It's here!

Finally, after several months waiting for Lincoln to be included in the rollout - to the actual installation day, our 50MB Virgin Media Broadband has arrived! Unfortunately it meant that all the domains hosted here were unavailable for nearly 12 hours yesterday, 5 of which I spent getting it all to work - and to my surprise, a speed test showed that is was running at full capacity.

So far it seems quick but we've been accustomed to 20MB for a while now - which was hardly 56k speeds. The cost is also very reasonable since they dropped the prices on 1st September, so much so that it only cost a few £ more to upgrade. They also throw in a D-Link Wireless-N router and USB adapter to take advantage of the new speed.

You should/may notice an increase in page load times around here, as the servers can provide content over twice as fast as before. There's also headroom as Virgin Media are currently trialling 200MB download speeds and 10MB upload with their new DOCSIS 3.0 system. In the words of Samuel L Jackson, it's the dawn of a new era.

comments Posted: Wednesday 7th October 2009, 15:12pm
Categories: Computers and Technology, Slickhouse, Web
Tags: broadband, virgin-media

Zon 1Gbps Broadband

Whilst Virgin Media have been paving the way with UK Broadband, with their recent offering of 50Mbit fibre optic cable broadband coming to town - other countries are experiencing far high speeds.

Zon has just announced 1Gbps Broadband to be rolled out in September for Portugal. That's insane!

It's unclear as to whether the 1Gbps is up and down, but the chances are it'll be the fastest in the world either way.

comments Posted: Friday 7th August 2009, 15:12pm
Categories: Computers and Technology, Web
Tags: broadband, virgin-media

Virgin Media lowering cost of XXL package

Virgin Media has announced that they're lowering the cost of their 50MB XXL Broadband Package - to £28 (inc. phone line) and £38 (exc. phone line).

But that's not all - they're also trialling upload speeds of 10MB! Considering my current 20MB XL Broadband reaches a little over 700KB and the XXL package currently hits 1.5MB - this is a vast improvement, something that many Virgin Media customers have been calling out for ages.

If they roll this out with the 50MB package soon, then we'll definately be upgrading. A few months back I was considering BeThere who offer a Pro package with 24MB down/2.5MB up - but Virgin's new plans dwarf the best that the ADSL providers offer.

comments Posted: Wednesday 15th July 2009, 15:12pm
Categories: Computers and Technology, Web
Tags: broadband, virgin-media

Virgin Media 50mb Broadband

Virgin Media has announced their new 50mb Broadband service.

I've checked myself and unfortunately Lincoln isn't able to currently get the increased speed, but Virgin have confirmed that all customers will be able to receive it by Summer 2009!

Price wise, it's £50 standalone, with the price reducing depending on other packages. Our existing 20mb XL package, which also includes V+ and their telephone line comes in at £56, so it's a big price to pay - but could be worth it.

To see if you're able to receive the 50mb broadband in your area, visit Virgin Media.

comments Posted: Monday 15th December 2008, 15:12pm
Categories: Computers and Technology, Links, Web
Tags: broadband, virgin-media

24 hours of downtime

I knew it was coming, but didn't know exactly when...

Virgin Media are in the process of transferring the account to myself, part of which involves temporarily switching off the broadband connection, whilst they then setup a new connection in the new account holder's name.

Fortunately their Customer Services are very helpful and knowledgeable - who during the first call confirmed that the broadband had been disconnected. The second call involved them updating the information for the cable modem, which required the MAC address.

So, everything is up and running again and the back-log of my emails are slowly creeping in. We're going to upgrade the account soon to the triple XL, which includes 20MB broadband amongst others. I'll let you know if doubling the speed makes any noticable difference.

comments Posted: Saturday 5th July 2008, 15:12am
Categories: Computers and Technology, Slickhouse, Web
Tags: broadband, virgin-media