Virgin Media: EPC2425/3925 Modem/Router and Speed Issues - POST HERE ONLY

Hi, I'm having problems loading up websites through my virgin modem. I had an engineer out yesterday, he changed the modem and everything was fine but now it's gone back to the problem where I try to load up a website it takes ages. When I'm in the website itself it works fine. It's driving me mad.

Anyone any ideas please?

ED E wrote: »

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

Run this, post results.

Thanks for that but just wondering if there's another way of doing that using a tablet? I'll have to borrow a laptop to do that one.

The_Conductor wrote: »

Honestly- the wifi in the Virgin router is crap- and if you're in a built-up area where all your neighbours have wifi- a lot of the neighbourhood could be trying to use the same channels- which obviously causes interfence. It will be more pronounced at certain times of the day than at others (e.g. if you were at home in the afternoon and tested it- it might be fine- while it might slow down to a completely unusuable crawl by early/late evening).

There are apps you can download such as wifi analyser- which give you stats on all the networks encroaching on your property- so you can choose channels that are not in common with the neighbours- and then obviously you have to go into the default settings for the router and set the default channel priorities to reflect the conditions around you.

Alternatively- disable wifi on the router altogether- and buy your own router- you can pick up a secondhand A/C fairly cheaply these days- the additional 5Ghz band can make a massive difference in areas where you're swamped with neighbours networks (even if you only use as a 'n').

The speed isn't the problem tbh it's just connecting to websites. Never had a problem before but in the last week, new modem hasn't helped. It's takes near a minute to connect to a website.

The_Conductor wrote: »

Restore last restore point- or 'last known good configuration'.
If this doesn't work- get proper anti-virus software and scan the living hell out of it. Sounds like you've something happening on the laptop/tablet.

Get a fresh tablet/laptop/phone (friend/family member etc) and check that its the tablet/laptop- and not the connection itself...........

Screams issue with the laptop/tablet to me- if its only after manifesting recently- it could be something you've installed, something nefarious- or indeed, a setting or hardware issue (a neighbour did something similar to this by somehow setting their pagefile in Windows to nada- not entirely sure how- and anything using system resources sapped the living hell out of it........)

If you have a family member or friend who is happy to do a little troubleshooting with you- you may find the source of the issue- is not the router at all..........

It's the same issue with tablet and 2 phones in the house. My phone works perfect on wifi in work but that issue happens at home.

ED E wrote: »

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

Run this, post results.

Okay so finally got a laptop to do this, here are the results....

DNS Benchmark Conclusions & Recommendations

What the results you have just obtained mean to YOU

The results summary, conclusions, and recommendations from your most recent run of this DNS benchmark are provided below. Please carefully consider the implications of making any changes to your system's current configuration before doing so.


ý More than 20% of resolvers were unreliable?
Such a high percentage is suspicious: As you may have noticed, a relatively large number of the resolvers (32) benchmarked (more than one in every five) had apparent reliability problems. Since this is a suspiciously high number, it is more likely that the local network was busy and congested while the benchmark was running. Since this will produce unreliable timing results, you should probably attempt to re-run the benchmark at a time when the local network is quiet. Until then, you should consider these timing results to be invalid.


ý Only the built-in default resolvers were benchmarked.
Please consider taking the time to create a custom resolver list.
This is a reminder about the tremendous benefits to be gained from benchmarking the "Top 50" resolvers that are found for you by the Benchmark's custom resolver list builder. When you have time, don't forget to give that a try. The results will astound you! You can find the option to do this on either the application's System Menu (Alt-Spacebar) or on the Add/Remove nameservers dialog on the Nameservers page.


þ System has multiple redundant nameservers configured.
This system is currently configured to use 3 separate nameservers for DNS name resolution. This is in keeping with recommended best practice (of having at least two different nameservers) so that the temporary failure of any single nameserver will not prevent all DNS name resolution.


ý One or more of this system's 3 nameservers are dead!
Although the whole point of having multiple redundant DNS resolving nameservers is to have a reliable source of DNS lookups, any nameservers that actually are dead and not replying to DNS queries can seriously hamper a system's performance as it waits for the dead nameserver to reply before trying to use its backup nameservers. Therefore, removing any persistently dead nameservers is always a good idea.

Recommended Actions:

The nameserver outage could be temporary, and dropping a nameserver that is only briefly misbehaving might be inadvisable. But you can use this benchmark to check to see how long this problem persists. If this nameserver deadness is chronic, you should definitely consider changing to nameservers that are more reliably operating.

If a local LAN router is among those providing DNS services to this network, it is possible that a reboot & restart of the router will resolve this outage. Sometimes just the DNS portion of a router dies while everything else continues to function normally.


þ System nameserver is faster than ALL public alternatives.
The DNS resolver your system is using is responding faster than any of the 100% reliable publicly available alternative DNS nameservers this benchmark utility just tested. Therefore, there would be no performance benefit from switching to any of those publicly available nameservers. However, since you only have a single system nameserver configured, it might be useful to use some of the fastest public nameservers as backups if that's possible in your situation. Please also note that this best performance appraisal assumes that this system's nameserver is 100% reliable. See the next item below for an appraisal of your nameserver's reliability.

Note: If there appeared to be one or more faster public alternative nameservers, there was enough uncertainty created by the spread of benchmark timing results that it was not possible to be at least 95% confident that any of those faster seeming nameservers really were reliably faster than the nameserver this system is currently using. So it made no sense to alarm you about the need to change things when there was insufficient evidence.


ý One or more system nameservers is NOT 100% reliable!
DNS reliability is extremely important, since lookup requests that are dropped and ignored by nameservers cause significant delays in Internet access while the querying system waits for a reply. The system is then finally forced to reissue the query to the same or to backup nameservers. While your system is patiently waiting for a reply, you are impatiently waiting to get on with your Internet access.

