Broadband from Virgin Media questions *HELP* (p.4)

after Dave's info that he gets 16MB broadband from Sky for only £10 a month, i've been looking into switchign to Sky myself, but would probably only go for the 8MB for £5 a month, with a 40GB monthly limit.

it says they give you a free router, but your need to have a wirelss card in your pc. they say you can buy one from them if you don't have one, but i'm thinking they will either over-charge you for it, or sell you an expensive one. so how much would an adequate one be? i've had a quick look and they can range from £18 to over £60 so am completely lost as to what i would need.

thanks.

see the deals here: [packages.sky.com]

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My local Aldi are selling Tevion Wireless adapters for £10.99, not sure whether it's nationwide or not. I intend on getting one around Xmas for my desktop.

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This one is popular, but go nuts. I haven't got a clue. Ideally you'll want one with Vista drivers in case you move up to that at some point, but I've no idea which ones have. Obviously you'd have to pay delivery on it if you order from there, but I just linked to it as a shop I know (and I get free delivery anyway :P). Buying from a shop will probably cost less, as TM pointed out, but you can't check in the store what others think of it and so on. Ideally you'll pop into any given store, make a note of which models are in stock, wander out, do some research into them, and then go back and buy the thing. Then again, for a tenner, it's hardly a massive loss if it turns out to be a bit @#$%&.

Muks_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> after Dave's info that he gets 16MB broadband from
> Sky for only £10 a month, i've been looking into
> switchign to Sky myself, but would probably only
> go for the 8MB for £5 a month, with a 40GB
> monthly limit.
>
> it says they give you a free router, but your need
> to have a wirelss card in your pc. they say you
> can buy one from them if you don't have one, but
> i'm thinking they will either over-charge you for
> it, or sell you an expensive one. so how much
> would an adequate one be? i've had a quick look
> and they can range from £18 to over £60 so am
> completely lost as to what i would need.
>
> thanks.
>
> see the deals here: [packages.sky.com]


SKY is alright, better than Pipex in my opinion, cheaper and that. Connectivity is annoying after a while, with the net on then off etc. but i suppose that is because of where i live.

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thanks both. so basically i'm looking for anything called a "PCI wireless adaptor"?

is that the same as a WiFi card?

i've no idea about this kind of this, as you can see.

if i had another computer in the house, would that also be able to connect to the 'net on the same contract as my main one? i ask because i may get a cheapo basic desktop pc for my parents to use, to learn how to type letters and basic web browsing and email etc. so if i signed up for the Sky package, will the router they'll give me, plus an extra wireless card in the other pc allow both pcs to connect at the same time?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

You don't need a Wireless card, unless you want to do everything wirelessly. The router is a Netgear DG834GT and has normal network ports if you have cables to use. Infact I think Sky supply a cable to use anyway.

The router can have 4 PCs online at a time via cable. I don't know how many it does wirelessly, but it's more than 2 lol.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2007 08:42PM by DaveEllis.

ah right, thanks for that Dave.

i have a phone socket right under my computer desk anyway, so don't need it to be wirelessly connected, but the Sky website gave that impression:



so it's just a choice if you want to be wireless or not, not a requirement?

that's great then as i don't mind being connected by wires.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

thats a bit misleading, however my mum has that box and it does have 4 lan ports on the back (hense the 1 2 3 4 leds on the front)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2007 10:01PM by _tux_.

*bump*

we're getting the 3 for £30 per month deal from Virgin Media (TV, phone and broadband), should be coming to install it tomorrow. was just wondering if anyone else has any services from them and what their broadband is like, and particularly, how do they install it?

from what i've read, they put the cable from their box down your street under the street and garden into a box in your wall, then they also run another line from their box alongside the TV cable for the phone, which then will also run to your computer.

we already have a cable line cos we were with Telewest years ago so there shouldn't be any digging required, but how will they connect the computer to the internet? will they have to run a new line either inside or outside the house to under the computer, or can i just connect the new modem they'll bring into the existing BT socket under my desk?

in our previous cable days, we only ever connected the phones to the BT sockets, the only cable line came out of a box in the wall behind our TV, and when i had dial-up from them we still used the BT line/sockets, so i'm hoping it will be the same this time as i don't fancy them drilling new holes into the wall to feed a line for broadband.

i think they just tell BT that the customer has moved to them, so BT should no longer chanrge for line rental, and VM then hire the line from BT, so broadband from VM should be as it is now, through the BT line.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2008 05:10PM by Muks_C.

virgin ran a cable through our house to where the PC is

Sim

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did they give you the option to use any existing BT sockets that may be near your computer, or did they insist on running a cable to the computer?

and was this computer line a separate line from the TV cable, or did it sprout from the same one?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

We've got that deal. They connected a line from outside to a new modem in the living room. Not directly to a computer. We then connected a wireless hub to the modem in the living room, so that all computers in the house are connected.

