Re: Vmng300
 

Ben i see that even the best hardware needs firmware updates but what was a daft move on virgins part was not to offer a fallback until the problems were ironed out instead people are pulling their hair out in frustration, downgrading or even leaving which is costing virgin money.

Re: Vmng300
 

According to the post on here the CEOs office sends out VMNGs, sounds like a fall back to me :D

Re: Vmng300
 

im sure they will have run out by now

Re: Vmng300
 

Why would you reuse old kit when you are actively replacing it, if you used that mentality then we would not be replacing NTL100/120, DPX100/100, SB3100/4100 modems but reusing them as they will still work on the network.

You replace outmoded kit with the latest kit which is exactly what Virginmedia has done and this is a corporate choice and a few people on a forum saying otherwise is never going to change that.

---------- Post added at 14:08 ---------- Previous post was at 14:07 ----------

Which is exactly the post you answered as I did not say bin but recycling bin.

Re: Vmng300
 

Neither. I'd buy one of these or one of these for about a ton :)

Re: Vmng300
 

and according to ur VM collegues they will shortly run out hardly a fallback plan is it?

Re: Vmng300
 

im not staff, but im pretty sure they have either run out or are very low on stock

Re: Vmng300
 

any idea as to why VM dont allow own kit to be bought yet so many of the US Cable Companies do?

---------- Post added at 14:32 ---------- Previous post was at 14:31 ----------

exactly so its hardly a fallback plan is it?

Re: Vmng300
 

it isnt a fallback plan anyway, its a temporary fix until they sort out the firmware and their other vendor

nopanic needs to get back to his web design, networks isnt his strong point :D

Re: Vmng300
 

They are or at least were required to allow it by law. Virtually everywhere else customers use operator provided equipment.

Re: Vmng300
 

Because the kit Virginmedia supply is supported by them and any 3rd party equipment would not be, and hence we would have nice short calls as all faults could be attributed to your own modem.:D

It never has been a fallback plan, and personally it should never have been allowed to happen as it generates unwarranted calls for a device that is no longer supplied.

Re: Vmng300
 

but VM restrict usage of modems to their own, and within using their own hardware, your only allowed to have 1 modem activated at any 1 given time.

so if the law states that your allowed to use your own modem, are we going to see people sue VM to allow the use of whatever modem they want, like ADSL, where you can use whatever you want, just put in the username and password for your account to connect?

i cant see it

Re: Vmng300
 

I think you will find that he means in the US not here, but as I said above if you were using your own modem how would we know that it was working correctly so all we would then do is blame your kit.;)

Re: Vmng300
 

Virgin do that anyway so wouldnt make much of a difference really would it?

Re: Vmng300
 

and if you get through to offshore, they say that a modem fault is a problem with "your kit" and put the phone down

Re: Vmng300
 

Perhaps it's just your winning way?;)

Re: Vmng300
 

He meant US law requires it, not UK law

Re: Vmng300
 

Why would we blame our modem.;)

Re: Vmng300
 

You missed the point, I wouldnt be replacing it in the first place. If I made the decision here is what I would have done.

First roll out the superhub as an optional device for new customers and on new upgrades, initially free to promote it and get a userbase. The vmng300 would still be default.
Second after a period of time to see if stable enough eg. 6 months I would then promote the superhub to the default device for new customers but keep the vmng300 as an option for those who dont want the superhub. If support costs are truly lower with the superhub then I would give an incentive to people to choose it eg. make it free with the vmng300 chargeable.

This would serve many purposes.

1 - dont upset customers who dont want a superhub so customer satisfaction, lower churn etc.
2 - reduce costs of kit rollout as less people to give superhubs to and not throwing away old working equipment that still has life in it. It is also the dir615s tho which become a wasted investment as well as the vmng300s if blindly upgrade everyone.
3 - if a tier such as 100mbit has to have the vmng300 due to 8 channel issue I would do one of the following.
(a) keep it optional until upgrade day and then send out superhub in post to those affected.
(b) allow the vmng300s to work in 4 channels and tell customer they may have a degraded service as a result but its their choice if wish to keep the device.
(c) keep it optional for lower tiers.

You using the word obselete but remember its only considered obselete because VM said so, technically its not obselete yet. I am using it right now and its better than the superhub on my service.

Re: Vmng300
 

Your plan sounds daft.

The reason VM brought out the superhub was to make things simpler. One bit of kit for most service levels. Makes it cheaper and easier to keep control of them.

Re: Vmng300
 

It will if it works correctly across the whole network, not just some UBRs.

