Virgin Super Hub. Anything I should know?

[Dos_Box]

I'm about to get an upgrade at home tomorrow from Virgin which will see me getting a Tivo (Yay!) and a Super Hub (as well as an upgrade to 60Mbps) and all for a couple of quid less per month than I'm currently paying. Which is nice.

I have however, heard several bad things about the Super Hub when it was initially launched a year or so back from several online news sources, so I'm quite keen to know if these have been sorted out and whether I should be aware of anything else once it has been installed. So, does anyone have one and what do you think?

Oh! And is the Tivo as good as they say?

[HodgeHi]

Its a netgear router. Says it all for me really.

[apeo]

AFAIK wireless still hit and miss, I use another device to provide wireless connectivity.

[HodgeHi]

My brother has done the same. He has an Airport extreme hanging off his router to provide the wireless.

[localzuk]

Put it in modem only mode and use a third party one. The super hub is unstable, unreliable and useless in my experience.

 

I have a Zyxel router doing the routing part and wireless part instead.

[Mcshammer_dj]

Depends what you want really. I initially liked the superhub but the range is poor and since there is no ariel I can't really do anything about it.

Tivo is very different to the V+ box and does some rather good things with series link and being able to select types of programs that you like to watch. HD is still only 1080i and the 3d content is poor. But with the good things are small irritations. You can't set rminders and when a recording starts sometimes is make the banner appear whilst you are watching. The ethernet port is live and can be attched to the superhub and is due to allow access to recorded content from devices attached to your LAN.

 

App for setting programs to record is available but a bit limited as far as I can see.

[Bromcom_John]

We are still waiting for them to upgrade the TIVO firmware to allow it to act as the media centre it should be. Currently the connectivity components that would enable it to media mine content from other devices connected to the same LAN isn't active.

Something about the Virgin branded UI not having had the code written for it yet.. or something.

I haven't actually asked VM about it in months so forget the technoschpiel the trained monkey on the phone reeled off.

 

oh don't forget that it does enable you to record 3 programmes at once... as long as you are watching recorded content (not live tv) at the time.

Otherwise its record 2 channels and watch a third.

IIRC

Edited April 23, 2012 by Bromcom_John

[Dos_Box]

Its a netgear router. Says it all for me really.

 

I currently have the 'lower' spec cable router from them, which is also a Netgear. To say it is flakey would be an understatement, with sudden wi-fi drop outs which can only be fixed by connecting via cat5 which for some reason magically make it spring back to life I was hoping the Super would be an improvement.

Ah well, I have an old Edimax 'n' router somewhere here in the office which I may have to dig out then. I know the Super Hub is supposed to be duel band too, buty I've just found out you can only use one at once (what's the pont in that!), but I think the two laptops in the house both have 5Ghz capable cards in anyway (I hope).

Edited April 23, 2012 by Dos_Box

[LeMarchand]

Got a similar offer a few weeks ago, but (for various reasons) only had it a fortnight.

 

Superhub does seem a bit flakey, and seemed to keep resetting itself. Has been OK over the weekend, though. As the engineer was hinting that I might be better using my existing kit for wireless it doesn't bode well - but I don't see how that would help if the main box is resetting. Range seems OK for in the house (small end-of-terrace 3 beds), but the strength bar on my tablet does seem to vary!

 

TIVO seems quite good, particularly the ability to set recordings for (say) films that aren't currently scheduled. The database is a bit limited, and there are some odd quirks, though. Preferred the ability of the V+ to output to a recorder and still allow use - can't see how to do that on the TIVO (but this may be deliberate!). Shame that, as mentioned above, a lot of the functionality is crippled.

 

On the whole (coupled with a massive BB speed increase and allegedly unlimited online storage), well worth +20p/month.

[mac_shinobi]

Put it in modem only mode and use a third party one. The super hub is unstable, unreliable and useless in my experience.

 

I have a Zyxel router doing the routing part and wireless part instead.

 

Plus 1 - Have done the exact same, web GUI --> Modem mode --> Apply --> wait for a few minutes until it is in modem mode, disconnect power lead for 10 seconds, power it back on, wait a few more minutes for it to re synch / load etc

 

Then hook up your own device whether zyxel WAP or whatever and configure this as required, done

 

Superhub, bit flakey ( understatement ) *cough cough*

 

Gone through about 4 of them and wireless only worked for a couple of days on each one and then just refused to work after then and the firewall on it is pants, I had to disable the firewall on each one and now seems to work better in just modem mode.

Edited April 23, 2012 by mac_shinobi

[Dos_Box]

Got a similar offer a few weeks ago, but (for various reasons) only had it a fortnight.

 

Superhub does seem a bit flakey, and seemed to keep resetting itself. Has been OK over the weekend, though. As the engineer was hinting that I might be better using my existing kit for wireless it doesn't bode well - but I don't see how that would help if the main box is resetting. Range seems OK for in the house (small end-of-terrace 3 beds), but the strength bar on my tablet does seem to vary!

 

TIVO seems quite good, particularly the ability to set recordings for (say) films that aren't currently scheduled. The database is a bit limited, and there are some odd quirks, though. Preferred the ability of the V+ to output to a recorder and still allow use - can't see how to do that on the TIVO (but this may be deliberate!). Shame that, as mentioned above, a lot of the functionality is crippled.

 

On the whole (coupled with a massive BB speed increase and allegedly unlimited online storage), well worth +20p/month.

 

 

They are letting me keep the V+ box (for some reason!), so how do you output the content? I know that you could send it to VHS (and teh pint of that is?), but wasn't aware that you could send it elsewhere. If you can that would be sweet!

