News - Virgin Media continues 100Mbit broadband rollout

[alsenior]

yup

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/tra...nt-policy.html

it it does someone forgot to tell my connection i've downloaded 3TB this month and so far no sign of slowdown

[oddjob]

is anybody in the Ashford area as VM are currently using that area to do trials on the 200mbit line and wondered if they could post some speeds

[phill8800GT]

it it does someone forgot to tell my connection i've downloaded 3TB this month and so far no sign of slowdown

What the heck do you download??

200Mbit?? Jesus.... Us poor people in the South West have to put up with crappy ASDL and slow ass speeds at that Its really not fair!!
I think I'm either gonna have to move or change my ISP if I'm meant to be getting more...

[Unique]

it it does someone forgot to tell my connection i've downloaded 3TB this month and so far no sign of slowdown

the traffic management for all sizes on virgin is they throttle certain ports mainly used for p2p and nttp, but there are various ways of bypassing this

apart from that they have a little publicised fair use policy limit of 350gb within a 28 day period between 9am and 9pm. they don't measure traffic outwith those times. so you could easily download 3tb in those offpeak hours

virgin seem to look upon the speed increases as letting you do things faster rather than letting you download more bluray rips, thus whilst they should expect customers to increase bandwidth they generally expect people to use a similar amount but not taking as long to do so

you could download over 5.5tb in a 28 day period in those offpeak 12 hours alone on the 100mb service, so if you are only downloading 3tb you are just wasting your connection

[wombar]

Downside is that you'd have to have one of these "SuperHub's" - which I've found to be the least reliable bit of network hardware I've ever seen. And judging by the vitriol being hurled on the VM forums, I'm not alone in being less than impressed.

+1

I got through two of the new superhubs before I started badgering them for a stand alone modem. Sites would randomly stop working, usually ones I needed for work. This was just after a new firmware release so I suspect they've broken it. There's little love for it on the forums, so I'd steer clear until they stop fiddling with the firmware.

Bought my own router to go with the standalone modem and I've had no issues since.

[Dareos]

Traffic Shaping and Traffic Management are 2 different things remember, p2p will be shaped, regardless, as it chokes up the network like nothing else.

Traffic management is in place to keep high utilisation areas flowing freely at peak times, its not perfect but it does do a job.

Anyways, 50 and 100 meg packages are not traffic managed, therefore you can download as much as you like with no restriction in bandwidth, however Traffic Shaping is in place to make sure that p2p etc does not drain all resources on the network

[Sim0n]

+1

I got through two of the new superhubs before I started badgering them for a stand alone modem. Sites would randomly stop working, usually ones I needed for work. This was just after a new firmware release so I suspect they've broken it. There's little love for it on the forums, so I'd steer clear until they stop fiddling with the firmware.

Bought my own router to go with the standalone modem and I've had no issues since.

Wombar, What model modem did you end up with, as i was told in no uncertain terms that a modem was NOT possible. Seeing as i have a fairly feature rich, and expensive cisco router, i'd certainly like to put that back in.

I tried putting it into the superhub but the speeds werent as impressive

[crossy]

+1

I got through two of the new superhubs before I started badgering them for a stand alone modem. Sites would randomly stop working, usually ones I needed for work. This was just after a new firmware release so I suspect they've broken it. There's little love for it on the forums, so I'd steer clear until they stop fiddling with the firmware.

Bought my own router to go with the standalone modem and I've had no issues since.

What! Those folks told me that I needed that damned thing to get the 30Mb/s service. The signal lights are far too bright (and not that useful) and I still can't believe the number of operations that require a reboot - like adding a DHCP assignment ffs!

And as for the "reliability" - it's really bl**dy annoying to be VPN'd into the office, in the middle of a terminal session, only to have the SH decide that it doesn't want to play anymore and needs a reboot.

If I thought there was an option for something else then I'd be on it like a shot. So any tips would be gratefully received.

[wombar]

Wombar, What model modem did you end up with, as i was told in no uncertain terms that a modem was NOT possible. Seeing as i have a fairly feature rich, and expensive cisco router, i'd certainly like to put that back in.

I tried putting it into the superhub but the speeds werent as impressive

What! Those folks told me that I needed that damned thing to get the 30Mb/s service. The signal lights are far too bright (and not that useful) and I still can't believe the number of operations that require a reboot - like adding a DHCP assignment ffs!

And as for the "reliability" - it's really bl**dy annoying to be VPN'd into the office, in the middle of a terminal session, only to have the SH decide that it doesn't want to play anymore and needs a reboot.

