Ethernet ports have different speeds and will drop speed depending on what cables you use Cat5 or above should be fine.
I'd advise against Homeplugs as most of them only have 100mbps ports.
Your network will only be as fast as it's slowest part tho so everything between the computer and the internet would have to be 1gbps
As soon as VM bring in the proposed usage caps the better as people obviously abusing the service.
There was talk of VM introducing cheaper packages with monthly usage caps, alongside the current unlimited options. This is something UPC offers in other countries.
For example in Ireland, the capped 120Mb service allows 30GB a month for €37, compared to €44 for unlimited.
Ethernet ports have different speeds and will drop speed depending on what cables you use Cat5 or above should be fine.
I'd advise against Homeplugs as most of them only have 100mbps ports.
You should still be able to get at least 50-60 Mbps in real world conditions out of them which may be enough for many uses and better than Wifi in some homes but don't expect the advertised speed.
Aahh, like now! people are having to learn about Cat6 cables.
I've been using it for 6 years I think, when some people were saying its a waste of money and to just use Cat5. The cost of it hasn't changed a lot.
Always think "future proof" to reduce the amount of issues.
Was like 3-4 years ago at my sisters house, they hadn't got a clue how the internet works. When they finally had the inet installed I told them to make sure the modem gets installed upstairs so the wifi from the router was central to the home (wow mind blowing theory for them! lol), I installed a 20 or 25m length Ca6 cable from upstairs through into the attached garage downstairs and into the living room to the PC - as I knew one day a network switch (splitter box) would end up being used there for multiple ethernet devices (smart TV, sound system, maybe a console).
And from the router upstairs, a Cat6 cable into the converted loft for the kids which splits to 2 consoles... and no doubt within a few years it'll be splitting off into additional devices.
All this while people were bigging up homeplugs.
Albeit I'm an Electrician so I naturally think ahead about these things, hiding cables etc.
You don't need above 50mpbs anyway unless you are an illegal down-loader.
I play online multiplayer games which need constant heavy updates. I haven't bought a game from a shop for several years as I always download the games now.
I also watch TV series and movies off the inet, its all streamed and I've paid the websites to be able to stream from them. I don't need Sky or Virgin TV, I don't even use Freeview.
I only download on average 70GB/month. I'd absolutely love a 1Gbps connection just so I can download games/patches even faster, my total usage wouldn't change much if any as all I'm doing is downloading the same stuff faster. I'd rather wait 5 seconds for the download than wait over a minute. You catch my drift. There's literally nothing illegal about my usage.
Albeit I'm an Electrician so I naturally think ahead about these things, hiding cables etc.
I don't recall people ever 'bigging up' Homeplugs
They are simply an easy and convenient way (if a little expensive) to make a decent network in your home, and provide more than enough speed for pretty well any sensible use.
Personally, the other year, I ran four CAT5E cables from attic to living room (floorboards up, loads of bother, so I ran four to give spare capacity) - currently one if used for two phone lines, and two more used for Networking - the fourth is disconnected at either end for future use.
I could obviously rewire one of the CAT5E cables to carry two network connections, but there's no need for that currently (or I could use the simple adaptors to do so rather than rewiring).
Albeit I'm an Electrician so I naturally think ahead about these things, hiding cables etc.
The next time I redecorate I probably will put in Ethernet cabling but for now Home Plugs provide a flexible and easy solution to provide a "good enough" network connection to parts of the house that are in Wi-fi blackspots.
In 10 years time I'm sure we'll all be on Gigabit fibre connections so unless there is a big change in wireless technologies then a proper home wired connection is going to be essential.
In 10 years time huge parts of the country still won't be able to get fibre
You may have a point about Gigabit speeds, however I should expect near 100% coverage of the width and length of the country through a mix offering of technologies (4G/Wireless/FTTX and so on).
In 10 years time huge parts of the country still won't be able to get fibre
That may well be true but I'm confident enough to predict that all of us who are currently on 152 Mbps with Virgin will be on Gigabit by then, if not sooner.
10 years ago I was probably on 1 or 2 Mbps with Virgin.
