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if I switch from consumer to business broadband...

cybmole
Community elder

i understand that I get a different router, and that I lose the TIVO. both those things are OK

 The busines offer says that for 42 per month I can have a 350 speed broadband and a phoneline with unlimited calls

 it is not clear whether I can keep my existing  virgin landline number though and how I should go about arranging that.

 it is also unclear if unlimited calls included unlimited calls to UK mobiles ? which is what we have now on our VM phone

 if both those thinks can be sorted I would rather pay 42 than my existing 64, and lose the Tivo which we hardly use.

 i appreciate also the my various old blueyonder etc email addresses will probably die but how long do I get to migrate those ?. or should I work on that first, then do the swap later.

 i have most emails shifted to gmail but a few stragglers sill com in on blue yonder / virgin media addresses

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has done a similar switch, has to how smooth it is.

for the £50 install fee, I assume someone comes and actually swaps out and tests the new router, put is in same upstairs location as the current hub 3, and does not leave until it is working

65 REPLIES 65

I switched from Virgin Media to Business Broadbant on Monday, I can't complain about the speed.  I went for Voom1 350/7 service and I am getting 384/10.  I have transfered my landline over to Sipgate VOIP service.  Both working okay.  BUT the problem comes with the Hitron modem, it looks nice and new and modern but it cannot be configured for any changes.  The first one I had could not be accessed from its IP address therefore was unconfigurable. This one was exchanged for another nice shiny new one and it could be accessed and configured ONCE.  I managed to turn off wifi, connect my Mesh sysem and change the password.  After I had saved the changes and checked that they were working as configured, I moved the moden to a place out of the way.  It took two attempts to power up and guess what, it is now inaccessable from it's IP address.  So to cap it up, I am happy with my £32 + vat service but dread having to make any more changes to the modem as it will entail another visit from the engineer for another modem change.

 

The changes I would look to make in the hub are the WiFi ssid names and passwords making them different for each of the two bands, then reserving some local addresses so that devices always get the same 192 .168 .0.  xxx adress. That is a nice to have as addresses tend to not change anyway. And set my own gui password.

Can those things be done?

Stuff like dns I do at device level as the hub3 does not allow changes.

I turn off the hub firewall and flood controls also?

 

Not being able to specify WiFi details would mean having to change every device instead which would be a chore

->cliffroamer

 thst seems wrong

 accorging to online VM help for the hitron  should work very similarly to the hub3. either as a router accessible on 192.168.0.1 or in modem mode, accessible then on 192.168.100.1

 if you put the  hitron in modem mode with your own router, you will supposedly have more customisation options , just like with terh hub3. ( have not done it myself but that is what others here say )

https://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/help-and-advice/products-and-services/hitron-router-guide/

 my google search also find a you tube how-to video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b61xW9s0LmQ

 what do the tech support guys say ? and what happens when you put  those addresses into a browser on a connected device ?

also, all your settings should stick unless you force a factory reset., and if you deliberately or accidentally do that, then the ID and password stuck on the  device should get you back in.

 The hub3 is notoriously bad at letting you connect on 192 168 0 1 when it has been busy for a while,[ as were hub1 and hub2 ]  I had hoped the hitron would not have that issue. Powercycling a hub , then trying to connect to its GUI before it gets busy again is sometimes recommended

 

 

 

 

I have been in the IT industry for 30 years and from my experience with two new Hitron routers, added to the reviews I have seen in the last few days, I can't imagine a worse router.  My hub 3 that I had for two years had its limitations, the main one was poor wifi but this was fixed by turning off the wifi and using my own wireless mesh system.  But for a large company like Virgin Business Broadband to continue suppying a modem with direct IP access issues seems incredible. The only reason that I have not tried a hard reset or factory reset, is that at the moment is that it working as I need it to.  I do not at this moment in time need to edit any settings within the modem and coupled with the fact that my main phone line is now IP dependant and we are in the Bank holiday weekend.  At the last power cycle the modem took two attempts to sync up, if I try again it may not sync at all.

