Virgin Broadband?

[aztecbandit1]

I reset my router on the back of it and then set it up again but still had the same problems? But have now had over an hour of normal service since i swapped the channel over :D

good to hear its all working.

Hope it stays that way mate

Must be something to do with the new routers that a few people by me have just had fitted? only started to have problems when 2 of my neighbours had virgin broadband fitted with the newer model router?? My cisco ones normally pretty good even at high speed :)

[aztecbandit1]

Hopefully it will help a lot being on a different channel Chris. But people do use their Internet at different times of day/days of the week, of course, so keep an eye on it over the next few days and fingers crossed it will stay well-behaved !

Mines been going dead at around 7pm over the past couple of weeks? and the past couple of days it dead nearly all the time?

Do these newer N version routers put out a better signal?

[Steviewevie]

Do these newer N version routers put out a better signal?

Well, it depends. They put out a signal that goes further, which can be good, but it can be bad also because it means that even more neighbours are potentially in range and can potentially interfere with you :duh:

The G routers and some early N routers work in the 2.4 GHz waveband, which have just these 3 non-overlapping channels. But, newer N routers work at 5 GHz, which have a lot more non-overlapping channels. So if you have one of these, although more neighbours could be in range (though quite probably not many will be using an N router) you have more channels to give you your own interference-free one. So in short, a newer 5GHz N router may help, at least for the short-to-medium term whilst a lot of people are still on G.

[chrisis200]

try 192.168.0.1 for netgear router see if that takes you in to the settings.

Excellant stuff mate, now I can get to the settings why didnt the tech guys at virgin just tell me this stuff?

Steve luckily it does have the details on the wireless box..lol I will try channels 1 & 6 see if it works normal again currently on

Region: Europe

Channel: 11

Mode: g & b

thanks for you help all so much if it works ;)

strange though Chris that we both have this problem the same work both on Virigin :(

but my friend down the road on virgin has no problem, but has been suggested mayb other are clooging up my airwaves, I live in a flat an can just barely pick up another 5 mine is full signal theres are all 1 bar, but it's strange it not really done it over the last year or so.. but maybe they just got them :(

will report back in a day or so :D

[aztecbandit1]

try 192.168.0.1 for netgear router see if that takes you in to the settings.

Excellant stuff mate, now I can get to the settings why didnt the tech guys at virgin just tell me this stuff?

Steve luckily it does have the details on the wireless box..lol I will try channels 1 & 6 see if it works normal again currently on

Region: Europe

Channel: 11

Mode: g & b

thanks for you help all so much if it works ;)

strange though Chris that we both have this problem the same work both on Virigin :(

but my friend down the road on virgin has no problem, but has been suggested mayb other are clooging up my airwaves, I live in a flat an can just barely pick up another 5 mine is full signal theres are all 1 bar, but it's strange it not really done it over the last year or so.. but maybe they just got them :(

will report back in a day or so :D

I'm now on channel 1 Chris and its working fine again :D

[chrisis200]

try 192.168.0.1 for netgear router see if that takes you in to the settings.

Excellant stuff mate, now I can get to the settings why didnt the tech guys at virgin just tell me this stuff?

Steve luckily it does have the details on the wireless box..lol I will try channels 1 & 6 see if it works normal again currently on

Region: Europe

Channel: 11

Mode: g & b

thanks for you help all so much if it works ;)

strange though Chris that we both have this problem the same work both on Virigin :(

but my friend down the road on virgin has no problem, but has been suggested mayb other are clooging up my airwaves, I live in a flat an can just barely pick up another 5 mine is full signal theres are all 1 bar, but it's strange it not really done it over the last year or so.. but maybe they just got them :(

will report back in a day or so :D

I'm now on channel 1 Chris and its working fine again :D

Going to do Channel 6 for a day or so, shud be clear if it works or not as like I said I play on the PS3 & was just being killed on COD5 constantly I was gutted :P

[chrisis200]

Seems to be still dropping from 54mbps to 48 every so often :( already

[aztecbandit1]

i was on channel 11 but since i've been on channel 1 mines sat at 54mbps :) mine kept dropping to 12mbps and disconecting before i swapped it Does get quite annoying after a bit :(

[Steviewevie]

Channel 11 does seem to be the default for a lot of routers.

[chrisis200]

Well mine is still droppin to 48mbps from 54mbps, every so often for no reason although playing online has improved slightly, i was told by the tech at virgin to check my connection at speedtest.net an the downloads speeds are x2 faster now i've moved to channel 6 which is a plus i suppose.

