Info: The Virgin Media Super Hub

[BreatGritain]

I've had a quick look and noticed a little confusion in this section regarding Virgin Media and the Super Hub, so I wanted to share a little knowledge.

 

The following information applies to any Virgin Media CABLE customer, non-cable (National) broadband customers should disregard all the below as it does not apply. (You can check if you're a cable or national customer by putting your postcode in on the http://www.virginmedia.com Virgin Media website).

 

Virgin Media uses a Fiber To The Cabinet (FTTC) system to provide Broadband and TV (Landline telephone doesn't use fiber). Each cabinet has 32 or 64 taps (although this can differ significantly area by area), each tap is able to provide one customer with service.

 

Connection from a cabinet to a customers house is done by a Siamese cable - Copper Coaxial joined with 2-pair telephone wire. The telephone wire is used for the sole purpose of the land line telephone - it is never used to connect to the internet.

 

The copper coax cable runs underground through a series of ready-laid ducts to the edge of a customers property. From here it will run through the customers garden the most appropriate way (usually buried, sometimes tacked to a fence if the installer is feeling lazy). Outside the house is an External Termination Box (ETB, or "omni box"). Depending on the services the customer has there may be a "splitter" here, which as you may have guessed, allows you to split one cable into two, three or four cables. (For example a customer may have TV in the living room, broadband in the kitchen and another TV upstairs in a bedroom, so a three-way splitter would be required).

 

Now, as promised, on to the bit you're interested in, the Broadband.

 

As the cable runs through a wall into the house, it runs into a white box which looks pretty and has the Virgin logo on it, the box serves a few purposes, inside the box is an isolator, which in the event of a surge protects other equipment in the network being damaged. It also allows the cable to be changed from Black (external) to white (internal), and finally, it covers up the dirty big hole that we had to drill through your wall to install your services.

 

From the isolator box, a copper coax cable will run to your Super Hub - to reiterate at no point does the broadband use telephone line, and at no point is a filter used. Because of this unique way of providing Broadband, Virgin Media's customers (usually) do get the "up to" speeds they are promised when they took out the deal. (You might notice that most ISP's no longer advertise a download speed, this is because OFCOM deemed it was unfair for them to advertise a speed that so few of their customers can get. Virgin Media still advertise their download speeds, as do BT)

 

Why is my Super Hub so... crap?

 

The Super Hub has a couple of issues that you need to know about, but Virgin Media might not tell you.

 

The first is a compatability issue with the Netgear wireless router built into the Super Hub and the BlackBerry smartphone. Some blackberry phones, when connected to the router by wifi, cause the Super Hub to randomly reboot. It's annoying, but no patch has yet been rolled out to cure the problem. You have two ways to resolve this: Turn your BlackBerry's wifi off, or plug a different router to your Super Hub, and put the hub in Modem-Only mode.

 

Atheros-N Wireless Network Adapters in laptops - a slight issue exists between these and the superhub. Thankfully Atheros have released a fix for this, plug your laptop in by Ethernet cable and update your Network Adapter Drivers.

 

WiFi Channel - by default in the Super Hub settings, this is set to Automatic. Each time the router is switched on it is supposed to search for the quietest channel and use this. Unfortunately, it seems the opposite happens. To fix this, go to your favorite web browser and go to http://192.168.0.1 enter the username and password, "admin" and "changeme" respectively by default. Click "ok" on the message that pops up to dismiss it. At the bottom of the page, click "Advanced Settings", and again, click the "ok" button to dismiss the next annoying message. Click "Wireless Radio", and look for the channel option. Change to any specified channel and click apply. Repeat above if necessary selecting different channels if desired results aren't achieved.

 

If your super-hub keeps dropping connection (blue light at the top of the hub turns green, or turns off), chances are you need a technicians visit. Call 150 from your land line.

 

I won't go into details about the RF Levels down the copper coax cable to the router unless anyone really wants me to, because it can get a little confusing, and even if you see the RF levels aren't within specification, you'd have to call a tech to sort it out anyway.

 

If anyone wants more information please post back and i'll do my best to answer any questions, thanking you.

[KenB]

Interesting reading BreatGritain :)