For the past two weeks we've been seeing a steady stream of COMPLAINTS trickling in for Virgin.net. Both dialup and ADSL users appear to be highlighting similar difficulties with slow speeds, unstable connections and connection problems in general.

While we've only just started to hear about them, some individuals suggest that the issues have been going on much longer. Most seem to suggest that the problems are far worse at peak times (no surprises there):

Virgin's ADSL service is a complete joke. For the past 2 months, we have had problems with speed and web-pages not loading AT ALL. We have been disconnected and sometimes have problems connecting again. This appears to be worse during peak times.
E-Mail By - Mark

The next complaint also highlights difficulties in contacting support and reinforces the above one:

I have been with Virgin.net broadband since it started, as I was one of the “pilot” customers. In the last month or so, the peak time service has been terrible; even email not working, despite being connected. There appears to be a very “stop-start” nature to the performance, it works for a few seconds and “normal” speeds then hangs for 30 secs or so. Very annoying.

Support has never been virgin strong point, but at the moment they are particularly bad. Emails rarely answered, and if they are the problems are just put down to “a virus”.
E-Mail By - Nigel

As stated at the start, these issues aren't just hitting Virgin's broadband ADSL subscribers. The next reader highlights a similar story for dialup:

Difficult to get a connection on unmetered 24/7 during evenings and weekends. When I do get a connection, the email server times out without collecting my email. Complaints to virgin mean standard replies blaming sobig virus, or my computer.
E-Mail By - Stuart

We note from all of this that Virgin.net appears to be saying the same thing to everybody (those that can contact them), that the 'Sobig' virus is to blame.

Many of the complaints have protested this, highlighting their security features and competence in monitoring such areas of concern. We have several contacts for Virgin.net and will be endeavouring to get a response.