I pay £24.99 a month for 8Mbps broadband from Virgin. It is unbelievably slow. A pal sent me an 8MB attachment and it took nearly an hour to download. I've asked for help, but had no reply to my email. Bob Sutton
First, download new anti-virus and anti-spyware programs such as the free ones from AVG. Disconnect your PC, restart in Safe Mode, then run both programs. Second, turn off all file-sharing programs and reboot your router. Go to PC Pitstop and run the Full Tests from the link on the left, under Tests and Scans. This will check your PC's performance, including (roughly) broadband speed, and compare it with similar machines. (BT also has a broadband performance tester if you type in your broadband phone number at speedtester.bt.com.) A third test is to try another PC on the same line: perhaps a friend could bring round a laptop?
By now you should be sure if it's Virgin's fault, so you can call its broadband technical support team on 0906 212 1111 and pay 25p a minute. You probably won't get anywhere because there is no real guarantee of the speed of the service. But perhaps you could downgrade to a slower, cheaper package or think about moving to another supplier.
