Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I thought the 'old' 100 Mb connection (when it was first introduced) had a 10 Mb upload speed, so did it/does it only have 5 Mb? Same as the 50 Mb connection?

Our area is due for upgrades between April and July so I called up last week to see what would happen to my package if I'd asked for an upgrade from 50 Mb to 100 Mb now and maybe have the V+ box swapped for the Tivo. The nice lady said I would save about £6 a month, I could keep a free V box for another room and I would not have to pay the installation fee. So we had it all done today, including a new TV socket in my son's room for the V box. I haven't had time to check the speeds properly yet but the upload is definitely still 5 Mb, as it was. I have ordered a cat6 cable to see if it's going to make much difference; hopefully, it will be here tomorrow. What is the maximum speed I can get on a cat5 cable? Not sure if the make matters but I always buy Belkin cables.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

There are two different 100Mbit tiers.

'100' was the one that was introduced as part of the 100Mbit rollout. This was sold up till the beginning of March for existing customers and cost more than XXL 50. This has a 10Mbit upload

From that point onwards existing customers wanting 100Mbit as an upgrade or part of a Collection get XXL 100. This has a 5Mbit upload as it's XXL with the downstream doubled from 50 to 100Mbit

The reason for this is I would expect is to help manage upstream capacity in each area

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Cat5 cables can do 100Mbit, most can do 1000Mbit. Cat5e cables can do 1000Mbit.

Cat6 cables can do 10000Mbit.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

cat5 sucks. 5e should be minimum for high tier broadband speeds.

cat5 should be associated with ADSL.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

So pray tell us why CAT5 sucks? Within 100m it'll still do gigabit..

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

smoothly? theres better cables/standards to aid high speeds

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

it might do it but it isnt supposed to. I am sure cat5 is rated for 100mbit and cate for 1gbit. The way things are going these days with gigabit NICs and gigabit switches it makes sense to use ensure all your hardware operating at the physcial layer is rated for the same speed to avoid any problems.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I know you aren't supposed to rely on Wikipedia but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000BASE-T#1000BASE-T

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

along with that old link you posted not long supporting cat5 Ben ;)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Thank you for the explanation, Ben, it makes sense now.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

does any one know if the 120mb will be unlimited like the 100mb is now

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

This should answer your question i hope. :)

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/ST...ove_800pxA.jpg

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/s...MER_TYPE=Cable

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

it only shows the 100mb stm

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Out of interest, what upload speed would a new customer get if they took the 100 meg broadband or a collection package with 100 meg?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

:rofl: it is absolutely definitely 100% not going to unlimited because they are banging all the 50mbit users up to 100mbit with the rest of us, then all of use are going up to 120mbit. 100mbit isn't unlimited atm. It was stm free a couple of weeks ago and on 2nd April they introduced a new stm policy for all tiers. Not only is stm going to remain in place, it wouldn't surprise me if we got screwed over and they continued to use the current limits and not increase them proportionally.



afaik because the prices have come down now, everyone is being put onto 100/5 until the upgrades have been completed

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Cat5 is designed to handle 100m of gigabit and cat5e 320m so I don't understand this fallacy that it "sucks"

In fact there's very little difference between the cable itself and the only reason as to why cat5e is supplied these days is that it's been superseded in manufacturing by cat5e with all of the factories only making the higher spec..

I wonder how few vm customers actually need the 100m to 320m capability of Cat5e??? and how many people would actually realize if you swapped all of their cat5e for cat5 :rofl:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I'm still on 100/10

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Would make sense.

Some suspect they are being capped at 2.7 up while their area is having the upgrade work completed aswell :eeek:




Cheers

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

not sure why you keep saying gigabit.. it would suck on cat5.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Why would it when Cat5 is capable of doing it up to 100m?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

your findings are from where?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

In addition to the Wikipedia info I posted earlier:

http://www.10gea.org/1000base-t/#BAS...GORY_5_CABLING

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

:nono: dated 1999

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

As the standard for Gigabit networking was designed for 1000BASE-T to run over Cat5 cabling, I would believe that it can

Anyway, just because an article is old doesn't mean it's wrong.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

The standard for GigE over copper, 802.3ab, was ratified in 1999, doesn't make it any less pertinent just because it's 13 years old.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

too old for my liking

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I'm running a GigE network over Cat5 at home, gigabit switch to both computers, I get ~700Mbit throughput between a laptop and a desktop, it'll do. ;)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Sure about this? All standards indicate a maximum segment length of 100m, absolute maximum, before active repeating is required?

See TIA/EIA 568-5-A - the Cat5e cable standard. It mandates 100m max segment length regardless of the speed you're running at due to timing issues to allow the CS part of CSMA/CD to work. Signals can't propogate down wire quickly enough to avoid it breaking without something active breaking the electrical domain.

