Virgin Media Support - Is it now in a mess?

[Worldlife]

Certainly I am in a mess and needing help!!!!!!

Fellow Screamers will know I have been a satisfied and supportive customer of Virgin Net . Have had an emergency dial up modem service since the service was founded.

Joined Virgin Broadband Bundle Two in April 2008 and found the Netgear free wireless router DG8340SP and Virgin Wireless Manager disc got my desktop hard wired and a network set up for easy connection of wireless laptop.

Initial teething problems of a slower than expected service were eventually resolved satisfactorily. The Broadband service has been satisfactory and excellent value.

I have had to remove Pareto Anti Virus from my system because it wss taking too long (in comparison with other anti-virus programs) to download update tables and to run in background whilst other programs were in start up stage. The crunch came when the system froze at the motherboard screen on restarting after having to cut power because of freezing of Pareto Anti Virus. As you know this was eventually solved by switching the computer on and off at the main socket rather than using the power switch on the computer!!!

However the consequences of removal of Pareto Anti Virus was that my desktop will no longer connect to Broadband by LAN which I prefer to wireless for the base unit (in any case I would have to purchase a wireless card or USB device to do so). The laptop through which I am sending this has no problem in connecting wirelessly to the router.

The Virgin Wireless Manager Software is excellent for the first set-up but seems unhelpful for reinstallation.

Tried to telephone Virgin Support but this was not possible because it is a premium rate number and all such numbers are barred from this household.

Then completed an online report setting out the problem only to find it failed to submit due to an error 404 message. Sincere apologies that Virgin Media were sorting out the issues of problem linking did not alleviate my frustration.

It seems to me that in trying to integrate Virgin Net into Virgin Media is resulting in too many Error 404 messages as I got several more in trying to sort out the issue.

Other ISP's have provided a full printout of all the details you need to connect to broadband and email with blanks to put in your security passwords and contact numbers. With all the changes taking place in Virgin Media surely loyal Virgin Net customers should have a comprehensive advisory email printout.

Wondering if I can bypass Virgin software to hard wire the router to the desktop (maybe via Windows software?) but again I feel this should be easily done on reinstall of Virgin Wireless Manager - which it was not!!

In all fairness I should mention that in one of my attempts to resolve this situation I did get an error in loading message for "CProgram Files\Common File\Parelogic\UUS2\UUS\dll which appears to be debris after uninstall of Parelogic.

Just found an article "Can I set my router up another way"

Well I cannot get results from typing in "http://192.168.0.1" or "http://www.routerlogin.com" !!!! That's enough for the early morning patrol.

In case we have lost The Scream's Virgin consultant would appreciate alternative suggestions. Thanks!!

[Worldlife]

HELP

UPDATE

Laptop still working on wireless connection

Desktop (wired to router) will not connect to web even to 192.168.0.1 - need to relook at this as Virgin instructions said put http in front. www.routerlogin.com will not work either

Reinstalled and updated software for Speedtouch 330 USB Modem. It shows satisfactory connection and data up and down. Still no connection to web for Explorer or Outlook

An area network is shown as being down (Realtech) but trouble shooter says it is OK!!!

[bouncingjohn]

Try: 192.168.1.1

I think that's where most routers sit (mine does at least).

[Worldlife]

Thanks BJ. Your suggested address also fails to work. Have tried all again as plain numbers and also with http:// prefix.

I always log on the desktop computer (with connection problem) as an administrator.(unless somehow Pareto has changed this)

When I try to "Diagnose network problems" from the failed router log in I get "Must be logged on as an Administrator" to perform such tests.

Maybe because of the Pareto anti-virus removal from the desktop the laptop that still runs Pareto has control by some form of proxy whether that computer is on or off?

[Worldlife]

Just posted this message and thread to Paretologic

Hi

Wonder if you could help on this as the problem originates from having to deal with slow updates to Paretologic anti-virus that eventually resulted in a system freeze. Switching off of the power resulted in the computer next opening up at the motherboard board display - this was then frozen and various rescue programs tried without success using the computer main switch to kill the frozen system when necessary. System restored to normal working by quick on and off at mains socket!!!! Because of this experience decided to uninstall Paretologic suite from main desktop.

Not getting helpful input from Virgin Net (focussed on alleged cache problems on laptop) or the technical advice forum of "The Scream" where the guru is away!!!!


Relying on wireless laptop to communicate and try and sort things out.Scream

Following printout from "The Scream" explains all. If you want any further information please bear in mind my only communication between desktop and laptop is via a USB memory stick!!

Thanks in anticipation of some useful suggestions

Also posted new thread Paretologic too slow - uninstall problems

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

A router uses the Ethernet side of the PC, a Modem uses the old dialup connectoid.

Assuming you are using the Router, open IE and on the toolbar at the top select Tools > Internet Options > Connections << Tab.

Has it got a dot in the Never Dial a Connection, if not, dot it and OK out of Internet Options.

