Why is the Virgin Media SuperHub SuperGay?

[samass]

its shit. like, uber shit. i have to reset it atleast twice a day, other wise it doesn't connect to my laptop, or my phone, or my housemates laptop, or phone...

are they just all shite? or is there anything to be done to fix them? or is it a case of get a decent router and switch the hub to modem mode?

getting on my tits now!

[C.A.R.]

I had a half-hour conversation with the technical department on the phone when we got ours.

I got him to admit that "they're not the best solution"

No shit, Sherlock!

He advised that I do as I thought I would have to - set the Supershit up as a Server/Modem and use a third-party wireless router. We got a Belkin jobby for around £40 from memory, much better signal and it didn't keep dropping the connection, the Supershit no longer restarts itself either, which was a massive PITA!

[samass]

balls. thought as much. gunna have to try root around for my router (har har, see what i did there?)

bloody beardy branson...

[C.A.R.]

Aside from the firmware gubbins being as reliable as a chocolate teapot, who designed those things too?

The status lights on the front are so bright it's retarded, but you need to be able to see them. The power lead goes into the back, so you could mount it in a narrow space but...


The ethernet ports are adjacent to it, on the side. So you can't mount it in a narrow space at all.

The whole design is messy and it doesn't do the simple task you need it to!

[samass]

yeah, it makes no sense. and the bloody cable cable is too inflexible so when you try and perch in on the edge of the tv, the cable, says 'no, f*ck off, i dont want to be there', and throws it on the floor

[Strikeforce]

My mate has one and has had nothing but trouble with it, he has gone down the same route as c.a.r. but still needs to restart it every few days

[Pompey306mark]

Mine has been fine, had it for a while now. It's upstairs in my room.

I taped up the lights as its a bitch to sleep with them flickering.

Laptop and iPhone both work fine downstairs, and the students don't moan about their laptops.

[samass]

you must be one of the lucky ones!

[C.A.R.]

Yea but after Mark said that I remembered my mate also has one and has had no issues whatsoever with it.

No idea why that would be.

I had a problem streaming video for a long time though, it wouldn't sustain a connection properly to buffer. Really frustrating when you're watching videos...and....stuff.

[samass]

Yea but after Mark said that I remembered my mate also has one and has had no issues whatsoever with it.

No idea why that would be.

I had a problem streaming video for a long time though, it wouldn't sustain a connection properly to buffer. Really frustrating when you're watching videos...and....stuff.

giggity f*cking goo!!

/child

hmm. cba phoning the reatrds at virgin tho to complain and for them to say 'yeah, its shit, sorry bout that'

[Scott]

Ideal solution is a 3rd party router. I ended up using an old VM supplied router (D-Link dir-615 if I remember correctly) but put a custom firmware on that which was extremely easy to do, then used a second one at the other end of the house and have perfect signal throughout. Now I have much more configurability and a much more stable connection. I know Chris (cwspellowe) was selling some of these a while back so might be worth checking if he has any extras lying around.

[stevieg]

have an ethernet run to my room and only use wireless for my phone but it does take a shit every couple of weeks even if using ethernet

[samass]

Scott, I've a couple of netgear routers in the garage, I think they were pretty good about 6 years ago, reckon that'd be updateable?

[Scott]

Go take a look and post up the model number and I'll let you know

[samass]

Will do, at some point lol. Garage is in redhill

[stevieg]

oh yea, DDWRT FTW

[samass]

oh yea, DDWRT FTW

um, what?

[Scott]

It's the name of the custom firmware I was talking about. It's like an operating system for the router.

[samass]

ohhhh ok.


oh and i get what firmware is, im not a TOTAL noob, geez. dick.

[Pompey306mark]

I think it might be something to do with what laptop you have.

I just up graded from my old Samsung nc-10 notebook, to an Asus ux31 ultra book.

Got it home worked fine but then the net stopped working.

So today I plugged in my old netgear rangemax, and the laptop works fine.

I now have two networks one for my laptop and one for everything else. Lol

[Rippthrough]

are they just all shite?

They're all just cheap shit.

[samass]

They're all just cheap shit.

word.

i switched it to modem mode and then used an old d link router i had lying around for the wireless, been three days now and it hasnt dropped signal and i've not had to reboot either of them.

funny thing is, the d link one i've got is my previous virgin one... which was wafty when using it as a router and a modem...

go figure.

maybe branson should stop playing about with runners and sort his company out..

[cwspellowe]

See the thing is, Virgin are on their Superhub version 1. So while it could be better, the Superhub v2 is coming out Q2 next year (so a little birdy tells me ) and the thing about designing new products is you can only get info for R&D after you've had feedback about it. There's only so much that can be tested in a lab, a lot of problems don't arise until it's out in public. BT are now on their 6th (iirc) hub and have learned a LOT in that time, Virgin have only had the D2 hub and the v1 Superhub. Product development takes time. Remember the first iPhone? That didn't have bluetooth or MMS but people happily spunked hundreds of pounds on one when they came out. Double standards maybe?

The Superhub isn't shit, these are isolated cases. I know plenty of people with them, kind of my job to install them, and I only get the odd phone call about one that's playing up. Shelf life doesn't seem great, maybe a couple of years tops, but i've had mine now for about a year and never had to reset it, apart from to force the download of the R36 firmware.

Incidentally, the R36 firmware was a patch job to try and fix wireless issues, but not all can be fixed so easily. For instance, anyone with an Atheros AR5007EG WLAN card will have trouble regardless of channel, wireless speed or security method. Only way to fix that is a driver update, but again Windows always seems to recognise the driver as being up to date when it actually isn't. It's a known compatability issue caused by out of date drivers on the customer's PC, NOT the superhub's fault. But of course, people are quick to jump on the Superhub's back saying it's the hub that's faulty as the last router worked with their laptop, which isn't strictly true. If your old VHS tapes don't work on your bluray player, is it the bluray player's fault?

Don't get me wrong, i've heard some horror stories about the Superhubs, i'm just trying to put forward a balanced argument as all you hear from the consumer side of things is "oh it's terrible, waste of money, worst service ever". If you think that's the case, go sign up to TalkTalk. Once again they've been rated the worst service in the Ofcom service awards but hey.. must be better than the Superhub right?

[declantg]

I can vouch for talk talks shittyness. Kill me now

[Rippthrough]

years old netgear wireless G router - usuable range, approx 25m from house.

Superhub, dual band wireless N router - range, well half the time looses the signal completely in the kitchen.
If BT switch channels on their Openhub points to the same as I'm using, it'll kill the signal on the superhub even though the BT gear is 100 metres away compared to the superhub being about ~5m.....


First generation or not, it sucks.

[cwspellowe]

Phil, you're a product develoPment type of guy, are you saying you've got it right first time every time?

Again, to reiterate, not being all pro-superhub, just trying to offer a wee bit of balance...

[samass]

I get what you're saying Chris, but the super hub has been out ages now, and there had been what, one update? And that didn't seem to sort any of the issues I was having with it

[C.A.R.]

A "wee" bit huh, you turning Scottish?!

[cwspellowe]

Yup, I agree they've been slow but the v2 is coming out next year and should hopefully have answered a lot of questions..

[samass]

Fair enough. For now tho, my old school router is working fine, and ill probably just use it till I move out haha