Surfing the net has been fine, but its about my online ps3 game its effecting and really fustrating when I have to pay even when its not working satisfactory :( but so far it's been ok, maybe they were just overloaded over the bank holiday only time will tell.

[Steviewevie]

Can you try connecting your PS3 via a cable to the router and having a bit of a play like that, to see if it's the wireless that's at fault ? I suspect that it probably is.

An alternative solution, if you can't have the router near the PS3, is to install a Powerline networking solution, where the network traffic is sent over your mains wiring. This is a lot faster and not prone to interference. Although it's not cheap, it'll probably set you back close to £100 for a pair of adapters (one to plug in your PS3 - or PC etc - and another to plug in to the router). This will basically act like a direct connection rather than wireless.

[Saraj]

These are good examples to what Steviewevie is talking about:

PC World

Ebuyer

All you need is a set and two ethernet cables. I was going to try this, but never got round to

[chrisis200]

Can you try connecting your PS3 via a cable to the router and having a bit of a play like that, to see if it's the wireless that's at fault ? I suspect that it probably is.

An alternative solution, if you can't have the router near the PS3, is to install a Powerline networking solution, where the network traffic is sent over your mains wiring. This is a lot faster and not prone to interference. Although it's not cheap, it'll probably set you back close to £100 for a pair of adapters (one to plug in your PS3 - or PC etc - and another to plug in to the router). This will basically act like a direct connection rather than wireless.

My PS3 is plugged via ethernet cable to the wirless netgear box, then from there to the filter to the phone socket... It's a joke been working alright till 8:15 now totally rubbish again..

[chrisis200]

Found this that infact shows me which channels these people are messing up for me...

To explain again starting from my wall socket, it goes phone socket > filter > ethernet/phone cable > ethernet goes to the netgear wirless box in the ADSL hole which is working as i'm here wireless > then from a Lan hole 1 of 4 a ether cable goes to my ps3

This has been the set up for 14months no problems, virigin suggested there are no issues on the line for starters, they say cud be the filter but I believe there just making this up why would it break?

As suggested I changed channel but the issue just started again channel 6 tonight its a nightmare.

Thanks all for trying to help which is a hell of alot more than Virgin my ISP is doing, they are awful and I certainly will move, but if its something to with the line etc so other providers will have the same problem...

[chrisis200]

Now picking up yet another connection arrggghhh all on channels 1 & 11 dam it

[Steviewevie]

Is the problem just with your PS3 Chris ? That's not using wireless, so it doesn't matter what channel you're on etc. Is your wireless laptop actually having a problem ? Having the speed drop from 54Mbps to 48Mbps isn't necessarily a problem on its own, though if it starts freezing up or dropping out then it obviously is.

I'm slightly confused though, you say you're using Virgin but you're using ADSL ? So it's not Virgin cable broadband then. There are some things you can check to see how well the ADSL itself is working. Also filters can go faulty and cause problems.

[chrisis200]

Is the problem just with your PS3 Chris ? That's not using wireless, so it doesn't matter what channel you're on etc. Is your wireless laptop actually having a problem ? Having the speed drop from 54Mbps to 48Mbps isn't necessarily a problem on its own, though if it starts freezing up or dropping out then it obviously is.

I'm slightly confused though, you say you're using Virgin but you're using ADSL ? So it's not Virgin cable broadband then. There are some things you can check to see how well the ADSL itself is working. Also filters can go faulty and cause problems.

Steve sorry I'm bothering you with this but when I joined virgin i believed it was vrigin broadband, it has that on the box it has come in..

but it says my router is the following:

54mbps wireless ADSL2+ modem router DG834GSP now I have no idea the difference between ADSL & Broadband. When I call virgin they say broadband themselves.

My PS3 plugs into the lan line which can go upto 100mbps which I only just read about, the wireless laptop does drop from 54 to 48 quite abit which it never did before these problems arose I can still use the laptop though, I cant see the problem lying with the PS3 myself.

But its worth thinking about...

The problem Steve is that from 11am to 7.20pm tonight the connections on the PS3 have been brilliant then its dropped to useless :S every1 else online is fine including my friends. It's driving me nuts, contacting virgin again via e-mail now to see if the have any answers. May purchase another filter tomorrow to test it, but as I say the connection has been fine until peak time :( alos I noticed the problem when someone with the n range came on & someone who used Tiscali as well.