You may have a point about Gigabit speeds, however I should expect near 100% coverage of the width and length of the country through a mix offering of technologies (4G/Wireless/FTTX and so on).
I love your optimism
Huge parts of the country still have no mobile phone coverage at all, I can't see that approaching 100%, never mind 4G.
Huge parts of the country still have no mobile phone coverage at all, I can't see that approaching 100%, never mind 4G.
EE and Three are aiming for 98% population coverage for 4G by the end of 2015. So there may be remote Welsh valleys and Scottish highlands with no 4G coverage but the vast majority of the population will have coverage.
Basically as now - big cities get coverage, stuff the rest
Only 2% of the population live outside big cities? That will be news to many people.
EE 4G has this week reached 75% of the population including all the big cities. They're now focusing on villages, rural and remote areas to bring that up to 98%. Applications are appearing on council planning websites for the new 800MHz mast upgrades which will serve these areas.
There's a lot about this in the mobile forum, as it's not really connected to Virgin Media's 152Mb service..
Only 2% of the population live outside big cities? That will be news to many people.
EE 4G has this week reached 75% of the population including all the big cities. They're now focusing on villages, rural and remote areas to bring that up to 98%.
So when are they going to concentrate on providing decent 3G coverage?.
So when are they going to concentrate on providing decent 3G coverage?.
EE and Three (MBNL) are very close to 98% 3G coverage. There's a few hundred old Orange masts still transmitting 2G only which are due to be upgraded by the end of the year to fill the remaining gaps. Vodafone and O2 are further behind and seem to be jumping straight from 2G to 4G in some areas.
Are you sure that the ethernet card in your computer is running at gigabit?
If you don't know how to do that and are on windows press ctrl + shift + escape to open up task manager and look under the networking tab should be under the link speed column.
I thought you needed the SH2 to get the 152 Mbps service. That's what I was told when I upgraded.
If not then there must be another bottleneck in your setup. Are you sure that the ethernet card in your computer is running at gigabit?
No, I have a Superhub 1 (in modem mode) with a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and can get pretty much the advertised speed through ethernet, and over 130mb on wifi (50-130 on 5Hz and 30-60 on 2.4Hz, but that's down to congestion).
I had to put cat5e all the way from one side of the house to the other(taped to the floor so it looks like a mess) to take advantage of 150mbps, I tried homeplugs (gigabit ports) tho only gave me 80mbps. I need something a bit more permanent.
Sort of depressing how little people know about networking and whatnot.
Agreed
Normal Cat5 does gigabit just fine as long as all 4 pairs are connected. Personally I have cat 5e here.
its only because of my old Procurve switch and my firewall, that im still fast ethernet.
Comments
what exactly is a 1000mbps port, sorry be gentle.
I'd advise against Homeplugs as most of them only have 100mbps ports.
Your network will only be as fast as it's slowest part tho so everything between the computer and the internet would have to be 1gbps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet
There was talk of VM introducing cheaper packages with monthly usage caps, alongside the current unlimited options. This is something UPC offers in other countries.
For example in Ireland, the capped 120Mb service allows 30GB a month for €37, compared to €44 for unlimited.
Yes, be very careful with those. I have seen some cheaper Home Plugs (such as these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/) advertised as "up to 500 Mbps" when they only have 10/100 Mbps ports. How on earth is that possible?
You should still be able to get at least 50-60 Mbps in real world conditions out of them which may be enough for many uses and better than Wifi in some homes but don't expect the advertised speed.
I've been using it for 6 years I think, when some people were saying its a waste of money and to just use Cat5. The cost of it hasn't changed a lot.
Always think "future proof" to reduce the amount of issues.
Was like 3-4 years ago at my sisters house, they hadn't got a clue how the internet works. When they finally had the inet installed I told them to make sure the modem gets installed upstairs so the wifi from the router was central to the home (wow mind blowing theory for them! lol), I installed a 20 or 25m length Ca6 cable from upstairs through into the attached garage downstairs and into the living room to the PC - as I knew one day a network switch (splitter box) would end up being used there for multiple ethernet devices (smart TV, sound system, maybe a console).
