I'm just about at the end of my tether with BT internet. It's not so
much the speed but the way it drops out for a few seconds to minutes
every half hour or so. Of course they deny there's any kind of problem.
It seems to me that this is a problem with the antique copper
infrastructure, so the solution would be to go to fibre.
The street is already cabled, so Virgin seems a good bet. (BT infinity
isn't available, despite being in the city and within sight of the
nearest exchange!)

It's a big-ish house but the current BT Hub gives fair wifi coverage of
the whole place from the first floor landing. It would, however, be a
PITA to run the cable through the external wall directly to there, so I
suspect they wouldn't be keen. It may be that their router would give a
stronger signal, though, and could be used from the ground floor.

I'd rather not have a VM contractor running cable around the inside of
the house as he'd probably make a pig's ear of the place (yes, I know
from Adam's posts that the professional term is a 'cow's ****' but I'm
not electrically qualified), so I'd rather do any significant internal
cabling myself.

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Finally, is there any problem with running this alongside power cables,
as would be the case for networking?

Cheers chaps

On 24/11/2016 10:46, GMM wrote:

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Personally, I would put the superhub in modem mode and leave it at the
entry point, then run Cat5e from it up to a decent WiFi router.
The Sh3 is erm, not the best WiFi router out there

On 24/11/2016 12:15, Jethro_uk wrote:

All VM equipment is crippled beyond belief (probably as a result of
trying to prevent freeloaders). The TiVO being a classic example.


Yeah OP, you didn't mention TV services, but don't get a current model
TiVo
It barely works as a DVR, let alone trying to use any of the "extra"
services. The whole experience is like running windows on an old under
powered laptop with a dodgy hard drive
Here's hoping the upcoming V6 will at least be usable...

On Thu, 24 Nov 2016 10:46:17 +0000, GMM wrote:

I'm just about at the end of my tether with BT internet. It's not so
much the speed but the way it drops out for a few seconds to minutes
every half hour or so. Of course they deny there's any kind of problem.
It seems to me that this is a problem with the antique copper
infrastructure, so the solution would be to go to fibre.
The street is already cabled, so Virgin seems a good bet. (BT infinity
isn't available, despite being in the city and within sight of the
nearest exchange!)

It's a big-ish house but the current BT Hub gives fair wifi coverage of
the whole place from the first floor landing. It would, however, be a
PITA to run the cable through the external wall directly to there, so I
suspect they wouldn't be keen. It may be that their router would give a
stronger signal, though, and could be used from the ground floor.

I'd rather not have a VM contractor running cable around the inside of
the house as he'd probably make a pig's ear of the place (yes, I know
from Adam's posts that the professional term is a 'cow's ****' but I'm
not electrically qualified), so I'd rather do any significant internal
cabling myself.

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Finally, is there any problem with running this alongside power cables,
as would be the case for networking?

Cheers chaps

Depending on location VM seem happy to run the cables almost anywhere.

We have a cable through the outside wall into the lounge for the Tivo.

We also have a cable into the small bedroom/office for the Internet.

Double +1 for switching the router into modem mode. The software is ****e.
Cat5+ to your best location for a router of your own is an easy way and
doesn't involve messing with the VM co-ax.

Cheers

Dave R





--
AMD FX-6300 Windows 7 Pro x64

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

David wrote:

Depending on location VM seem happy to run the cables almost anywhere.

Round here Virgin actually do fibre to the home, rather than fibre to
the cabinet then coax to the home. I watched as they installed next
doors by making a 2" deep slit across their lawn with a spade and poking
the fibre down into it ...

Jethro_uk wrote:
On Thu, 24 Nov 2016 11:55:49 +0000, Lee wrote:

On 24/11/2016 10:46, GMM wrote:

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Personally, I would put the superhub in modem mode and leave it at the
entry point, then run Cat5e from it up to a decent WiFi router.
The Sh3 is erm, not the best WiFi router out there

+_1

All VM equipment is crippled beyond belief (probably as a result of
trying to prevent freeloaders). The TiVO being a classic example.



Well that's disappointing. The old TiVo was a brilliant PVR and in terms of
ease of use beat (and possibly still beats) all other PVRs hands down. Of
course the lack of HD rendered it redundant.

