Ease of Downgrading a Hub

[ian002]

I have a Superhub 2, which has been working fine for over 8 years.

I only use wifi to connect to the internet. No machine is plugged directly into the hub.

I have recently upgraded to a 250MB connection from a 125MB and I was advised to switch to a Superhub 5. This new hub has been delivered.

I have read so many negative comments about this new hub 5 that I am scared to install it in case the internet is worse than my current installation.

If I switch from the hub 2 to the hub 5, and things go wrong, how easy is it to switch back to the old hub 2?

On a 250MB connection what is the best hub to use?

Thanks

[jbrennand]

Its technically very easy - just a phone call and they change the MAC address of the Hub on your account. However going back to a SH2 will be problematic as they are committed to removing them all from the network asap. One reason for that is they cannot provide VOIP for when they decommission your landline. So if you have a phone service you have to swap the Hub. My SH2 is due to go dead in 10 days time.... so I am in the process of swapping now.

[ian002]

Thanks for the reply. I don't use Virgin for phone, so no issues for me there.

You said you're switching hubs - are you worried too?

[deans6571]

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@ian002 wrote:

I have a Superhub 2, which has been working fine for over 8 years.

I only use wifi to connect to the internet. No machine is plugged directly into the hub.

I have recently upgraded to a 250MB connection from a 125MB and I was advised to switch to a Superhub 5. This new hub has been delivered.

I have read so many negative comments about this new hub 5 that I am scared to install it in case the internet is worse than my current installation.

If I switch from the hub 2 to the hub 5, and things go wrong, how easy is it to switch back to the old hub 2?

On a 250MB connection what is the best hub to use?

Thanks

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I have a 250MB connection and using a Hub 3 which works fine (I actually get around 270MB on a wired connection) - you certainly don't need a Hub 5 for 250MB....

[g0akc]

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@jbrennand wrote:
 My SH2 is due to go dead in 10 days time.... so I am in the process of swapping now.

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Good luck John

[g0akc]

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@ian002 wrote:

You said you're switching hubs - are you worried too?

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I believe John uses his hub in modem mode, with another, third party, solution for wifi - so I guess he will only be using the hub as a modem and for a landline, which is far more straightforward.

[goslow]

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@ian002 wrote:

I have a Superhub 2, which has been working fine for over 8 years.

I only use wifi to connect to the internet. No machine is plugged directly into the hub.

I have recently upgraded to a 250MB connection from a 125MB and I was advised to switch to a Superhub 5. This new hub has been delivered.

I have read so many negative comments about this new hub 5 that I am scared to install it in case the internet is worse than my current installation.

If I switch from the hub 2 to the hub 5, and things go wrong, how easy is it to switch back to the old hub 2?

On a 250MB connection what is the best hub to use?

Thanks

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If you have already been sent the Hub 5, you may possibly find your Superhub 2 is automatically deactivated at some point in the expectation of you connecting/using the Hub 5.

[jbrennand]

I am surprised they sent you a Hub5 with no change of package - the supply issues for that Hub must be easing. Note your SH2 should cease to work and you will have to connect the Hub5 soon.  But it may not...... so if it doesn't stick with SH2

I am not personally concerned as I have always used any ISP supplied Hub in modem only mode with my own router and wireless equipment. I prefer to have full control of my internet connectivity.

All VM Hubs seem to have their own little "quirks" but the Hub5 is the one I have chosen.

I think the main difference that you will see is that the SH2 broadcasts the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi networks on separate SSID's so you can select which one each device connects to. Newer VM Hubs all combine the 2 bands onto a single SSID and use their "intelligent/smart" wifi firmware to control that. It ought to work fine but in practice some devices can struggle with that.

So if you do have any issues on that score just come back here and you will get help on circumventing any issues.

[ian002]

I will need to split the Hub 5 into 2g and 5g as many of my devices can't connect to 5g.

I don't want another router and so I don't want to use modem mode

If I keep Hub 5 in router mode can I rename to connections by adding '2' and '5' to split into 2g and 5g or is this only available in modem mode?

[jbrennand]

Yes - see this
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Go into the Hub’s settings. Type in  http://192.168.0.1  into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it). Then in Advanced>wireless signal >smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or the“Smart Wifi” box and save settings.  May be different pathways and wording on the 3 Hub types
Then, go to advanced>wireless signal>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just type over to change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - Ian002_2 & Ian002_5) Try to avoid spaces and periods in the SSID names as they can cause issues with certain devices. Use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want each device to connect to… individually from the "available networks" list on each of your devices. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.
All things being equal, 5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less congestion/interference (and is better for iDevice speeds than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and will be needed when the 5 GHz drops out of range and some older/cheaper/dumber or “specialised” devices can only use this one. 

You should also use a wifi analyser App (or Airport Utility on iOS) to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but it wont help if there is other interference.

See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.