Because customers want what works now, not what might work correctly 100% after a half dozen more botched firmware updates. The Ambit modems are quality products, simple and do the job well. Ambit 250 (well, the nearest neighbour 256) modem is still on the inventory; I know because I was offered a like-for-like swap when speaking to an offshore trying to get the Ambit 300.

Just because something is old, doesn't mean you throw it away, especially if it still has a use. Plenty of people still getting good performance from their older technology, me being one of them (I have a 20-year-old Phillips CM8833-II that I use as a kitchen monitor for one of my media centres for example).

In the case of my VMNG300, even if the bridge mode on the Super Hub is perfect it still draws more power than the standalone modem to do the same job. Assuming VM are going to stick with four downstreams for services of 100Mb or below and that the flagship tier isn't even available in my region yet, this makes it the best piece of kit for the job.

Hardly. The ones insistent enough to go through to the CEO's office probably know enough about these things that they don't need support. And even if they do, the VMNG300 is even simpler than the Ambit 250/255/256. The web GUI doesn't even have a password, for example! Five lights, three connectors on the back, absolute childs play to install. And as I've said before, far quicker to connect and have removed from the walled garden than the Super Hub was.

I personally like the idea of using your own modem; if you're talking about a way to get support staff costs down, that's got to be one. You sign a disclaimer that you're using third-party CPEs you supplied and the impetus is on you to make sure it's compliant with VM's infrastructure. Not that I'm worried about that with a flawless modem, but the option to do so in the future would no doubt help VM stay on top.

Another thought was, extend customer beta testing extensively. Perhaps give a customer one month free service (for example) as they test the new CPEs and maybe not just for broadband, making sure that this free offer is only valid if the beta kit is continuously connected so can receive patches etc, and customers don't complain about outages but report them directly to VM, either via email or if the problem is network based then over the phone. I, for one, would love to do something like that.

Re: Vmng300
 

Personally I dont think they been thrown away as that is a very silly thing to do, I still think as I was told that they will be gathered up to take to the CEO office for allocation to customers that complain.

Re: Vmng300
 

it would be pretty cool if you could buy your own modem though

Re: Vmng300
 

They won't be thrown out, it's like when the stop error on a faulty batch of samsungs appeared, they had sa boxes ready to be refurbed

Re: Vmng300
 

Not really the same thing. Samsung and SA V+HD boxes are in the supply chain at the same time and are interchangeable.

The Hubs are only CPE being issued going forward (excluding like for like swaps) same as the V HD box has been the only non-PVR box installed since last year (again excluding like for like swaps).

Re: Vmng300
 

how many techs pay a house call and all they do is change the modem\hub when theres nothing wrong and its usually either network or cab fault which they cant be assed to check.

So yes u wanna ask that again seriously?

Re: Vmng300
 

Agreed .. that would be cool .. but difficult to support :D

Re: Vmng300
 

not really, it would be a fairly big job to remove the current control system, but it could probably be adapted to support a username and password, which most routers have the option to do... a quick firmware update (or 4) would allow the superhub to use the username and password option. it would work the same as adsl, the link is negotiated, but no traffic allowed until the modem has done a handshake with the CMTS

Re: Vmng300
 

Cant be assed to check? So how do we go about checking the cab or network fault? What tools do we use and what are we looking for mr expert?

Re: Vmng300
 

It is not going to return so this thread is pretty pointless as it is just purely about a modem that is no longer being manufactured and has been superseded by the Superhub.

---------- Post added at 19:44 ---------- Previous post was at 19:43 ----------

See above, the Superhub is the future and once R27 arrives you can use your own router.

Re: Vmng300
 

But will it still reboot several times a day?

Re: Vmng300
 

Cable modems don't use username and passwords. Access is by MAC address

Re: Vmng300
 

Bit of a generalisation there. They don't all do that. Mine never has and same goes for most customers.

Re: Vmng300
 

Do you have access to the online tools that I do, of course not and if used correctly with the correct settings we can tell a lot about your connection in a few minutes including the power levels without you logging in to the modem, the uptime and even what is connected to the modem, plus it will tell us specific faults and the tier of speed you are on.

The is very little that I cannot ascertain from an online modem which I can even reboot remotely if required.

---------- Post added at 19:51 ---------- Previous post was at 19:49 ----------

See my signature below, mine has never rebooted spontaneously in the 3 moths that I have had it.

Re: Vmng300
 

my signature focuses on facts and accuracy ;);):D:D:D:D;);):):)

Re: Vmng300
 

We cannot check the cab nor a network fault that should be down to the techs that come out but some cannot be bothered to do it and just change the modem or hub when theres no need.

