About to move to Virgin 50MB...

Marky · 12 Jun 2011 at 18:33

Hey all,

So - As per the title... I'm about ready to move to Virgin Broadband 50MB

I'm syked to say the least after having so much trouble with BT Broadband...

Nevertheless, all these threads on here scare me about the Superhub...

Is it really that bad? Is there anyone with anything good to say about it?

If it does turn out horrible - Can you not just go out and buy another cable router?

Anyone able to ease my worries?

Thanks,
Marky

PhillyDee · 12 Jun 2011 at 18:37

No problems here with the superhub.

My config goes like this

Superhub with 4 port gb switch and wireless disabled
Connected to
16 port Gb switch | HP networked Printer | Vonage IP Phone box (With all the crap disabled)
GB switch is Connected to
Main Pc | Server | PS3 | Laser Cutter Box | Wireless Access Point (Just B/G)

I do not use the superhuib wireless, which I believe is the problem. Everything else works fine for me! I was using standard modem, to netgear router, via a 4 port and a 16 port switch. Also using a network cable economiser. The superhub has made it a much easier and simpler home network!

IrishChr1s · 12 Jun 2011 at 20:25

I have the superhub 2 months now, my opinion on it is hit and miss,
With all my devices being wireless, except 1 htpc, it can be very intermittened.

Take for instance, i usually only have my laptop connected at nite,
To watch some bbc, 4od sky player ect, this is fine on its own, as soon
As i open skype to talk with friends it works fine for about 10 minutes,

Then, the video im watching slowly starts to jutter, and eventually stops
And the wireless goes to limited or no connectivity. A quick disconnect and
Reconnect resolves this for around 10 mins until the wireless goes off all together.
No longer lets me connect at all.

The only way ive found to cure it for a day or so, is change my ssid and network pw.
Im not sure if its my laptop

Its a pain in the neck. Apart from that the speed is perfect, on wireless i usually top out
Downloads at around 3.9mb with close to 400upload.

_Ad_ · 12 Jun 2011 at 20:32

Ive never been a fan of wireless tbh, having had hit and miss experiences.
So i use wired connections for pc/xbox/ps3 with my superhub, but my gf uses the wireless on her laptop and its fine. But i do get a quicker download speed on my pc, i assume its down to the "g" wireless on her laptop.

Wireless works fine on my Galaxy S too.

No problems at all.

SexyGreyFox · 12 Jun 2011 at 20:40

Marky said:
Is it really that bad? Is there anyone with anything good to say about it?

In my house I have 3 wired PC's, 2 wireless laptops, 1 tablet, 4 phones with WiFi, 2TB Seagate NAS, Sony BDP-370s wired, Dreambox satellite receiver wired and a Viewsonic VMP74 wireless with no problems.
Everything set to default.

Marky · 12 Jun 2011 at 20:45

IrishChr1s said:
Downloads at around 3.9mb with close to 400upload.

I thought with 50MB Virgin - 50MB is what you get ? How come you don't get 50MB?

BloodyL · 12 Jun 2011 at 20:52

It's 50 megabits, which works out at 5 megabytes.
You should end up with a connection that is theoretically capable of 5 megabytes download and 500 kilobytes upload.

Cleeecooo · 12 Jun 2011 at 20:56

I hate my BT hub

I really don't think a superhub could be worse. I'm tempted to move to Virgin aswell so in same boat as you OP

Marky · 12 Jun 2011 at 21:04

BloodyL said:
It's 50 megabits, which works out at 5 megabytes.
You should end up with a connection that is theoretically capable of 5 megabytes download and 500 kilobytes upload.

Okay - but for what reason would he not get 50Mb?

I'm going for 50Mb and I'm expecting 50Mb

I didn't think it was like ADSL and dependant on miles away from exchange?

BloodyL · 12 Jun 2011 at 21:29

You are correct in assuming distance is not really an obstacle for cable connections, however VM connections still have a contention ratio, it used to be something like 25 subscribers to 1 main uplink, so heavily subscribed areas such as student accomodation zones, town/city centres have traditionally suffered from poor connections.

The recent seperation of highspeed and lowspeed connections into their own backbone systems has helped tremendously, but there will always be someone somewhere who is getting practically nothing because his/her neighbours are torrenting/gaming/watching TV over the web.

IrishChr1s · 12 Jun 2011 at 21:53

Marky said:
I thought with 50MB Virgin - 50MB is what you get ? How come you don't get 50MB?

Ohh sorry, i didnt mention im on the 30mb connection, i was commention about your superhub question

With all my virgin packages ive always got the headline speeds, its never dipped except when im being a dirty downloader and get throttled

Marky · 12 Jun 2011 at 22:07

BloodyL said:
You are correct in assuming distance is not really an obstacle for cable connections, however VM connections still have a contention ratio, it used to be something like 25 subscribers to 1 main uplink, so heavily subscribed areas such as student accomodation zones, town/city centres have traditionally suffered from poor connections.

The recent seperation of highspeed and lowspeed connections into their own backbone systems has helped tremendously, but there will always be someone somewhere who is getting practically nothing because his/her neighbours are torrenting/gaming/watching TV over the web.