If I thought there was an option for something else then I'd be on it like a shot. So any tips would be gratefully received.

I'll start off saying that I'm "only" on 10Mb (does everything I need it to do though). I believe the standalone modems are meant to support up to 50Mb but you'd be better off posting on the VM community forums to get a definite answer on that. Either way, I'd rather stay on 10Mb than have to go back to a SuperDud. It's an Ambit I think.

The only way to get a modem out of VM is to wear them down I spent about 4 hours on the phone with them on and off over a morning/afternoon. Keep pestering, keep calling but always be polite. Eventually you'll get through to one of the on shore (i.e. not Indian) call centres, and you need to get through to the more technical support team. They'll generally have some clue what you're talking about when you start talking about traceroutes etc. Not sure how much luck you'll have unless you have a specific problem with the SuperDud though. I had the "bonus" that my SuperDud wouldn't ping some sites and they could see that from their end.

Just keep asking for a standalone modem at every opportunity. I've got Linksys router and except for a nationwide issue a few weeks ago, I've had zero problems since I got my modem. I suspect the SuperDud doesn't play well with anyone who's trying to do anything moderately technical like VPN, SSH or FTP.

They reckon the next firmware "should" give you bridge mode, but the release date has been pushed back a few times already. If it's causing you issues with work, I'd pester them for a modem and buy your own router (as they wouldn't give me a router which was fine by me). They're going to have to wrench the standalone modem out of my cold dead hands

[Dareos]

Virgin no longer supply standalone modems for 30/50/100 meg services, only the superhub. The previous modem that supplied these services (Ambit 300) is discontinued and there is no longer an option for agents to send one out.

Techs are also instructed to remove these modems when installing an upgraded service (dont let them )

[Unique]

What! Those folks told me that I needed that damned thing to get the 30Mb/s service. The signal lights are far too bright (and not that useful) and I still can't believe the number of operations that require a reboot - like adding a DHCP assignment ffs!

And as for the "reliability" - it's really bl**dy annoying to be VPN'd into the office, in the middle of a terminal session, only to have the SH decide that it doesn't want to play anymore and needs a reboot.

If I thought there was an option for something else then I'd be on it like a shot. So any tips would be gratefully received.

stick a bit of electrical tape over the lights as i've done and they don't fill the room with blinding light

turn off port flooding and firewall options too

i've had no problems with the hub myself, apart from the wifi signal is extremely weak and i can barely get a signal in the other room, but i use homeplugs so it's not a big problem

[crossy]

I'll start off saying that I'm "only" on 10Mb (does everything I need it to do though). I believe the standalone modems are meant to support up to 50Mb but you'd be better off posting on the VM community forums to get a definite answer on that. Either way, I'd rather stay on 10Mb than have to go back to a SuperDud. It's an Ambit I think.

They reckon the next firmware "should" give you bridge mode, but the release date has been pushed back a few times already. If it's causing you issues with work, I'd pester them for a modem and buy your own router (as they wouldn't give me a router which was fine by me). They're going to have to wrench the standalone modem out of my cold dead hands

Darn, I wanted to treat myself to some faster speed - pride comes before as fall - as the cliché says. Thanks for the info though.

I've still got the old (Motorola SurfBoard) so I'm now wondering if I could plug it in and see whether is still works (thought that the 30Mb was on DOCSIS3, so that'll be "no"). I even tried using my old cheapo Netgear router and demoted the SH to merely cable router, but that combination was unreliable too.

Looks like I'm stuck with the StupidHub for a while then...

[Betty_Swallocks]

My Superhub give me a good strong wireless signal although it does seem a lot more prone to dropping the connection than the old modem I had.

[pipTheGeek]

I'm looking forward to VM rolling out 100meg in Norwich. I do hope that they have added the option on the SH to use it only as a modem, otherwise I dont think I'll bother.

What is annoying is how few areas round here are cabled. Norwich is cabled, anything outside and your out of luck. At some point I'd like to buy a house, gonna be kinda limited where I can move to. A friend moved to just outside Norwich and is now stuck with 3meg Sky broadband, I enjoy poking fun at him though.

[Dareos]

Pip, there is no reason that you cannot use your Ambit modem on 100 meg, just don't give it to the engineer. Everyone I have spoken to at the 100 meg tech team state that you can use the Ambit 300.

[pipTheGeek]

Yeah, I've seen the same on the VM forum. Not an issue yet, sadly. Not sure I want to give VM more money and hope the engineer doesn't take the old modem and hope I don't have any problems with it and hope it doesn't fail next week etc. If their supported hardware is no good then I won't take their service.