Has Virgin broadband improved??

I want to set up broadband on my BT line, but I'm only living at my
present address for 4 months. Any ideas for an affordable short-term
connection?

The best I can find at the moment is Virgin (£24.99/month, £9.99
modem, free connection, no contract), but I've read a lot of bad
reviews. Virgin claim that their service improved dramatically in
January 2004, after a few months of problems... can anyone confirm
whether this is true? Does the connection "stay on" consistently? Is
the speed acceptable? Are the customer service staff competent?

cheers,
Matthew.

>
> The best I can find at the moment is Virgin (£24.99/month, £9.99
> modem, free connection, no contract), but I've read a lot of bad
> reviews. Virgin claim that their service improved dramatically in
> January 2004, after a few months of problems... can anyone confirm
> whether this is true? Does the connection "stay on" consistently? Is
> the speed acceptable? Are the customer service staff competent?

I was attracted to Virgin as well by the 'no 12 month contract' offer, i was
a bit wary about the 9.99 modem but so far it has not caused me any
problems. the service was turned on early and I received all the information
within a few days of signing up...

I have been with them for a couple of months. never had any problems with
the connection or speed, in fact i've been very pleased with the service.
I've been downloading huge files from fileplanet and movie trailers and so
forth without any hitches.

I'd recommend them ... not the cheapest, but they do offer the best 'no 12
month contract offer' from what i can see...

Domestos

On 14 May 2004 20:26:19 -0700, Matthew Ford <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I want to set up broadband on my BT line, but I'm only living at my
> present address for 4 months. Any ideas for an affordable short-term
> connection?
>
> The best I can find at the moment is Virgin (£24.99/month, £9.99
> modem, free connection, no contract), but I've read a lot of bad
> reviews. Virgin claim that their service improved dramatically in
> January 2004, after a few months of problems... can anyone confirm
> whether this is true? Does the connection "stay on" consistently? Is
> the speed acceptable? Are the customer service staff competent?
>
> cheers,
> Matthew.


Try metronet. IIRC they have a 3 month minimum contract, also
pay only for data you download

HTH

I've been with virgin since november last year, ans the service has been
perfect, as far as I am concerned, since the new year. The one and only time
I called tech support they were very helpful and the call was answered
reasonably quickly.

No hesitations recommending them. I was on their dial-up, and one of the
reasons I chose them was because I had it in mind to go broadband in the
future, and I liked the idea of a no-minimum-contract deal, plus it meant I
didn't haveto change email addresses.

HTH

"Matthew Ford" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> I want to set up broadband on my BT line, but I'm only living at my
> present address for 4 months. Any ideas for an affordable short-term
> connection?
>
> The best I can find at the moment is Virgin (£24.99/month, £9.99
> modem, free connection, no contract), but I've read a lot of bad
> reviews. Virgin claim that their service improved dramatically in
> January 2004, after a few months of problems... can anyone confirm
> whether this is true? Does the connection "stay on" consistently? Is
> the speed acceptable? Are the customer service staff competent?
>
> cheers,
> Matthew.

MuDsHaRk <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

: Try metronet. IIRC they have a 3 month minimum contract, also
: pay only for data you download

AFAIR Metronet have a connection fee - Virgn do *NOT*

"Piers James" <nospan-(E-Mail Removed)-nospam> wrote in message news:<43spc.166$up6.143@newsfe6-win>...
> I've been with virgin since november last year, ans the service has been
> perfect, as far as I am concerned, since the new year. The one and only time
> I called tech support they were very helpful and the call was answered
> reasonably quickly.
>
> No hesitations recommending them. I was on their dial-up, and one of the
> reasons I chose them was because I had it in mind to go broadband in the
> future, and I liked the idea of a no-minimum-contract deal, plus it meant I
> didn't haveto change email addresses.

Thanks, I think I will give Virgin a try. Even if I don't like them, I
can presumably migrate to another provider quite cheaply once the
connection is set up!

On the subject of losing email addresses when you change ISP, I don't
think this is usually the case. Most dial-up ISPs have a
"pay-as-you-go" option with an 0845 number, in addition to their
subscription services. So you can normally downgrade your account to a
pay-as-you-go one, and simply never use it except as a POP3 email
server. Of course your OUTGOING mail will have to be sent via your new
ISP, because SMTP servers usually only accept connections from their
own customers. So basically you just change your mailer settings (e.g.
in Outlook Express) from, for example

Email address: (E-Mail Removed)
Incoming (POP3) mail server: pop3.old-isp.com
Outgoing (SMTP) mail server: smtp.old-isp.com

to

Email address: (E-Mail Removed)
Incoming (POP3) mail server: pop3.old-isp.com
Outgoing (SMTP) mail server: smtp.new-isp.com

Your friends will not notice any difference whatsoever, unless they
happen to look at the full headers to see where your message came
from. You might think that this sort of trick would cause your message
to be rejected as a forgery by spam filters... but I've been doing it
for years and never had a problem.

Even better, if you like webmail (I don't), you can continue to use
the webmail service for your old ISP. Unfortunately some ISPs only let
you change your email password while you are connected to their
dial-up service, for security reasons... but that's not a big deal, if
you keep your old modem handy.

Matthew.

On Sat, 15 May 2004 17:38:45 +0000, Brian McIlwrath wrote:

> MuDsHaRk <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> : Try metronet. IIRC they have a 3 month minimum contract, also
> : pay only for data you download
>
> AFAIR Metronet have a connection fee - Virgn do *NOT*

Yes, Metronet do and so does Virgin. Only Virgin spread it out over the
rest of the payments in the same way as PAYG mobile phones and as a lot of
other ' no connection fee ' ISP's.

Dave

dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>. ..
> On Sat, 15 May 2004 17:38:45 +0000, Brian McIlwrath wrote:
>
> > MuDsHaRk <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> > : Try metronet. IIRC they have a 3 month minimum contract, also
> > : pay only for data you download
> >
> > AFAIR Metronet have a connection fee - Virgn do *NOT*
>
> Yes, Metronet do and so does Virgin. Only Virgin spread it out over the
> rest of the payments in the same way as PAYG mobile phones and as a lot of
> other ' no connection fee ' ISP's.

....If you stay with them long-term, yes. But with Virgin you're
allowed to cancel after one month, which means you never pay the full
connection fee.

On
>
> ...If you stay with them long-term, yes. But with Virgin you're
> allowed to cancel after one month, which means you never pay the full
> connection fee.

Ok I stand corrected, does'nt make much sense from a business angle does
it !

DAve