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 24/11/2016 14:44, Tim+ wrote:

Well that's disappointing. The old TiVo was a brilliant PVR and in terms of
ease of use beat (and possibly still beats) all other PVRs hands down. Of
course the lack of HD rendered it redundant.

Tbf, the TiVo does actually *work* and in some ways is still better than
the Sky offering, but the box is SLOW. As in 30 seconds to change
channel after viewing the recordings menu, SLOW.
VM have introduced "value added extras" and bloated the firmware so
much that the dated hardware really struggles to keep up.

They reckon on the forum that they have an upcoming firmware "fix" for
the "slowness", yeah right...

In article ,
GMM wrote:
I'm just about at the end of my tether with BT internet. It's not so
much the speed but the way it drops out for a few seconds to minutes
every half hour or so. Of course they deny there's any kind of problem.

Are you using the older BT Home Hub version 1 or 2 or 3? Nearly 2 years
ago I was suffering the same thing and BT upgraded me to the Home Hub 4
just for the cost of postage and that has cured the problem.

The latest version 5 would have cost me but that has had some very good
reviews in eg Computer Shopper.

Alan

--


Using an ARMX6

Well what I have done here is to use their router as a simple modem and put
a network cable through to where I want the router and as these seem pretty
cheap run it there. This has the added bonus for me is that all the desktop
machines are hard wired and only the portable stuff needs the wifi.
In my view these hubs they all bundle seem to be their own worst enemies
having antennas inside the case and no aerial socket.
I have however been through several power supplies for their hub as these
seemingly do fail quite often.
I'm assuming you still have to take their phone though I'm not sure. I have
it, but the costs seem similar to BT, although the call anytime is quite
good if still marketed. Its not cheap though, no matter what they start it
as, just like the other companies they give you free speed increases then
after a few months oh look the price has gone up!
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"GMM" wrote in message
news
I'm just about at the end of my tether with BT internet. It's not so much
the speed but the way it drops out for a few seconds to minutes every half
hour or so. Of course they deny there's any kind of problem.
It seems to me that this is a problem with the antique copper
infrastructure, so the solution would be to go to fibre.
The street is already cabled, so Virgin seems a good bet. (BT infinity
isn't available, despite being in the city and within sight of the nearest
exchange!)

It's a big-ish house but the current BT Hub gives fair wifi coverage of
the whole place from the first floor landing. It would, however, be a
PITA to run the cable through the external wall directly to there, so I
suspect they wouldn't be keen. It may be that their router would give a
stronger signal, though, and could be used from the ground floor.

I'd rather not have a VM contractor running cable around the inside of the
house as he'd probably make a pig's ear of the place (yes, I know from
Adam's posts that the professional term is a 'cow's ****' but I'm not
electrically qualified), so I'd rather do any significant internal cabling
myself.

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Finally, is there any problem with running this alongside power cables, as
would be the case for networking?

Cheers chaps

On 24/11/2016 16:12, Brian Gaff wrote:
Well what I have done here is to use their router as a simple modem and put
a network cable through to where I want the router and as these seem pretty
cheap run it there. This has the added bonus for me is that all the desktop
machines are hard wired and only the portable stuff needs the wifi.
In my view these hubs they all bundle seem to be their own worst enemies
having antennas inside the case and no aerial socket.
I have however been through several power supplies for their hub as these
seemingly do fail quite often.
I'm assuming you still have to take their phone though I'm not sure. I have
it, but the costs seem similar to BT, although the call anytime is quite
good if still marketed. Its not cheap though, no matter what they start it
as, just like the other companies they give you free speed increases then
after a few months oh look the price has gone up!
Brian


VM charge the same with or without a phone line, eventually I dropped
the bt line and use the vm for incoming calls and a mobile (6 quid a
month)for all outgoing ones, vm are very dear on their phone call
charging unless you can justify the all inclusive option.

Alan Dawes wrote:

Are you using the older BT Home Hub version 1 or 2 or 3? Nearly 2 years
ago I was suffering the same thing and BT upgraded me to the Home Hub 4
just for the cost of postage and that has cured the problem.

The latest version 5 would have cost me but that has had some very good
reviews in eg Computer Shopper.

They've moved into the HH6 now, it's the one they base their "strongest
signal" claim on in their helicopter advert.

On 24/11/2016 10:46, GMM wrote:


I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Finally, is there any problem with running this alongside power cables,
as would be the case for networking?


