Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Monitoring Internet Performance
I know there have been a few discussion threads on the quality of the Virgin internet (both recently and historically). I have had a few issues and cannot work out if it is Virgin or my (year old Virgin) router.
The reason I am not sure if it is my router or not is that I have a home network, with a NAS drive. Access to this NAS has been difficult at times, with the network connection dropping periodically. This is what makes me think it may be the router...
Are there any tools out there to monitor internet/network performance, and in particular if and when & where any drop outs may occur.
Tags for Forum Posts: broadband, internet performance, virgin
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Thanks for the advice guys. As it happens we have problems in both wired and wireless modes. My wife's Apple laptop struggles to hold a wireless connection at times in the kitchen (too many brick walls in the way- so I got the Netgear poweline adaptor's Virgin recommended- from Amazon £10 cheaper than Virgin...). It seems to keep dropping out, and at fist I thought it was the adaptor technology.
Then I noticed my NAS dropping out on my main computer which is cabled into the router. This makes me think it is the router. I just tried Neil's 1GB should take 1min test, and it did copy across ok in about a minute.
Not sure how to go about checking this?
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Permalink Reply by Marek on
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Periodical dropping the internet connection is a quite normal sign that your wireless channel is disturbed by your close neighbour which has router at the same channel as yours. The solution in this case is to change your wireless channel.
A second access point is the best test of your router and need to be done as soon as possible to answer your question about the quality of your wireless activities in your house.
And to confirm again, wireless connections behave sometimes completely irrational, and therefore the ethernet cable is the best solution even for testing purpose
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Permalink Reply by Olly on
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The Virgin Media "Super" hub router they supply is unbelievably poor for wireless performance. I had similar issues to you when I first got it and spend a good while trying to resolve the issues before giving up.
I eventually set mine up in modem only mode and purchased a Asus RT-N66U wireless router, which I have to say has been the best router for home use I've used over the years. Wireless performance and range is much better than other routers I've used and the unit has extensive Ethernet, Wireless and Internet monitoring features that you may find useful (lots of nice graphs to play with!).
https://www.asus.com/Networking/RTN66U
I'm an IT Network Manager by day (I don't work for ASUS BTW) so have used a wide range of devices over the years and would definitely recommend spending a bit extra on a good quality router. The Asus one come in at about the £100 mark.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Hi Olly, do you have any thoughts on the BT Infinity hub? We're thinking of switching from Virgin to BT Infinity.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I have a BT Infinity hub and had no problems with it.
I would never dream of going with Virgin, if only because of the amount of " to the Householder " junk mail they send out
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I have a relative with BT Infinity. No major problems with the internet part but I think they have wireless range problems with the Infinity hub (their main selling point with those ads). I think they have a wireless repeater to reach some parts of their house.
The only problem with purchasing a wireless Access Point is you are still stuck with the routing function of the Virgin SuperHub. When I was using mine as a router I was constantly having to reboot it to solve issues (not just Wifi). Since I've put it into Modem Only mode (and use my Asus router) it's been faultless.
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