Hub 5

[I-Give-In]

Hi,

I am new to all of this, so I apologise for my post's vagueness. I have had many problems connecting to and from my Hub 5. Not long ago my wi-fi speeds were that of what was coming into my Hub 5, but one evening a few weeks ago my Hub 5 went off and died for about an hour before it came back on again. Since then my wi-fi signal has dropped by over half and the speed into the Hub 5 dropped dramatically and fluctuated up and down. I had my Hub 5 replaced but the problems persist. I have had an alleged fibre pull up where from the cabinet the fibre is replaced to your property. I had a lot of problems with engineers telling me this that and the other but in fact, they had done nothing to help.

The day of the fibre pull an engineer knocked on my door to tell me that he was taking on the work with the fibre. Around 10 - 15 minutes later he knocked again to tell me that he had finished. He told me that there were problems in the cabinet and that he had sorted them out along with adding that when he took the facia plate off for Virgin on my property he found that a connection had come loose and had basically come off. He told me that he had fixed this too and that now everything should be okay (I've got to admit that I thought that he was quick in doing all of this work in just a short time. I wondered if he had actually found the faults in the cabinet and on my property and fixed them only and thought that these were responsible for my problem and that now he had fixed them my problems were fixed and would cease.). Unfortunately, this did not remedy all of my problems. It fixed the speed going into my Hub 5, but not my Wi-Fi issues. I have a Wi-Fi connection for one minute and then it will go down. It goes down for various amounts of time before it regains a stable connection. This happens several times a day. There isn't a specific time it happens it's always random.

I contacted Virgin again and they sent out another engineer. He came into my property and asked what was going on with things. He tried to use the Wi-Fi from my Hub 5 to check it. He could not log on as I had changed the username and password to the Hub 5 that I had previously. I gave him the previous logging-in details and then he told me that this is what the problem is, that I have used the other Hub 5's logging-in details. He said that it was causing conflict with the Hub 5 and my devices. He stated that the MAC Address was at fault as by using my previous Hub 5's logging-in details it had a specific MAC Address sign to that and now that the MAC Addresses were conflicting with one another resulting in the problems. I told him that I have many smart and security devices attached to the logging-in details of my previous Hub 5. He told me that I had to change the logging-in details back to those that came with the Hub 5 that I have now. (I have never heard this as in the installation instructions it says that you can change your network name and password to something that is more memorable to yourself. I have never heard that changing them will cause problems and conflicts with your MAC Address.). Has anyone else heard this????

After this, he told me after he checked things that everything was okay and that I should not receive any other problems. Well, I still have the same problem with the intermittent Wi-Fi signal. Why can't the engineers all be singing from the same hymn sheet, so that we know where we stand with things? I have had 5 engineers in 6 weeks and every one of them has told me something different, but it is never the right thing nor have they fixed my issue. I have threatened to leave, but I get fobbed off with the fear factor of being told that if I quit Virgin I will have to pay off the rest of my contract. I will have penalties to pay as I have terminated my contract early. I shut them straight up when I replied that I could quit without any charges as service providers are given 28 days to fix a customer's issue. If they have not done this in the allotted 28 days then the customer can cancel their contract and will not receive any charges for doing so.

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

Can we just clarify... are all your issues only evident on wifi connections or do you see them at the same times on devices connected on ethernet cables? If you don't know, can you check to help diagnose whether it is just a wifi issue or it could be network connection/Hub related?

if it is - then see this...

On a Hub3/4/5, you could first try separating the SSID's of the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi bands by renaming them in the settings At the same time switch off "channel optimisation/Smart wifi” and “ apply and save the settings. All wifi devices will now need reconnecting to the best SSID at each location. Also use a wifi scanning App to find the best wifi channels to use (just select and use channels 1,6,11 on 2.4GHz) - this often helps Hub users get better wifi performance - so its worth trying - but its still no substitute for getting better kit 🙂

To address the wifi issues, VM now supply “wifi Pods” (no longer doing cheap and cheerless and poor value “boosters”). However, their Pods are only free to customers on the 1GB, Volt (or old Ultimate Oomph) packages - is that you? If so they are worth trying - they should work for you. VM Wifi is now “guaranteed” to 30 Mbps/room it’s now called… Wifi Max
See if anything in here helps….

https://www.virginmedia.com/wifi-max

You call 0800 064 3850 to order the first one after scanning for blackspots using the connect App.- or just wait here for a VM person to respond in a day or two and they will sort the first one for you. If you do call dont get fobbed off by the offshore CS agents' saying you aren’t eligible - you are - it is clearly stated on the webpage.

If not free to you… you will be charged £8/month for up to 3 pods (note - BT charge £10/mo for their whole home wifi solution). It’s a simple solution and should work for you. However, you would soon pay off that cost by buying your own wireless solution that will be yours to own and use forever, although the VM Pods should be a simpler option.

If you do want to invest in better equipment, you would need to get either a… (1) Mesh System, (2) Wireless router, (3) Wireless access point, (4) a pair of good quality Wifi Powerline Adaptors, or a combination of (2&3).

£40-100 (that’s ~4->12 months of Max Pod rental) should sort it for most customers with an average property and usage. Spend more for additional advanced“features” - if required.

If it happens on ethernet connections - report ack here and we can diagnose further

[legacy1]

ARE YOU READY

VM will now only support you with Wifi IF you use the default even if cracked because no one at VM tests using your own SSID or password for Wifi.

So get your own router use a better password and put hub in modem mode.