You need to use as a minimum CT100 cable. It's a couple of years since I
did the internal Virgin Media wiring on some new flats and VM supplied
the cable. It was not much more than a combined telephone cable with a
CT100.

We ran two of these from each apartment (one in the hall and one behind
the TV) to the basement and left the basement work to VM. In the
apartments we put a VM 1g blanking plate over the cables. The customers
that chose to use VM then had the blanking plate swapped for a VM box
similar to this
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...534C3?v=mpbl-1.

You should ideally keep the CT100 75mm away from any parallel power cables.

And yes if you want a "cow's **** of a job doing" then I am sure VM will
be more than happy to oblige you - it's the only service that they
supply free of charge.

VM would of course would like to charge for such a service - however
OFCOM ruled that they should bring their charges down to the same level
as the BT and SKY engineers who have for years offered this service for
free.


--
Adam

On Thu, 24 Nov 2016 10:46:17 +0000, GMM wrote:

snip

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.


The guys that cabled from the pavement into our house about 14 years
ago (256kbs) were quite happy to let me have a length of their white
coax with nicely crimped F connectors to extend under the floor and
move the router.
Biscuits must be chocolate.

On 25/11/16 13:39, Geo wrote:
On Thu, 24 Nov 2016 10:46:17 +0000, GMM wrote:

snip

The question is, would there be a down-side to taking the cable into an
easy ground floor location, seeing whether it works OK and, if not,
extending myself to the first floor?

I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.


The guys that cabled from the pavement into our house about 14 years
ago (256kbs) were quite happy to let me have a length of their white
coax with nicely crimped F connectors to extend under the floor and
move the router.
Biscuits must be chocolate.

But Danish pastries and jam doughnuts are acceptable.


--
"Women actually are capable of being far more than the feminists will
let them."

On 24/11/2016 16:12, Brian Gaff wrote:
Well what I have done here is to use their router as a simple modem and put
a network cable through to where I want the router and as these seem pretty
cheap run it there. This has the added bonus for me is that all the desktop
machines are hard wired and only the portable stuff needs the wifi.
In my view these hubs they all bundle seem to be their own worst enemies
having antennas inside the case and no aerial socket.
I have however been through several power supplies for their hub as these
seemingly do fail quite often.

Mine superhub PSU is six years old without problem

I'm assuming you still have to take their phone though I'm not sure. I have
it, but the costs seem similar to BT, although the call anytime is quite
good if still marketed. Its not cheap though, no matter what they start it
as, just like the other companies they give you free speed increases then
after a few months oh look the price has gone up!
Brian

No they tell you they are giving you a free speed increase next month
followed by a price increase. I would expect the increase on time and
the next years increase to before the speed increase arrives.

Anyway with VM it is the up speed that needs increasing so the non
existence of an increase in down speed isn't that concerning.

On 24/11/2016 16:18, MrCheerful wrote:
On 24/11/2016 16:12, Brian Gaff wrote:
Well what I have done here is to use their router as a simple modem
and put
a network cable through to where I want the router and as these seem
pretty
cheap run it there. This has the added bonus for me is that all the
desktop
machines are hard wired and only the portable stuff needs the wifi.
In my view these hubs they all bundle seem to be their own worst enemies
having antennas inside the case and no aerial socket.
I have however been through several power supplies for their hub as
these
seemingly do fail quite often.
I'm assuming you still have to take their phone though I'm not sure.
I have
it, but the costs seem similar to BT, although the call anytime is quite
good if still marketed. Its not cheap though, no matter what they
start it
as, just like the other companies they give you free speed increases then
after a few months oh look the price has gone up!
Brian


VM charge the same with or without a phone line, eventually I dropped
the bt line and use the vm for incoming calls and a mobile (6 quid a
month)for all outgoing ones, vm are very dear on their phone call
charging unless you can justify the all inclusive option.

It is slightly cheaper not to have the phone line. You can use VOIP for
incoming calls and outgoing if you prefer it to mobile.

