slow internet speeds with virgin media

[adamf154]

upto november i was using an old modem and router that i had for years and never had a problem with the internet, then i ordered the new hub as i got an email which said i needed to upgrade. I am on Fibre 20 meg

So since then my internet has got slower, nothing on my pc has changed, there has been a few faults recently but everything is working again, if i load sites that has pictures it takes minutes rather than seconds to load pages and if i open say a load of facebook or instagram pages, they just buffer for a while and when you start scrolling down it just takes for ever and facebook pictures are alot slower than instagram, i use firefox and internet explorer

i got an engineer out a few weeks ago and he replaced an extension wire i had on my virgin wire and replaced the hub as it was getting slow speeds and but it was still not like it was before then he checked the wireless on his phone and pages were coming up quicker than they were doing on my pc, so he said there is nothing more he could do as it must be my pc, that is slowing things down.

so the other day i remembered i had a wireless usb stick, so i installed that and got the wireless working but the speed wasn't any better

so what else do we have, motherboard/processor, ethernet port, ethernet wire, hard drive

well its not the ethernet wire or ethernet port, as the wireless isn't any faster and i bought a new wire just to check it and it was just the same, my hard drive isn't that old and seems to be working fine and was formatted just 2 weeks before the engineer came out.

So that just leaves the motherbaord and processor, both are at least 7 years old, i have a phenom II x4 945 processor and i have 6 meg of ram. i am also using another pc and the speeds are slow on that also but the motherboard and processor are almost the same

so is it possible for the technology of the new hub to be to good for my motherboard and processor and make it go slower than it should.

has anyone else had a problem with older boards and processors or just seen here speed go alower since they got the new hub despite it working fine before

Thanks in advance for any help

[october262]

Does your Internet provider throttle your Internet
Or cap your speed ??
Might also consider getting a Cat 6 Etherent cable

[adamf154]

as far as I know they don't cap the speed and the cable I just bought was cat 6

[october262]

Check your Internet protocol settings and see if it's set to obtain ip address automatically And obtain DNS server address automatically
Then click alternate configuration and check automatic private ip address.

[NiGHT-WiNG]

Just a heads up if you download or upload too much in a day then they do cut the speeds down for a few hours.
you can read all about it at https://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy-20Mb-or-lower.html

[DB83]

I am not on VirginMedia although I was on its earlier incarnation Virgin Net and it was notorious for slow speeds and throttling.

But it might be worth mentioning a convo I had with my provider a few months back since all UK ISPs were 'upgrading' ie increasing their charges. I also had an email that my monthly charge was to increase yet if I committed to a 18 month contract I would end up paying significantly less than my then current charge for exactly the same service (btw TalkTalk does not cap or throttle in anyway). So I signed up
and a few days later I collected a package from the Post Office and the convo went like this.

Me: I have just been sent a new router which I did not ask for
TT: Ah, yes. We send those out to all new contracts
Me: But I do not want it and appear not to need it as my service works fine as it is with the original router
TT: But the new router is much better than the old one
Me: Why fix something that is not broke.
TT: Why not try the new one to see if there are issues
Me: No thanks. If the old one gives issues in the future then it is time to try the new one which I can keep regardless. Right ?
TT: That is right.

So, essentially, I am still using the original router despite the 'upgrade'

Simple question. Did you simply change your router regardless or try the older one first ?

[adamf154]

everything was fine with the old one but I got an email telling me I had to upgrade so I did, I tried to put the old one back on but it wont work apparently, I cant use anything other than what virgin give me, and after setting up the new one made the old one useless

[DB83]

So to clarify, you did not try the old one after the upgrade ?

May I also ask the nature of the 'upgrade'. You state, if I read you correctly, that your are on fibre-cable. Were you on cable before or a basic phone-line connection ?

Is this slow performance all day or only during these stated throttling periods ?

Do you have a mobile device so you can test the Wi-Fi thus, as the engineer purports, limit the issue to your PC.

Have you run a malware scan on your PC just to ensure that your connection is not compromised by some download which has turned your PC in to a bot and thus killed your download capabilities.

Just some thoughts.

[NiGHT-WiNG]

May I also ask the nature of the 'upgrade'.

Sometimes Virgin Media offers free upgrades to other packages for the same price but the catch is you have to upgrade routers tho i'm shocked that they still have the 20/30 packages really.

[adamf154]

I tried to connect the old modem up after I realised the new hub was slow and crap, everything is the same apart from I got the new hub to replace the old modem, slow most of the day, the engineer tried his phone on wireless and it was brining pages right up quicker than my pc was, but I have the pc on a wireless usb stick but its not faster, I don't have a virus I haven't downloaded anything that would compromise the system but avg is good at detecting a virus

So to clarify, you did not try the old one after the upgrade ?

May I also ask the nature of the 'upgrade'. You state, if I read you correctly, that your are on fibre-cable. Were you on cable before or a basic phone-line connection ?

Is this slow performance all day or only during these stated throttling periods ?

Do you have a mobile device so you can test the Wi-Fi thus, as the engineer purports, limit the issue to your PC.

Have you run a malware scan on your PC just to ensure that your connection is not compromised by some download which has turned your PC in to a bot and thus killed your download capabilities.

Just some thoughts.

[adamf154]

Yeah I got a letter today saying I can upgrade to fun tv and 100meg internet for Nearly £3 cheaper than what im paying for just 20meg internet and its fixed for 2 years at £30 lol

May I also ask the nature of the 'upgrade'.

Sometimes Virgin Media offers free upgrades to other packages for the same price but the catch is you have to upgrade routers tho i'm shocked that they still have the 20/30 packages really.

[Nelson37]

It would help to better describe your hardware. You mention a modem, and a router. These can be combined into one piece, or they can be two separate pieces. The modem, or combination modem/router, usually comes from the ISP. A separate router is a generic device which can be purchased many places and brands and will work with virtually modem.

You also mention a hub, which would be a second, or third, piece which is almost never supplied by the ISP, is likely not what you have, and also is rare now as switches are much more common.

The problem is NOT your pc hardware, could be a virus, AVG alone is not sufficient to verify a virus-free status, run Malwarebytes and Ccleaner, these will do no harm and might help.

First step is to identify hardware, if modem and router are separate, eliminate router and connect direct to modem for a start, after PC cleanup and scan.

[DB83]

Well the bottom line might well be incompatabilty between this wireless usb stick and the new router.

Can't you 'cut out the middle man' and simply connect the router direct to the PC. And you do not have to download anything to get a nasty. Sometime all is necessary to visit an unsecure website or even click on an email link. And sometimes Facewash links are not they appear to be as I once found out to my cost.

[Krispy Kritter]

Whatever process you followed to setup the new modem, would need to be run again to try using the old modem. Only one modem can be configured for use at a time. Most ISP's use a simple webpage to configure a new modem which consists mostly of just entering the mac address of the new device. The ISP then replaces the old information with the new information and then the new modem is authorized to use the network. EACH time you change the modem, you must follow the same process to add the modem that you are trying to use to the ISP's network.

Aside from that, call tech support and explain the problem. They should have a way to test and confirm if everything is configured properly. They should also have a way for you to test and confirm you are getting the speed for which you are paying (and you can use a third party test site).