Ahh thanks for explaining

IrishChr1s said:
Ohh sorry, i didnt mention im on the 30mb connection, i was commention about your superhub question

With all my virgin packages ive always got the headline speeds, its never dipped except when im being a dirty downloader and get throttled

Ahh I see

Marky · 13 Jun 2011 at 16:39

If after two weeks I begin to rage due to the Superhub - Is it easy enough to just buy a cable router and use it?

jaybee · 13 Jun 2011 at 16:56

Marky, you won't get 50 megaBYTES download is what people are saying. That would require a 500mb (megabit) connection. You need to google the difference between megabits and megabytes. 8 bits to a byte.

Marky said:
If after two weeks I begin to rage due to the Superhub - Is it easy enough to just buy a cable router and use it?

New firmware I thought was due imminently to allow it to act as a simple bridge device so you can use your own router. Otherwise I think there is a way around it but might not be supported.

My experience is this. Good and bad. That pretty much sums it up. Detailed:

Good:

- All in one device means less clutter with having separate cable modem and router.

- Less power/heat due to above

- Surprisingly good amount of features for majority of people, even power users, including filtering/rules etc.

- Seems not to reboot and stays up fairly reliably for long periods

Bad:

- Wireless range not as good as other routers, and it is definitely noticable.

-Slightly cumbersome, although it does have integrated cable modem and you lose another box so...

- Beta testers tested dodgey firmware and outlined the problem to VM only for them to role it out anyway. This caused issues with stateful packet inspection giving poor latency and jitter.

- As above also an issue with streaming video on another firmware but was fairly quickly resolved

- Not sure the internal gigabit switch is up to being worked very hard at the same time as streaming/torrenting/wireless. Seems to be hardware limited sometimes. Not sure of maintained speeds yet with large transfers. Does not support jumbo frames.

- I've had issues with my wireless printer and the superhub needing a reboot to allow the printer to accept print requests. Might just be my home network setup.

Marky · 13 Jun 2011 at 18:25

jaybee said:
Marky, you won't get 50 megaBYTES download is what people are saying. That would require a 500mb (megabit) connection. You need to google the difference between megabits and megabytes. 8 bits to a byte.

Oh yeah I know the difference - It was just a typo in the OP

jaybee said:
New firmware I thought was due imminently to allow it to act as a simple bridge device so you can use your own router. Otherwise I think there is a way around it but might not be supported.

My experience is this. Good and bad. That pretty much sums it up. Detailed:

Good:

- All in one device means less clutter with having separate cable modem and router.

- Less power/heat due to above

- Surprisingly good amount of features for majority of people, even power users, including filtering/rules etc.

- Seems not to reboot and stays up fairly reliably for long periods

Bad:

- Wireless range not as good as other routers, and it is definitely noticable.

-Slightly cumbersome, although it does have integrated cable modem and you lose another box so...

- Beta testers tested dodgey firmware and outlined the problem to VM only for them to role it out anyway. This caused issues with stateful packet inspection giving poor latency and jitter.

- As above also an issue with streaming video on another firmware but was fairly quickly resolved

- Not sure the internal gigabit switch is up to being worked very hard at the same time as streaming/torrenting/wireless. Seems to be hardware limited sometimes. Not sure of maintained speeds yet with large transfers. Does not support jumbo frames.

- I've had issues with my wireless printer and the superhub needing a reboot to allow the printer to accept print requests. Might just be my home network setup.

Thanks for that

BloodyL · 13 Jun 2011 at 20:28

Superhub-
Pro: The superhub is great for people who live by the "I just want it to work" mantra
Con: firmware updates are entirely dependant on VM.

Seperate modem/router-
Pro: Firmware is more likely to be kept up to date, especially if it is a linux based router where there are tons of modified firmware that add features, correct security loopholes and generally do things like increase your maximum connection allowance to allow for things like torrenting.
Con: Extra outlay on the hardware.

imb4tman · 13 Jun 2011 at 20:45

I'm moving over to VM on Thursday and all I have read is poor reviews about the Superhub. I'm going to give it a chance but I've got a WRT54GL sat in my basket just in case. Plus I've always fancied trying the Tomato firmware and this router comes highly recommended for doing so.

BloodyL · 13 Jun 2011 at 21:04

A Tomatoed WRT54GL is a proper workhorse, sure it's only got G grade wireless and 100mbit switching, otherwise it's a tank.

DD-WRT is also a good contender but is an order of magnitude harder to use than Tomato.

HangTime · 13 Jun 2011 at 22:36

BloodyL said:
It's 50 megabits, which works out at 5 megabytes.
You should end up with a connection that is theoretically capable of 5 megabytes download and 500 kilobytes upload.

In terms of theoretical capability it should be more like 6MB/sec down and 600K/sec up.

jaybee · 14 Jun 2011 at 10:49

BloodyL said:
A Tomatoed WRT54GL is a proper workhorse, sure it's only got G grade wireless and 100mbit switching, otherwise it's a tank.

DD-WRT is also a good contender but is an order of magnitude harder to use than Tomato.

Great router. Most reliable piece of networking hardware I have ever had the pleasure of using. Mine stayed up for months. Yes, the internal switch is only 100mb which is a shame. A new version of this hardware would be awesome to run tomato on. I guess they have already brought out similar pieces of hardware but I'm not sure they are as reliable. On 50mb virgin, the internal WAN throughput is NOT, I repeat, NOT bottlenecked by the WRT54GL. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 100mb connection then yes it would be.