Superhub upgrade needed

[Professor200]

Hello all,

I am hoping that someone on here can help. We have a full virgin media set up (biggest TV bundle) and pay a significant amount per month for the package. Our internet is M350. I have the superhub 3.

I’m a gamer and compete weekly, however, the packet loss I am experiencing is extremely frustrating. I have followed suggestions on this forum and have both my gaming PC and Xbox wired directly to the hub. 

I’ve seen many forum posts and YouTube videos saying the hub3 is a significant issue for other gamers. I would like to upgrade to the superhub 5 as I am now at the stage of either doing this or changing ISP. 

I have tried to get help on the phone, but, it’s proving difficult to get the support required. 

Many thanks in advance.

Danny

[Professor200]

[unisoft]

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@Professor200 wrote:

Thank you for your message. 

It's all very confusing. Are you thinking a downgrade in package from M350 to M125 would improve things? Would this be with the Hub 3 still? 

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M350 and M125 are still on DOCSIS 3.0 using bonded downstreams and bonded upstreams, although for HUB3 there are less streams bonded together than GIG1 off a HUb4 or HUB5.

DOCSIS 3.1 itself is inherently better latency than DOCSIS 3.0 but only if VM did a specific firmware upgrade to the CMTS which I'm unsure they actually did in the end and various areas still have different CMTS manufacturers (Arris/Cisco/Nokia). The old River Delta (Motorola) CMTS that had the single thread download speed issue a few years ago should have been replaced by Arris or Cisco kit by now.

Also DOCSIS 3.1 in most areas is under utilised compared to DOCSIS 3.0 as majority on HUB3 still and they don't use DOCSIS 3.1.

[Client62]

Using pure DOCSIS 3.1 has lower Latency than DOCSIS 3.0.

The M350 Realspeed result that is very decent, there is zero reported packet loss.

[jpeg1]

The BQM shows you have a normal connection, better than many shown on here.

You really aren't going to make a significant improvement by swapping Hubs, or anything else on your side of the network. "It is what it is". 

[Professor200]

Thank you for your help - that's really interesting. Maybe I now need to explore potential issues with the PC. 

[Client62]

Looking at the super solid results performed with the M350 connection and your PC I suspect you are attempting to solve game platform issues that exist many hundreds of miles past the boundary of the Virgin Media network.

[Professor200]

I’m almost certain my hub needs replacing, I’ve done so many tests and it’s still intermittent. I even bought a new Xbox and placed it where my gaming PC and I’m still having the same issues. 

Does anyone know how I can book an engineer? It’s so frustrating being the only one in the team who keeps dropping internet and having packet loss.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and support so far. 

[jpeg1]

Which ISP are the other team members on? Any on Virginmedia? 

Your BQM is generally good, just the occasional spike which is probably due to your own activity. 

[Professor200]

Thank you for your response. 

Two are on BT and the other is on County Broadband. It’s frustrating as they are always waiting for me to restart the router. It’s a small thing for many, but, it is frustrating to keep doing this when I pay a lot per month. I had to quit out of a match last night to restart the router, which is not ideal for the other 3 team mates. 

I don’t want to come across difficult. But, I really could do with this being fixed. I’m happy to pay an engineer if required! 

[jpeg1]

To be honest, I don't see that there is much a technician can do. They could try a replacement Hub (it will be a used one off the van) but that is unlikely to make much difference.

The hard fact is that your friends have connections which are better suited to gaming.