Modem "power adjustments"?

Doctor McNinja · 22 May 2011 at 03:33

I've just been told by on of the mods on the virgin media forum that a very high number of power adjustments have been detected on my modem and that I need to arrange a visit from an engineer.

FYI, what's called a "superhub" comes with the virgin 50mb service but it's gotten such awful reviews and feedback that I practically begged for one of the older standalone modems. Seen as though, to my knowledge. the power levels aren't having an effect on my service. I don't want to arrange an engineer visit only to find out they need to replace my modem with the superdud... I mean hub.

Could someone please enlighten me as to what "power adjustments" are, how it would effect my service and if it's something that requires my modem to be replaced?

Duke · 22 May 2011 at 08:29

They just put an attenuator on the cable going to your modem, to adjust the power levels. I doubt they will change the modem unless it is needed.

Pic - http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/9878/13516.jpg

PistolPete · 22 May 2011 at 12:12

You can't turn the power up - only and engineer can do that at the cabinet, but you can reduce the signal as Duke says.

The modems don't work best when the power is too low (obviously) but also when the power is too high. Too much signal overdrives the front end of the modem, which can introduce distortion in the signal which slows the traffic down.

BunnyKillBot · 22 May 2011 at 12:26

I realise that the freebie router is free and all, but.... Like..... Why don't people just buy their own, better router? If the super hubs are so bad, go buy a proper router, they are not that expensive. Use the super hub as a modem, get a proper router to run your network. Why should your ISP, who has nothing to do with your home network, provide said network infrastructure

Dist · 22 May 2011 at 13:34

BunnyKillBot said:
I realise that the freebie router is free and all, but.... Like..... Why don't people just buy their own, better router? If the super hubs are so bad, go buy a proper router, they are not that expensive. Use the super hub as a modem, get a proper router to run your network. Why should your ISP, who has nothing to do with your home network, provide said network infrastructure

Well for a start the power issues have nothing to do with the router, its an issue between the modem and the cabinet. Secondly I don't have a superhub so I don't know, but most stupid ISP provided routers provide little configuration and so even if you use your own router after the superhub, some features of the superhub may still be enabled, like DHCP, Firewall, controll of forwarded ports etc...

I can understand VMs reason for doing a superhub, because otherwise they would get loads of complaints as not all home routers are capable of 50Mb or higher throughput. I know my wrt54gl which is a great router maxes out at around 36Mb WAN to LAN throughput, and if VM told everyone that they provide a modem but customers have to spend a load more money on a sufficient router, then they would get tons of complaints.

iviv · 22 May 2011 at 14:08

BunnyKillBot said:
I realise that the freebie router is free and all, but.... Like..... Why don't people just buy their own, better router? If the super hubs are so bad, go buy a proper router, they are not that expensive. Use the super hub as a modem, get a proper router to run your network. Why should your ISP, who has nothing to do with your home network, provide said network infrastructure

Pretty sure its because its also the modem? At least I assume so. In which case, you would still need it there, and would then have to plug the other router into it, but traffic would still be passing through the super hub anyway?

Doctor McNinja · 22 May 2011 at 15:40

BunnyKillBot said:
I realise that the freebie router is free and all, but.... Like..... Why don't people just buy their own, better router? If the super hubs are so bad, go buy a proper router, they are not that expensive. Use the super hub as a modem, get a proper router to run your network. Why should your ISP, who has nothing to do with your home network, provide said network infrastructure

The superhub is a all in one modem and router. It's firmware is atrocious and until very recently there was no way to set the superhub to be just a modem. Virgin Media only allow modem's registered with the company to connect to their network. If this wasn't the case then I'd buy my own modem and as for the router, the one they supplied with my previous service is up to the job, in fact it was originally what was supplied with the 50mb service along with the modem I'm using at the moment.

I'd rather have the modem and router I have now than have to deal with the hassle, disruption and poor service of the superhub... you'd think that Virgin Media would offer more options for their second from top tier service but no, all they offer is inferior hardware, customer service that isn't twenty four seven (like the lower packages) and a bigger bill.

Doctor McNinja · 22 May 2011 at 15:42

Duke said:
They just put an attenuator on the cable going to your modem, to adjust the power levels. I doubt they will change the modem unless it is needed.

Pic - http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/9878/13516.jpg

If that's the case, it'll be a relief. I'm still going to insist that if my modem needs to be replaced that it's replaced with something other than the superhub.

PistolPete · 22 May 2011 at 17:27

Doctor McNinja said:
If that's the case, it'll be a relief. I'm still going to insist that if my modem needs to be replaced that it's replaced with something other than the superhub.

Many have tried and failed

Duke · 22 May 2011 at 17:38

The superhub has been fine for me.

TJM · 22 May 2011 at 21:11

Doctor McNinja said:
The superhub is a all in one modem and router. It's firmware is atrocious and until very recently there was no way to set the superhub to be just a modem.

How do you do that? My superhub is arriving on Wednesday and I want to skip straight to not using it as a router.

Doctor McNinja · 24 May 2011 at 01:42

TJM said:
How do you do that? My superhub is arriving on Wednesday and I want to skip straight to not using it as a router.

Sorry but I was mistaken. There are plans for firmware that allows you to use the superhub as a modem only but it's hasn't yet entered beta testing which it should do in mid July. I have heard there is a work around however, apparently you can plug your router into the superhub, place the router's ip address in the superhub DMZ and use your old router as normal and the superhub as just a modem.

Here's a quick tutorial of what to do - http://www.unofficialguidetolive.co...onnect-a-router-to-the-virgin-media-super-hub