Got my Hub 5 - how do I get 1GB?

[Rewind303]

Hi team, 

I'm possibly jumping the gun but I've had my Hub 5 delivered today, installed it, it shows connectivity at 1gb down and 50mb up. But I've had nothing through about my service changing to 1gb - still shows 500mb on the myvirginmedia page.

Speedcheck is showing 300 down, which usually shows 500, and 50 mb up.

How do these things normally work and will the speed go up?

Thanks!

[Kain_W]

Hi Rewind303,

Thanks for your post and welcome back to the community.

Can I ask have you received any confirmation at all about the upgrade?

Let us know,

[Rewind303]

Sorry for the delay, was giving the line time to settle. The service now shows at 1gb on themyvirginmedia  site.

Strange but I’m still getting lower download speeds in real life and also Speedtest than I was on 500MB. Occasional buffering on streaming TV too, which we never had before.

Speedtest gets 380 on WLAN and 280 over Ethernet. Around 50 up is fairly consistent.

Nothing changed but the move to Hub 5 and a 1gb service.

Set up is in modem mode, 2.5gb Hub 5 into 2.5gb ASUS ZenWifi AX 6 router ( which forms a mesh of 3 boxes across the house ) which in turn runs 1gb to a Netgear 8 port switch to PCs.

Open to any ideas or tests the team can run or help with.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

Matt

[newapollo]

Hi Matt,

Is the  Netgear 8 port switch a Gigabit switch?

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

You need to do a "pure" speedtest first - like this
________________________________________

Connect a 1GB enabled computer/laptop, with up to date drivers, via a NEW and working Cat5e/6a ethernet cable, directly to the Hub which you have put into “modem mode” (https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode ).

This ensures that NO other devices are connected

Test speeds at https://speedtest.samknows.com/ - or https://www.speedtest.net/ - try on 2 different browsers - as Chrome sometimes gives odd results.

If they are still low – boot your device into Windows safe+networking mode - to disable any potentially interfering software - and try again.

There are many posts on here (I have a list of ~30!) where QoS software, anti-virus, unknown/flaky software, old network card drivers, corrupted browsers, bad cables or other connected devices are limiting speeds on tests.

Report back what that gets.

For examples of why... see message 7 in the first thread and 9 in in the second and 3 in the third

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/HUB-5-and-IGB-wifi/td-p/5088163

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Slow-Ethernet-Speed/m-p/5060946#M484321

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/Upgrade-from-M600-to-Gig1-no-speed-change-with-Hub-4/td-p...

[Rewind303]

Well there was an interesting rat hole to go down, thanks. Solved! (but a further question below).

I was planning to run through a process of elimination but you narrowed things down nicely. I've multiple PCs, laptops and devices across the family - hence why getting good throughput everywhere is important.

I am really surprised but it seems that the connection through the Asus as a router & switch slows things down considerably. Surprising as it really is a top of the line and rated mesh system.

Yes a direct connection into Hub 5 gave me 940mb Speedtest ( I use the win app as well as through browsers ).

Removing my Netgear switch and connecting into the Asus Ethernet was slower, not sure they are capable switch ports.

So to remedy - turning the Hub 5 into Router mode, changing my Asus mesh into AP mode (which is a shame as it has some nice router features) I now get:

900+ mb over ethernet
200-700 mb over wifi depending on device and where in the house you connect.

Buffering has stopped when streaming under any load.

So thanks all for your help, particularly John @jbrennand.

So this leads me to ask the question - is it worth shifting my wifi to the hub 5?

I've thick walls etc. so need at least 3 APs to cover the house. The Asus works well but is it now an overkill (big chunky boxes) and I could do fine with 2 or 3 of the extenders Virgin give away free with 1gb?

Welcome further feedback.

Or now it's fixed and working OK should I not touch it?

[jbrennand]

If it aint broke dont try and fix it.

200-700 over wifi across the house should be fine. Thats a lot of bandwith - do you really need any more ?

One thing springs to mind re using modem mode and the Asus doing all the heavy lifting... it ought to be far better than using the puny router in the VM Hub. I wonder if you connected it in the correct "sequence". Might be worth the experiment of trying it again as below.
______________

Switch on and set up your own router/Mesh unit (in its settings) to have the WAN port set to be in Dynamic/Automatic IP or DHCP (& Nat) mode,

Then, disconnect all cables from your new router (or all Mesh units) and switch them off and unplug them.

Then, put the VM Hub into modem mode ( https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode ) and wait for the base light to turn magenta/purple (on a Hub3 - but not on a Hub4!).

Once it’s in modem mode, the VM hub “MUST” then be powered off. Switch your router on and make sure it’s fully initialised (leave 5 min) and then put in the ethernet cable from its WAN port to the VM hub (any port will do).

NOW… power up the VM hub and wait 5-10 minutes for The Hub to initialise and and you should get a connection. Use the recommended App to connect any other Mesh units to the first one. This order only needs to be done the first time you connect the router to the VM hub. You might also set the SSID and key/password on the new router/Mesh to match that on the HUB so when you swap over, all your wireless devices should just connect automatically.

[Tudor]

Did you turn off QoS (quality of service) and packet inspection on the ASUS is it has them?

[Unknown67]

Another thing to try with the Hub 5 in modem mode connected to the Asus mesh on the 2.5 gig port, run a speed test from the Asus control panel. I’m getting over 1100 down and 52 up. If it’s very low it could be a dodgy cable.

[Rewind303]

Well thank you all for your help and suggestions. It was none of those things but issue resolved - here's a Speedtest directly from the Asus Router. G

Getting pretty much max possible over the Ethernet (940ish) and between 400-700 on WLAN depending on where on the mesh.

Very happy! 🙂 Some notes below on how I got there:

• Reset the router & hub in the order suggested by Jon, plus put some new CAT 6 cables in just in case. No difference.
• Did it in a different order as per the Asus manual - no difference.
• The thing that really bugged me was 200mb over Ethernet direct from the router, yet near 1gb from the Hub 5.
• Some internet research revealed that the Asus XT8 has a "feature" to limit the guest wifi bandwidth. If this is on it for some crazy reason limits the bandwidth across everything - which it was, I was getting only 700mb on the routers speed test (thanks unknown67, I hadn't spotted that hidden in the QoS section of the settings).
• Checked that setting and there was no bandwidth limit, set it to 0 and reset anyway.
• Checked the Guest WiFi which I've never turned on... AND... there was one of them turned on - which was an auto setting activated but Amazon devices on the network and they use it to auto set the password on any new Alexa/Kindle etc. and by default this limits it's bandwidth.
• Turned the Amazon Guest WiFi off and everything immediatelly started running at decent speed.

Bizzaire! Thanks again for everyones help 😊