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, 18:01pm
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, 18:01pm
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, 18:01pm
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, 18:01pm
Categories: Computers and Technology, Links, Web
Tags: broadband, virgin-media

Virgin Media 20MB Broadband

Today we upgraded our L 10MB Virgin Media Cable Broadband to their XL package, with speeds up to 20MB! We also opted for the XL phone and also XL TV packages, all for £56!

Thinking we'd be waiting a few days until the upgrade, I continued surfing the 'net as normal. However, after another trip to Speedtest.net, I found that the speed hike had already taken place:

Bearing in mind before it hit around the 8MB[500kb/s] mark (10MB package), the extra throughput is instantly recognisable. Everything is instant, no lag, no delays. So, slickhouse.com (and other sites hosted here) will reach you even quicker.

Virgin Media have come on leaps and bounds since the NTL days; whereas the latter's customer services left a lot to be desired, Virgin Media are fantastic and very helpful. Also, the fact that Samuel L. Jackson regularly fronts their TV ads also helps. Fibre Optic broadband is super fly.

I'll no doubt be posting again in the coming weeks, regarding Virgin Media - as our V+ box is to be installed soon. It'll allow us to record 2 channels, whilst watching the third, all in HD-goodness. About time too - as we regularly miss our favourites.

comments Posted: Saturday 16th August 2008, 18:01pm
Categories: Computers and Technology, Slickhouse, Video, Web
Tags: cable-broadband, virgin-media