Re: Vmng300
 

when he says "we", he means techs, as he is a VM tech lol

Re: Vmng300
 

Yours speaks of the few but mine speaks for the overwhelming majority of close to quarter of a million satisfied Superhub users.

Re: Vmng300
 

Not sure it's that many you know considering it's only been six month since it was launched

Re: Vmng300
 

So what tools should the tech use? I'd like to know exactly what checks I shoud be doing? I can check your upstream and downstream and SNR, I can also change an f connector in the "cab" I have no magic tool that tells me its a network fault or an amp.

Re: Vmng300
 

So ur trying to say u can tell me EXACTLY if a problem here is local or network via ur tools str8 off? Funny that because in the past i have been told that theres NOTHING wrong because my power levels are all within correct levels. Once turned out the Amp in the cab was faulty causing problems and another turned out to be a network wide problem.

What about the Motorolla BSR problem that didnt exist and couldnt exist and was impossible according to ur network guys?..

Even your so called Brilliant Tools miss things from experience of seeing it happen.

Re: Vmng300
 

My superhub works ok~ but it doesn't make it any less of a dog turd sat in the corner and I'm sure everyone who is having problems takes heart knowing someone somewhere is happy with theirs.

Anyway, what are the chances of me getting a standalone modem so I can go back to having working port forwarding, ddns and superb bandwidth monitoring without having to run a superhub in half-baked mode connected to a real router?

Re: Vmng300
 

As I said it is down to the agent using the tools provided correctly and it does not matter if on a Cisco uBR or a Motorola BSR as they may have different interfaces but they tell us what we need.

We can even get a good idea if the fault is external, it is down to knowledge and experience.

I have had customers complaining that they have spent an hour on a call which got no where and within a few minutes I have diagnosed the issue because I use the tools correctly.

---------- Post added at 20:11 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------

You could revert to an ambit 256 if still on 10Mb if you ask.

Re: Vmng300
 

There are a few MAC ranges but counting the most common, he's not all that far off ..

Re: Vmng300
 

doesnt mean they are all in use, and of the ones that are activated they are not specifically in use

there will be a stock of those ones not activated, and in a storage depot

then there will be the peeps like me who have one activated but dont use it

Re: Vmng300
 

The are at least that many and the standard hub will be probably double that figure.;)

---------- Post added at 20:24 ---------- Previous post was at 20:21 ----------

No we are talking about Active modems on the system not ones on shelves or not registered just Active modems, do you really think that we do not know how many modems are active on the system.:rolleyes:;):)

Re: Vmng300
 

okay fair enough, i wouldnt have thought tech support would have access to that but okay. Remember not all of those will be in use though, for example mine is activated but not used because the CEO office left it activated when they activated the modem. Then youve got the manufacturers, netgear will have a bunch of them, then the staff testers will have another bunch, sirius does something with them, testing wise, i think he has about 3 he said.

either way, if there are that many out there, then virgin must have really been pushing them out. it doesnt help that people are getting their modems replaced willy nilly when they have a fault

Re: Vmng300
 

We do not have that access but we can see what is on each uBR but technicians on a higher pay grade can see such details, not that I would go into detail about such items on an open forum.

Testers have test accounts set up so if they have multiple modems as otherwise they will not work.

You should only have a modem replaced if the issue requires it to be replaced or if it is a dinosaur.

Any customer that can swap between modems should not be able to do so and the technicians responsible need to run a tool to remove such kit from the network periodically.

Re: Vmng300
 

the CEO office left me the superhub and the VMNG300 activated, and I can swap between the two. I presume the CEO office has more administrative power on the systems and are able to activate both :erm:

Re: Vmng300
 

Really that should not happen and they know it, as I wonder what issues that may cause on your account or any similar accounts.

Re: Vmng300
 

Im not sure what it looks like on my account, but when i was on to tech support a couple of weeks ago, the guy asked me whether I was using the superhub or the modem, so i presume they are both on there

Re: Vmng300
 

If they were then whoever activated the SuperHub didn't follow correct procedure.

Normally whenever equipment it swapped, the old one is replaced with the new one - so only one shows on the account

Re: Vmng300
 

Well they could easily have removed the one not being used then after they asked which modem was assigned to the account as your account may not have looked correct to them.

Re: Vmng300
 

they might have, iv not had the superhub hooked up since

...ah well.... no great loss eh :D

Re: Vmng300
 

Not possible. It's part of the system that only one modem is active on an account.

Re: Vmng300
 

I can swap between superhub and VMNG300 without needing to get one activated. Judging by the posts on the beta forums there are a few of us who can do that.

So your definition of "not possible" seems to be the standard VM one: Computer (script) says no.

Re: Vmng300
 

Just provisioned modems, so out there on accounts ..

