Hub 5: Our first ever WiFi 6 broadband router

[Kei_M]

Back in October we announced the launch of the new Hub 5 and we’ll be offering this to customers at no extra cost as part of a phased rollout.

Our next-generation Hub works alongside Virgin Media’s ultrafast broadband network to deliver peak WiFi performance, thanks to WiFi 6.

This latest future-proof WiFi standard, which will work with Virgin Media’s existing DOCSIS 3.1 technology, is designed to power the next-generation of connected devices – including modern smartphones, laptops, tablets and next-gen games consoles.

With this latest technology and even more WiFi antennae than its predecessor, the Hub 5 will be able to support more devices, connecting at the same time, while expanding coverage and stability which improves WiFi performance.

It means the new Hub 5 boasts increased WiFi speeds, lower latency and can help reduce interference from neighbouring hubs and devices.

The Hub 5 has been designed to support multi-gigabit speeds and comes with a 2.5Gbps ethernet port alongside three additional 1Gbps ports.

FAQ

How can I get a Hub 5? / I’m on Gig1 Fibre and need the Hub 5 to maximise my service

We've started to offer the Hub 5 as standard to new Gig1 customers as well as existing customers without a Hub 4 who upgrade to Gig1. Currently there is no other way to get a Hub 5.

Temporarily, due to stock levels at the end of last year and the start of this year. Some Gig1 customers expecting a Hub 5 may have received a Hub 4 instead. We'll be contacting these Gig1 customers to offer them a Hub 5 via email.

What are the specs?

-Broadband – DOCSIS3.1/3.0 Broadcom 3390S

-WiFi:

• 5xAntennae
• 4x4 MiMo 5Ghz Broadcom 6715
• 3x3 MiMo 2.4Ghz Broadcom 6710
• WiFi 6 (802.11ax)

-Ethernet:

• 1x2.5Gbps Broadcom 54991EL
• 3x1Gbps Broadcom 3390S

[IllLustration]

Wow, I didn't even have to look very hard, the keyword is "104" on Google or in communities. Yup--seems like it's definitely a problem and (thank goodness) it's not just us. But, really. Terrible. Have they over-provisioned (again)? Honestly I wouldn't mind if they were just honest about it on their status pages and in email.

[Lucy_B]

Hi All, 

I'm sorry to hear that you've been having some issues with the upload speeds on your connections. I've looked into this and the upload speed on our 1Gb package is up to 100Mb; the tests showing that this is only 50Mb is due to a reporting error which we are in the process of resolving. 

Please note that these speeds are based on the Hub5 being in router mode, not modem mode. If you are having issues whilst the hub is in router mode with the speeds, we ask that you make a post on our main forum boards, so that we can assist further. 

Lucy_B

[Tutts293]

The third Hub 5 has failed in as many months. Then had to wait three days for an engineer visit!

This isn’t acceptable Virgin Media!

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Tutts293 thanks for your post here in the Community, although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised here.

We do appreciate your frustrations here, particularly with the wait between appointments but we'll always do our best to give you the earliest one possible.

Has everything been sorted for you since your post yesterday or are you waiting on appointment? If so, please let us know if you need further support after this.

Many thanks

[Lee1983]

I just got my hub 5.  
on hub 4 i got 940/50, hub 5 gives me 1150/86

[josh94]

Reporting error lol? 

Its a provisioning error, obviously. Its intentional too. Router being in Modem or Router mode makes no difference to the provisioning so if its working in one it should be working in the other.

Still provisioned at 55 max traffic rate upstream.

[IllLustration]

Ditto. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'm basically resigned to waiting for them to fix it and rebooting remotely--if I still can. I've made plans not to be able to use the service at all while I'm away. Terrible indictment, really. Upload would be especially beneficial in that situation.

[Natalie_L]

Hi iLiamdoc081, 

We are very sorry for the issues you are facing with your services and your experience when reporting these. 

I can see you are currently in a private message with my colleague who is looking into this further. If you pop them over a message, they will be able to assist further. 

Thanks, 

[mbozaritchie]

How does one go about getting their hands on a Hub5?  I have a Hub4 (I think....bit difficult to check as I'm at work right now).

