Forum Discussion

HUGH_EFFO's avatar
HUGH_EFFO
Up to speed
2 years ago

Superhub upgrade

I have the M350 broadband package with the VOLT bolt on which takes it up to M500 (500bps).  The issue I have is I still have the superhub 3, which only give you wifi 11ac speeds (around 200bps), so on wifi I cannot benefit from the extra speed  .  How do I go about getting an upgrade to the superhub 5, which has 11ax speeds ?

  • The HUB 5 is only supplied for Gig1 customers. Even then the HUB 4 is supplied if the HUB 5 is low stock.

    You'd need to purchase your own router, with the HUB in modem mode, to increase your Wi-Fi speed.

    VM do not guarantee full speed to one device over Wi-Fi (30Mbps guaranteed minimum if you pay £8/month https://www.virginmedia.com/wifi-max or if you are a Volt / Gig1 customer). 

  • Tudor's avatar
    Tudor
    Very Insightful Person

    "superhub 3, which only give you wifi 11ac speeds (around 200bps)", 11ac will give up to 867 bps speed, realistically that means a max of about 520 bps.

  • Hi HUGH_EFFO 👋 welcome back to the community! Thank you for posting. 

    Sorry to hear these concerns regarding your hub processing speeds. We would need to identify a fault that would require your hub being replaced, as it should still be able to process the speeds of your package. 

    It looks like your hub is in Modem mode at the moment but if you would like us to take a look at the speeds reaching the hub to offer further support, you can pop it back into router mode temporarily for us to draw some data. Following this if there is a fault identified with the speeds reaching your hub which may require our assistance we will be able to help!

    Let us know once you have popped the hub into router mode and we will be happy to help!

    Wishing you all the best. 🌞

     

    • HUGH_EFFO's avatar
      HUGH_EFFO
      Up to speed

      Hi Molly

      There is defiantly something wrong with either the superhub or the switching at the cabinet.  All is fine until i try and download something, then my speed drops to almost nothing.

       

      here is an example of speed test done directly at the modem, hard wired with cat 6 cable.  Tested on multiple machines and devices.

      This is my normal speed with nothing downloading

       

      As soon as i start to download something, after about 20 seconds it drops to this and i'm downloading at about 130kbs.

      if I pause the download it goes back to this

      I have tried loads of different sites, in fact using my phone as a hotspot, I get faster downloads than using the broadband.  Router is new (Asus AX5400) with a 2.5gbit ethernet port.

      so at the moment I cant use the extra speed for downloading films on Netflix or Disney+ as it takes hours to download them.  If i switch the superhub off and back on again.  I get high speed downloads for about 20 seconds, then it drops again back down to just over 1 Mbs again.

      I dont think the superhub 3 has either the cpu power or the bandwidth to cope with a constant high throughput and falls over.

       

       

       

       

       

       

    • HUGH_EFFO's avatar
      HUGH_EFFO
      Up to speed

      Hi

      I have put the Superhub 3 back into router mode.  Im now only getting about 160Mbps on wifi now, where with my router i was getting the over 520Mbps.

      The download speed has increased, when using wifi, but still bad if I connect via Ethernet cable. Im guessing its because when on Wifi, im only getting about 160Mbps, but on ethernet im getting the full 500Mbps. 

      At least now im sure its nothing to do with my equipment, as im getting the same issue whether im hard wired into the Superhub or my Router.  

      So it seems im stuck.  Either I use the Superhub 3 as a router on wifi, get faster downloads, but cant only get about 40% of the speed on wifi, or switch back to my router, get full 500Mbps on wifi and wired, but download very slow, as I think once you get past about 200Mbps of downloading speed the Superhub 3 cant cope with the constant throughput, and falls over, either because the CPU is overheating or it cant cope with the constant speed, as its ok for 15-20 secs then the speed just drops to almost nothing.

      All I want it to have full speed over wi-fi and to be able to download stuff at full speed.  This is why I need a superhub 5.  It has 802.11ax wifi, which means Ill get the full 500Mbps speed, and it being a newer model, im guessing has a better cpu, which can handle the higher speeds for longer.

      The other option is to drop my broadband package down to M150, and save some money, as at the moment Im paying for higher speeds but cant use it.

      • HUGH_EFFO's avatar
        HUGH_EFFO
        Up to speed

        UPDATE:

        did a test with all my equipment turned off, and just a windows laptop wired into the Superhub 3 (Cat6) in modem mode.

        Speedtest before any downloading 525.74 Mbps

         

        downloaded a game from Steam Store.  After 20 seconds I was downloading at 16.7kbs, Speed test while im downloading: 0.21 Mbps

         

        Stopped downloading, and waited 5 mins, then took new speedtest. 540.79Mbps

         

        There is obviously an issue with either the superhub 3 or the switch at the cabinet, The internet speed is fine until I try and download something that takes longer than 30 seconds.  Even tried with my PS4, same issue starts downloading game fine, then after about 20 seconds, it drops to about 15-20 kbps.