They don't, I do.

No, they have less "powers"

It's not possible to have two billed modems, but if you mess up the removal of one, you can leave it actively provisioned. Not a great idea.

---------- Post added at 21:57 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

As above, its an error and I shall soon be correcting it :cool:

Re: Vmng300
 

dont take this the wrong way mate, but your from the business side of the company, its possible that your system is different from the standard one? i can see that only one modem is allowed to be active on a business account, with it costing so much more etc. but its definitely possible on a consumer account, my account is proof :D

Re: Vmng300
 

Fairynuff. But when you do correct it I hope you use common sense and go for the device that hasn't been used lately :) I'd rather not have my lovely modem that actually works die and have to suffer the superhub while offshore scratch their heads and hangup repeatedly.

Re: Vmng300
 

No, he's right. Only one modem is allowed on an account.

Re: Vmng300
 

How can the CEO office have less powers?

Its not an error, the guy at the CEO office said he was leaving both activated on purpose, if i wanted to try the superhub when there was a software update.

On a side note, if you de-activate my VMNG300, i will find where you live and burn your house down

Re: Vmng300
 

The comparison will be made between modems on billing accounts and those not.

So make sure the modem you want to keep, is on your account. The aim of this is to work toward people stealing service, clones and such.

Re: Vmng300
 

i apologise Stephen

How has mine got 2 then?

Re: Vmng300
 

Oh that's classic: first he goes on about the VMNG300 being deader than disco then he recommends reverting to a modem several years older than that?

Careful how you backpedal. You might break a leg. :D

Wrong. It's absolutely possible. Both my Ambit 250 and Super Hub were able to be switched between without resulting in the walled garden activation page coming up. I alluded to it several times in the SH beta testing thread. I mentioned it while having my VMNG300 activated and the tech at the CEO's office noticed and corrected the mistake so only the VMNG300 is MAC locked/registered now.

I'm starting to feel we're not just getting easily disproved misinformation now, but actively being lied to by staff here trying to do some kind of ill-advised damage control. Nice way to dig a deeper hole for the flagship CPE there, fellas. :D

Re: Vmng300
 

That wasn't two modems being active on the account though. It would have been a lower system that needed a reminder to disable the removed modem

Similar to the recent examples of some e-mail addresses still being active even though the associated account had been closed

Re: Vmng300
 

The CEO's guys are call centre people, with a title, they are the best at what they do don't get me wrong.

A billing account can not have two modems.

I'm spending most of days looking for you .. I'm up to Craig 1987

Re: Vmng300
 

So what ur basically saying the head network engineer at the head end cant use the software correctly to diagnose a problem yet someone working in technical support can? LMFAO ur a joke!

Re: Vmng300
 

They probably didn't remove it correctly, leaving it provisioned down stream.

Technically one of you modems isn't billed so could be picked up by security at any time.

Nope, facts.

Re: Vmng300
 

and when they do, ill ring up and get it activated again

i presume its the VMNG on my account, becuase that had to go through activation after the superhub, so the superhub got nocked off my account, but still activated

i havnt plugged the piece of trash in for a while so iv no idea

Re: Vmng300
 

I'm not trying to stop people like yourself having service, but if you have two modems live, you have twice the connection you're paying for.

Re: Vmng300
 

All the Nopanic is saying that the one you aren't using will be decativated, so what is the problem?

Re: Vmng300
 

not twice, 1 and a half.... the superhub dont count :D

---------- Post added at 22:10 ---------- Previous post was at 22:10 ----------

absolutley no problem, gives me a good target for my airsoft gun actually, ill make a video of it next weekend :D

Re: Vmng300
 

Fair enough .. :)

Re: Vmng300
 

Virgin should have saved a fortune and cellotaped a vmng300 and a dlink together!

Re: Vmng300
 

we need masque here.... you dont put up enough of an argument lol

---------- Post added at 22:15 ---------- Previous post was at 22:14 ----------

id pay more for the cellotape than the dog mess dud

Re: Vmng300
 

er.. no, how dare you, the Hub is awesome .. mines been online now for six years .. actually mines been online for 3 days 00h:54m:05s, it was rebooted when I broke it the other day ..

Anyway, I'm not here to make life harder, I'm actually listening to what you lose... members say and it helps me ..

to sleep :D

Re: Vmng300
 

the best reply i have ever heard on the internet :D

Re: Vmng300
 

As has been said, it's exactly the same billing system. There is no difference.

Also you have been told only 1 bit of kit will actually be active and billing.

