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A Proxy server acts like a middle man in your internet conversations. Your internet traffic flows through the proxy server on its way to the address you requested, and then back through the proxy server on its way back to you. Proxy servers are found in educational and buisness networks as they can provide web filters, and firewalls amongst other services. A good proxy server keeps users and internal network protected from the internet. For example, our internal intranet is a good proxy server.

A Bad proxy works in the same way as a good proxy, but can be harmful to our customers. They can be used to collect data or lead our customers to fraudulent websites. Most of the time customers don't know they are using a Bod proxy server.

As you use the internet your preferences or cookies will be stored to make re-visiting websites quicker and tailored to you. The law requires that all websites gain 'informed consent' from users before storing non essential cookies on their device. Cookies stored on your device are the reason Amazon remembers what you was looking at the last time you visited or how TUI knows what holiday destinations you were researching.

The most common way we connect to the internet is through a web browser . the most common ones are Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox.

TYPES OF IP ADDRESS

PRIVATE- This is the type of IP Address your device will be given as it's speaking directly to the hub. The world wide web doesn't see this IP address. Examples of this are variations of 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3

PUBLIC- If information is required to go to a public website e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Amazon a public IP address is needed.

STATIC- Companies like Facebook and X have static IP addresses, they do not change and information can always find thier servers. It would be like if your local supermarket kept changing address, it would be very hard to find so they keep the same address.

DYNAMIC- We recycle Public IP addresses between our customers. This isn't a problem as whilst they are browsing the web, the informtion knows where it needs to return to at that time.

Our hub will assign an IP address to each device that connects to it. This IP address is private as only the hub and the other devices connected to it can see it.

When the device disconnects from the hub the IP address is now available for the hub to give to another device.

These IP addresses are dynamic as they are recycled. This is why customers will often see their devices having IP addresses 192.168.0.2, .3, .4, etc.

LAN (Local Area Network)

This is the network within your home. It means that your hub speaks to all the different devices and remembers who has asked for what. For example, it makes sure that Mel’s request on the mobile for the football results doesn’t end up with Kim’s request on the tablet for their favourite shows.

This is where the Private IP address comes into play. Each device has its own IP address starting with 192.168.0.X, the hub knows when it receives data where to send it to.

WAN (Wide Area Network)

This is the network outside your home – or the Virgin Media Network. 

The Public IP address is how Google and Amazon know where to send your request back to. Think of it like the Post Office knowing where to send your letter, this IP address is unique to your Internet.

Ethernet cables are a fast and secure way to connect online if your customers device is close enough to the Hub.

The age and spec of our customer’s devices determine what speeds they can handle. If a customer is saying the internet is slow on their old PC it may be because their Network Interface Card (NIC) may only be able to handle 100MB.

When an Ethernet port is active it will light up or flash to show data is being transferred. Our clever little Hubs will even indicate what speeds are running through the cable.

To check if the Ethernet cable is faulty, simply plug both ends into the Hub and if both lights are on then the cable is fine.

There are lights on the front and backs of our Super Hubs.

The speed code of conduct is a voluntary code of practice that various broadband providers signed up to from 28th February 2019 onwards. This lesson will explain what it means for our customers and you.

What does it mean for our customers?

Firstly, we want customers to be able to understand and compare the broadband services they’re interested in before they purchase their service. By providing an expected minimum and maximum speed range for the Virgin Fibre tier they’re interested in, they can make a more informed decision. They’ll see information about speeds on our website and at various points on their buying journey.

Secondly, we want to help customers manage speed related problems after they’ve bought our services, including a right to cancel immediately without penalty if their download speed doesn’t meet our minimum download guaranteed speed. We’ll provide customers with a minimum guaranteed download speed for the Virgin Fibre tier they are interested in at the point of sale.  The minimum guaranteed download speed will be 50% of the advertised speed for the relevant Virgin Fibre tier.

From time to time OFCOM may send mystery shoppers to ensure we remain compliant with the code. Hence why it’s really important that you always tell the customer about the speed information as part of your sale.

What do we mean by minimum and maximum download speed?

The values of the speed range and the minimum guaranteed download speed cover the speed the customer is receiving into their premise and not the wired or WiFi speeds from the WiFi router to the customer’s devices.

The values of the speed range and the minimum guaranteed download speed are directly related to the specific Virgin Fibre tier and can be updated monthly. It’s super important to use your agent tools to provide the customer the most up to date information.

The six main principles

We have six principles that stack up against OFCOM’s residential speed code.

Realistic information on broadband speeds at point of sales. Detailed information provided after the sale. Detailed information on our website. Managing speed related problems. Right to exit without penalty where the speed problems cannot be resolved. Delivering the objectives of Residential Code through appropriate processes. What does it mean for me?

Here’s what you’ll need to do: 

Provide our customers with the relevant information around the Virgin Fibre product they are interested in so they can make an informed decision. This information must be provided before the customer provides us with any personal or financial information.  You MUST use the correct agent tools and read the broadband honesty statement to the customer word for word as the values that automatically appear within the statement can change on a monthly basis. Further information about the OFCOM Speed Code and right to exit will be sent to the customer within 7 days of the customer placing their order. This information is included in the contract and Change of Service Receipt, so that the customer has everything in one place. These can be viewed, downloaded or printed from within the MyVM self-serve online portal. If a customer requests any further information on OFCOM’s Voluntary Code of Practice – Better Broadband Speeds information – direct them to virginmedia.com/our speeds or send them the relevant supermail. If a customer wants to raise a speed complaint, please advise they would need to contact Customer Services when they are at their premise in order for us to perform diagnostics to fix the fault before we would raise a speed complaint. 

