Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Merlin5 · 28 Oct 2015 at 03:29

Need help please, chaps. Received the Superhub 2, have set it all up correctly as far as I can tell, nothing really any different from my Superhub 1 except new 2G and 5G SSIDs and passphrase. No internet access though, wired and wireless. The Superhub 2 is active and the lights are flickering as they should.

In my taskbar on laptop, the network bars have a yellow triangle and exclamation mark saying no internet access, but it says connected and signal excellent next to the 2G SSID.

When I click on any website it takes me to a page that says "Broadband Activation - To start the Broadband Activation Process Click Here". The same happens after I connect to wi-fi on my phone. The phone says it's connected to my 5G SSID, but then it tells me to sign in and when I do, it also says"Broadband Activation - To start the Broadband Activation Process Click Here". I click on that and a virgin media welcome splash screen comes up, says 'Let's go' then says "Sorry! We are not able to complete your set up at the moment. Please try again. If the problem persists, please contact us on 0800 073 1685."

I don't need to activate broadband, I'm just swapping superhubs. I've rebooted it a few times, but makes no difference. I've now reconnected my Superhub 1.

What on earth is going on?

james.miller · 28 Oct 2015 at 06:00

....ring the number. I guess they haven't linked the SH2 to your account, whatever that involves.

Skully · 28 Oct 2015 at 07:41

My performance has been poor recently. No connection or dire wireless speeds. Cabled is fine.

Probably a coincidence but happened since I upgraded to 200mb.

Broken Hope · 28 Oct 2015 at 07:43

Yep you need to ring the number from the QuickStart pack to get the new hub linked linked to your account.

Steampunk · 28 Oct 2015 at 08:58

Merlin5 said:
Need help please, chaps. Received the Superhub 2, have set it all up correctly as far as I can tell, nothing really any different from my Superhub 1 except new 2G and 5G SSIDs and passphrase. No internet access though, wired and wireless. The Superhub 2 is active and the lights are flickering as they should.

In my taskbar on laptop, the network bars have a yellow triangle and exclamation mark saying no internet access, but it says connected and signal excellent next to the 2G SSID.

When I click on any website it takes me to a page that says "Broadband Activation - To start the Broadband Activation Process Click Here". The same happens after I connect to wi-fi on my phone. The phone says it's connected to my 5G SSID, but then it tells me to sign in and when I do, it also says"Broadband Activation - To start the Broadband Activation Process Click Here". I click on that and a virgin media welcome splash screen comes up, says 'Let's go' then says "Sorry! We are not able to complete your set up at the moment. Please try again. If the problem persists, please contact us on 0800 073 1685."

I don't need to activate broadband, I'm just swapping superhubs. I've rebooted it a few times, but makes no difference. I've now reconnected my Superhub 1.

What on earth is going on?

You have to phone up to get a Superhub provisioned onto the network. Virgin strictly control the modems connected to their network. Every MAC address has to be registered with them before it's allowed to talk to their network.

This will all be on the letter/quickstart guide.

Tropicocity · 28 Oct 2015 at 09:01

All those getting 200mbit for such cheap prices - are you guys with Virgin for everything?
I mean, I can guess that the £25 (or £33) doesn't include line rental or any TV costs, but we're currently paying something like £90 a month including LR for XL TV, two TiVO boxes and the unlimited calls package :/

passey89 · 28 Oct 2015 at 09:03

Tropicocity said:
All those getting 200mbit for such cheap prices - are you guys with Virgin for everything?
I mean, I can guess that the £25 (or £33) doesn't include line rental or any TV costs, but we're currently paying something like £90 a month including LR for XL TV, two TiVO boxes and the unlimited calls package :/

I pay £75 for

Unlimited calls £10 mo
200mb bb £25
Xl tv 1 box £25 mo
line rental £15 mo

HaloUK · 28 Oct 2015 at 10:02

JOSH86 said:
Down speeds in my area Surrey for me have been on average 2mbps for the past 3 days.

Phoned the helpdesk and the ran checks, rebooted, put my router in modem and back again - no change. They said my area isn't over subcribed and I am not being throttled.

Got an engineer coming out again (last was 3 weeks ago, he changed my taps and router) - they said they could see a few dB over the limit of "noise on my line".

Think I am about 100m away from the big green box so hopefully, whatever they can do will sort out the dodgy down speeds. Seems to be fine for a few days and then hella bad from there on in.

Hey Josh, I am in the KT8 area and my speeds at peak times have been really, REALLY bad for about 3 weeks. At some point on Steam I was getting around 300 kb/s on my "up to" 152mb connection. I had Virgin out on Saturday to adjust the voltages on my router and the speed seems to have gotten a little better at peak times. Last night I was downloading on steam at 10 mb/s :/ I did speak to the Engineer and he said that my area is over subscribed and it wont get any better until the junction box is changed to a newer model.

medley · 28 Oct 2015 at 10:30

I thought 152mb service was going to 300mpbs and 20mbps upload? Was that just rumours?