Thanks for the apology though :)

Re: Vmng300
 

i will always apologise when i am wrong, and lately iv been doing a lot of apologising :(

i dont work for VM, and never have, so i was merely speculating

however, i have a nice target to put on the garden wall now so thanks :tu:

Re: Vmng300
 

Maybe you can take a photo of superhub frisbee. I'll vote ya photo of the month!

Re: Vmng300
 

YEESSS, its sport this month as well

as iv said, my airsoft gun will be taking at it, i have decided it will now be a video for the giggles, and a photo for the comp. I have a smith and wesson 3000+ airsoft bb gun coming in the post, which has 0.2g 6mm bb's, that should do a lovely job on the dud

i cant wait for the weekend!!!!!!! :D:D:D

Re: Vmng300
 

as said here already the type of people who will get their own modem and the type of people ringing the ceo office for a modem are the type who know enough that they wont be ringing up for support. A mistake made by yourselves lumpng all customers under the same newbie banner. VM dont need to give me tech support, I have only ever rang up on outage issues or activation issues. In ceo office case for utilisation issues and to ask for the modem.

Re: Vmng300
 

The Ambit 256 is still a stock item and the only standard modem now supplied by us, it is now on to version 2 of that device and if required we can send out a replacement modem.

So next time ask the question first before making an incorrect comment.

Re: Vmng300
 

they customer focused so do it for conveniance.

The reason given to me is if I found I wanted to change back to the superhub I simply need to plug it in, it saves me and them time not needing to reactivate, plus I explained I was happy to carry on beta testing firmware if possible, they said fine.

I dont see the big deal of having 2 mac's on an account.

Re: Vmng300
 

You don't have two MACs provisioned on your account, you have one MAC and one unbilled modem still live. Its a fault, not something they have given you.

Re: Vmng300
 

It can and does cause issues and can be deleted by the relevant department who can run software to remove non active modems.

As Nopanic says it should not happen and his department deals with these issues.

Re: Vmng300
 

if you read back, you will see that we discussed that its not possible to have more than 1 modem on an account. what happens with the CEO office is that they activate the new one without deactivating the superhub, so its active, but not billed. thats why it will be getting deleted when they run their security checks etc.

---------- Post added at 22:53 ---------- Previous post was at 22:53 ----------

are you sure they havnt registered us as testers?

Re: Vmng300
 

God god man you've got it ..

:D

Re: Vmng300
 

No you would have a separate account and line.

Re: Vmng300
 

why would you want to do that for what purpose?

I can assure you leaving my superhub active was quite deliberate as was specifically explained to me.

As a customer giving you feedback what the CEO office are doing is far better for the customer than having a strict script that only allows one modem per account. I have read dozens of stories about people getting angry when their old modem is turned off.

Re: Vmng300
 

Profile was out of date.

Re: Vmng300
 

Because the is only supposed to be one modem active per account regardless of them leaving your 2 active.

Re: Vmng300
 

I believe Chrysalis was making the point that he doesn't see why Virgin has a problem with 2 modems on one account (although it's clear they do).

I've always wondered about this. Surely if someone wants to pay for two broadband connections, that could be in Virgin's interest, could it not? Or is the problem that the network may not be able to cope with the extra modems?

Re: Vmng300
 

Depends what you want to do as you can try for a VMNG300 or revert to 20Mb and get a Ambit 256.

Re: Vmng300
 

I think you managed to brainwash craig ;)

if its not possible how is it working for me. Of course its possible, but rather the explanation is it upsets your process and scripts. I dont get billed for the modem so I am not sure how billing has any relation to it.

If my superhub gets deactivated so be it, however it would be dissapointing if its a result of you hunting it down just because you dont want anyone to have 2 modems.

Re: Vmng300
 

you must need 2 billing accounts for 2 connections, its hardly a standard setup :D

Re: Vmng300
 

not really an answer is it.

You say you not scripted but thats about as scripted as you could have got "because its supposed to be like that". VM needs more people to think out of the box and break free of process. Like the excellent techs that allow the vmng300s and the CEO office who keep the old mac's active. Common sense ruling rules.

Re: Vmng300
 

apparently they run scripts to check activated modems against billing, so you will only have the latest added modem on billing i.e. the VMNG that the CEO's added

Re: Vmng300
 

It would have nothing to do with you personally as the periodically run scripts to remove modems that are no longer listed on accounts and yours would not be the only one to disappear from an account.

Re: Vmng300
 

not sure what you mean. How is me having 2 modems authorised to connect putting extra stress on the network? I stil only have one physical cable to plug in so as such can only use one at a time.

---------- Post added at 23:06 ---------- Previous post was at 23:04 ----------

thats fine.

But thats very different to saying its not possible to have 2 activated at once.