Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

This is the letter Virgin Media are sending out:...

Free WiFi access is coming to your area.

Great news! We’re creating a new WiFi network so you can get online for free when you’re out and about. You’ll soon be able to hop online in lots of places in your area – all thanks to the power of an ever-expanding network.

Get ready for free WiFi access

From 20 July we’ll turn lots of Virgin Media Super Hubs into WiFi hotspots (including yours) to create a new WiFi network around Reading, Bracknell, Basingstoke, Newbury and Marlow. Then we’ll start rolling it out across the UK, so you can get connected in even more places.

How does it work?

We’ll switch on a separate internet connection to your Super Hub, which will become part of the WiFi network. Rest assured the broadband you love and pay for will stay exclusively yours – and remain just as secure.

Do I need to do anything?

You don’t have to lift a finger – there’s no installation, cables or faff. Just sit back and enjoy your broadband as you do now. We’ll be back in touch to let you know when it’s up and running, so you can download our new app and get connected to the hotspots in your area.

But if you don’t want to be part of our new WiFi network, you can opt out before 20 July.. If you do opt out, you won’t be able to use any of the hotspots in your area when you’re out and about.

Good stuff is around the corner.

Kind regards,

The Virgin Media team

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

:clap: about time

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

So my Shub is going to be a local wifi spot? Even when I have wifi disabled? And it's going to be powered by my own mains supply? At cost to me?

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

You can opt out.. Also do you not leave the hub on 24/7?

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

I assume this will only be on Superhub 2s, I could barely get signal in the next room when I had a Superhub 1 let alone outside.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Hmm BT have been doing this for years although the way VM seem to be implementing it sounds better. Seeing as it appears that you have to opt out does that mean if you run your superhub in modem mode and avoid having a hot spot but take advantage of hot spots elsewhere :D

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

No, it's off when we go to bed or go out, and is very rarely in wifi mode anyway. So would our wifi being off be an indication to thieves that the house may be empty?

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If you opt out you cannot get access.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Don't you ever use your IPad ( or other device) in bed?

Also constantly powering up and powering down a device like that is a sure way for it to fail at some point IMO.

Strange.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Pretty much exactly the same as BT is doing in that case - as long as you haven't opted out, there's no other checks such as actually having the device connected.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

If you have a Superhub 1 you also have to agree to entry to your property so the user can sit at the side of the superhub. :D

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

:rofl:

I run my hub in modem mode so the wifi will be off anyway. No chance of ne'er-do-wells using my connection for nefarious purposes.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

I don't have a pad, tablet, smartphone, or laptop, but I do have a workhorse 8 year old PC.

I go to bed to sleep. If I can.

How so? :confused:

Just because a device or service is available, it doesn't make me a Luddite if I don't use it. And I am in no way technophobic.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

I power down my Superhub 2 every night and have never had a problem.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Great idea and i like that you can opt out if you don't want to be part of it.

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Indeed.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Is this going to be only for those on Virgin mobile ?

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

So if you turn off your hub now they will know when your in bed for instance or maybe out. This is no big deal just opt out.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

It's only for those on Virgin immobile.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

It sounds like virgin are doing this "properly". That is, the wireless connection will be dishing out completely independent IP's than that of your private connection. Should someone use it for nefarious deeds, it wouldn't ever come back to you. No different to BT today.

Some questions do remain:

• Will this work if you are in modem mode?
• If not, will this automatically opt me out?
• Will this affect the wireless ability of the hubs, as presumably it's running a "Guest" network alongside the primary network?
• What speeds will this give users? Virgin are capable of offering a substantially fast service with the way this is designed.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Yes, indeed. I don't believe any commercial ISP has every done it non-"properly", the only ones that share the connection owner's IP tend to be crowdsourced solutions like the one FON grew out of.

• Interesting point. It's actually theoretically possible
  
  
  Quote:

  If not, will this automatically opt me out?

  Probably not. The amount of work required to develop a system to tell if you're running in modem mode or not is not worth the effort.
  
  
  Quote:

  Will this affect the wireless ability of the hubs, as presumably it's running a "Guest" network alongside the primary network?

  What wireless ability? :p:
  
  
  Quote:

  What speeds will this give users? Virgin are capable of offering a substantially fast service with the way this is designed.

Also a good point. I'd expect something in the range of 10-20Mbps. But that's just my guess. It'll almost certainly be less than 50.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

I've connected to my own BT HH 5 via the BT-Wifi-with-Fon and ran a speed test which gave me 20mbps download.

I'm on Infinity 2 and synced at full speed.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Exactly, unless it's limited to SH2's only, it's going to cripple the performance of a device that already had crippling performance. Hopefully the SH3+ will have dedicated hardware for it (along with the VoIP stuff - which, incidentally, a Virgin Engineer called "VoF" the other day...).

It's possible it'll be dependant on which package you have. Realistically, Virgin could genuinely go for a sort of "Your broadband anywhere" thing where you get the same speeds on the guest networks as you do at home. Probably overkill though. Still, 20meg if they push it country wide would be a nice little bonus. 50 would be fantastic.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Oooh, awesome. Hopefully the 'guest' network will have a decent amount of bandwidth available, making it more useful than BT's efforts.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

I see what you did there :)

But the question is still valid. I had a quick google and found an article about this from last year, VM first mooted this in 2011 but shelved the idea, it was for VM mobile customers only.
http://www.choose.net/media/guide/ne...ape-wi-fi.html

Will VM BB customers be able to use this and are there any other areas that are live?

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

That would be wayyyy too complicated.

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As I already said, this is only for VM BB customers.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Is this live anywhere else as a google doesn't turn up anything?

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

nope Thames Valley is the testing network so won't be anywhere until they are happy to roll it out

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

If you go to http://whatismyip.com and see cpcxx-rdng in there for your reverse DNS you're going to be in this trial.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Slight update...


It lauches on Aug 5th now

You need the Android / IOS app to connect to the system (Wifi Sharing App)

Both Cable and VM Mobile customers are able to make use of this.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Couldn't they just put a few shubs in the cabinets and do network from them, on my hub signal just gets to the garden that's it

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

If they were putting anything in cabinets it won't be Superhubs.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

The cabs would also need power :p

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Easy enough, there's plenty of powered coax infrastructure already.

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Well you know what I mean lol

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Ah happy days - I had an 18 yr old version of a Pretty Concubine once but never got much sleep though! :(

Re: Virgin Media Hot Spots Coming to Thames Valley Network July 20th
 

Y'know, I rarely bother turning on wifi on my mobile devices as 4G is faster (or was, till last week) and I've got absurd allowances. And my main PC is wired.

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Mine's only 7. :(

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If you weren't sleeping with it you're doing it wrong.