Fed up of train wifi being rubbish

[How2Help]

Unfortunately I travel a lot for work, I seem to spend my life on trains. I am currently on a 3.5 hour journey and have loads to do. Most of my work requires being online, what I can do offline is minimal. I am so fed up of rubbish train wifi which means I cannot connect to anything.

I have just spent about an hour trying (and failing) to send 1 email as I just can’t connect. If I could use this time productively it would reduce the hours I have to spend catching up in the evenings.

AIBU to be very grumpy this Monday morning and think that improving train wifi would help make this country more productive?

use the time productively, maybe?
some time out of work? read a book,
alternatively, compose your emails knowing your are unable to send, and can finalise once you arrive.
are the recipients likely to be answering at the time of your journey?

is there phone signal? use the time to make phone calls instead?

My trains don’t even have WiFi! It is rubbish in general though, too many people trying to use it at once.

Just think, if you were driving you wouldnt be able to email either!

Just make your phone a personal hotspot and use that? I can also tell you that wifi in first class is much better!

Use your phone as a hotspot if you can?
Bit of a first world problem I have to say. When I started working, no WiFi, so we just got on with it.
Do all the stuff offline, and have it lined up to send when you can?

Thanks Slartybartfast.
Time out of work/read a book - I have 18 hours on trains this week. I’d rather work on the train then have my time at home for downtime.

Most emails I send need access to various systems to compose (eg someone wants and update on something, I need to access a system to get the info to provide the update.

And yes, the email I am (still) trying to send will be read, it is to someone on another train heading to the same meeting to give them some updated info that came in over the weekend.

I know I should have learnt by now and not plan to get anything done. But it is so frustrating! And it is annoying me more that there is a big advert for the amazing train wifi on the back of the seat in front of me.

MissCharleyP I suppose at least I have the hope of connecting!

Nakedavenger - I’m in first class .

Huckfromscandal - yes, it is pretty much the definition of first world problem. Do you never get frustrated about anything, ever? And the point is that I just want to get on with it, but compared to when I first started working my workplace is wholly dependent upon being online. If I could go back to typewriters I would! My point is that there is literally nothing I can do offline. I just wish this wasn’t such dead time.

And thanks for hotspot suggestions - unfortunately phone signal also rubbish for much of this toute.

Toute = route

What company?

Virgin Trains free wifi is crap, you need to pay extra for the higher speed.

You get what you pay for basically.

Sounds like you need an email app/programme that downloads all your emails and then you can write replies while offline and it sends them whenever it connects. Iyswim. Worth looking into ?

You heed to being this up with your company being so heavily reliant on online systems. Not all trains have Wi-fi so if they’re expecting you to travel and work they need to make it easier to do so.

My company offers a 3G sim in laptops, or I hotspot from my phone internet. Both usually work better than the train WiFi.

Shumpalumpa: it is virgin (east coast)! I’m on the free 1st class so it doesn’t come up with an option to pay but I’ll investigate, thanks!

Chocolatestrawberry - thank you, knowing it isn’t just me getting annoyed helps!

Jennyholzersghost - I can do emails offline, the problem is I can’t access anything I need in order to draft the replies eg I have one which needs lots of people’s diaries - I need to be on vpn. I have one asking for current figures - I need online access to get the figures. I need to write a report, but the information for the report is in online systems. I suspect my industry is disproportionately reliant on being online, but presumably this is the way many are going?

Poohbearshole - it is a global company, when I have raised it before with USA headoffice I’m generally met with increduility that I cannot connect. I’m not sure if they are fobbing me off or if other countries genuinely have better wifi infrastructure.

I’m sick oftrains being rubbish, Scotfail!

I use my phone as a hotspot on virgin. It's still pretty shit, but less shit than their WiFi.

I have the same problem with Virgin
Can’t access any customer data outside VPN and train WiFi is not reliable enough to connect Even in first class.

Good job Virgin train fares are super cheap, oh wait....

I'm not surprised it's slow, the entire train is being fed by a 3G router connected to several access points. You only need a couple of people streaming a film for the entire bandwidth to be gobbled up. Bear in mind that 3G coverage will be dependent on the local service which will vary as the train moves.

Maybe get your employer to pay for your laptop to have it's own connection.

www.virgintrains.co.uk/our-blog/the-experience/2016/06/wifi-on-trains

It depends how old the train is:
When they introduced the Virgin (now cross-country) new fleet with Pendalinos they fitted them all with onboard entertainment which were used to play virgin train radio and they could make money from the advertising. In order to stop people using their own portable radios the cariages were designed to work in a similar way to a bell cage so they distort signals coming in (this is why signal on trains is often rubbish).
Unfortunately this was not long before everyone had a MP3 player and wanted to listen to their own music without advertising and they expected to be able to get on with work or check social media and watch Netflix on the train and needed power and WiFi available, but because of the carriage design they would have to have a WiFi switch/router in each end of each carriage to give adequate coverage for the train.
As trains have been refitted the radio ports have been removed as they weren't used (I think the onboard entertainment only lasted about a year) and more power sockets added but they really struggle to get around the carriage design issues for phone signal and WiFi.

I think I’d ask for a 3/4g sim for journeys, if they expect you to work they should provide the equipment to make this possible. Companies demanding us to be able to answer things at a minutes notice make it very unpleasant for us and make us more demanding.

It’s so frustrating, hope you find a solution for today 😊 the massive thing is dropping in and out of vpn I find as you have to re-log on each soddingvtime 😡.

I didn't know you got free wifi on Virgin Trains, I thought they had that stupid BEAM app unless you were in first class.

I use South Western the most and it's free, but not very good.