If you want to run with a wired connection, AFAIK from the engineer they wouldn't route direct to your computer, you'd have to buy a long wire and take it all the way from the modem yourself. At least for the internet anyway, there will probably be more drilling involved.

As for the phone line, I don't know if they allow you to use a BT socket or not, since we didn't have one when we moved in. Sorry I can't offer any more info, but hopefully that's sufficient. Basically if your computer isn't in the room where they fit the modem, you'll need to connect it up yourself.

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no that's fine, thanks for the info.

there's a box on the wall behind our TV in the living room where the cable enters the house, so i guess they will make a new hole near to it for the line that will be for broadband, and put the modem there. not sure how they'll bring the new line for broadband from the junction box on the street though, just last year we had our driveway done so i don't think my dad will be happy if they say they're gonna rip it up to fit the new line.

then i'll probably just go the wireless route as it'll be easier than running a wire to my room where the computer is. although it would be even easier if they could just use the BT line, meaning i'd just swap the Tiscali modem i have currently for whatever the installer brings.

from reading the info on their site, it says you should decide where you want the TV and computer(s) to be so they can run the wires around your house accordingly, but if they only go as far as putting the modem in the living room, that's fine by us.

what will i need to buy to get the wireless connection? a wireless hub connected to the modem in the living room, and a network card to go in the computer? we only have 1 computer.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2008 11:12PM by Muks_C.

Yup, the wireless hub is the only major expense to be honest. You an even get yourself a USB stick which gives you wireless connectivity (don't ask me how, technology is wonderful!) The one I've got is called "LogiLink" ... always been reliable, basically wherever I plug it in I can get wireless access to the internet!

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Please find us on [en.wikipedia.org] for more information.

so the USB wireless stick is in place of a network card?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Yes.

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Please find us on [en.wikipedia.org] for more information.

Dont mean to put you off Muks but I have had dismal service from Virgin Media. We used to be with their phone line service for Broadband but the connection was absolute b*ll*cks so we thought "ah yes, lets switch to ntl cable!". Three weeks later, virgin media buy out ntl and we're back to the same old crappy service. The download speed isn't bad but not quite what is advertised on the package we have but on a friday night (or weekends, whenever lots of people are on basically) our upload speed just disappears and we get horrendous packet loss (I recorded 80% the other week). Not to mention being disconnected for the week over christmas lol. The internet died on christmas eve and they didnt even bother sending an engineer out until about the day before new years eve. Oh and if you try to report a fault on the line then you have to wait on hold for about 45 minutes and then someone in India has to do all the paperwork (instead of the people 5 miles down the road lol, which would take less time and also get the fault sorted quicker). Half the time, the people in this country dont even know what's going on since all the paperwork is in India lol.

And the best bit? Now that we have a cable line in the house, we would be charged a considerable sum of money to go back to BT or another telephone line supplier...and there are no other cable suppliers in our area. Lol, we're stuffed basically.

EDIT: Also regarding the wireless aspect, we're set up exactly the same. What you're after is a router though and not a hub. We made the same mistake once but luckily PC world were understanding and gave us a refund. We have Linksys unit and it's pretty good. Used to have a Belkin but it wasn't much good. Basically the cable comes in through wall and into the modem. Then you have an ethernet from the modem to your router...and once you're all set up then the router will transmit your internet around the house . You will probably need to plug directly into it at first to set it up though (make sure you use encryption otherwise your neighbours will be using your internet too! I use WEP security). Then you just need some sort of wireless adaptor on your PC to recieve the signal either in the form of a USB stick or network card. I would prefer a network card since they are more reliable and tend to find a signal easier.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2008 09:48PM by Fincent.

well everytime ill put my conection in a virgin i get nothing out of it only a scream.

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re: Fincent: Oops yes, I meant a router rather than a hub. Well spotted!

And there are horror stories for every internet provider. I know some people may have had a problem with Virgin but all I can say is that it's always been fine for me an I'm happy with the service.

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I've had nothing but a good connection from Virgin Media/NTL over the past 5 years. Only had proper downtime about 3 times.