A Virgin-free Zone

[Eric The Viking]

On the Virgin thing: the only reasons I stick with them are (a) it's proper broadband, not ADSL (or descendents), (b) on the rare occasions I've needed their customer service they've been good.

That said, their news server died mid-week - four or so days with message headers and no content. Now fixed.

 

[wellywood]

Oh.... also just started a free trial of Netflix for 6 months too. But we wont be continuing with that (@ £6.99 pm) as you have to trawl thru an awful lot of garbage to try and find something 'good' to watch.
Nick

Netflix is just about to kick-off over here and is being hailed as the best thing since the last best thing since sliced bread. I'd like to hear more opinions on this if any other forum members have it.

 

[No skills]

In reply to Wellywood.

In basic terms Netflix is a collection of older tv series and films/programs that are available to watch on demand. They have the odd new film and sometimes series that Netflix themselves have commissioned.

If you are an avid tv watcher and you haven't had cable/satellite tv * for 4 years or so then you might find a fair bit to watch. We have had cable for 5 years or so thus we have seen a lot of the content already, if we had subscribed we would only of had it a couple of months and then packed it in - wouldn't of been worth us having it.

As it happens we don't pay for it (son in law does) so we think its superb value

If you search around you should be able to find the complete list of whats currently on there - well I did anyway, not sure if different countries will get different content???

HTH


*(for us this would be sky tv or virgin media, for you ??)

 

[Steve Maskery]

I have to say that I do rate Virgin, although I have only phone and BB, no TV. It's still expensive enough, I guess.
But the alternative is BT or someone coming in over a BT line and I vowed that I would never again be a BT customer. The problem is that I am a very happy EE customer, after having been a very happy T-mobile customer and before that a very happy One2One customer. But BT have bought EE and I've either got to swallow my own words and continue with what, until now, has been a very satisfactory service, or find another service provider. It's not an easy decision to make.

 

[CHJ]

I'm an ***** in these things (and others, before one of you gets a dig in ) but what is "Ping"?

As Roger says:-
Typical info. thus.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Thanks. Computers and I belong on different planets - I'm virtually computer illiterate, I have no interest in them and only use one when absolutely necessary. I wouldn't know how to download a piece of music or a photo - in fact I've never taken a digital photo. No, not even on my phone - my phone is a phone, and it irritates that that I have to put £5 on twice in the same year. The learning process is seriously compromised by my total lack of interest.

 

[devonwoody]

I know my ipad works in my neighbours property ok via my virgin router.

So signal must be ok, could my neighbour and I share an internet connection?

 

[RogerP]

No reason why not, and share the bill.

 

[beech1948]

RogerP,

BB from POP. Cost £1 p/month + £15.95 for fixed line rental. Delivered is about 16Gb download and 2 Gb upload. I don't need blazing fast fiber or other widgets as I'm working on becoming computer illiterate after 42 years in the IT business.

 

[petermillard]

Re Netflix. Just to add what No Skills said, Netflix also do 'original content' i.e. shows they've commissioned themselves, which can be interesting e.g. the excellent remake of House of Cards. The other, licensed, content does vary a lot between countries - the U.S. version of Netflix has much more up to date shows than we get here in the UK, for example. To their credit, when Netflix show current programmes in the US and UK e.g. the later series of Breaking Bad, they air it in the UK at around the same time - the next day with Breakimg Bad, rather than the several weeks/months with other U.S. imports on TV.

I like it and happily pay for it, but it all depends on whether you can find something you want to watch of course; there's usually a free trial, so you can try before you buy.

HTH Pete

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Talking of the cost of Sky etc. I just worked out that if I bought my TV licence at 26yo, and live til I'm 75yo, on today's costs every penny I ever pay the BBC will pay that irritating little pillock Graham Norton for ... one day.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Just thought I'd mention this, although this thread is getting a bit old:

I subscribe to Martin Lewis' newsletter, which recently talked about some impressive deals that BT and its group were offering on broadband and line rentals. They're available online now and end midnight tomorrow.

Switching to BT is a bit non-trivial in this house, because the entry point for the phone line is in very much the wrong place. Years back, when we used their phone service, we also had quite a few outages because the line is overhead on a crowded pole in a windy place.

That said, I don't get very good speeds from Virgin really. It will peak at up to 50Mb* but drop to around 25Mb* in the afternoons when the kids come home from school.

Anyway, armed with information Martin Lewis's site and thence from BT's quote engine I went back to Virgin, and managed to reduce my annual bill by slightly over four hundred and ten quid (nominal broadband speed drop from 60Mb/s to 50Mb/s).

They are still one hundred quid proud of BT's quote, but the potential for muck-ups during any switchover is enormous, so for the time being I'm happy to stop there. In eighteen months time, when the deal ends, I shall be very picky indeed.

I probably should have pushed a bit harder. I think it's becoming a buyer's market presently.

E.

PS: The other way of looking at it is that they were prepared to overcharge me by four hundred pounds per year (and probably did, last year).

I was arguing with a well known economist last week about whether telecomms should be considered a public good and thus worthy of state ownership (it needs to be run efficiently, obviously). The free market (his) view is that this is all staggeringly efficient, compared to, say the GPO and CEGB of old, which were terrible.

But, given these companies all resell each other's facilities and spend a fortune on advertising and marketing activities, and still seem to pluck numbers from thin air, I think we'd probably benefit from a simple cost-plus equation applied to everyone!

*that's megaBITS/sec: Divide by slightly more than ten (usually) to get megabytes in this context.

 

[devonwoody]

If we can use a router and not need a line to a computer why cannot BT or others set up local routers to be available for community use and not individual usage?

They want to charge us indivually I suppose?

Emails might have security problems I can guess but straightforward web I could accept.

 

[RogerP]

Just tested my Virgin cable BB again again... 105.78Mb I pay for 100Mb
It always comes out thereabouts.

I could pay for more but I think that's fast enough for my purposes.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

BT Infiniti - I not sure what we're supposed to get - swmbo sorts it all - 27.37mb.

 

[beech1948]

Several members here have said they get 100Mb +.

Well OK but what do you use it for that requires, as in requires 100Mb+. Most domestic traffic, including the difficult stuff likw streaming, can be handled well at a max 25mb so what gives.

?????????????????????????????????????

 

[brianhabby]

I couldn't cancel them though as my business e-mail is with them so I would have to change all of my advertising too! :roll:

Alan, can you not have an email address associated with your domain name? It looks much more professional and you will be completely independent of any of these rip-off merchants. If you decide to do this then keep both for a while until you have changed over completely.

regards

Brian

 

[mailee]

Yes, I have been thinking of doing something like that for a while Brian. I think I have two e-mail addresses with my web provider so shall gradually change things running both until it's done. :wink:

 

[petermillard]

Several members here have said they get 100Mb +.

Well OK but what do you use it for that requires, as in requires 100Mb+. Most domestic traffic, including the difficult stuff likw streaming, can be handled well at a max 25mb so what gives.

?????????????????????????????????????

Easy; several household members downloading and /or streaming content at the same time. With five adults in the house it's not unusual for us to have our 120Mb service divvied up between a half dozen or more discrete but simultaneous feeds, plus browsing; it's nice when you can make use of the full speed, but share and share alike, right??

Pete