Very poor utilisation

I've been a member of VM for just over 2 years and have had no problems. Recently a utilisation issue has raised it's head where I'm struggling to get a 2MB connection in the evening. This is happening every evening and to be quite frank I've had enough. They've given an estimate of end of Jan for a fix, but I don't think I can cope that long. Infinity isn't due to my cabinet until end of 2016 which is a damn shame so my only option is to go back to ADSL+ where best I can hope for is a 10MB connection. Having said that, anything above 2MB in the evening would be a bonus.

So, should I give VM two fingers and just wait until Infinity becomes available or should I give VM a chance. I've heard horror stories of utilisation issues taking years to be resolved, so am thinking I should just jump ship now and be done with it. Any other views?

You don't seem to have a viable alternative to VM. So grin and bear it for now. There is a price rise in February.

I would wait, when I lived in Manchester they did resolve them eventually.

depends on your alternative.... if your available ADSL is 10+mbps then maybe jump ship otherwise stay put until Infinity arrives... in the meantime you could try attaching a router to your hub in modem mode which should change your seat in the virgin network possibly improving your connection.... this worked for me though only improved it for little while and I would need to change my MAC address to hop again!

Thanks for the replies so far. Done some more digging and it looks like prep work for a new fibre cabinet begins in Jan. I already run the super hub 2 in modem mode and use an Asus ac87u router for all the important stuff.

Might just be a question of hanging on and then jumping ship once fibre is available to order from likes of BT etc hopefully around April/May time.

RT-AC87U ........ have you tried a different router for testing the problem?

Are you aware that there have been major issues with this router ?

The Quantenna WiFi drivers are terribly unreliable and the router design adds to the problem by getting too hot.

The processors have no heat sinks, they are pasted to the plastic shell and when you have a lot of clients and traffic they get extremely hot.

The excess heat kills WiFi and over time damages the main CPU.

Many people have added cooling fans, or use a laptop cooler to stand the router on, that reduces temp by @ 50%.

I have had 4 of these routers , every one was faulty and got replaced by the supplier, in the end they withdrew the 87U and I was offered the AC3200 as a replacement.


Just a thought, your issues could be due to the router ........

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

depends on your alternative.... if your available ADSL is 10+mbps then maybe jump ship otherwise stay put until Infinity arrives... in the meantime you could try attaching a router to your hub in modem mode which should change your seat in the virgin network possibly improving your connection.... this worked for me though only improved it for little while and I would need to change my MAC address to hop again!

Point of order: you can't 'change your seat' in the network, just your IP address. You're still connected to the same optical node.

If there are more than 8 downstream channels and more than 2 upstream channels while you are on a Superhub 1/2/2AC you might end up on a different set of channels by rebooting your Superhub but it's not Plusnet where you can hop gateways, you are hard wired.

Thanks for that, but VM have already confirmed there is a downstream utilisation issue. Have to say I'm impressed with the router. Doesn't run too hot and gives me far better wifi coverage and speed than the sh2.

In reply to a post by AdrianPH:

RT-AC87U ........ have you tried a different router for testing the problem?

Are you aware that there have been major issues with this router ?

The Quantenna WiFi drivers are terribly unreliable and the router design adds to the problem by getting too hot.

The processors have no heat sinks, they are pasted to the plastic shell and when you have a lot of clients and traffic they get extremely hot.

The excess heat kills WiFi and over time damages the main CPU.

Many people have added cooling fans, or use a laptop cooler to stand the router on, that reduces temp by @ 50%.

I have had 4 of these routers , every one was faulty and got replaced by the supplier, in the end they withdrew the 87U and I was offered the AC3200 as a replacement.


Just a thought, your issues could be due to the router ........

I also had to return mine 3 week ago after it failing... wish'd I'd read about the issues before hand...

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

depends on your alternative.... if your available ADSL is 10+mbps then maybe jump ship otherwise stay put until Infinity arrives... in the meantime you could try attaching a router to your hub in modem mode which should change your seat in the virgin network possibly improving your connection.... this worked for me though only improved it for little while and I would need to change my MAC address to hop again!

Point of order: you can't 'change your seat' in the network, just your IP address. You're still connected to the same optical node.

If there are more than 8 downstream channels and more than 2 upstream channels while you are on a Superhub 1/2/2AC you might end up on a different set of channels by rebooting your Superhub but it's not Plusnet where you can hop gateways, you are hard wired.

Hmmm, perhaps I could of been a bit clearer with my explanation but yes triggering a change of the downstream channels was more a less what I was getting at and yes correct it doesn't mean you'll get away fro the problem just perhaps grab a less busy channel to pull a little more data through.