Next, establish if your PC is using the same internal IP range as the Router, sometimes the PC can have a brain phart and assigns a common default IP address for the Network card, which does not correspond to the range of the Router.

Go to Start > Run and type in cmd OK it.

In the Dos window, type in ipconfig /all press Enter.

Under the Ethernet heading, it shows what IP Address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway is being used.

EG.

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2 << IP assigned to the PC.
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 << Subnet for that IP range.
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 << IP assigned to the Router.

If the IP address is different to the Default Gateway, you wont be able to connect to the Router web Interface, nor the Internet.

EG.

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2 << Note the wrong number in Bold.
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 << Note the wrong number in Bold.

The Default Gateway for Netgear is 192.168.0.1, so your IP address will be in the range of 192.168.0.X

Post back what your 3 addresses are, so we can see if they are correct or not.

[Worldlife]

Thanks JR for your instructions - here are my results for my computers

Has it got a dot in the Never Dial a Connection, if not, dot it and OK out of Internet Options. Correct for Desktop and Laptop

Information for desktop hard wired to Netgear wireless router:-


IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2 << IP assigned to the PC.
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 << Subnet for that IP range.
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 << IP assigned to the Router.

If the IP address is different to the Default Gateway, you wont be able to connect to the Router web Interface, nor the Internet.

IP address of desktop that is not coonecting to internet is different to the default gateway

Information for laptop that is connecting to the router wirelessly:-

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

IP address of laptop differs from default gateway but it is connecting to the internet

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

Yes the internally assigned IP addresses will be different to the Default Gateway, that is how it works. The D/Gateway is the base number of the router, each PC/Laptop is then assigned an IP address from that number, anywhere from 2 - 255. You may get variations of say PC at 2 and Laptop at 6, but so long as the prefix address is the same on all PC's, etc and corresponds with the DG address, all should work OK.

So yours are in the range and are correct for the PC at 192.168.0.2 and the Laptop at 192.168.0.3. Default Gateway being 192.168.0.1

Try a ping and traceroute from a Dos command prompt.

Start > Run and type in cmd OK it

In the Dos window type in ping bbc.co.uk press Enter.

You should have 4 responses from that command, like so....

C:\>ping bbc.co.uk

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=120
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=120
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=120
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=120


Ping statistics for 212.58.224.138:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 47ms, Average = 39ms

If they fail, then there is a problem with outgoing/incoming traffic.

You can also try a Traceroute in that same Dos window.

Type in Tracert bbc.co.uk

It may be spread over a maximum of 30 hops, mine is 8 hops to complete, like so....

C:\>Tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 16 ms <10 ms <10 ms 192.168.1.254
2 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms anchor-hg-1-lo100.router.demon.net [194.159.161.
32]
3 31 ms 47 ms 31 ms anchor-access-4-s156.router.demon.net [194.159.1
61.193]
4 31 ms 31 ms 47 ms anchor-inside-4-g6-0-4.router.demon.net [194.159
.161.94]
5 31 ms 47 ms 31 ms lon1-service-4-s274.router.demon.net [194.70.98.
166]
6 47 ms 31 ms 31 ms demon-te4-3-607.prt0.rbsov.bbc.co.uk [195.11.50.
66]
7 47 ms 203 ms 219 ms 212.58.238.133
8 47 ms 32 ms 31 ms virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]

Trace complete.

You mentioned an Area network being down (Realtech), is that still down or working now.

Are there any other network connections running in the systray ?? If so click on it, to open the Status window, then click on the Properties button, at the top of the next window, it should show the network card being used. EG. Realtech, etc

Is the network card built into the Motherboard or a separate PCI type card, or do you have both types in the PC.

What Firewall have you got installed. Are there any settings in it that totally block a connection.

[Worldlife]

Thanks so much JR you have really come up trumps.

So did Virgin Tech support in the end. They emailed a comprehensive check list to see that the mechanics and connections were OK and if that were so I should phone Tech Support on an 0845 number (instead of the Premium one on my file)

As all was well I needed to contact that 0845 number and we went through the tests - the same as suggested in your last post. If I recall correctly the ping tests were OK but for some reason internet connections were not being made.

Advised it was a fault that might need correcting by a technician. Although Paretologic had been uninstalled he suggested a system restore to the point where satisfactory internet connections were being made.

Yes that worked

Both computers now on the network and I am writing this on the laptop.

Installation of Zone Alarm Security Suite completed satisfactorily and deep virus check of computer with latest virus tables now in progress.

Can now turn off the Windows Firewall and rely on Zone Alarm one

Will clean registry and then make an Emergency Recovery disc

One again thanks!!!!

BTW I obtained the Zone Alarm suite one year free of licence via Trial Pay - Mind you I had to take some free business cards from Vistaprint but pay about £5 delivery charge.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

Thats great news, glad you got it all sorted out.

[bouncingjohn]

I should have mentioned it earlier (sorry - forgot), but the tech support number hasn't been premium rate for a while now. Changed to 0845 454 1111 back in April - they sent me an email about it.