Forum Discussion

Treble1's avatar
Treble1
Fibre optic
2 years ago

New black pods ?

Are we getting new black pods just seen this on the connect app ?

    • tonyclark91's avatar
      tonyclark91
      Joining in

      Does anyone actually know how to get these pods to work? I've just received 2 of them and when I plug them in the light keep cycling from blue pulsating to green pulsating then to white and back to blue! They aren't showing up on my connect app either! I also had the white ones that kept working for like a week then would disconnect from my hub 5 and wouldn't reconnect 

      • Dave_J1's avatar
        Dave_J1
        On our wavelength

        The pods have not been associated with your hub, send a private message to one of the forum team members and they can fix it for you, better than using the usual customer service contacts.

  • Both types of Virgin Media WiFi Pods use the same mesh technology to boost your home WiFi coverage. The key difference – apart from the colour – is that a WiFi Pod (white) plugs straight into a socket, while a WiFi Pod (black) has a power cable that connects the Pod to your power socket.

    This can mean that a WiFi Pod (black) has a little more flexibility when it comes to where you plug it in.

    thought they might be WiFi6 no difference nothing too see here lol 

    • mobailey's avatar
      mobailey
      Dialled in

      My new black pod arrived yesterday - quite surprising as I was expecting the old white plugin kind.

      These look far nicer though - like a little brother to the Hub5. They do say WiFi6 Certified. And two ethernet ports.

      Sadly there's nothing that I, the Connect App or Virgin Media support can do to make them actually work and connect to my VM Hub's WiFi...

      • Tom_W1's avatar
        Tom_W1
        Forum Team

        Hi mobailey thanks for you post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised here.

        We can see that since your post, you've received support on this via other methods - we know this has been raised internally and as soon as the team are able to provide you with an update or fix, they will do so as soon as possible.
        Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

        Many thanks

  • Thanks Tom_W1  - all sorted out and connected now - thanks to VM who were able to "provision" the pod to link it to my hub last night.

  • fizz's avatar
    fizz
    Fibre optic

    those look far more practical too 🙂 would be great if they had wired backhaul capability

  • Dave_J1's avatar
    Dave_J1
    On our wavelength

    I have 2 of these new pods now, paired to my Hub5, and have been told that they support wired backhaul (the two ports on the back of the pod just say "Internet" above each one). There is no way to know for sure from the VM Connect app how they are connecting back to the Hub5, so I am getting a long ethernet cable in the next few days to run one out of wireless range to verify it is indeed using ethernet, and not wireless backhaul.

    My WI-FI scanner reports the pods support a/n/ac/ax at 2402 Mbps on 5GHz, and b/g/n at 286.8Mbps on 2.4GHz, so the same as the Hub5 except Hub5 has 430.1Mbps on 2.4GHz.

    I like that they look like mini versions of the Hub5 with the cloth trim, and the separate power adapter (with about 2m cable) which personally suits me better, as it allows me better positioning than directly plugged into a socket (on a shelf/desk etc).

    • Paul_DN's avatar
      Paul_DN
      Forum Team

      Hi Dave_J1,

      Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome back, glad to hear your 2 Pods are connected and working for you so far, please let us know your findings once you try an Ethernet cable.

      Regards

      Paul.

      • Dave_J1's avatar
        Dave_J1
        On our wavelength

        Hi Paul - I can confirm the pods do indeed work when used with ethernet backhaul. My test was to check my internet speed on my phone standing in a blackspot area with no pod present (only about 1-2Mbps), then with a pod placed in that same area, and connected to the hub via ethernet, the phone internet speed is about the same as when I'm connected directly to the Hub5 (around 700Mbps).

        It would be nice if the VM Connect App could be updated indicate this, instead of just appearing like it is using wireless connection back to the Hub5. Perhaps you could pass that on to the app dev team?

  • Am I able to request these to replace my three white WiFi pods? I find that the white WiFi pods overlap the adjacent socket making it near on impossible to use a double socket 

    • Steven_L's avatar
      Steven_L
      Forum Team

      Hey james-28, 

      Welcome back to the community and thanks for taking the time to post.

      Are you having any service affecting issues with your current WiFi pods?

      Kind Regards,

      Steven_L