usage-faqs help wireless Virgin Media
Here is a list of common problems that you may have when using this product, together with answers and suggestions. If your question is not answered here, please contact Customer Support.
If your PC is older, and/or has a lot of software applications that start automatically during start-up, it may take some time to connect to the network. Open the Wireless Manager to show the status of the connection. You may want to reduce the number of applications that are automatically started.
If your PC had previously connected correctly, but fails to do so after a restart, the most likely cause is a poor wireless signal. Ensure that there are as few obstructions as possible between PC and router (brick or stone walls, metal structures and similar are the worst). Use Wireless Manager to determine the signal strength.
The above screen shows the Signal Strength meter (the full 5 bars indicates maximum wireless signal strength and 1 bar a poor signal strength), and also the correct operation of Wireless and Internet connections.
If your PC is set to "hibernate" after a period of inactivity, or if you manually set it to hibernate using the Start > Shut Down facility, you may find that the PC takes some time to reconnect to the wireless network when it is restarted from hibernation.
This is normal behaviour. The time taken to reconnect will vary depending on the Windows version and the PC type, but can be several minutes.
If you have more than one PC on your network, and want to change the network password, you need to have all PCs running and connected to the network at the time. If one or more PCs are not running at the time, they may not be able to reconnect later as they will still be using the old password.
On the PC(s) which cannot connect, open Wireless Manager, and click on the flashing "red circled X" button. This should open a window allowing you to enter the new password.
We have found that a few combinations of PC and Windows version don't show this window. If this is the case on your PC, exit Wireless Manager. Now from the Windows "Start" button select the "Easy Setup" option in "Wireless Manager". This will allow you to enter the new password.
Wireless Manager will inform you of problems with the wireless connection as follows:
Click on the "red circled X" button for suggested remedies.
Vista 64 bit is not currently supported.
If you decide to de-install Wireless Manager, it is possible that the de-installation process will change a setting in PCguard, so that PCguard doesn't start automatically when the PC starts up.
The following instructions show you how to correct this. The screenshots are taken from Version 5.5 of the PCguard software, but earlier and later versions use the same process and the various buttons are in the same places on the windows, although the style of the windows varies between versions.
Step 1: Locate the "Virgin Broadband PCguard" icon (in earlier versions this is called "ntl Netguard Security"):
Step 2: Double click on this icon, and you will see the following window:
Step 3: Click on the "General" option under "My Services" on the left hand side of the window:
Step 4: Click on the "Preferences" option at top centre of the window:
Step 5: Check (click on) the "Launch PCguard automatically at Windows start-up" check box at top centre, then click "OK"
During testing we have found that Windows Vista behaves as follows:
If you set up your home network using a wired (Ethernet) connection, and subsequently remove this connection from the PC and insert a wireless adapter, the wireless manager doesn't recognise the change, and so you lose connection to your network.
This behaviour also occurs with the built-in Vista wireless software, so at present it is suspected that this is a Vista problem. We are working to clarify this and will update this FAQ entry as soon as possible.
The simplest way to solve this problem is to restart the PC. If you don’t want to do this, you can go to Start > Control Panel > Network and Sharing centre > Manage Networks. Right click on all the network adapters listed in turn, and select "Disable", then right click on them all again, and select "Enable".
Note that we have not found this problem when changing from a wireless to a wired connection, and that the problem does not seem to affect other versions of Windows.
Windows Vista PCs may fail to reconnect after either a change of network name or a change of wireless adapter. The solution is to restart the PC.
