Heart108

@Jills and @Penguin This is indeed a viable way to boost your signal of a wireless router and it was recommended to me some time ago by another Virgin Mobile technician. Just to recap what Penguin is saying: Normally you have a modem and a wireless router. The modem takes a cable direct from your phone line or in the case of VM a dedicated cable running into your home from the street. You then connect via an ethernet cable OUT of the modem and into the back of the router. The router beams the signal to the rest of your home, but rooms far away may get a week signal. Maplins sell a product which consists of what look like 2 chargers. You plug one into the wall near your router - and then from the router you connect via another ethernet cable to the wall charger. This sends the signal into your electric ring main circuit. Lets say you have a room upstairs far from the the router. You plug the second unit into the wall and from there you take another ethernet cable and plug that directly into your computer upstairs.. that increases the signal. * * * I tried one which I bought in Maplins but it did not work that great... it did not seem to make a lot of difference but the KEY THING is to ask a proper technician who does this every day for a living. Who can assess whether the signal really is degraded by the interfering walls/distance from the router.. ...0r whether the signal coming into your home is just weak HTH :)

@dulwich bloke 9.25am The www.speednet test right now 10.oopm Monday night on my computer is: ??PING 8ms ( this is very good - it refers to the round trip time the signal takes to get to the server which is in Sittingbourne) ? download 22.17 Mb/s ( this is dreadful and typical of Virgin Media - I have a record of this kind of amount most of the time. Their website promises for 50Mb ( which is what I am paying for) "49.5 is what our customers typically get" ??upload 4.45Mbs ( this is not great) FYI I am paying about ?47.00 month for a combined VM package: TV ( most basic version with catch up, broadband 50Mg and a second phone line which I never use except as a receiver for faxes)

Update Sunday 26th 23rd June update: The purpose of starting this thread was to share and gather information about broadband issues and how to cope with them in the East Dulwich area. So many of us are self employed and rely totally on the internet for communications and business from home that it would be useful to share as much detailed and practical experiences here on EDF. It is not my intention to plug or slag off any particular ISP - my previous letting of steam phrases notwithstanding : ) * * * I have to say at the outset from a Virgin Media point of view, that if you can persuade someone on the helpline to send a technician you will learn a lot: Since I originally posted, my broadband is now working - not great.. or fast as it should be ( video streaming still sticks occasionally, pages dont load that fast, and broadband online test upload/download is not great but at least it is working). As a general principle do a broad band speed check on a regular basis from the same site. ( I use www.speedtest. not) You get 3 results: upload, down load and ping. Take a Screenshot ( ie on Macs: Command + Shift + 4 and you get a photographic snapshot of the test & save it to a file. ( There is probably an equivalent on PC but I dont use them). You can then build up a profile of the signal over days and ~~~~ As far as the Virgin Media Service is concerned there are some good points to note: The day after I complained ( ie the day after the original post of this thread) A very helpful Virgin Media technician turned up in the allotted time slot and proceeded to test the line. ? google broadband speed check and do a series of regular checks to your internet connection ??he disconnected the modem and tested the signal from the street. There was virtually no signal coming into the property. He said he would need to ramp up the signal from the junction box. This means apparently that there is leeway to boost the signal from a given junction box which is done depending on how near or far the box is from a particular property. The further away the junction box from your home the weaker the signal and the more it will need to be 'boosted' from that box. ( ie this is something you can ask about) ??he tested the signal on the outside entry box from the street and concluded there was no signal coming into from the street. This meant that all the VM customers in the surrounding street would have been without service. ??he got onto the company's engineers and said they would be round to fix the box within a couple of hours - this indeed happened and by the end of the afternoon the broadband was working. ? also noticed that I had an older model modem and said that I could be fitted with a newer one. * * * The VM broadband is working but not particularly well - streaming video still sticks.. it is definitely not a consistent 50Mg rate that VM delivers and I would suggest that it is not worth paying this rate as in East Dulwich it is not noticeabley better than the old 20 meg rate I was paying for last October 2010 Hope this is of interest

Thanks everyone for your contributions. For the record I intend to write to few consumer Sites such as Which Guide and get some guidance on What constitutes a 'failure of service' ie enough to terminate A contract with an ISP My problem is that since last October I am locked into A virgin tv/phone/broadband contract which i would happily Ditch right now