---------- Post added at 13:40 ---------- Previous post was at 13:39 ----------

Best get off this website and indeed the Internet then, TCP/IP which you use to reach the server it lives on and HTTP which it's using to deliver the web pages via all pre-date 1999 quite considerably.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

could be better :D

:shocked:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Well until I get an enterprise class NAS it'll do... My hard drives won't do anywhere near 1Gbit, and I'm only on Virgin XL BB.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

cat5 can probably do gigabit but I wouldnt deliberatly buy it as cat6 is out there on the market for around the same cost anyway.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I've actually seen various things over the years that state Cat5 is only really reliable with Gige at 10m lengths. Cheap Cat5 was pretty common too and was utter pants, back in the days when speeds over 100mbps were still theoretical or reserved for large corporations consumer stuff was never really manufactured to a decent standard.

There shouldn't be much cheap Cat5 left though, 5e replaced it long ago and as others have said Cat 6 is standard now.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I run a short run of cat 5 between my home server to my router then cat 6 to my pc, 110MB/s all day every day.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

You are right maximum length without a repeater is 100m. Usually 90m max length for the horrizontal cable allowing for a 5m patch cable either end.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Barnsley has been done then. Not sure when:confused:But I thought that you were meant to get the Superhub?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Yep you're quite correct Carl, for some reason my old training documentation has cat5 in meters and cat5e in ft :doh:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Okay. That's not confusing at all :p:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I thought as much going by the 320m, I suspected it referred to 328 feet, or 100m in new money :)

---------- Post added at 10:44 ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 ----------

Given she was quoting me it's not a huge leap of imagination to deduce she was referring to me, I think my name is well known to site regulars and indeed I invite people to refer to me as Carl.

People can even call me Carl Thomas if so inclined, and Facebook stalk / LinkedIn stalk me until their eyes bleed. :)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Of course she was :)

I was not aware of it. I am now.

It was merely a off-hand comment.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Just to pull this thread back on topic before there's the upstream upgrade in most areas you'll be seeing a firmware upgrade to your Superhub / VMNG300.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

wow here we... will it be in the upcoming firmware upgrade for the SH or is that a wifi upgrade only? if its wifi only do you reckon the buffer issue raised (see my sig) will be looked at and improved when the upgrade to aid upsteam is pushed?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Errrr, who said there wouldnt be anymore firmware updates for the vmng300 because VM don't want it used anymore (*cough* Ben)

If they can have firmware written for upstream (whatever it is for) it shows there are still enough customers who are using the vmng300 to warrant it (previous statements have been made saying it isnt worth the money).

Now that they have proven they can still get firmware written for it, I would be well impressed if they get can update to allow 8 channels. If they do that I'll forgive them for the turmoil I had to go through during my 100mbit upgrade.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

When did I say that?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I dont know but I thought I would blame you for it :D

Seriously though, it was either you, Masque or Nopanic, I can't remember which one though. It was probably Masque because I can remember the speach about the shub and how that is all VM are interested in and the vmgn300 is end of line bla bla bla and they arent interested in supporting it and if anything goes wrong it will be replaced with the shub etc etc.

I am honestly well chuffed that they have gone to the effort of having new firmware written though to fix whatever is wrong with the upstream. It shows they are happy with us keeping the vmng300 for a while because they could easly have said screw you, you need a shub to get it to work if previous comments made in the past were anything to go by.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I would not hold your breath until you actually see a different firmware in your VMNG300 as I would trust them as far as I could throw Necker Island.;)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

But do you not trust Ignition?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Welllll, for reference this is what I am on atm so lets see what happens

Boot Code Version : 6.1.1c
Software Version : 3.11.1201
Hardware Version : 1.39.0


implicitly

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Im on the same apart from the Hardware version which is 1.48.0

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

This is mine -

Boot Code Version : 6.1.1f
Software Version : 3.11.1201
Hardware Version : 1.39.0

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I'm also hoping the next firmware update (which evidently has been "coming soon" for a long time now) fixes the issues with packet scheduling, it's a known fact that with the superhub ping and jitter is higher than the VMNG300 due to this issue.

I'd also like to see a fix for the FTP/VPN time out issues that the superhub is causing, it times these connections out after 30 seconds of inactivity. This is a right pain for us people that use FTP connections for working on websites, having to reconnect many times until the job is done. Using the superhub in modem mode and using your own router doesn't fix this either. Whoever let this happen is a right wally :rofl:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I do not trust the company to bring out a firmware for a device they would love to see gone off the platform, they would replace every single VMNG300 out there in a flash if they could just to hide their red faces.