[Pottsey]

I had no problem with the superhub once I turned wireless off.

[LeMarchand]

They are letting me keep the V+ box (for some reason!), so how do you output the content? I know that you could send it to VHS (and teh pint of that is?), but wasn't aware that you could send it elsewhere. If you can that would be sweet!

 

If there was anything I wanted to archive (obviously only until it became available to purchase) I used to SCART it out to a DVD recorder or my PC. (Yes, I did buy a very long SCART lead!) There's a menu item that allows this, but still leaves the box "free" to view programs/recordings. With the TIVO, it looks as if any archiving ties up the whole box.

 

I got to keep my V+, too (moved it upstairs to replace the Samsung box there). Unfortunately it died just before the TIVO upgrade, and while it was swapped for a new one I wasn't allowed to try to salvage the contents of the disc. The Tivo's search function came in very handy for setting up "wishlists" to record some of the stuff when/if it resurfaces.

[sjatkn]

as @localzuk says, turn it into modem mode and use your own wireless router. The wireless part of these routers is very poor, though I have not tried it on the latest firmware version. As soon as my router was upgraded modem mode was turned on and I hooked up my old router has worked without problems (it's Netgear as well!).

[OB1]

I've just got one of these at home, up from a DSL-2460r. That had trouble with wireless, but masking the SSID seemed to improve things dramatically, so we've done that from the get-go with the superhub. Had it less than a week, but all seems well so far.

[mac_shinobi]

I've just got one of these at home, up from a DSL-2460r. That had trouble with wireless, but masking the SSID seemed to improve things dramatically, so we've done that from the get-go with the superhub. Had it less than a week, but all seems well so far.

 

Does hiding the SSID help in general with regards to wireless or is this a virgin superhub only thing ?

 

Just where I live there are lots of wireless networks on the 2.4 Ghz range and trying to get my own wireless to work to a reasonable degree is sometimes a pita.

[Heebeejeebee]

Terrific! I'm supposed to be getting mine tomorrow (no TV - just internet and phone).

 

If you were to ditch their router / wireless and purchase a new better one (capable of 100MB and N Wireless) would you be allowed and are therere any recommendations?

 

HBJB

[mac_shinobi]

Terrific! I'm supposed to be getting mine tomorrow (no TV - just internet and phone).

 

If you were to ditch their router / wireless and purchase a new better one (capable of 100MB and N Wireless) would you be allowed and are therere any recommendations?

 

HBJB

 

Yes you can - log onto the super hub web GUI - click on modem mode and apply ( IP addy of superhub is generally 192.168.0.1 and when put into modem mode it changes to something like 192.168.100.1 --> How do I set up Modem Mode on my Super Hub? )

 

As for suggested Wi-Fi Routers this will depend on how much money you are willing to stump up / pay for a wireless router ?

 

Being an apple kind of person I went for the airport extreme dual band 2011 fifth gen. It is lacking in a few features and as per small net builder website --> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/labels/Wireless-router

 

Goes through all the different routers.

Edited April 23, 2012 by mac_shinobi

[GrumbleDook]

I get my SuperHub on 1st May, not bothered to upgrade any of my other packages though as I need to wait a few months because I wangled a good deal for us last year (because I refused to pay extra to have the SuperHub setup to get an upgraded line ... and sure enough we all now get it for free!)

[OB1]

Does hiding the SSID help in general with regards to wireless or is this a virgin superhub only thing ?

 

I've found it helps generally, this is purely anecdotal mind. It may be that we just had one persistent neighbour trying to brute force us with a toaster. I've done it with a linksys wrt54g (flashed to dd-wrt) as well.

Edited April 24, 2012 by OB1

[LeMarchand]

I've just got one of these at home, up from a DSL-2460r. That had trouble with wireless, but masking the SSID seemed to improve things dramatically, so we've done that from the get-go with the superhub. Had it less than a week, but all seems well so far.

 

Mine's been hidden since day one, but still periodically resets. I spoke too soon yesterday: it reset 3 times during the night, which is really annoying when you're using your PC as a DLNA server and trying to watch a film/programme!

[mac_shinobi]

I've found it helps generally, this is purely anecdotal mind. It may be that we just had one persistent neighbour trying to brute force us with a toaster. I've done it with a linksys wrt54g (flashed to dd-wrt) as well.

 

Might give it a go, hope they bring out an iphone 5 with 5ghz wireless as the 2.4ghz is just too flooded / over used in my area.

[Dos_Box]

Well, I've just got back in the office after the nice man from Virgin came and fitted everything (he came early too!). He even fitted a new cable splitter to the outside of the house so we could use the old V+ box at the same time as teh Tivo!! Now we can record one, two, three, MANY channels at the same time which is great because we can use the V+ box for all of the kids stuff.

As regards the internet, I am now the proud ownder of a 60Mbps connection and was happily downloading W7 SP1 from Microsoft @ 2MB (not Mb) per second on the 5Ghz range as a test. I'll have to wait until later to do a full survey of the house though. The Tivo was a bit fo a pian to install as it had to update itself which took quite some time before the guy could authorise it on the network.

Anyway, well done Virgin, and I look forwards to hammering the connection tonight

[mac_shinobi]

Anyway, well done Virgin, and I look forwards to hammering the connection tonight

 

And then being throttled / traffic shaped for ever after ............. ??

[Dos_Box]

And then being throttled / traffic shaped for ever after ............. ??

 

That will be one of the tests I do wonder what the limit is for a 60meg connection though. Anyone already on this and can help out?