During this afternoon my connection to the Internet (which is provided by Virgin Media) has been somewhat erratic. This may have been due to the bad weather ... but a more likely cause was an engineering problem. What may have caused such an engineering problem is unknown, but I did notice a large British Telecom van parked next to the local junction box. Sabotage ... or were they trying to fix the problem? I don't know, but as you can see from this blog entry, the connection has now been restored.
Trying to report the fault was ... interesting. Virgin Media recommend that you report faults via their website ... the very website that you cannot connect to because the Internet connection isn't working! I tried telephoning ... but all I got was a recorded announcement that told me that there was a 'fault' in the area where I live ... which I had sort of worked out for myself!
I pay good money for this service. Do I feel that I get good value? Well I don't ... but then neither do my neighbours, and they use different service providers. In this digital age we have all come to rely on our Internet connections, and this has left the service providers in the position of having the whip hand over us. Of course we could all change service providers ... but will the replacement be any cheaper or reliable?
I doubt it, so I will stick with Virgin Media ... for the time being.
Trying to report the fault was ... interesting. Virgin Media recommend that you report faults via their website ... the very website that you cannot connect to because the Internet connection isn't working! I tried telephoning ... but all I got was a recorded announcement that told me that there was a 'fault' in the area where I live ... which I had sort of worked out for myself!
I pay good money for this service. Do I feel that I get good value? Well I don't ... but then neither do my neighbours, and they use different service providers. In this digital age we have all come to rely on our Internet connections, and this has left the service providers in the position of having the whip hand over us. Of course we could all change service providers ... but will the replacement be any cheaper or reliable?
I doubt it, so I will stick with Virgin Media ... for the time being.
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As it happens, my (BT) connection dropped for about 15 minutes late morning.
ReplyDeleteTim Gow,
ReplyDeleteI 'lost' connection again this evening for nearly an hour. One can but hope that whatever is causing the problem is sorted out as soon as possible.
All the best,
Bob
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel 'Going Postal' tells you all you need to know about the modern world's over-reliance on technology, and the manner in which the service providers ... erm ... 'provide' it...
ReplyDeleteWe had an outage a few days ago.
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteWe recently upgraded the capacity of our BT broadband (our area currently doe not have the 'Infinity' service)and ever since then we have had a number of small outages - nothing long term but frustrating all the same.
These are usually at the weekends and always early afternoon for some reason. I have yet to raise this with BT, simply because of their (usually) short duration.
All the best,
DC
Hmmm, I'm in western Canada so we have different providers . . . that being said, I would hesitate using a provider called "Virgin" . . . I'd want one with some experience, not a beginner.
ReplyDelete-- Jeff
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
ReplyDeleteI must admit to never, ever having read any of Terry Pratchett's books ... but I can imagine what he has to say about modern technology!
By the way, I did not reply to your comment last night because we had yet another loss of service!
All the best,
Bob
David Crook,
ReplyDeleteI have discovered over the years that 'change' does not always equal 'improvement', despite protests that it does from ISPs.
Intermittent outages are - in some ways - more irritating that a single event as they never last long enough for an engineer to fix them.
All the best,
Bob
Bluebear Jeff,
ReplyDeleteWhen Virgin first began running part of the UK's railways as well (Richard Branson has a finger in many, many pies!) there was a joke going to rounds to the effect that his trains were called 'Virgin Trains' because they were all over sixteen years old ... and had never been serviced. (A somewhat crude joke, for which I apologise.)
I have never actually changed ISP … but the ownership of the ISP has changed. Ever since I first had the Internet connection installed we have been ‘with’ Cable & Wireless, NTL, and now Virgin Media.
Who next, I wonder?
All the best,
Bob