I know that feeling re power cycle. I live in permanent trepidation that my hub may not recover properly from any power outage. I have even resorted to running its power cable through an inside  wall so that it is plugged in within the next room which no oneone e uses, to lessen the chances of it being unplugged accidentally, and which places it on a different ring main circuit from the other nearby rooms.

To be fair, I have not had an actual problem with it not restarting properly for ages now, the last occurrence was when workmen at the neighbours house dug up and sliced my power and it was off for hours until electric co  could come do an emergency repair. My main electric supply to my meter came from the street but under the next doors drive, about one foot deep ,and they hit it when ripping up concrete. The idiot who hit it with a pick ax was lucky to be alive

The hub 3 reboot time is awful though,. In excess of three anxious minutes when ever it goes off. And the idiots in support have you do daft things like rip out the co ax feeds or poke a pin in tthe back if you panic and call them- that pin trick factory resets it but you are not told that.

The cable modems we had ten to twenty years ago would reboot in seconds and never failed!

One for my motivations for a switch to business was to lose that fear, not amplify it.

I do hope other readers chip in with their experience of the hitron

Ps. You did not explain exactly what the connection issue is, was

Did the 192168 0 1 address fail to connect or time out, or did it reject your credentials.

One of the hub3 features is that if you try to login before it has finished a reboot it will say wrong password instead of saying wait a bit then retry. That can be panic inducing, as u can think If my password is rejected it must have done a full reset and will need the original password....

My other risk reduction plan now is that we each have mobiles on different networks, with Data plans ,so we should be able to get basic email and web queries if all the VM stuff, including the landline  is off. Also my wife has sky TV via a dish, not a cable. And if the weather man says storms with possible power cuts coming soon I will download a couple of hours of netflix to a tablet..

I think I have managed to get my Plex clients and servers to work locally without needing online authentication and help finding each other. I was shocked when that failed a while back because internet was down. I did not expect that to kill Plex via LAN. But it did. My servers are now on static IP on Nvidia shield TV boxes which are still findable without a working dns service.

It can also be a shock when your legit paid for pc games will not work because they need permission from a server somewhere to run. If internet is down the only single player games you can play are pirated ones!

 

The problem is that when using a direct Ethernet connection or wireless connection, when you type in the router address 192.168.0.1 the router does not respond. It just sits there, no log in screen, no response whatsoever. I can ping the router okay but nothing else.  My network is working fine at the moment, my problem will arise when I need to make changes.  I could call Virgin again, get another replacement router. Spend money on a different router and put the Hitron in modem mode before the access problem arises again but I shouldn’t have to.  The problem seems to be that the Hitron router is not fit for purpose.

Try from other devices and at other times. 

Hub3, and older hubs also have  same bug. They become too busy to respond.

Also, sometimes a WiFi android browser gets a reply when a windows one does not

Depending on your setup, early morning after mostly idle overnight is a good time to try

jpeg1
Alessandro Volta

If the Hitron router is as unreliable as suggested, how come business customers are able to rely on it? They are going to notice a failure much quicker than a home user, and the consequences of broadband loss are much greater.

A quicker response is all very well but even 12 hours without fast Internet is a serious matter for an SME.

- jpeg1
My name is NOT Alessandro. That's just a tag Virginmedia sticks on some contributors. Please ignore it.

cybmole
Community elder

what he actually says is that hitron works fine once setup as a router, just is hard to configure

 since the hub3 is similar i wonder if the issue is elsewhere in VM network i.e. the hub / hitron gets so busy talking to the network, they have no free  spare cycles to respond to  the GUI ?

 maybe that is not an issue for most businesses who leave it alone after the initial setup ? though surely most will want to at least name their wifi SSIDs and control their passwords ?? [ unless that is tweaked for them by the installer ]

 i could go for months now without needing to login, but only because wifi ets is how I want it to be: my choice of channels, Split SSIDs renamed, my password on 5Ghz, open on 2.4 as its too weak to reach outside of house and a hassle to set up passwords on in-house devices...