Both the VMNG300 and the Superhub were costly mistakes that they will never own up to, they are more likely to bring out a replacement rather than admit to that.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Same here 1.48.0

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Rubbish

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

hmm.

it could also be to bump up the vmng300's US buffering after a few of us told VM it was lower than the superhub's. I hope not as then jitter will increase.

Funny news tho after masque said the vmng300 was dead and buried.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Dont give them ideas. :(

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Not at all they made a mistake with that device and a bigger one with the Superhub by not buying either device off the shelf, if you want quality you do not buy something with a mixed heritage ( I think you can guess my real sentiment here ).

Both devices are inherently rubbish due to some fool/s trying to cut corners and trying to buy equipment that had aesthetically pleasing looks, they spoke about the next device possibly having external antenna if it did not spoil the looks of the device and this information can be found if you look for it on the intranet.

I used to peruse the documentation on the intranet surrounding both devices before I left and the is much on there which is fascinating to read as the people in charge are so far up themselves they believe external antenna will displease people.

So before posting that it is rubbish maybe try reading it yourself but the confidentiality agreement will prevent you from posting about it with it being business sensitive information.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

well the vmng300 doesnt need an antennae as its wired only.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I think I am going to have a heart attach, Peter is dissing the shub :rofl:



omg, Ben is disagreeing with Peter. What is the world coming to :shocked:



that has got nothing to go with it at all. My Linksys router has got internal antennae and it kicks ass. The problem is the whole ethos around cost and not caring about quality, especially when they are/were forcing you to use it without any other option (pre-modem mode). Even if the shub has external antennae, there have been tonnes of other problems seperate from wireless which should not have existed in the first place and took them donkeys to fix.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Well it sounds like you don't like Negtgear. Yet I have used exclusively Netgear stuff for years (mainly their cable router) and never had a single problem with any of it. And I'm not having any problems with the Hub either. But I guess that's because I'm only on 10meg, right? (Or some such other excuse.)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Upstream bonding compatible firmware is already present on other cable networks.

The modem the VMNG300 is a rebranded and recased version of is deployed on a number of networks including the largest cable company in the world, there's no reports of massive amounts of issues, unlike the Superhub which Comhem users of its unbranded version, the Netgear CG3100D, report as being garbage as well and have many of the same issues with it in router mode.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

No excuses. Like many other members have stated in the past, the shub works perfectly fine for them but the fact remains there is an unacceptable % of faults/errors with the shub which affect far too many users. If it was a piece of equipment that you had to buy from a store it would have been recalled or discontinued ages ago because nobody would be buying it.

With reference to your 10mbit, problems with the shub become more apparent when it is put under load so you are sort of right; 10mbit doesnt tax it. It is when you get to higher speeds (like a user reporting last week that on 50mbit he had no probs but when he upgraded to 100mbit it died), put large amounts of data through the switch or start connecting multiple devices and get it to do some work that it falls apart. And yes again, I know there are some users (e.g one of the mods) who will say they have got a tonne of stuff connected to it and dont have any probs. It shouldn't be a cross your fingers and hope it works scenario though, it should just work and that is it.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

It does its job adequately but not as good as an off the shelf piece of kit, I get almost 32Mb from mine wired.







You have seen the screenshots of the 2 quite small antenna fitted at the back of the device unlike your Linksys or many other devices with multiple antenna around the casing.

---------- Post added at 09:36 ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 ----------

VMNG300 without 8 downstreams and the Superhub with mini antenna inside at the back makes for relatively poor equipment and any firmware upgrade is going to be years to late for either device.

You buy the incorrect kit for your flagship devices and it kicks you in the face, even the first planned replacement by Hauwei failed in testing now another version is in the planning ad testing stages but it may or may not have external antenna because they are worried about it not looking pretty, that was on the intranet.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

The specific firmware update is for upstream bonding.

VMNG in common with nearly all devices at that time ran off a 4 downstream chipset, people run fine on >100Mb services on 4 DOCSIS downstreams, VMNG300 being on only 4 downstreams isn't a show stopper for 120Mb, the lack of upstream bonding is.

The Superhub is a disaster however it is receiving new firmware steadily so unsure what your point is there.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Actually, I meant to come back to delete my post as I realised I have the VMDG280 which is not one of the ones mentioned. (Yes, I know I sometimes jump in a bit quick!)

How would anyone know for sure unless you have asked every VM customer? (and there aren't any official figures!)

Posts on forums aren't necessarily an indication of any actual underlying problems.

