My superhub has stopped working at 300mbps

[Mikeyplest]

I'm on the 50mb service and for the first few weeks my superhub was set to run at 300mbps and did so very well.

Now suddenly its stopped working, it will run at 145 or 54 mbps but when I choose the 300mbps option none of my devices will connect to it anymore. Does this mean I new a new superhub?

I currently get 47 mbps wireless ( when set at 145 ) but no connection at all at 300mbps.

Heres hoping someone can help.

Regards

Mike

[greyhairbadger]

Hi,

Now suddenly its stopped working, it will run at 145 or 54 mbps but when I choose the 300mbps option none of my devices will connect to it anymore. Does this mean I new a new superhub?

No.

The Superhub is notoriously susceptible to wireless interference. This is most apparent when set to a maximum wireless speed of 300Mbps. (This mode requires two bonded 2.4 GHz wireless channels, which seems to greatly increase the susceptibility to interference). 

The most likely cause of your recent loss of connectivity using the 300Mbps mode is a new source of interference in your locale. Reducing the maximum wireless speed to 145Mbps has mitigated the impact of this interference.

47Mbps over wireless is respectable. Anecdotal evidence suggests that wireless 'n' performance tends to max out at around 80Mbps. If you absolutely need more speed than this, then you may want to consider using a wired connection.

A bit of personal experience. I don't have a Superhub, but my own wireless connections vary in speed from around 8 to 25Mbps. Using gigabit ethernet (wired), I can achieve transfer rates well in excess of 700Mbps. This is much faster than than the hard drive array in my server can deliver data.

[Mikeyplest]

When my router is set to 300mpbs no devices connect at all.

As if one of the antennas has stopped working.

So its not an interference problem as far as i can tell.

[greyhairbadger]

Hardware failure is a possibility.

It might be worth trying a pinhole reset of the Superhub:

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/viewArticle.jsp?uuid=0C24A430-DE92-4319-9F4A-534B2E9E69CE

If you feel that hardware failure is the cause of your problems, then obviously I can't do anything to help. You will need the attentions of a Virgin Media technician. You can either sit on this thread for a while until a technician get around to answering (usually around 2-8 days), or if you cannot wait this long, then you will have to give customer services a call. Dial 150 from a Virgin phone line, otherwise 0845 454 1111.

[Mikeyplest]

Cheers for your advice, I've already tried pinhole resetting but no joy :-( looks like a new one might be needed.

[jawnboy]

Try messing about with the wireless channels incase it's interference.  I found mine kept rebooting until I changed it to a channel without interference (note that there's a 2nd channel for 300mbps and it isn't customisable, it just changes with the first channel).

[Benjamin_T]

Hi Mikeyplest,

It does seem like a hardware fault so I have sent you a replacement SuperHub.

Let us know how you get on when you receive it.

[Mikeyplest]

I recieved my new hub and all is set up and running again, 2.4ghz at 300mbps channel 1 & 5.

Thanks for sending out the replacement!! :-)

[Telbert]

To help with my learning curve can I ask a dumb ass question? The max virgin do is 100mb broadband, why need 300mb setting? Don't laugh just trying to learn :-)

[greyhairbadger]

It's not a dumb question at all. Don't be afraid to ask.

There are really two answers to that question:

1. 300 Mbps is a standard laid down by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Virgin (or more precisely, Netgear) are simply implementing these standards as part of the wireless chipset within the Superhub. If you are interested, have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11
2. Although the Internet connection offered by Virgin maxes out at 100 Mbps (soon to be 120 Mbps). There is no such restriction to the data transfer rates available over the Local Area Network (LAN) that the Superhub is part of. It only makes sense to exploit the maximum transfer rates supported by the hardware whilst transferring data between two local computers on a network.

I should point out that 300 Mbps is only a theoretical maximum. In real life, I wouldn't expect much more that 80 Mbps or so from a wireless link. And in truth, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot less.

Wired connections on the other hand, those are a completely different kettle of fish. I regularly see transfer speeds of 300 - 400Mbps across my own wired network. And this speed is bottlenecked by the maximum transfer rates of my mechanical hard drives. Take the hard drives out of the equation, and my network can easily push 700 - 800 Mbps without breaking a sweat.