Considering switching from Virgin to Sky

dubdev

Hi there

Current Virgin Media customer on 30mb considering switching to sky. There's been a serious degradation in broadband service over the past few weeks and getting about 12mb down when it's working at all.

VM's customer support told me to reboot the box and that 12mb over WiFi is quite good for the bundle we're on (!). I've tried changing WiFi channels too but that didn't work either. I'm just fed up with Virgin generally as the box sometimes doesn't record things either.

Has anyone switched from Virgin to Sky ? I'm wondering what's involved and if they need to call out and install anything ? I live in Spencer Dock in Dublin 1 and the apartments were originally wired with cable for UPC or Magnet.

Thanks

Kristopherus

Is that fibre you've got?

dubdev

Kristopherus wrote: »

Is that fibre you've got?

Yes it's a legacy plan called "Fibre power broadband 30mb"

colm_mcm

Assume that's the highest speed they do where you live? Might be worth checking if there is an upgrade date scheduled.
If not, then up to 100mb Sky would be a no brainer, assuming they have a half decent speed in your building.

degsie

Sky delivers bb over copper wire pair. Does your appt have phone points?

Phil.x

Sky rent eir phone lines so if eir are not wired in your apartment then you won't get it.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Phil.x wrote: »

Sky rent eir phone lines so if eir are not wired in your apartment then you won't get it.

Also Sky won't install a phone line unless you take TV from them too. Can you have a Satellite dish installed outside your Apartment?

dubdev

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

Also Sky won't install a phone line unless you take TV from them too. Can you have a Satellite dish installed outside your Apartment?

Upgraded to Virgin Media horizon in the end . So far very unimpressed with the broadband - constantly dropping and things like Netflix are unwatchable. Not entirely sure where to go from here as we don't have a phone line, just cable outlets so that limits our options I think.

degsie

dubdev wrote: »

Upgraded to Virgin Media horizon in the end . So far very unimpressed with the broadband - constantly dropping and things like Netflix are unwatchable. Not entirely sure where to go from here as we don't have a phone line, just cable outlets so that limits our options I think.

Have a chat with Virgin Media in the Talk To.. forum.

curiousoranje

The wifi output from the Horizon box is shockingly bad, Virgin will give you a separate router and disable the inbuilt one on the horizon box if you ask them.

Might be worth downloading a wifi channel scanner app, and choosing the channel with least interference. If everyone in your complex also has Virgin broadband and is using the same channel by default it could be degrading your wifi signal.

ED E

dubdev wrote: »

I live in Spencer Dock in Dublin 1 and the apartments

dubdev wrote: »

Upgraded to Virgin Media horizon in the end

Horizon having the worst antenna of all the device they supply and you living in an area thats chock full of RFI is a recipe for disaster.

You need to use 5Ghz (and forget any older client devices) as "normal" 2.4Ghz is just going to be painful. Virgin only offer full dual band on the 360Mb standalone service so you could change to that if you wanted, or purchase a basic 3rd party access point and disable the Horizons wifi (after disabling WiFree on your VMI account).

bk

Follow the advice in this post and thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057367191

It should fix your internet problems.

motty27

Dundev - were you able to get sky tv in Spencer dock? Also live there and getting sick of upc/virgin.