During this benchmark test, the nameserver being tested did not reply to some of the DNS queries it was sent.

So the question now is: Did the benchmark discover alternative nameservers having superior performance and reliability to which you could switch in order to obtain more performance and reliability?

Important Note:

Incorrect warnings of low reliability nameservers can arise if (1) DNS benchmarking is being performed while the local network is busy performing other work such as file downloading, or (2) the benchmark is running over a wireless (WiFi) link with low signal strength or high interference. Please try to minimize any other local network activity while the benchmark is running, and use a wired (not wireless) LAN connection if possible.

Recommended Actions:

Before you make any changes, you should probably run the benchmark a few more times at differing times of day to make sure that the troubling reliability is an ongoing problem and not just a brief occurrence.

You may also wish to consult the "Tabular Data" page which summarizes all benchmark results in numeric tables. The numbers make it easier to see exactly how unreliable your system's nameserver is compared with the available alternatives. (And also how the alternatives' performance compares.)


þ This system nameserver returns errors.
This is a GOOD thing! Some DNS providers, such as OpenDNS and even the Earthlink, Roadrunner and Comcast ISPs, redirect incorrectly entered URLs to their own advertising-laden marketing-driven interception page instead of simply returning an error to the web browser. But this system's nameserver is returning errors when asked to lookup non-existent domain names.


þ System nameserver is replying to all query types.
During the development of this DNS Benchmark we discovered that the routers used by some pre-release testers were not returning results for the benchmark's Uncached and/or Dotcom testing queries. Even though these queries are admittedly unusual, they are completely valid. So the only conclusion was that those few routers were inherently defective. The good news here is that your nameserver is replying to these unusual but valid queries.


____________________________________________________________________

REMEMBER TO CHECK SPOOFABILITY !!
Whether you make any changes to your nameservers or not, but
especially if you do, be sure to verify the security of your final DNS
resolver set by using GRC's free "DNS Spoofability" testing service!

http://www.GRC.com/dns/dns.htm
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


If you require assistance . . .

If you require assistance with the implementation any of the suggested changes to your system's DNS configuration, several sources of help are available:

For help with the operation and use of this DNS Benchmark program, please reference the extensive DNS Benchmark pages at the GRC website:

http://www.GRC.com/dns/benchmark.htm

For help with any of the specific conclusions or recommendations above, please see the DNS Benchmark FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page:

http://www.GRC.com/dns/benchmark-faq.htm

Knowledge of the DNS domain name system is widespread among those in public technical Internet forums. You will very likely be able to obtain answers to any specific questions you may have by asking knowledgeable inhabitants of online communities.

GRC maintains and operates a comprehensive online "newsgroup" community and has a specific newsgroup - grc.dns - dedicated to the discussion of DNS issues including this DNS benchmark program (where it was developed) and GRC's online DNS Spoofability testing service. Please see the following web page for help with joining and participating in GRC's terrific newsgroups:

http://www.GRC.com/discussions.htm

GRC's technical support services are limited to the support of licensees of our commercial software products and do not extend to the support of our freely available software or online services. Please do not write to us (GRC / Gibson Research Corporation) for assistance in connection with this freeware utility.

You will find that ample help is freely available
within the Internet community. Thank you!

- Steve Gibson

Please Note: This program is Copyright (c) 2010 by Gibson Research Corporation -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This program is FREEWARE. Although it may not be altered in any way, it MAY BE FREELY COPIED AND DISTRIBUTED onto and through any and all computer media in ANY form or fashion. You are hereby granted the right to do so.
• • •

Anyone have issues with packet-loss on Virgin since Friday (07/10/2016) in Dublin 6W or in proximity?

Averages at about 5% but spikes to DC's at times.

Thanks and regards,

I don't like the new modem for wi-fi. Constants dropouts making listening to radio very frustrating.

The modem is exactly where the old one was - on the floor in my upstairs office, connected directly by cable to two of my computers.

I have no issues with download speed to these. I'm getting 170+ from Speedtest.net which is plenty.

My only issue is with wi-fi, which is dire compared to the old modem, which was superb.

I also ran the Steve Gibson benchmark and I've saved the results to my desktop as a .png, but I don't know how to display it here.

Very tempted to dump this modem.

For what it's worth, we're phone and internet only. Phone is also working perfectly.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks.

D

Thanks for the reply.

1. I still have the old modem. Should I just reconnect it?

or...

2. Should I buy a new one? If so, where in Dublin would be good.

I work from home - all my computers run off Virgin. So, quality connection is important.

But, it's listening to wifi radio that keeps me sane - so, that's really important!

It would be a business expense, so I'm happy to buy one, if necessary. That said, the old one was better, and it's just lying there.

Thanks again.

D.

Gadgetman496 wrote: »

You can't just buy a new one if you are with Virgin.

They have to commission the modem\router from their end and will only allow their own equipment to be used.

The latest one they gave you is commissioned and to one it replaced would have been decommissioned so it won't work if you connect it.

Thanks for the reply.

That's Dutch to me, alas.

Having run the program I mentioned in my first post, would it be possible to choose a different channel?

Thanks.

D.

Thanks.

So, could you please tell me where I might look in Dublin for a wifi router. Or, should I buy online?

A link to a good one would be appreciated. 😊

Thanks.

D.

Dinarius wrote: »

Ps. Would this work?

http://www.harveynorman.ie/computing/networking-and-connectivity/modems-routers/d-link-n300-cloud-gigabit-router.html

Thanks.

D.

Thats an unholy ripoff. Steer clear of HN, grab something on Amazon.