Is Virgin Media down? How to know if the internet has stopped working – or if it’s just you

The last couple of years have shown just how much we rely on the internet: to connect us to friends when we can’t see them, to work when it’s not safe or convenient to be in the office, to watch sport when we can’t go out, to keep up with goings-on when we can’t be there.

But that just means that those times when the internet is not working are all the more difficult. While internet companies have largely dealt with the change in habits from the lockdown and other developments in recent years, they do occasionally experience issues – and they can be stressful and confusing without the right information.

Thankfully, it is relatively easy to find out whether any internet problems are really with your internet provider – or just you, the websites that you’re trying to access.

If you’re with Virgin Media, then there are a range of ways – both those offered by the company as well as by others – to find out what is going on with your connection.

If the internet stops working, the first thing to do is to check with another device, if you have one to hand. If that isn’t working either, it confirms there’s something wrong with the connection, rather than just that specific computer or phone’s connection.

After that, it can be helpful to restart the router: just turn it off and on again at the power. While it’s an annoying thing to say, it can also solve many internet problems, by resetting the connection and getting things working again.

If that doesn’t work, there probably is something up with Virgin Media rather than your internet. The best way to find out about that is to navigate to the company’s “service status” page.

There, you can log in and test out your connection and your equipment. You can also follow instructions to get help with any equipment that isn’t working, if there’s a failure rather than a temporary issue.

(If you don’t want to log in, then you can use its area checker to put in your postcode and see if there are any local problems.)

It can also be worth checking Virgin Media’s official Twitter account, which is usually quick to respond to any questions about service problems or any other issues.

Of course, those pages might not always be updated straight away. If you want something quicker, you could try Virgin Media’s Down Detector page, which will let you know if there are any issues ongoing.

That page does work by looking at user reports and social media posts, though, and so might be triggered wrongly and can’t always be relied on. However, if the number looks high and the chart looks red, it does suggest there’s probably a widespread problem.