I will update you later in the week & give them till monday, dont wana trouble you guys anymore with my problems lol..

P.S. No steve I dont have the super duper cable broadband they advertise on tv with Samuel Jackson they dont that in my area, they are rubbish... is that really broadband though I always knew it as either: dial up, broadband or Cable

[Steviewevie]

Yep, it's still broadband that you've got. That basically refers to the high-speed link, as opposed to using something like dial-up. My question was about how the broadband is delivered, i.e. cable or ADSL. I've got cable, but you've clearly got ADSL, which as you probably know is a high-speed method of using your phone line.

I'm probably stating the obvious but when using ADSL you need to have filters installed on all the phone points in your house so that phones and other similar devices (e.g. fax machines, burglar alarms) work properly and don't interfere with the broadband signals on the phone line.

If the problem always happens at a certain time of night I would try going to somewhere like Speedtest.net and running tests there when it's working ok, and also when it's not, and seeing what the difference is in terms of the download/upload speeds and the latency too.

Your ADSL line is shared with lots of other people in the surrounding area, meaning that if loads of people go on and put lots of traffic on it, then it might slow everyone down. The line will have plenty of capacity for you on your own, and for a few people, but not for loads and loads of simultaneous users. If it is just "contention", then unfortunately there will be nothing you can do about it.

It doesn't sound like it's likely to be a filter problem given it's only happening at certain times of day. In theory there could be a technical problem with your line and even the socket itself, but again if it only happens in the evening that sounds less likely. The evening is also of course likely to be the peak time for people using it. Do you know if your neighbours have similar problems ?

Your wireless laptop could be having interference problems with other wireless networks in the area, which is where changing channels on the wireless router could come in. But that won't affect/help the PS3 I'm afraid.

[chrisis200]

Yep, it's still broadband that you've got. That basically refers to the high-speed link, as opposed to using something like dial-up. My question was about how the broadband is delivered, i.e. cable or ADSL. I've got cable, but you've clearly got ADSL, which as you probably know is a high-speed method of using your phone line.

I'm probably stating the obvious but when using ADSL you need to have filters installed on all the phone points in your house so that phones and other similar devices (e.g. fax machines, burglar alarms) work properly and don't interfere with the broadband signals on the phone line.

If the problem always happens at a certain time of night I would try going to somewhere like Speedtest.net and running tests there when it's working ok, and also when it's not, and seeing what the difference is in terms of the download/upload speeds and the latency too.

Your ADSL line is shared with lots of other people in the surrounding area, meaning that if loads of people go on and put lots of traffic on it, then it might slow everyone down. The line will have plenty of capacity for you on your own, and for a few people, but not for loads and loads of simultaneous users. If it is just "contention", then unfortunately there will be nothing you can do about it.

It doesn't sound like it's likely to be a filter problem given it's only happening at certain times of day. In theory there could be a technical problem with your line and even the socket itself, but again if it only happens in the evening that sounds less likely. The evening is also of course likely to be the peak time for people using it. Do you know if your neighbours have similar problems ?

Your wireless laptop could be having interference problems with other wireless networks in the area, which is where changing channels on the wireless router could come in. But that won't affect/help the PS3 I'm afraid.

I've written a complaint letter today, I also read about there download/bandwith limits. Although I have unlimted downloads I think they have for some reason restricted my bandwith at peek time. There times are 4pm-12am this is a joke as this is when I will want to actually play on the ps3. And if they limit the connection speed which i believe they have I cant play darn them, waiting for there reply. For instances been playin since 12 today, been totally fine infact very good. This is off peak an shows that the router/lines are working & that when others return home 3.30 or 4 onwards my connection on the PS3 has dropped so i cant play. May look to another provider if there going to keep me restricted which is looking like what is happening.

The people are using Tiscalli, TalkTalk, BT & Sky I notice a serious dip on performance when some on that n range you spoke about comes on. But thats in Peak time anyway I shall await virgins reply before I get anymore angry lol.

I use speedtest as you mentioned this morning it was under 60, now currently its 101 tis a joke.

[Steviewevie]

You're right, that's another possibility, the dreaded "traffic shaping" (i.e. restricting certain types of traffic at certain times etc). Might be worth looking around on forums to see which ISPs PS3 owners are finding problems or not with.

[Steviewevie]

Just having had a look, I see that (unlike many ISPs) Virgin do actually publish details of their traffic shaping, here.