Virgin Media Routers

[Frank100]

Hi all,

I wanted to canvass for opinions on the wi-fi capabilities of different routers provided by the main broadband providers after experiencing several months of hopelessly inadequate wi-fi service from my Virgin Media Super Hub 2.0.

I've been with VM for about 8 years and been very happy with the service for most of that time. When VM decided to start making their own routers rather than buying them in, I think the problem started. The Internet is awash with people unhappy with the performance of their VM routers but a recent Which? report suggested they performed well. I'm now on my third Super Hub and if I weren't so busy and they weren't so hard to get through to, I would be reporting this all the time.

Presently I am getting about 0.3Mbps download speed via wi-fi on the 2.4Ghz channel. Some of my devices support both and when connected to the 5GHz channel perform well enough. It is the 2.4GHz channel that is hopeless. Obviously I have tried all the things you can try. Different channels, although the router supports auto switching. I've tried different physical locations for the router and I've tried manually assigning IP addresses to key devices and using DHCP for everything. In short every conceivable setting has been tried.

As a number of my devices only support the 2.4GHz channel I'm at the stage of considering going to another provider. The speed and reliability of wi-fi is paramount for my needs. I was wondering what experiences people had had with Sky, BT and so forth.

I'm also considering buying a wi-fi router of my own and using the VM one in router mode only. This means spending money that I don't think I should have to spend, but changing provider is a hassle and I don't know I'm going to get a better service anyway. Everything else about VM I am happy with. When I do get through to the VM call centre they very excitedly tell me that "all my problems will be resolved now and to have an outstanding day" or they just send me another router. It doesn't fix it and I'm still not having an outstanding day yet.

When I use my mobile phone as a hotspot in the same room as the VM router my laptop jumps onto it and gets vastly superior speeds than the VM router provides. I have unlimited download and 100Mbps wired connection but the irony is, if I want to download a large file on a mobile device, I can only do it with my 4G contract.

Any thoughts and opinions would be gratefully received.

Frank100

 

[stegor]

Had a super hub 2 for a couple of years and never had an issue. I use the 2.4 GHz rather than the 5.0 as the signal carries further. I get 10Mbps download and around 5Mbps upload. I also have the 100Mbps wired unlimited and that also works fine. Maybe I've just been lucky.

 

[SlimCini]

Hi all,

I wanted to canvass for opinions on the wi-fi capabilities of different routers provided by the main broadband providers after experiencing several months of hopelessly inadequate wi-fi service from my Virgin Media Super Hub 2.0.

I've been with VM for about 8 years and been very happy with the service for most of that time. When VM decided to start making their own routers rather than buying them in, I think the problem started. The Internet is awash with people unhappy with the performance of their VM routers but a recent Which? report suggested they performed well. I'm now on my third Super Hub and if I weren't so busy and they weren't so hard to get through to, I would be reporting this all the time.

Presently I am getting about 0.3Mbps download speed via wi-fi on the 2.4Ghz channel. Some of my devices support both and when connected to the 5GHz channel perform well enough. It is the 2.4GHz channel that is hopeless. Obviously I have tried all the things you can try. Different channels, although the router supports auto switching. I've tried different physical locations for the router and I've tried manually assigning IP addresses to key devices and using DHCP for everything. In short every conceivable setting has been tried.

As a number of my devices only support the 2.4GHz channel I'm at the stage of considering going to another provider. The speed and reliability of wi-fi is paramount for my needs. I was wondering what experiences people had had with Sky, BT and so forth.

I'm also considering buying a wi-fi router of my own and using the VM one in router mode only. This means spending money that I don't think I should have to spend, but changing provider is a hassle and I don't know I'm going to get a better service anyway. Everything else about VM I am happy with. When I do get through to the VM call centre they very excitedly tell me that "all my problems will be resolved now and to have an outstanding day" or they just send me another router. It doesn't fix it and I'm still not having an outstanding day yet.

When I use my mobile phone as a hotspot in the same room as the VM router my laptop jumps onto it and gets vastly superior speeds than the VM router provides. I have unlimited download and 100Mbps wired connection but the irony is, if I want to download a large file on a mobile device, I can only do it with my 4G contract.

Any thoughts and opinions would be gratefully received.

Frank100

Was with Virgin for years with a superhub 2 with no wireless issues. Often exceeding my 200meg down speeds. Though not been with them since December 2016 as I moved house and they don't serve my new area. So maybe I had a superhub 2 that wasn't made by them?

