Virgin Hub 3 router replacement

dokko · 13 Dec 2021 at 21:27

Evening,

After getting off the phone with Virgin it looks like my 1mb a sec speed is 'still a service' and they won't replace my router. I can for the price of £25 have an engineer come out to TS as they won't replace the hub outright as the problem will 'fix itself' I'm tied in till Feb or i'd have cancelled there and then, but after my own checks I found a wired connection was 100mb+ so thought about a WIFI 6 router replacement.

I believe its just a case of sticking the hub in to modem mode, ethernet to new router and away I go. Problem is I just don't know which one, so thought you'd may be able to help.

So far I've been looking at the £40-70 mark as although I refuse to pay them £25 I am willing to pay more to cut them out of the equation as much as I can, but not to go daft.

Candidates are:

Tenda RX3 AX1800 or RX9 Pro AX3000
HUAWEI AX3 AX3000
Asus RT-AX55
TP-Link AX1500

Cheers,

Avalon · 14 Dec 2021 at 07:38

The devil is in the detail, and your post lacks any.

Virgin supply you a connection that works to the hub, if you are testing it with a wired device and getting 100mbit+ I assume that is in the correct speed range and this VM know the issue is your end and not the connection so what to charge you for a visit to tell you that? If so, they would be right to do so as it appears you are getting what you pay for. Rather than buying a new router, why not look at why whatever device you have an issue with is so slow? Throwing a wifi6 router in without wifi6 devices is largely pointless.

I would suggest starting with the package you pay for, a speed test using a wired device connected directly to the hub (not Wi-Fi/power line etc) and when you know you are getting the correct speeds, then you work out why you’re getting crap speeds on whatever device (presumably Wi-Fi?) you have.

dokko · 14 Dec 2021 at 15:01

Avalon said:
The devil is in the detail, and your post lacks any.

Virgin supply you a connection that works to the hub, if you are testing it with a wired device and getting 100mbit+ I assume that is in the correct speed range and this VM know the issue is your end and not the connection so what to charge you for a visit to tell you that? If so, they would be right to do so as it appears you are getting what you pay for. Rather than buying a new router, why not look at why whatever device you have an issue with is so slow? Throwing a wifi6 router in without wifi6 devices is largely pointless.

I would suggest starting with the package you pay for, a speed test using a wired device connected directly to the hub (not Wi-Fi/power line etc) and when you know you are getting the correct speeds, then you work out why you’re getting crap speeds on whatever device (presumably Wi-Fi?) you have.

Afternoon, thanks for the reply.

Yes connection to the modem is fine and the Hub is allowing full speed of 100mb via ethernet cabling. Any wireless devices, even in the same room have intermittent trouble. Last night was the worst its been, even with a restart. The wireless part of the hub is dying, we lost our SSID broadcasts a few weeks ago as well. They acknowledge there is an issue with the wifi capability of their hub but have stated it will be £25 callout to come out to check and they couldn't even replace it as they've no stock.

I've a wifi 6 compatible Lenovo Legion & I believe the Oculus Quest is also compatible which should benefit from the upgrade at least.

Avalon · 14 Dec 2021 at 16:41

dokko said:
Afternoon, thanks for the reply.

Yes connection to the modem is fine and the Hub is allowing full speed of 100mb via ethernet cabling. Any wireless devices, even in the same room have intermittent trouble. Last night was the worst its been, even with a restart. The wireless part of the hub is dying, we lost our SSID broadcasts a few weeks ago as well. They acknowledge there is an issue with the wifi capability of their hub but have stated it will be £25 callout to come out to check and they couldn't even replace it as they've no stock.

I've a wifi 6 compatible Lenovo Legion & I believe the Oculus Quest is also compatible which should benefit from the upgrade at least.

Seems odd they have no stock, I was sent a SH4 recently and if they had no stock then installs would be affected as well as faults, which would be a large problem - may explain why they are wanting me to return my old SH3 though. Either way do the basic wireless checks first (survey to se what is going on with neighbours/choose a non overlapping channel), failing that if you have an AP or old router that will run in AP mode to check with, that would be my next choice, followed by a router swap. I would usually avoid anything ASUS branded as they tend to be awful. The Huawei kit tends to be very capable and amazingly well priced for what it is, one of the few things we need to thank Trump’s propaganda for.

dokko · 14 Dec 2021 at 17:38

Avalon said:
Seems odd they have no stock, I was sent a SH4 recently and if they had no stock then installs would be affected as well as faults, which would be a large problem - may explain why they are wanting me to return my old SH3 though. Either way do the basic wireless checks first (survey to se what is going on with neighbours/choose a non overlapping channel), failing that if you have an AP or old router that will run in AP mode to check with, that would be my next choice, followed by a router swap. I would usually avoid anything ASUS branded as they tend to be awful. The Huawei kit tends to be very capable and amazingly well priced for what it is, one of the few things we need to thank Trump’s propaganda for.

Well funny you mentioned that as I was a bit apprehensive about them and the reported 'spyware' from customers. Guess the tin foil lot speak louder than sensible people when reviewing on sites. It seems quite basic with little features, but if I'm simply looking at replacing the wifi part of the system then at £40 I'm not going to get a better return.

dokko · 14 Dec 2021 at 17:41

Ordered. Went without NFC as I don't need it. £30 comes tomorrow. Cheers.

chroniclard · 14 Dec 2021 at 17:49

The huawei will work fine, I have the Honor version used for quest 2.

dokko · 14 Dec 2021 at 18:13

chroniclard said:
The huawei will work fine, I have the Honor version used for quest 2.

Cheers. Looking forward to going wireless with the quest.

Have you had any experience with meshing these? If this works out well I'd get another for upstairs (if that's how it works and i'm not missing a component)

chroniclard · 14 Dec 2021 at 18:17

dokko said:
Cheers. Looking forward to going wireless with the quest.

Have you had any experience with meshing these? If this works out well I'd get another for upstairs (if that's how it works and i'm not missing a component)

No, have not tried, I have another router for main WiFi. Honor 3(same as Huawei) is just for Quest 2.