Virgin cops to bad routing Multiple problems are afflicting the Virgin network this week, with some customers in Leeds lacking connectivity completely, while the rest are just missing the popular parts of the net. The Leeds problem is still under investigation, but it has left customers without broadband, TV, or even telephone services, which puts the …
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Typically, I called VM at 5.30pm to tell them they had routing issues (having already run a trace route locally when I couldn't get to the US websites) but sadly, I got the Indian support team. They helpfully told me they had no record of any issues and that I needed to "clear my cache". When I tried to explain that really wouldn't help, they cut me off!
I called again later, maybe 8pm and got hold of UK support (HOORAY!). They were much more helpful and acknowledged the error as well as taking details from me regarding the trace route. By this time they had already started investigating the cause, but had no lead time for solution.
Good old VM!
Now all they need is to sort out the issues with downstream utilisation which has meant I've had much, much less than the 20mb I pay for SINCE FEBRUARY!
I'm rueing the folly of changing to VM as I'm suffering my monthly outage again, at least one day a month since we had them install it. One is beginning to think these outages are merely a rather method of traffic management as you wouldn't of thought a company could be that incompetent - then again it looks like Old Beardy will stick his brand name on any old piece of tat these days
"Is the UK internet infrastructure under attack?"
Only by the mismanagement of it's cheapskate ISP's.
They don't need resilience, or qualified support staff or anything else that costs money. Until things go wrong that is.
I suspect that the routing issues at Virgin are only routing issues in as much as a major link or router is down and the resilience ain't working properly, buy it's better to fess to mysterious routing issues to admit that your DR plan is shit and their engineers are too dumb to sort it out.
In the South Watford (herts.) area, last Tuesday I guess. After 24 hours it started connecting again, but only to their registration server, which rejected us since it had no record of us as dial-up subscribers! (yeah, like maybe 8 years ago!).
Also the registration server doesn't support Windows7 RC1 yet either.
Anyway, after a call to the Indian center they reset our modem and account and things are working again.
On the whole I find the service is not bad, though having Indian-based support makes things difficult for people like me who have problems speaking 'Indiaglish'.
ttfn
PH - the Pr0n is flowing again!
If someone got their arses into gear at BT, or one of the other ADSL providers and put something other than 50 year oll bell wire between the exchange and my home I would't be with the incompetent fucks at Virgin.
Over 24 hours of complete network outage is just pathetic.
New estimated time for fix... 22:30 tonight (12th Sep). That's up from the previous 21:00 and would mean a total outage time of around 38 hours... I know I shouldn't be surprised, but... dammit, what can f**k up so badly that it takes the best part of two days to fix/replace it? Does the cable for Leeds actually go under the sea via Reykjavik or something???? Genuinely, if anyone can tell me, I'd really be curious to know!
at 35min past the hour round the clock recently ?
ive been getting what appear to be VM side issues with the connection staying up to the cable modem but the local server-routers-internet having issues (im based in Norfolk btw).
the issue totaly mashed up any streaming media services and MMO's which has been driving me mad as hell (and im not gonna take it any more!;)
we have already established that they have fitted dodgy patch leads in the little green distribution boxes (i was given the excuse that the connector didnt have a stainless steel fitting so would undo itself due to thermal/vibrational stresses.)
oh and why is all my packets being pumped through the routers out of sync ? this really messes up my VPN links.
i mean, hows guy supposed to get his daily stream of torrents through... at less than 100kbps on a 10Mb line.
even the mickey mouse sam know broadband hardware i have is having problems, but at least it does show the line is utterly knackered (though mostly on the VM routing side).
.... my oppinion of the service(service what service) is!
I find that every so often I'll get a website not found error on sites like the BBC. If I refresh a few times the link comes back and the page loads and I carry on as usual.
If I hit my download limit and get my bandwidth reduced for a few hours, this problem is amplified significantly. Ironically, if I download too much on my newly updated 2Mb to 10Mb connection, it becomes less reliable at 1/2 bandwidth (ie 5Mb) than my old connection was at full bandwidth.
If it doesn't improve soon I'll be calling them up to ask to be put back on the old 2Mb hardware.
I've been getting random failures in Belfast, for the past few weeks... everything fine, then 5 mins of no DNS, then back to normal for 20 mins or so..
This all started happening just after they said they where upgrading the 2mb lines to 10mb, looks like botched upgrades, without enough bandwidth to deal with the increased traffic..
Maybe time to move to Sky...
I rang VM's "problem" line, to be told "my" connection was fine.
Mayhap VM should instruct their agents to "listen" to the customer, as some of them may have a clue about what they're talking, which is apparently more than the agents.
I pointed out my connection to VM was fine, but VM's connection to the US was borked. The agent kept telling me there was no issue. He also wouldn't escalate or even log the issue unless I "stayed on the line whilst he tried to raise the network team, which may take some time".
Apparently "logging the issue and following up" is beyond these people.
Here in Norwich it was awful over the weekend - up and down all the time and pittiful download speeds that made me think I was on dial-up. I rebooted the modem and then it treated me as a new user and made me go through the sign-up procedure. After that it was like a rocket ship... for about 30 mins and then back to 'normal'. Generally it works pretty well for me other than the odd outage.
Pint - 'cause I need one!
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