Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Virgin cable modems

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cooper" <lug@???>
To: "Hampshire LUG Discussion List" <hampshire@???>
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 7:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Virgin cable modems


> Victor Churchill wrote:
>>
>> I believe the F type connector is also used on some DAB radio sets but
>> can't say for sure.
>>
>> I was in a similar situation just last weekend. A guy on Maplins phone
>> line told me that they supply two types of coax F type connectors, one
>> push-on and one crimp-type. But when I went to the local store I was
>> able to pick up 2 1.5m readymade cables which I used to replace the
>> two woefully short leads that Mr NTL (sorry, Virgin Media) installed
>> when they replaced my all-in-one STB with a separate CM. They also
>> stocked a wee Ethernet female-female adapter which was handy so I
>> could extend the fixed Ethernet cable and put the CM somewhere
>> sensible rather than have it dangling in mid-air from its cables B-)
>>
>>
> The self install kit comes with 3m and 2x 1.5m coax, plus 10m RJ45 so no
> problems with cables. I have to say that once installed, NTL cable is
> far more reliable than BT exchange based ADSL. I've had 3 outages from
> my Tiscali connection already (one exchange line fault, one Tiscali
> network plus another where I had to reset the connection using the USB
> modem, yuk). The main problem with cable is it is dearer than ADSL if
> you want a decent phone package.
>
> John.
>

I think it's swings and roundabouts really. When I was in Farnborough, I
had several ntl outages - one which went on for something like 3 months
(including all of the Easter holidays - most irritating) until they did a
sweep of the cabinets turning up the volume or something akin to that.
Since being here in Worthing, both cable and ADSL have been largely fine -
it's been more necessary to reboot the set top box than an actual network
outage - hence my moving from STB to CM.

The main problem with Virgin continues to be their customer service. In
the last 36 hours I've been told:
1) You _will_ have 2 terminals on your wall box - wrong.
2) The kit will contain a splitter - looks likely from what others have said
here - but I wouldn't bet on it
3) The STB broadband will be switched off on Wednesday.
4) The STB broadband will be switched off as soon as you activate the CM.

The bottom line is - their customer service staff (be it 25p per min phone
line or not) don't really know what they're doing and it seems their billing
system is archaic. I stick with them because I like the idea of a "backup
broadband" as the family are heavy users and one quick change of routers is
no problem if one's down.

I'll wait and see what (if anything) arrives on Friday.

Cheers
Rob