Grumpy Bastards

I'd like to share some news with you all.

About a month ago I got an email from 'Virgin Media' telling me that they were looking for volunteers to trail a new service that they are going to have.

So I went about filling in the info and expected to hear no more. Alas this was not the case. I found a second email which arrived on the 3rd March ( contents below ).


>> Hello there,

Thanks for volunteering to take part in the Virgin Media Broadband Trial - great news - we would love to have you on board!

With your help, we're going to be measuring the performance of our broadband, from things like how fast your average download speeds are to how reliable our network is. To do this, we're working with SamKnows, the experts in measuring broadband performance. You can find out more about them at http://www.samknows.com.

**What to do next**
Your trials equipment is being despatched to you and should be delivered by Royal Mail using Recorded Delivery to the address you gave us by Friday 12th March. Once it’s arrived, simply follow the instructions inside the box – we’ve made it as easy as possible to set up.

Once again, thanks for volunteering!

The Virgin Media Broadband Team <<


I believe that this is a 3 month trial of 100Mb broadband, although I am not entirely sure as no specific information has been given other than they are sending some equipment. It apparently gives 3Mb up too . With speeds like that I can expect 700MB a minute download, a CD full . Now that is impressive .

I'll let you know how it goes.

Damn, why isn't there an emoticon for "jealous as fuck"???

Nice mate, very nice

What Pepper said.

right so from now on if we want a new game server dave is hosting

Never mind grumpy bastard, more like lucky bastard.



Nice one

More >>>>>>>>


I should be so lucky << I think I could make a song out of that

Arrival of the components . It's a Linksys WRT54GL router. The info with it says that it is a measuring device Over the period of the trial the (I presume) modified router sends traffic & time data back to Virgin. It says "Over the next YEAR we're going to be measuring the performance of our broadband, things like average speeds, peak speeds & general reliability of the network"

Well, I got another new 'free' router, but still stuck on 20Mb cable broadband @ 140MB a minute

Right'o I've connected it all up & the router that they sent goes between the wired LAN connections & the existing router all seems to be working though. We'll have to see how it goes.

Are they monitoring want you are looking at as well?

Apparently not. The forms state "We won't be monitoring how you use the internet. Our trial is all about the speed & performance of fibre optic broadband from Virgin Media."