Merlin5 · 28 Oct 2015 at 10:41

Thanks guys, I'll call them to activate. In the box, after removing the red manual and websafe leaflet, I hadn't realised (till just now) that there's yet another manual hiding under a sort of false box floor saying to call them to activate.

Spacedeck · 28 Oct 2015 at 10:54

When I did the upgrade last week. I asked for the delivery date to be today. No emails to say it's been dispatched or even any update on the website to say it's been sent

Werewolf · 28 Oct 2015 at 11:24

From memory the call is automated and takes about 2-3 minutes, with the modem activating a few minutes later

I think when we did it about a year ago as we called from our home number (VM phone) we didn't have to do much more than confirm the phone we were using was for the same account as the internet (it was something like that).

Much simpler than when I've had to change the modem in the past and talk to CS who then had to enter all the details manually.

Merlin5 · 28 Oct 2015 at 11:54

Werewolf said:
From memory the call is automated and takes about 2-3 minutes, with the modem activating a few minutes later

I think when we did it about a year ago as we called from our home number (VM phone) we didn't have to do much more than confirm the phone we were using was for the same account as the internet (it was something like that).

Much simpler than when I've had to change the modem in the past and talk to CS who then had to enter all the details manually.

Yep, I got a recorded message and it was activated immediately after asking me to disconnect the power to the Superhub.

At first I was getting below 2Mbps speed and virtually no upload at all. Couldn't figure out why but decided to remove the 10dB forward attenuator that I've been using with my Superhub 1 for years and hey presto, I'm getting normal speeds.

Ok, guys, is there anything I can do or buy to get the same speed on my laptop as on my phone? My phone makes use of the 5Ghz and is giving me 106Mbps but my laptop only uses the 2.4Ghz over wi-fi and is still only giving me about half of that (mostly under half) unless I connect with the ethernet cable, and then it'll give me the same as my phone. So basically, the same wireless speed I was getting with my Superhub 1. It's obviously down to my Intel Centrino N 1030 network card in the laptop. Can I buy a better wireless card that will use 5Ghz and give me maximum speed?

Spacedeck · 28 Oct 2015 at 11:58

I'd guess a 5Ghz card would work better. I'm the same, we have a laptop on 2.4 which only runs at less than half the speed I can achieve using 5Ghz on my phone. Seems just like the limiations of 2.5Ghz v 5Ghz.

passey89 · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:01

Merlin5 said:
Yep, I got a recorded message and it was activated immediately after asking me to disconnect the power to the Superhub.

At first I was getting below 2Mbps speed and virtually no upload at all. Couldn't figure out why but decided to remove the 10dB forward attenuator that I've been using with my Superhub 1 for years and hey presto, I'm getting normal speeds.

Ok, guys, is there anything I can do or buy to get the same speed on my laptop as on my phone? My phone makes use of the 5Ghz and is giving me 106Mbps but my laptop only uses the 2.4Ghz over wi-fi and is still only giving me about half of that (mostly under half) unless I connect with the ethernet cable, and then it'll give me the same as my phone. So basically, the same wireless speed I was getting with my Superhub 1. It's obviously down to my Intel Centrino N 1030 network card in the laptop. Can I buy a better wireless card that will use 5Ghz and give me maximum speed?

Yes u just need a better wireless adapter.

A 5ghz one with a high rating will be good.

Our tablets get about 50mb on 2.4ghz but the wifes macbook pro gets the full 206mbps on 5ghz

Merlin5 · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:26

Thanks chaps. I've taken my laptop apart before and am happy to do it again to replace with a new 5Ghz card. However, here's a picture I took of my card when I last opened the laptop. It looks like it'll be difficult to remove and replace? That black screw top left I guess can be removed, but the two gold terminals are soldered down I think. Unless I leave all that and only have to pop out the white intel rectangular bit?
And what 5Ghz card would you recommend I can buy? Also, the N 1030 is apparently rated to 300mbps down and 150 up. In the properties of the card in device manager, it only shows a 2.4Ghz option though.

Grey M@a · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:30

They aren't soldered on, they will pop off

They just clip n place

if you can rotate them, then they aren't stuck down

Merlin5 · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:41

Grey M@a said:
They aren't soldered on, they will pop off They just clip n place if you can rotate them, then they aren't stuck down

That's good to know! So I just need to pop those two connectors off, remove the screw and the whole square chip will come off? Awesome. Just need a link now to a recommended 5G adapter please. I hope they're not too expensive

chroniclard · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:43

Not sure allowed to link but just google "laptop 5ghz ac adapter"

Moley · 28 Oct 2015 at 12:48

Merlin5 said:
Also, the N 1030 is apparently rated to 300mbps down and 150 up. In the properties of the card in device manager, it only shows a 2.4Ghz option though.

If you google the card model and number and 'slow speed' there are plenty of people out there who have had issues with the N band speeds - apparently fixed by upgrading the driver direct from Intel. Hope this helps.