speaking)
"Is it? Oh dear." But, this at least gets me where I needed to be. They are sending me a new cable modem by post, which should be with me within five days. Or to be more exact five working days. Also, as the problem is with their equipment they've also refunded the cost of the support call (which ended up at around £4.50, which means that my bit of the call ran to around 18 minutes).
All being even life will return to normal either later on this week (hopefully) or early next week (boo!) with a brand new cable modem.
At the moment I'm learning to cope without internet access at home, thanks to a dead cable modem. Internet access is one of those things that you don't really think too much about these days, until you can't use it that is.
So what happened? Well on Saturday when I tried to go online. . . . . . Nothing. Oh well, sometimes the connection does go down (usually for maintenance) so no need to worry. Sunday - still nothing. No internet (sniffle). NO INTERNET! (sob!)
By Sunday evening it was looking less like an issue with my provider (Virgin Media) and more like something more local. So after checking cables etc, powering off for a couple of minutes, trying with and without my router and so on I was fairly certain that the modem, although it was showing a "sync", "rdy" and "enet" lights it wasn't actually communicating with their servers.
A couple of things I have learn't about my modem that I didn't know before. One is that there IS a difference between just quickly disconnecting and reconnecting the power, and leaving it for a minute or two before restarting (it doesn't do a full reboot unless you leave it off for a while). Another is that whilst it is coming up from cold it allocates a temporary IP address (with a 30 second TTL) to allow you to connect into the Modem's configuration pages (username root, password root). It only gives you a real IP address once it connects to the service providers upstream servers, and returns 0.0.0.0 if it doesn't.
Just to make that it wasn't my provider, I called Virgin Media's broadband status line. This used to give a run-down of problems around the UK that might affect your connection. What it now does is tell you to disconnect your modem, wait for two minutes and reconnect it. And if that doesn't work then call their support line (25p per minute, 10p connection charge).
With a lack of options available it was time to call their support line. Except I can't because it is a premium rate number which is blocked (by default all Virgin Media phones used to block premium rate numbers). As I couldn't find the phone number for help with this (and I couldn't go online to check) I'd have to make notes of all this at work on Monday.
On Monday I was able to check their website - nothing was listed for where I live that would explain why I didn't have any internet access. Also no freephone number for technical support. Once I got back home it was time to phone Virgin Media to unblock the premium rate number. On phoning their number I got to speak to a very nice Indian lady, who, once we were able to understand each other's accents, was able to allow me to call premium rate numbers.
So finally I was able to phone for help. As a full time Systems Technician I look after things like this as part of my job, so I am probably a helpdesk's nightmare to deal with - because I already know the answer before I phone. You can pretty much guarantee that if I'm phoning your support line you'll be getting your equipment back because it will be beyond repair. Honestly. Trust me, I'm a Technician.
So getting through to another Indian gentleman who was obviously reading from a script is an exercise in restraint. On the upside the phone was answered almost immediately and I was straight through to a real human operator. On the downside he then spent the next couple of minutes explaining just how much this phone call was costing me (10p connection, 25p per minute from a Virgin Media landline, call charges from mobile phones or other providers may vary).
So after giving some personal information (account number, name, address, what services do I buy, how do I pay for them) it is on to the script. At this point I usually just turn off and try and do what they say, "yes, I've turned off the modem. . . . Yes, I've turned the modem back on again. . . . . No, it isn't getting an IP address."
As a side note those of you who have been paying attention will know that I usually use Linux when at home. One thing I have learned in the past is that if I want to get anywhere with tech support then booting into that old Windows XP partition is a benefit - because their script doesn't usually cover Linux. And If I'm paying through the nose for the help then I want to get things resolved as quickly as possible.
Back to my friend in India. After a couple of minutes I'm given an update of how much this has already cost me, do I want to continue the call? As I want to get this working, what choice do I have really?
On with the script. We basically go through everything that I'd already checked (disconnecting the ethernet cable, rebooting the modem, reconnecting, disconnecting the coax cable, rebooting and so on). This takes us to the end of the regular script. "I need to check some things, can I call you back in ten minutes?" he asks.
"Sure, no problem."
Time for a cuppa whilst I wait. Around ten minutes later, as promised, he's back. "Your modem appears to be broken."
(deep breath, big smile before speaking)
"Is it? Oh dear." But, this at least gets me where I needed to be. They are sending me a new cable modem by post, which should be with me within five days. Or to be more exact five working days. Also, as the problem is with their equipment they've also refunded the cost of the support call (which ended up at around £4.50, which means that my bit of the call ran to around 18 minutes).
All being even life will return to normal either later on this week (hopefully) or early next week (boo!) with a brand new cable modem.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