To connect to their WiFi, our customers will need the network name or SSID (Service Set Identifier) and their Password. These can be found on our Hubs, either on the back or bottom – or on our newer hubs there is a pull out card with the details on. Intelligent WiFi

We know that there are many things that can interrupt a WiFi signal, which is why we’ve got Intelligent WiFi.  

Intelligent WiFi adapts to whatever’s happening in your customer’s home, however many devices are connected, to give the best WiFi experience. 

All of our Hub 3 customers will have Intelligent WiFi technology deployed. There are a few elements which make up our Intelligent WiFi technology:

Band Steering

 Devices connect to the Hub over two frequency bands, depending on how far away they are.

The 2.4GHz band has the longest range. Like a marathon runner, it covers longer distances, slower. There are around 11 channels on this band, with 3 channels that don’t overlap, which are 1, 6 and 11. 

The 5GHz band covers short distances, faster – like a sprinter – so it’s best for devices near the Hub. There are 23 non-overlapping channels on this band.

Although devices are supposed to move between the two bands automatically this often doesn’t happen, so the Hub will steer the device on to the 5GHz band where optimal. Devices must be dual band compatible to benefit from this feature.

Channel Optimisation

Each band has several channels. The Hub will automatically search for the least congested WiFi channel based in the local environment, changing the broadcast channel overnight in order to provide the fastest and most stable WiFi connection. This happens periodically when the Hub isn’t busy, and on request by an agent.

NB: This feature does not guarantee a better connection if every channel in the local environment is heavily congested or if a customer overrides this decision by choosing to select a specific channel manually via the Hub UI.

Airtime Fairness

There’s only a certain amount of WiFi ‘airtime’ available for devices to communicate with the Hub. Legacy devices or devices a long way from the Hub tend to consume a disproportionate amount of WiFi, which can slow down other WiFi devices even if they are closer to the Hub.

Our Hub 3’s ensure that all connected devices have their fair share of WiFi airtime so no individual device is penalised.

Broadband diagnostics: IP Addresses

As part of diagnosing the fault, you’ll need to check that the device has an IP address.

Without one, our customers won’t be able to get online. 

Here’s how to check that the device the customer is using has an IP address:

Checking for an IP address on Windows Access the Run command (Windows Key + R together) Type CMD and press Enter Type ipconfig and press Enter The customers IP address will be listed next to IPv4 Address Checking for an IP address on MacOS Click the Apple Icon in top right of the screen Click System Preferences Click Network The IP address will be listed underneath the status

Broadband diagnostics: Ping test

One of the tests that Information Centre may ask you to do as part of diagnosing a broadband fault is a Ping test. 

A Ping will send packets of data from your customer’s device to a specific IP address. The results will let you know how long it took to send the data and how long it took to get a response. It will also tell you if any data was lost along the way.  

How to ping using Windows Access the Run command (Windows Key + R together) Type CMD and press Enter Type ping [website / IP address] and press enter

The default setting for Windows is to send 4 packets. How to ping using MacOS Click on Spotlight search Type in Network Utility and double click on the application Select Ping Enter the website address and click Ping

The default setting for MacOS is to send 10 packets.

How to read the results

How the results are displayed will vary slightly between operating systems.

The important information is the packets sent / transmitted, packets received and packets lost.

If successful, the Ping will return Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss). This indicates that everything is working ok.

If unsuccessful, the Ping will return Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss). If any / all of the packets are lost, this indicates a problem with the journey.

Information Centre will ask you to perform different Ping tests as part of your diagnostics, but don’t worry, it’ll guide you through the process.

Broadband diagnostics: Trace route

A Trace route maps the journey from the customer’s PC to the website – reporting back on its progress along the journey. It can help us to locate the source of an issue. 

Performing a Trace route on windows:

Access the Run command Type CMD and press enter Type tracert [website / IP address] and press enter

Performing a Trace route on MaCos

Click on Spotlight search Type in Network Utility and double click on the application Select Trace route Enter the website address and click Trace route

As part of your diagnostics, you’ll look for issues on our network. In our example, steps 1 – 6 are the Virgin Media network and steps 7 – 12 are off the network.

Step 1 – represents the first step on the journey to the website, followed by the address it has reached on its journey to the website. It shows that it has reached “arrisatom (192.168.0.1)” – in this case this is the customers Hub4.

Steps 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9 – 12 – This is the time it’s taken to get to that part of the journey in milliseconds.

Steps  4, 5 and 8 – Here you can see * * * instead of any information. This means this step of the journey did not respond to the trace routes ‘hello’ message. This doesn’t always indicate an issue, but it can mean there is packet loss.

As you can see, the results show a list of steps from 1 – 12.

A speed test will show the speed a customer is getting to their device. To run the speed test, the customer should disconnect / turn off all devices except the one they are testing and if possible connect via Ethernet.

The customer will need to go to https://www.samknows.com/realspeed/ and click Go.

The speed test will complete and you will be able to see their speed tests results through SamKnows via your knowledge tools.

Plume is our virtual tool for diagnosing and fixing issues with Virgin Media broadband. It gives you live insights into broadband speeds, which devices are connected and how they’re performing. So you can figure out any problems and get our customer’s internet back up and running pronto.

What do I need to do? Using the iCare Diagnostics Panel and IC, read through the below scenarios. Hit the Resolve button in iCare. Explore the different causes of the issue and possible steps to resolve them. Make notes as you work through your scenarios.

Remember, only use the account provided by your facilitator and do not access any other accounts in iCare or Information Centre.