This forum has 83,169. Even if everyone on it posted that they were having issues with the shub, what's that as a %age of VM's total BB customer base? Don't forget about negativity bias too. No-one joins a forum to post that they're entirely happy and not having any issues at all. (No, not even me ;):D)

I am not denying that there are any problems; just wondering how you can substantiate your claim.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Anyway aside from Mr Waring's need to pick arguments with all and sundry back to the topic in hand. I believe the Superhub discussion has been done to death and VM themselves have acknowledged substantial issues and fixed some through firmware updates.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

It was a mistake and should never have been bought especially as they trialled off the shelf kit from Motorola and Cisco without any issues but decided to go with the one with the poor antenna, a committee built device voted as being the best option.

They should have just stuck with supplying modems and let the customer supply their own wireless but decided to copy BT.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Fine, but what does this have to do with your claim that it's unlikely there'll be upcoming firmware updates to enable upstream bonding?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I never mentioned upstream bonding at all.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

*Sigh*

No but you poured cold water on the idea of the VMNG 300 getting another firmware update as VM want to kill it apparently, this would include one to enable upstream bonding.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

While they were there they could have sorted out 8 ds channels and then everything would be done and dusted

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Does it stop it and the Superhub being a urine poor example of how to provide equipment to its customers, if not why are they now testing a third version.

Nothing to sigh about providing poor equipment is it.:rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Ignition any news if the channel bonding is been done with new US channels or just existing ones?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Why not? Nothing wrong with continually looking to improve the kit that is supplied as part of the broadband service - and no that's not an invitation for yet another comment about the current SuperHub

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

The chip only supports 4 so its not going to get 4. At least that's what the hardware specsheets for that modem say. The original claim from VM years ago during the trials was probably make believe.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

is Netgear making it and is it going to be another combi modem/router? I assume the vmng300 was version 1 of what you were referring to and the the shub was v2 (talking about isp branded cpe i assume)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

He was talking about that there was going to be another version of this SuperHub model, but made by someone else

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

how awesome would it be if they came out with a v3, it kicked ass performance wise and there wasnt a single problem with it and we found out it was made by Cisco :)

I know it isnt going to happen but I suppose all we can do it hope that they have learnt from their mistakes and are getting something decent made which will be tested properly and have modem mode on initial release.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

yeah I know, we can all dream though

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

No.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I do really hope your dream comes true - for all of us ;)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

They binned the 2nd version by Huawei and are in negotiations for a 3rd version from another supplier which may or may not have external antenna's.

Now if they go with internal antenna's lets hope they install more than 2 and not just at the back of the device.:erm:

If they now went with a mainstream supplier such as Cisco or Motorola it would show that they made a mistake so unlikely to happen as they want corporate branding even if the internals are inferior.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

why?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

See my signature.

---------- Post added at 20:10 ---------- Previous post was at 20:09 ----------

Cisco do not make any consumer CPE kit.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Oh well, Linksys then. I thought he meant it just wouldnt be awesome if Cisco made it.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Cisco make quite a few consumer modems which a quick google can find for just about anyone link HERE

The last model Virgin Media had was the EPC2100

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/04/24.jpg you can see the brand name above.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

A quick google will find for anyone what the term CPE means:

You can see a standalone modem is none of the above.

In addition the above modem was made by Scientific Atlanta, not Cisco. Cisco terminated the above product and all related products as soon as they bought Scientific Atlanta.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Guess what I have found:

http://www.cisco.com/web/consumer/su...em_DPR362.html

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

thats my old modem I had before upgrading to 30meg.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Guess what I have found:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/coll...c51-663742.pdf

Also end of life, i.e. discontinued since 2005.

So again, Cisco don't make consumer CPE kit. Truth of the matter is, Netgear are one of the few players who do produce an all-in-one cable modem, router, and wireless device, and Huawei, another big player in the market already supply VM's biggest competitor.

It's as much about marketing and brand alignment as anything, bigger numbers (i.e. "MOAR SPEEED!!!11oneoneone") and well-recognized brands sell product and Netgear is undeniably one of the best known residential gateway providers out there.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

So who makes the VM TiVo and V-HD box?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

My Virgin Media says that i am up and running on the new speed, however i am still on 30mbit even after a modem reboot, is there sometimes a delay in getting the config as i don't want to ring them up and will wait a few days? :)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

There's been a lot of people stating the same, seems to be that the MY.VM site is linked to some hardware update but the config update isn't enabled..

Personally I don;t have the "up and running" indication but I'm supposed to be on the March/April upgrades :rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I have had a message saying that my area had been upgraded and it won 't be long before i will be on double speed so it is only today that message has changed, so hopefully i will get a modem reboot and new config in the coming days.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I've had this message for about 3 weeks now. Still not upgraded. I'm on a VMNG300 by the way, and I wondered if it's just superhub people that had been upgraded so far.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Yes that is what i have had for the last 2 weeks, but then it changed today to this.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Have you a Superhub?