Virgin Media Community

[wordswords]

Virgin Media's currently available hub/router/modems only offer up to 1 gigabit internet access due to the hardware, and often less than that, even though their 1GIG broadband package offers 1100mbps/sec download speed on average. I actually get more like 900mbits/sec out of the current hardware, with the hub in modem mode. I don't know if this is affected by the VM network contention in my local area.

I contacted them today and asked if I could get an upgrade to VM Hub 5, which is the latest hub/router/modem and has a 2.5Gb/s network port, allowing you to access the full 1100mbps connection you are paying for.

They said 'no' as it's in closed trials, but that it was in the process of being rolled out to all 1Gb customers, so I'll get it eventually.

When that actually happens I will finally start to have a use for my expensive and complex 10Gb/sec home network equipment. At the moment everything is capped at 1Gb/sec speeds, because the VM Hub 4 port is only 1Gb/sec (silly design in my opinion). Also the hardware can't really handle anything above 900mbits/sec in practice for me, even in modem mode.

It's just annoying that they didn't roll out HUB 5 when internet speeds got above 1000mbp/s. I guess they want to give extra bandwidth to their 'free wifi' service or something.

This article explains how to use Miktrotik router's connection bonding to bond two 1Gb/sec ports on the HUB 4 to extract >1gbit/sec speeds from it:
https://tech.msh100.uk/virgin/networking/2020/10/17/virgin-media-greater-than-gbit/

I actually have a Miktrotik router that I'm using at the moment, but I don't want to go down this path as it is complicated and would also cost me quite a lot of CPU usage on my 10Gb/sec router, which is quite underpowered as it is.

I just want VM to roll out the HUB 5 as soon as possible.

[wordswords · Accepted solution]

I bit the bullet, and used my existing Miktrotik router to bond two 1gb/sec ports to enable >1gb/sec speeds as per the article above.

I am getting just above 1000mb/sec speeds now, which is great, and shows the bonding is working and my 10GB/sec network infrastructure is doing what it should. I presume that the mismatch between the expected average speed of 1100mb/sec and what I'm getting is a result of local VM network contention or other things I can't do much about.

This type of connection bonding uses the Linux kernel's balance-rr mode, which is load balancing per connection using round-robin. So for a single connection it will still cap at 1gb/sec but for multiple simultaneous connections, not just from the local machine but anywhere on the network, it will balance those out between the two network ports. That is why the graph shows multiple outgoing connections going over 1000mb/sec in aggregate bandwidth.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1657247318392829455

[Guybrush85]

For what it's worth, this is a hub 5 on a gig connection into an Asus router (2.5G port) and the speed test performed directly from the router.

Results will vary depending on the time of day and which server I use (Exa Networks seems to be pretty good most of the time).

[carl_pearce]

Watch out for the new HUB 4 firmware:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/Sub-30mbit-speed-on-Gig1/m-p/5056501

[Anonymous]

I find it embarrassing that with all of VM 1gbps boasting they still ONLY supply a measly 50-75mbps Upload speed!

I mentioned previously of B4RN who supplied 900mbps UP and down at a cost similar to virgins lower tier offerings.

Of course all this 'speed' is useless without the Customer Service to back it up

5G will be a game changer, plug it in - boom, rapid 

[carl_pearce]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I find it embarrassing that with all of VM 1gbps boasting they still ONLY supply a measly 50-75mbps Upload speed!

I mentioned previously of B4RN who supplied 900mbps UP and down at a cost similar to virgins lower tier offerings.

Of course all this 'speed' is useless without the Customer Service to back it up

5G will be a game changer, plug it in - boom, rapid 

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I find this post very confusing.

5G won't supply a great upload speed.

[wordswords]

I'm not sure about 5G I haven't really looked into it.

I am having a 900/900 fibre to the home line fitted via BRSK as soon as they roll out in my area.

My plan is to combine my VM connection and the fibre connection using load balancing with my Miktrotik router so that I can access the combined combined speeds which are faster. Although I don't think it will ever max out both connections, it will be a big improvement on aggregate then having two connections. I will also implement automatic failover.

This is an extreme setup for sure, but I do have a 10Gb/sec home network, I do work from home 100% and have a lot of personal bandwidth needs, and I am interested in getting the maximum speed possible. Although it's really more as a hobby project than a strict need at this point!