I'm keen to get Wi-Fi 6 around the house as I have a number of devices that could put it to good use!

[newapollo]

Hi mbozaritchie 

You have a hub 4 and Gig1 broadband according to your post from 13th November 2021 <here> 

 "Just took delivery today of the Hub4 on the deal to upgrade to Gig service" although at the time of posting your 1Gig hadn't been applied.

According to my reckoning if you had signed up to a new 18 month contract you would have been out of contract since the middle of May this year. So unless you have recontracted since then you will be paying full price. 

If you are out of contract then give VM a call and negotiate a new deal and ask them to include a switch to a hub 5 as part of the new deal. (VM don't generally upgrade from a hub 4 to  hub5, even if your hubs faulty it's usually replaced like for like) 

[mbozaritchie]

Yeah, I have the Hub4, however it is entirely likely that I'll be moving away from VM in the medium term so signing up for another 18 months of handcuffs isn't necessarily a good idea.

The provider I have my eyes on are doing 1Gb symmetrical for £25pm on a rolling contract.

[nad_haque]

@mbozaritchie I know the broadband provider you are talking about them as I’m with them currently after leaving Virgin media and they are much better. I’m on the 3gbps package with them

[IllLustration]

I'm annoyed. Yes, that's what it is. Annoyed.

Reproducible bug: change DHCP server config by adding a reservation in the assigned range, whether the server is on or not (in Router mode, of course) and you can neither DHCPREQUEST (renew) an address, nor soft-reset the modem. Just how exactly is someone supposed to remotely recover from a situation like that when the DHCP lease on their existing equipment expires and then eventually fails? If it were not for a quick pre-flight spot check, I would not have noticed that the DHCP reservation I'd set up for my MikroTik RB5009 (in DMZ) wasn't working. Thank God I was here to hard reset it, then test DHCP renewals on the new reservation to make sure they always succeeded. One can hope more people will just notice that their DHCP reservations weren't working in time--silly of me not to check, I know--but it's still inexcusable. With software like this, no wonder the Hub gets panned!

And, yes, as soon as I'm out of my (it seems, unbeknownst to me, OFCOM-registered) speed complaint, I'm going straight back into Modem Mode. But I have to be a Router for now so they can speed-test.

But I'm still annoyed. I shouldn't run spot checks just to find that I'm facing disaster. I can't justify setting up a backup connection, but especially when it's local equipment failure. Maybe I need to recalculate, though there's no time now before I leave.

[josh94]

This morning my router reset and when it came back online I was provisioned on 110mb upload

[IllLustration]

Yep--that's the good news (although I had to reboot first). Glad to see the product is starting to match the marketing again.

[mutineer]

Please provide a link to a current document giving the latest versions of the your hub firmware, specifically the hub 3 in my case, but a basic config document for all your hubs and an issues resolved list for each would be helpful.

[andrewmm]

for my own interest @mutineer , as a custimer, user, what would ine do with such a list,

[mutineer]

Hi @andrewnm,  When things break, as they sometimes do, it's useful to know what has changed (or not changed when it should have done).  A config doc is what any professional organisation should publish soemwhere.   Also, it takes 20 mins to get through to support to ask them to do checks and then another 20 mins to get them to remotely reset the hub3 and put it back in 'hub' mode in order for them to run remote diagnostics.  That then followed by another 20 mins to go over their findings and then reset the hub to modem mode.  I'd rather do that locally quickly by connecting to 198.168.100.1 ('modem' mode admin address) and checking the local config myself...  for which I need to be able to access a master config doc to check.

[andrewmm]

Re Virgins incompetence and the aparantbgeneral bad state of their inferstructure, I can agree with. 

As for configuration, you can always save your configuration locally if that's what you mean,

If its the network side, then that's totzly outside user control , so can't see that info being given out. 

For my interest, what do you use as a firewall when in modem mode , I've not found one that did not slow the line rate down 

[mutineer]

Yes I have, or can discover my local config, but I want to know what the official, supported config is, and any changes in that...  because remote config management and push updates have been known to fail.

I use an Archer AX6000 (TP) seems OK and pretty fast?