And from the router upstairs, a Cat6 cable into the converted loft for the kids which splits to 2 consoles... and no doubt within a few years it'll be splitting off into additional devices.
All this while people were bigging up homeplugs.
Albeit I'm an Electrician so I naturally think ahead about these things, hiding cables etc.
I also watch TV series and movies off the inet, its all streamed and I've paid the websites to be able to stream from them. I don't need Sky or Virgin TV, I don't even use Freeview.
I only download on average 70GB/month. I'd absolutely love a 1Gbps connection just so I can download games/patches even faster, my total usage wouldn't change much if any as all I'm doing is downloading the same stuff faster. I'd rather wait 5 seconds for the download than wait over a minute. You catch my drift. There's literally nothing illegal about my usage.
I don't recall people ever 'bigging up' Homeplugs
They are simply an easy and convenient way (if a little expensive) to make a decent network in your home, and provide more than enough speed for pretty well any sensible use.
Personally, the other year, I ran four CAT5E cables from attic to living room (floorboards up, loads of bother, so I ran four to give spare capacity) - currently one if used for two phone lines, and two more used for Networking - the fourth is disconnected at either end for future use.
I could obviously rewire one of the CAT5E cables to carry two network connections, but there's no need for that currently (or I could use the simple adaptors to do so rather than rewiring).
The next time I redecorate I probably will put in Ethernet cabling but for now Home Plugs provide a flexible and easy solution to provide a "good enough" network connection to parts of the house that are in Wi-fi blackspots.
In 10 years time I'm sure we'll all be on Gigabit fibre connections so unless there is a big change in wireless technologies then a proper home wired connection is going to be essential.
Dream on
In 10 years time huge parts of the country still won't be able to get fibre
You may have a point about Gigabit speeds, however I should expect near 100% coverage of the width and length of the country through a mix offering of technologies (4G/Wireless/FTTX and so on).
That may well be true but I'm confident enough to predict that all of us who are currently on 152 Mbps with Virgin will be on Gigabit by then, if not sooner.
10 years ago I was probably on 1 or 2 Mbps with Virgin.
I love your optimism
Huge parts of the country still have no mobile phone coverage at all, I can't see that approaching 100%, never mind 4G.
EE and Three are aiming for 98% population coverage for 4G by the end of 2015. So there may be remote Welsh valleys and Scottish highlands with no 4G coverage but the vast majority of the population will have coverage.
Completely different to what we're talking about
Basically as now - big cities get coverage, stuff the rest
Only 2% of the population live outside big cities? That will be news to many people.
EE 4G has this week reached 75% of the population including all the big cities. They're now focusing on villages, rural and remote areas to bring that up to 98%. Applications are appearing on council planning websites for the new 800MHz mast upgrades which will serve these areas.
There's a lot about this in the mobile forum, as it's not really connected to Virgin Media's 152Mb service..
Yes they are.
There's nothing wrong with the Superhub 1 as a wired routed, it's as wireless one where it has problems. The Wifi on the second model is much better.
So when are they going to concentrate on providing decent 3G coverage?.
Ethernet increased it to 84, so better but still nowhere near 152.
EE and Three (MBNL) are very close to 98% 3G coverage. There's a few hundred old Orange masts still transmitting 2G only which are due to be upgraded by the end of the year to fill the remaining gaps. Vodafone and O2 are further behind and seem to be jumping straight from 2G to 4G in some areas.
Sorry to others for the off topic posts
I thought you needed the SH2 to get the 152 Mbps service. That's what I was told when I upgraded.
If not then there must be another bottleneck in your setup. Are you sure that the ethernet card in your computer is running at gigabit?
If you don't know how to do that and are on windows press ctrl + shift + escape to open up task manager and look under the networking tab should be under the link speed column.
No, I have a Superhub 1 (in modem mode) with a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and can get pretty much the advertised speed through ethernet, and over 130mb on wifi (50-130 on 5Hz and 30-60 on 2.4Hz, but that's down to congestion).
Agreed
Normal Cat5 does gigabit just fine as long as all 4 pairs are connected. Personally I have cat 5e here.
its only because of my old Procurve switch and my firewall, that im still fast ethernet.
hoping to replace that soon