Superhub 3 - Modem Mode

[steve4180]

I wish to use my Superhub 3 in modem mode, to facilitate the installation of an Eero mesh network. In its current router mode, I have a desktop PC and a Hive hub hardwired to the Superhub using two of the four Ethernet ports. I have been told that in modem mode, only one of the four Ethernet ports on the Superhub will be available (if correct, which one) and I will obviously need this port to hardwire the Eero gateway unit to the Superhub. Is it not possible to continue to use the remaining Ethernet ports on the Superhub when it's in modem mode to continue to hardwire other devices? Otherwise, I presume that I will have to connect the desktop PC and Hive hub to the available Ethernet port on the Eero gateway unit through an Ethernet switch, which seems rather messy. Would the PC and Hive hub have wired internet connectivity simultaneously in such configuration? Thanks.

[MILLER_GD]

I have a TP Link M4, however I have been un-successful in setting this up when the Super hub is in modem mode. I have tried all 4 ports and it still doesn't work. I have gone through the set up process and selected Dynamic IP (I believe this is correct) and selected the default MAC address (rather than the manual option). Can anyone shed any light as to why this won't work?

Thanks

[legacy1]

Get the hub in modem mode working with a PC/laptop then use the MAC option in your router to copy the MAC.

[jbrennand]

Just checking - did you follow this sequence?
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Put the VM hub into modem mode (see VM website for details) and wait for the base light to turn magenta. Once it’s in modem mode, the VM hub must then be powered off. Then, set up your own router with the WAN port set to be in DHCP mode. Make sure it’s fully initialised (leave 5 min) and then put in the WAN cable into the VM hub. Now power up the VM hub and leave a few minutes and you should get a connection. This order only needs to be done the first time you connect your own router to the VM hub.

[Steven_L]

Hey @MILLER_GD,

Have you been able to setup your mesh network since you last posted?

Regards

Steven_L

[pjhw]

Hi A couple of notes on your instructions which are great by the way.

1) The light on my Superhub 3 was more red than magenta. May be there are variances in build.

2) There was an outage in my area which prevented it from working when i first tried it and confused me.

3) The ORBI SRR60 comes with a phone wizard set up app on a phone is good to use to set up the Hub and satellite but i abandoned it for the Superhub connection.

4) After I has got the ORBI to talk to its satellite I followed your instructions and they worked. I did the rest of the ORBI config using a browser to the ORBI management console. A point to note is the Superhub displays a steady solid red (magenta) bar light when all is working.

5) The WiFi is transformed and rock solid with better throughput.

thanks for the good guidance

[cynapse]

1) The light on my Superhub 3 was more red than magenta. May be there are variances in build.

My hub was a definite shade of pink when it was working and red when it was not.

-I had no end of trouble getting this to work properly. My assumptions is that somehow Virgin is assigning IPs via DHCP to MAC addresses and once you have ballsed it up or it has otherwise failed, using the same MAC address will not work again (at least until I guess the lease expires at their end).

Here is how I fixed this (after first being able to connect fine and then power outage killed both router and hub and thus made DHCP fail on the router):

a) Turned router WAN IP to static with IP 192.168.100.2 and Gateway X.X.X.1 where this was the gateway previously (previous public IP address with a .1 last 8bit.

b) Logged into the hub from behind the router to 192.168.100.1 and reset the hub to router mode (a+b can be acheved by resetting the hub).

c) After HUB was restarted in router mode, Incremented the MAC address by one of the router, changed WAN to DHCP and applied the settings. This gave an internal 192.168.0.0/24 IP to the WAN of the router.

d) Ensured the new mac address was picked up by the HUB at 192.168.0.1 in the connected devices. The new MAC of the router should be the only connected device.

e) Switched the HUB back into modem only mode and then waited a good 5 mins until there was a magenta light only. (All of the other lights were cycled and now off). This is not the same as a solid red light and when you see the two you can see the difference. A solid red light I had when the DHCP was not being picked up by the router. Magenta was when HUB was ready or the router was successfully connected via DHCP to WAN.

f) Re-applied (or refreshed) the DHCP WAN on the router which worked. On my router this was literally a question of going into the WAN interface settings and hitting apply but I think on others, starting a wizard at this point would do the same job.

I think the main points were waiting until all of the HUB lights were off except solid magenta between attempting to re-aquire DHCP from WAN. Probably also changing of the MAC address before getting the internal DHCP when HUB was in router mode.

Notes: I do not believe the port that you use matters as long as only one device is connected via ethernet. In the above I did not unplug the router from the port at any stage. I just ensured that it was present in "connected devices" on its own when the HUB was in router mode.

[codevolunt]

Thank you. I tried for too long to connect my TP-Link Archer C7 to the Hub 3, but following this did the trick, and I didn’t have to copy the MAC address either. 

LAN port 4 on the Hub 3 was used.