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Virgin Media Super Hub. Poor Wifi connection
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[Deleted User]
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We have a Virgin Media Super Hub and have a terrible WiFi connection. we do not know if the signal is bad or there is a fault with the Super Hub. We have telephoned Virgin Media Help line on several occasion and have always spoken to an Offshore member of staff who is not very helpful. We asked 2 questions Is there a way we can check our WiFi Connection strength or could they get an engineer in to check it is working OK. The former they said cannot b done which seems ridiculous and there was not way they could send an engineer round to check. so much for customer service. Has anyone else had the same problem with their Wifi connection. is there another solution.
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I have issues with my hub too.The sigal wasn't as good as it's meant to be in my opinion so I use it as a modem and connected my own wireless router.You could try going into your hub's set up and manually changing the channel output.I changed mine from auto to chan9 and this seemed to work better though I still use mine as a modem only.
Even VM support staff acknowledge that the superhub's wireless performance is below par. Furthermore, the recent firmware upgrade seems to have made things worse for many users, making it necessary to reboot the unit every morning or, in some cases whenever a new device tries to connect. VM has actually reduced the default speed of the hub because it performs so badly at full speed. People who have dismantled the hub report that it has inadequate antennae and is incapable of producing good wireless performance, no matter what VM try to do in the way of firmware upgrades.
No doubt VM had sound commercial reasons for trying to get all their customers on to the same equipment. It makes support much easier. Unfortunately, when specifying the superhub too many corners seem to have been cut in order to reduce costs and the result is a mess, made worse by poor offshore technical support. Don't expect VM to put it right quickly. They will muddle along with excuses and waste your time with nonsensical adjustments and replacement hubs that are no better that the one you've got.
Here's the dilemma. You can argue with VM for months, get nowhere, and meanwhile suffer unusable broadband performance or you can fork out for a decent router and use your hub in modem-only mode. As a modem, it works perfectly well. I recently bought a Netgear WNR2200. It took a few minutes to set it up and my wireless performance is now strong and stable and everything works just as it should. You should be able to get a perfectly good router for around £40-£50. It's up to you whether you make a stand on principle over a device that is clearly unfit for purpose or just pay for something that works and lets you get on with your life.
I hesitate to say this because sods law says as soon as I do I will get the problems you're reporting but...............
Prior to the latest firware release I would have called the Superhub the "veryaveragehub",
wifi performance even at short distances would only yield a slightly above average connection and I would have to reboot the hub every couple of days to ensure no dropouts.
However since the new firmware and with the correct settings for my setup I haven't experienced one dropout and I have had a rock solid 98% signal
*now keeping fingers crossed for fearing of tempting fate*
I'm sure that many users find the superhub quite adequate, particularly if it is only (wirelessly) serving a couple of PCs and is being used in a modern home whose walls are not too thick and whose dimensions are not too large. For those for whom it doesn't work, whatever the reason, VM rarely seem to produce a solution.
A ray of hope, perhaps, but I think I'll wait a while before I start holding my breath.
CLICK HERE
Since then my Macbook Air has been fine, but all the Windows 7 PCs and laptops in the house have been disconnecting and failing to reconnect. This has caused chaos as we have several Windows machines.
Just downloaded inSSIDer onto one of the Windows PCs (what an excellent tool) and noticed that the RSSI (signal strength) was dropping from around 65dBm to about 95dBm about 8 times per minute. The graph was a sawtooth. This seems to be causing the drop-outs of connectivity.
I then changed the SuperHub channel from auto to channel 13 with no change. Then changed it to channel 1 and now I am seeing a fairly constant 70-72dBm signal in inSSIDer on the Windows machine and all WIndows machines are staying connected.
Curiously throughout all this inSSIDer on the Mac was showing a constant signal at about 75dBm.
I'm not really sure what to conclude, could this be a Windows 7 issue, or a SuperHub issue? Either way it seems to have fixed my problems, so hopefully this will help others too.