Update 12.00pm 21 jun 11 There are number of positive outcomes here objectively Speaking a about Virgin Media: 1 - i discovered a direct freephone number for tech support With no mindless gok voiced menu of options. You get straight through On: 0800 052 0431 to clues up helpful call centre people abroad 2 - on the standard virgin modems there are 5 blue lights from left To right - a tick ( if this is not lit the broadband connection is dead) - upload activity arrow - download activity arrow - computer ethernet connection ( unplug the cable and it goes off) - power symbol ----/ Our personal broadband issue appears to be a hardware fault from the street They are sending a technician within 24 hours -----/ They acknowledged the broader months long issue of speed and reliability for the whole area I mentioned the previous deadline thAt hey said it would be fixed by 16th June The job has been extended and the new deadline is that it will be fixed by 5.00pm 24th June

No offense but I think the rain as excuse won't wash - Virgin Has highly touted dedicated cables laid in the days of NTL completely independent from the phone network This is why they claim to offer ( rightly in principle) such Massively superior speeds. But the fact that their service is still so dire Cannot Be Attributed to the odd rainstorm or flooded green roadside box I will bet that they have oversold their capacity On the basic servers that supply this area If you do an online broadband speed test - you get a good result If you choose a far away server like ashford Kent or somewhere exotic The worst thing is that there is no reliable source of information About when the system will be down and this turns running An internet dependent business from home into a nightmare

Just got through for a second time today to Virgin Media - the same answer as this morning: " the 'Application' for checking out customer details is down And we cannot perform any tests on individual customers' lines" In a previous phone call on 7th June I was told "there is a problem with the frequency of the server which is too low" and that it would be sorted by 16th June And that once the problem was over I could claim a rebate Of ?26 then received a non human computer call which left a message Saying the problem was fixed and I could now claim the rebate Which is negligible in relation to months of irregular service *** I suspect that they have oversold their capacity and too many people are competing for their available broadband space Expert opinion would be much appreciated in reply to this ( BTw am involved in this thread thanks to a smart phone )

Thanks for your replies .. I upgraded last October 2010 to virgins extra large most expensive Package 50mg ( which I need for sending work files) and the service Is totally unreliable - you can never depend on a fast upload which makes Guaranteeing delivery of files impossible. I have monitored this constantly via broadband speed tracker and the 50meg service is a ripoff to the point of being a joke I have also got a file/ record of calls I made and end saying the Same thing and doing the same system tests from some remote Call centre abroad. I have never been able to speak with an engineer that Actually has local knowledge of the situation here in East dulwich I would appreciate if anyone local who uses virgin media Can add info to this situation

Anyone experience problems with virgin media broadband? Mine has been intermittent for weeks months and totally off today 20th June

I was delighted to see Lib Dem Councillor Jonathan Steele and ( I think) a Labour counterpart campaigning outside the Co Op on Saturday morning in Lordship Lane. The 'no' vote campaign has been heavily underwritten by the Conservatives but according to today's Guardian the 'Yes' vote have reduced the lead to 10 points. I sincerely hope enlightened East Dulwich will support the YES campaign H PS I am posting as a normal unaffiliated east dulwich resident who believes this to be a legitimate issue for debate

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Am surprised no one mentions the Mirash Tandoori on Grove Vale just past the Goose Green roundabout. Because it's 'off Broadway' of Lordship Lane most people dont seem to want to try it but after trying all the places mentioned I never go anywhere else for curry in East Dulwich and have been going there for years (though Ganapati is fantastic !)

Thanks for the explanation = no hard feelings : )

Hi Admin: thanks for clarifying and thanks to mockney piers for suggesting a way to nullify one's content * * * Another question to Admin: I am just curious about why my posting of the the cartoon on the Dog Barking thread was deleted. I went to some trouble to post what I thought was a hilariously apt cartoon.. [ For the record it was Brant Parker and Johnny Hart's 'Wizard of Id' Block one: The King is lying in bed at night kept awake by a loudly barking dog. He calls: 'Guard!! Find out whose dog that is and shoot him!' Block two: The Guard comes into the King's bed chamber and says: "You want me to shoot a dog?!!!" Block three: The King replies: "Him too!" .... :)

Greetings Forum Owners, My question is about deleting one's own posts: .. I have been trying this evening to delete some of my failed posts ( on the Barking Dog Thread) and when you press Edit and get the option to Cancel. A message comes up saying that your post has been deleted but when I return to the forum it is still there... If you could add a line or two about deleting one's own posts in the FAQ I would be grateful

At last.... ! http://i364.photobucket.com/albums/oo82/dogliege/3.jpg ~~~~ ~~~~ http://i364.photobucket.com/albums/oo82/dogliege/3-2.jpg

How do you delete?

Trying to delete . but it does not work

how do you delete your own post?

please delete

Have a great time Mark - I fully support you taking a break.. this is an amazing service which you run..