Hub 3 slow intermittent and full i think?

[Ceekay742]

Hi and sorry if this has been answered a thousand times.

running a superhub 3 and it currently has around 35 to 40 wired and wireless connections at any one time. The hub constantly drops the internet or the delay increases and you have to reboot it several times a day just to keep everything running smooth-ish. 
since the pandemic our problems and speeds have been rubbish. We have gone from around an average of 220mbps to around 40mbps recently. 
i hear many times its better to have the superhub in modem mode and use a third party wireless router is this the best way? If so which one that can handle all todays modern wireless everything?

any help or suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Andrew-G]

You might get lucky seeking a fault fix over the phone, but don't be too surprised if they feed you a line of BS about the speed problem being caused by too many wifi devices, a wifi device too near the hub, a cabbage in the same room as the hub, or any other thing that comes to mind.  If you get a technician booked that's fine, if it all ends in frustration then come back here and the friendly forum staff will take a look.

In terms of upstream power, I'm not sure that the Tivo needs anything special - what happens with upstream power levels is that they're negotiated between hub and VM's network gear in response to line conditions, and levels of 50 and above usually indicate the hub is "shouting to be heard" over the noise.

If you want to fix wifi woes, then my money is on a mesh system.  Not everybody agrees, but I've been using a mesh for a few years now, and it has been superb.  It is important to remember that better wifi gear (either mesh or standalone router) fixes wifi and routing problems, it won't fix broadband speed or reliability issues.  And because for fault finding VM staff need your hub in router mode, perhaps worth getting any speed and reliability issues fixed before spending a hundred quid or more on wifi gear.

[jem101]

Indeed the hub upstream power levels are as @Andrew-G said are auto negotiated. If they are too high (which yours are), then that is indicative of a bad connection between you and the VM infrastructure and that needs to be remedied before you think about getting any additional equipment. I’m afraid you’ll need an engineer appointment.

[Ceekay742]

Thanks for that.

just spent the whole afternoon unplugging and swapping wires with no joy but had to put my mind at rest it wasnt something and nothing. In the end had all the wired items disconnected and just the hub 1m away from VM socket with filter without filter but as you said didnt make any diff! Had the hub 2m from the ring doorbell and it still said bad connection! Speeds are all over as well one min 220mbps next between 10 and 80.

will get on the phone to them tomorrow and start looking at third party hubs and mesh systems since im having to run 3 boosters at the mo. Not they help at the mo.

thanks for your help will let all know how it turns out….fingers crossed 👍🏼

[John_GS]

Hi Ceekay742

Thanks for posting.

I'm really sorry to hear of the broadband issue. 

I've checked the system today and there is indeed an area fault of SNR (signal to noise ratio) affecting the service. The status report; You might find that your Virgin Fibre, Virgin TV or TiVo® services are intermittent, with the picture freezing or disappearing now and then. We are sorry and our engineers are working hard to resolve this for you.

Your fault reference is F009228786 and the estimated fix date is 25th August at 15.45.

Please monitor the connection then and let us know how things are. We'll be happy to help

Kind regards,

[Ceekay742]

Good to hear thankyou.

i will keep an eye on it 👍🏼

[Ceekay742]

Just an update on the fault being looked into by VM due to noise on the line.

The morning after all my testing of leads and connections the VM hub3 rebooted itself around 9:00 am and everything started working again and i assumed VM had managed to sort the problem nice and early. Today which is 1 day after the date set for the job to be completed everything is back as it was broken! Speeds are up and dowm from 40mbps to 220mbps in the space of a couple of minutes and much worse weak signal on wireless connections all over even items close to the hub🙈

If the chap from VM could comment again and have a look at the line that would be good.

Thanks, Keith 

[Corey_C]

Thanks for your reply and update, Keith, 

How has things been since your post? I have run a remote diagnostic and have not been able to identify any issues with your connection. Is this only happening on your wireless connections or on wired as well?
We can also provide online broadband help here: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/services-support/broadband
Let us know if you need any further help.

Cheers,
Corey C
 

[Ceekay742]

Thanks for checking in with me again.

My internet and wifi are still pretty rubbish. Not sure how the system is showing no problems as my B/B usually runs at speeds around 200mbps when the traffic is light and drops to around 130-170 mbps at busy times. I have just tested it at 26mbps on the download although upload still pushing 15mbps so that side is only slightly down.

As for the wifi i think the hub is just in a state of permanent confusion perhaps im just running to many items. Cant work out though that for around 4 days after i was told it would be looked into it ran great wirh a good strong wi-fi signal but now can just about get a signal a few metres away from the hub to the outside ring doorbell which is only blocked by a couple of standard brick walls and only around 7metres away from the hub. I have even installed a booster in between but still the same 🤷🏼‍

surely in this  world of everything going wireless one of the big players VM must have equipment that can handle many items at the same time?

i think the hub has give in to be honest. I would reboot it back to factory setyings and start again but as well as it taking along time to set everything up again im not sure i know how to install some of the items so trying to avoid this course of action to see if it helps.

in any case it may be time for an engineer who knows alot about the hubs to come and have a look.

When you look at the hub network status logs apart from the odd normal the logs are always showing critical or error so i dont know if thats applicable or not?

please let me know your thoughts when you have a min.

thanks Keith

[Andrew-G]

@Ceekay742 You're between a rock and a hard place here.  VM's miserable pound shop hubs were never specified for a modern connected house, and with their feeble wifi (made worse by VM's remote "intelligent wifi" fiddling of settings) means that you'll probably struggle to get that working well for your needs.  If you buy your own router or mesh system, that should address the wifi aspects, but if there's any broadband problems, VM will wash their hands and blame your equipment.  Personally I think there is a broadband fault, but I'm not seeing much ownership here.  You could re-post the hub status data (Downstream, Upstream, Network log) if you want us to take a further look.

Are you in a fixed term contract (penalties for cancelling), and do you have an acceptable alternative ISP option?  If this is just going round and round in circles you may need to accept that the combination of suspected broadband and wifi problems will never be resolved by VM.

As an alternative, can you measure speeds on a device connected to the hub by ethernet cable, using Ookla ? If you can invoke VM's minimim speed guarantee that might at least get any broadband issue addressed, although after that you'll probably still need to invest a hundred quid in your own wifi gear.

[Ceekay742]

Thanks again for your help.

im quite happy to go the the route of learning more about using my own router or mesh system but although a sparky by trade i am but a novice when it comes to networking setups really but have had to learn bits and pieces as my smart home type gadgets have grown. Im running things like cctv and sonos but the hub seems to list every speaker as a separate item so they soon add up.

In any case will need to get some sort of consistency with the download speed before i can blame it all on the hubs wifi capabilities really.  

Not on any contract at the mo as it expired some time ago and need to renegotiate a new deal as we are paying a small fortune every year. 

cant work out why it sll worked great for 4 days or so last week after the hub rebooted itself one morning after it was reported but has now gone back to how it was before. Although VM were at a house 3 doors up before it went down again 🤷🏼‍Just a thought.

i will post the up/down stresms again and maybe you can advise.

many thanks 👍🏼