On 25/11/2016 14:13, Nick wrote:
On 24/11/2016 16:18, MrCheerful wrote:
On 24/11/2016 16:12, Brian Gaff wrote:
Well what I have done here is to use their router as a simple modem
and put
a network cable through to where I want the router and as these seem
pretty
cheap run it there. This has the added bonus for me is that all the
desktop
machines are hard wired and only the portable stuff needs the wifi.
In my view these hubs they all bundle seem to be their own worst
enemies
having antennas inside the case and no aerial socket.
I have however been through several power supplies for their hub as
these
seemingly do fail quite often.
I'm assuming you still have to take their phone though I'm not sure.
I have
it, but the costs seem similar to BT, although the call anytime is quite
good if still marketed. Its not cheap though, no matter what they
start it
as, just like the other companies they give you free speed increases
then
after a few months oh look the price has gone up!
Brian


VM charge the same with or without a phone line, eventually I dropped
the bt line and use the vm for incoming calls and a mobile (6 quid a
month)for all outgoing ones, vm are very dear on their phone call
charging unless you can justify the all inclusive option.

It is slightly cheaper not to have the phone line. You can use VOIP for
incoming calls and outgoing if you prefer it to mobile.

It must depend who you speak to at Virgin as to whether it is extra or
not. Either way, for me a monthly sim in the tablet was a big saving
over the BT line plus calls.

On 24/11/2016 15:46, Alan Dawes wrote:
In article ,
GMM wrote:
I'm just about at the end of my tether with BT internet. It's not so
much the speed but the way it drops out for a few seconds to minutes
every half hour or so. Of course they deny there's any kind of problem.

Are you using the older BT Home Hub version 1 or 2 or 3? Nearly 2 years
ago I was suffering the same thing and BT upgraded me to the Home Hub 4
just for the cost of postage and that has cured the problem.

The latest version 5 would have cost me but that has had some very good
reviews in eg Computer Shopper.

Alan

That's interesting as I'd been assuming that it would be the ancient
copper causing the issues and I do have a HH3.

Now, of course, I have a dilemma: BT want not just paying but also a 12
month contract for a new router. If that solved it, fine, but if it
didn't then I'm stuck with a crap service for another year.
Meanwhile, the Virgin option is looking like quite a job with either
co-ax or cat 5, especially if their router isn't great.

Maybe I'll buy a third party router, try that for a bit and see what
happens(!)

On 24/11/2016 18:59, ARW wrote:
On 24/11/2016 10:46, GMM wrote:


I'm assuming (from what I can glean online) that distribution is via
co-ax. I have a drum of RG6 already - Is that OK or should I source
something different if I have to do this? Clearly, this presents some
issues as it's not the most flexible stuff going.

Finally, is there any problem with running this alongside power cables,
as would be the case for networking?


You need to use as a minimum CT100 cable. It's a couple of years since I
did the internal Virgin Media wiring on some new flats and VM supplied
the cable. It was not much more than a combined telephone cable with a
CT100.

We ran two of these from each apartment (one in the hall and one behind
the TV) to the basement and left the basement work to VM. In the
apartments we put a VM 1g blanking plate over the cables. The customers
that chose to use VM then had the blanking plate swapped for a VM box
similar to this
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...534C3?v=mpbl-1.


You should ideally keep the CT100 75mm away from any parallel power cables.

And yes if you want a "cow's **** of a job doing" then I am sure VM will
be more than happy to oblige you - it's the only service that they
supply free of charge.

VM would of course would like to charge for such a service - however
OFCOM ruled that they should bring their charges down to the same level
as the BT and SKY engineers who have for years offered this service for
free.


It's good to know there's consistency across the market!

On 24/11/2016 12:37, David wrote:


Depending on location VM seem happy to run the cables almost anywhere.

We have a cable through the outside wall into the lounge for the Tivo.

We also have a cable into the small bedroom/office for the Internet.

The trouble is, in this case, the optimal entry point would be above a
porch which is in dire need of replacing before it falls down of its own
accord. I suspect and installer climbing onto it would help with teh
demolition but not necessarily at an ideal time...


Double +1 for switching the router into modem mode. The software is ****e.
Cat5+ to your best location for a router of your own is an easy way and
doesn't involve messing with the VM co-ax.

Cheers

Dave R

On 28/11/16 20:51, GMM wrote:

That's interesting as I'd been assuming that it would be the ancient
copper causing the issues and I do have a HH3.

Now, of course, I have a dilemma: BT want not just paying but also a 12
month contract for a new router.

Try eBay for a HH5.

--
Adrian C