Help for Cable customers

Note: if you use the new Virgin Media Hub or Super Hub – our combined modem and wireless routers for cable customers – you can find the appropriate guides here:

 Troubleshooting the Virgin Media Hub

 Troubleshooting the Virgin Media Super Hub

If you’re having trouble with your wireless connection on any other equipment when you’re setting it up or using it, try these quick fixes and see if they do the trick.

Check your cables

Check that all the right cables are plugged into the right places on your cable modem, wireless router and computers. For diagrams, click one of the links below:

• How do I manually set up my wireless router for cable in Windows?
• How do I manually set up my wireless router for cable in Mac OS X?
• How do I set up the Virgin Media Hub?
• How do I set up the Virgin Media Super Hub?

Restart all your equipment

Step one: First of all, switch off the power to your wireless router and cable modem at the plug.

Step two: Now switch the modem back on and wait for most of its lights to turn solid, which means there’s a connection to the internet. This should take around 60 seconds. One or two of the lights might still flicker, but this just means your modem’s doing its job.

(If there’s a problem at this stage, the issue will be with your broadband connection and not with your wireless network, so you might need to give us a call.)

Step 3: Power up your wireless router and wait for another 60 seconds, until its lights turn solid.

Step 4: Finally, start your main computer to see if your wireless connection is back up and running.

My wireless connection keeps dropping or has stopped working altogether

If your wireless connection has worked in the past but isn’t working reliably (or at all) now, something might have affected the quality of your wireless signal. There are lots of things that can cause this, so take a look at one of the articles we’ve linked to below:

How can I improve the performance of my wireless network?

Where should I position my wireless router?

Check your wireless network details

Make sure you’re using the right wireless network name and passphrase to get connected. If you’ve saved these details before, your computer should remember how to connect to your wireless network, but it's worth checking that you’re definitely trying to connect to the right network.

If you use Virgin Media's Wireless Manager software, open it to see the network you’re trying to connect to. Otherwise, you can check this information using the built in wireless networking software on your computer.

Change the channel of the wireless router

Wireless networks are set to operate on different frequencies, known as 'channels'. If there are too many nearby wireless networks (or other radio sources) on the same channels, it can get overcrowded and slow everything down. For more information on improving your wireless performance, check How can I improve the performance of my wireless network?

To find out how to change the channel of your wireless router, take a look at our article, Changing the wireless router's channel/frequency.

Use built in wireless networking software instead of Wireless Manager

If you use Virgin Media's Wireless Manager software for your wireless network and you find that these steps haven’t solved the problem, the next thing to try is to uninstall Wireless Manager and use Windows' built in wireless networking software instead.

Check out How do I uninstall Wireless Manager for instructions on removing Wireless Manager from your PC.

Wireless speed and data transfer issues

The type of wireless equipment you have determines the speed of your connection and it’s worth remembering that it’s very difficult to reach the maximum speed of your connection with a wireless router. If you’re looking for the highest speeds you can get, try connecting with an Ethernet cable. To find out how, take a look at our article, Connecting to the internet with an Ethernet cable. To learn more about maximising the performance of your wireless network, check How can I improve the performance of my wireless network?

For more help with wireless, check our Wireless area.

Move your wireless adapter or your computer

If you have a wireless USB adapter, try this:

Attach the extension lead to the adapter (this is the wire that came with your adapter) and try moving the adapter around to different places to see if the signal gets any stronger. If you use Virgin Media's Wireless Manager software, open it to see the current signal strength. Otherwise, your built in wireless networking software should tell you how strong your wireless signal is.

If you have a wireless card or adapter in your computer, you might need to move the computer itself to improve your wireless signal, which can work great for laptops, but it’s often difficult with desktop computers.