Thread by @LaurenceBraith1, I want to tell you a story about broadband.I call it my [...]

I want to tell you a story about broadband.

I call it my #VPNightmare

If you& #39;re not a @Virginmedia customer YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ ON.

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Working from home since last March, I& #39;ve had increased problems with my VPN dropping out (Virtual Private Network for the unitiated - they allow you to securely connect to a work network through your home broadband connection).

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I initially thought it was @Virginmedia& #39;s fault. They said that the network was fine. Constantly dropping out of video calls. Documents stopped syncing - not good - productivity seriously impacted.

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Contacted IT at work who recommended I get the VPN changed and installed.

Went into work and got VPN changed. Worked like dream for two hours. Then VPN started dropping out worse than before.

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Called IT support again. A bright spark had spoken to a colleague in Leeds who had seen similar problems with other @Virginmedia customers. He told me that the @Virginmedia hub was & #39;throttling& #39; my VPNs because it did not recognise them.

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He provided instructions from the @Virginmedia forum with instructions on how to directly prog your hub to stop throttling the VPN. I accessed my hub through my personal laptop using its IP address. The menu unfortunately didn& #39;t match the instructions I& #39;d been given.

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Back to @Virginmedia. They were very helpful and signposted me to the instructions on their website: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-set-up-port-forwarding-port-triggering

7">https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virg... of 15

I was advised to contact my IT again to get my port numbers. 26 hours after initially requesting them through my IT service and after chasing them on three occasions I got them. I put them in earlier and the VPN hasn& #39;t dropped out yet

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To summarise, @virginmedia are unique amongst UK broadband providers, in & #39;throttling& #39; VPNs and putting the onus on their customers to sort out. Now, I& #39;m reasonably savvy but this has taken me months to find a solution I didn& #39;t even know I had to look for.

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Wasted many months looking like a fool. I have managed to get an £18 reduction on our broadband package by taking an 18 month package. I was advised to ask for a package before Christmas but was told it would make no difference

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I digress, but how can such a significant reduction just magically appear when I& #39;d originally been told it didn& #39;t exist

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OK. Why am I telling this story? I& #39;m telling it because the time I& #39;ve spent dealing with this has cost me time with family and friends. It& #39;s also created immense work related stress. The worst of it is that it didn& #39;t need to happen.

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Home broadband shouldn& #39;t be smoke and mirrors. It is, as @Labour proposed in 2019, a vital utility and as such should be a free full fibre broadband service. This would be in place right now if we& #39;d all made the right decision in 2019

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I also hope that if you& #39;re in the same pickle with @VirginMedia, that this thread will help you out of the same hole faster than I& #39;ve managed to make it out

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If you& #39;ve got this far I& #39;m very impressed

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PS

I am still losing my VPN but for less & shorter periods

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