Now with plusnet and their router wireless range was a shambles so invested in a nighthawk and it now reaches my entire house. It didn't help that the only logical place to have the wireless router in my house is right at one end meaning that the other end of the house is always going to struggle. That said, the nighthawk manages it. I just think that service providers have little incentive to have top notch routers when low price wars win customers. I suppose when my contract runs out I might try a different FTTC provider and see what their router is like... but then again I'm not what the point is when I have my nighthawk now. Whichever provider I go with I wouldn't use their router for wireless. In an ideal world, virgin would lay some cables in my street (sounds a bit rude I know). It dirties my soul to know that I've given money to the disgrace that is Openreach.

 

[mishra]

I had Virgin broadband for over 5 years now. And SuperHub 2.0 was extremely reliable - however WiFi range was appalling !
About few months ago I got the latest SuperHub 3 and WiFi range is so much better its unbelievable. Finally it covers all my house. Only issue with latest SuperHub 3.0 is that you cannot change internal IP range. It comes as 192.168.0.x and is set in stone.

Also, VM support is totally useless. As you mentioned you always get this excited chap that will go through all the same things but it never resolves anything. Best thing is to create an account on their Virgin Community Center forum (http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/CommunityHubForums) and make a post there, you will get a far better support through that route - they will hook you up with real IT technicians, not some useless guy with scripted responses.

 

[Scott]

There are a LOT of changes required to get the most out of the Superhub 1/2 (The 3 is MUCH better out of the box). Unfortunately the default settings are atrocious and IME the engineers have very little savvy when it comes to bespoke wireless configuration.

I'm working off of memory here so apologies if this doesn't help, it definitely should though.........

Download and install a wifi analyser. This can either be on your phone or PC. The INSSIder is the one I use but I don't think there's a free version anymore.

Go into your hub settings:
Make channel width 20/40mhz on both frequencies
In the 5GHz band switch it to Wireless N only, in the 2.4GHz band leave all selections to allow for legacy (A/G/N)
Change the channel selection to manual and choose the best gap you can see fro each frequency via the wifi analyser.
Try Greenfield Mode turned on first, see how it goes.... then turn it off... let it settle and see how it goes. This varies from location to location for me.

There may be a few more things to try. I'll have a look when I go home. The difference when configuring the router properly for your home is night and day.

Oh, one thing to keep in mind. Try to have the router somewhere open. Against a wall or in a cupboard is never ideal.

 

[Frank100]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies and I will try the suggestions above when I get home. I am still in the office at the moment.

I thought I would post a little more information because I think wi-fi quality is one of those issues that many of us experience and this thread could prove useful to others.

In relation to the location of my hub it is in a pretty good spot. I've got 100Mbps download speed on Ethernet and the 5GHz channel is rarely poor. Obviously not all devices support 5GHz and are only able to connect via 2.4GHz. It's the 2.4GHz channel I have trouble with.

The symptoms are simply, I only get about 0.3Mbps download speeds even if I am right by the router. I do have wi-fi repeaters elsewhere in the house but if the router is only sending out this speed the repeaters immediately hit a bottleneck even if devices can connect to them at much higher speeds.

The 2.4GHz network is the most common one and has a longer range, which means potential interference from other households, but other devices, including smart TVs, wireless doorbells and so on, can also interfere with the signal. If it is interference in my case, in theory, I could relocate the router to another part of the house and if I am further away from what is causing interference, I should get a stronger signal. That's not so easy to do when the coaxial cable bringing the service into the house is of a fixed length.

In my case there are very few houses near me and I've tried unplugging my smart TV and removing the batteries from my wireless doorbell and these things don't help. The potential candidates for interference are very few in my circumstances.

Options include buying plug-ins that connect into the router via a wired lead and provide a wi-fi signal from that location, as opposed to the plug-in receiving its signal from wi-fi. This is a cheap way of testing the alternative places in the house theory. I might be able to find a wi-fi router at work I can borrow and see if it can deliver more 2.4GHz oomph in the same location than my VM router. Either way, I will report back as I'm sure someone else will have issues like mine in the future and they'd like to know is it worth spending money, or should they change providers.

Speaking to VM, the rep did say that they don't include wi-fi capability as part of their service because they can't guarantee the effectiveness of it in every home. They provide a router with the capability but customers aren't being charged for it as such. It means they are sympathetic and they try to help, but they offer no guarantees it will work for me.

I'm going to try a few things and if they don't improve then if I ask them for a new router I'm sure they'll send me one. That's certainly another option.

By for now.

Frank100