Terrible Wifi - Virgin Media Business account

chaps

Hi Guys-

Reaching out for advices here.
So, I was a UPC customer that moved into Virgin Media.
I then needed a static IP because of the NAS I have at home, so I moved to Virgin media business while being a residential customer but static IP are only available with business account...

So here I am, paying 100€ a month for 400Mb internet speed (that I never got).

Since we're all working from home, I'm on call all days and my wifi keeps breaking. They changed the router last week because I harrased them on the phone but still, same issue - at certain times of the day, the connection is just very bad, dropping for several minutes and coming back.

One of the solution I have in mind is to bridge a Synology router to this good old hitron they gave me, and buy also a wifi extender but I am at the point where I am wondering if virgin is the right provider in Ireland.

I am not living in a castle, my router is not very far, but I still have a lot of disconnections that are a concern for my job.

Anyone using another provider?
Anyone having experience with bridging another router on the hitron?
have you seen a better performance because you don't rely anymore on the hitron router?

Thanks for your help.

Chaps.

Rackstar

First thing you need to do is determine if the problem is in your house or outside.

What’s the connection like when you’ve connected directly with a cable?

If the wired connection has no issues, get a good WiFi mesh system and run some cables to points around the house and back to the router.

Has the NAS box no dynamic dns option?

ED E

Yeah you don't need a static IP. Virgins rarely if ever change anyways and DynDNS would be fine.

chaps

Hi Guys-

Thanks for the answer.
So my challenge at the time was that dyndns wasn't supported by the router Virgin was giving 3 or 4 years ago - maybe that changed now.
Wired connection is stable, but I'm challenging the wifi capabilities of the hitron router that I am getting. Even close to the router the wifi is not stable.

Thanks!

ED E

A raspberryPi for €20 would do the dynamic DNS for you, could have saved a fortune I'm afraid but no point dwelling on that now.



The Hitron and the Compal(Hub3) are both the same trash unit on the inside. Virgin REALLLLLLY should have retired the entire fleet of them by now but haven't. Its a shame because their service is really really good in most aspects but their CPE always lets it down and you can't be rid of it.

1. Buy a decent router
2. Bridge to it
3. Regrade down to residential.


NB: The Hitron can still be taken offline entirely by 5Mb of traffic, yep 5Mb on a 400Mb link, even bridged that's the case. Virgin Ireland have no solution for this.

sheepsh4gger

Firstly, why would you buy a static IP with Virgin? When you use them you get pretty much a static IP, for it to change you would need to keep the modem offline for a week. Yes your IP is dynamic but the lease on it is so long that it's practically static.


Secondly wireless always sucks and I never use it unless I really need to. Connect with a wire (an ethernet cable) and see if you're still having trouble.


Do you mean by "my wifi keeps breaking" the actual wireless or are using "wifi" interchangeably with "broadband"?


If you narrow down the problem to be with the wireless part of the modem then you can say try changing wireless channels in the settings and checking whether that works.


I wouldn't change ISPs if only the wireless part is not working. Cable is still superior to DSL. You might want to get yourself a dedicated wireless access point (or powerline adapter with a built in AP) to fix the problem.


In general you don't want to use wireless as it's horrible to begin with. If you can then connect your devices directly with a cable. It's 10 times faster and never drops. It's very likely that you're not getting the 400 Mb/s you're paying for because you're on wireless. If you run a speed test over a wire then you will probably get close to that speed. Wireless has its limitations. In business nobody uses wireless unless it's for customers.



Also when you use a network cable make sure it has 8 wires in it if you look close. Sometimes you can get a cable (say from an Eircom modem) where they give you fewer cables inside than pins and the speed is horrible.



If you absolutely need to use wireless (can't get a LAN dongle for the laptop/tablet whatever) then there's a couple of things to keep in mind.


2GHz has greater coverage but lower speed
5GHz (not to be confused with 5G) is much faster but also much more unstable.


I remember having an option to connect to either one on my old router. Connect to 2GHz if you're having trouble with 5.


If you're still having trouble with wireless then check that there isn't something jamming the signal.



> at certain times of the day, the connection is just very bad, dropping for several minutes and coming back.


What do you do at that time? Do you turn on a microwave? It operates on the same 2GHz frequency and can drop your connection. Do you turn on an old lamp? I have seen broken power supplies causing interference. Do you turn on a baby monitor? They often are a problem.


The best thing is to mount the Wireless router to the ceiling so there's line of sight to all devices. Metal reflects the waves, water absorbs etc. Long story short there needs to be line of sight.


You can get an app on your phone and check which frequencies are congested. Then choose one in the modem's settings free of congestion.