Hub 3 channels?
 

Just changed my package with VM and moved from 152BB to 200BB, noticed looking at the modem page I'm still on 8 channels should I have moved to 16 channels?

I've reset the modem but it never made a difference. I've also tried speedtest and noticed it's a bit jumpy managed 140meg at most but at the moment they are only reporting about 70mb

This is over wifi but I have hit 160meg when on 152 in the past so know it's not usually a problem. I know it's sunday so that might be slowing down the tests.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Channels depends on the cab and not the speed. Some are on 8, others 12 and others on 16

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

You will get put on 16 downstreams when you're upgraded to an Arris CMTS.

Check yours from here http://wintelguy.com/index.pl

Enter your first six characters from your CMTS MAC address, you can find this info from the HUB3 network log, when you're on the new kit is will say CADANT INC. (arris).

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Indeedy. Cisco, RiverDelta or Cadant. Cisco = 10k / cBR-8, Cadant = Arris, RiverDelta = ex-Motorola BSR.

Cisco 10k = 10 channels max
Motorola BSR = 12 channels max
Arris E6k = 16 channels+
Cisco cBR-8 = 16 channels+

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Learnt something new, I didn't realise other kit was operational with 16 channels or is it just possible and not currently being used on Virgin?

Is everything getting changed to Arris?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I'm on a Cisco and I'm only on 8 channels :(

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Then a Cisco 10k not a cisco cBR.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

There's various kit that does >16 channels, wouldn't mention it if it weren't applicable to VM.

Second question - nope.

---------- Post added at 08:19 ---------- Previous post was at 08:10 ----------

Answering the OP neither of the Leeds sites, Seacroft or Middleton Park, seem to have anything other than Cisco 10ks in them running broadband services right now.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I take it they're not renewing the cabs unless they're literally falling apart, just in the insides as my street cab hasn't been touched since I last lived in this street in 2010, but I'm on the new kit.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

There's a schedule for periodic maintenance and your cabinet may not need any.

You've 2 64QAM upstreams running so the network there isn't so bad. If the network can't handle 64QAM or the upstreams can't go to higher frequencies >50MHz upgrades are needed to at least some of the street furniture.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Yeah, the cab itself looks alright, just looks "old" and some idiot has written their name all over it.

All the time I've been in this area, we've never had a problem with the network. Seems pretty solid, despite the mass of the students *touch wood!*

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Okay I see. They are really more concerned about what's in the cabinet than appearance and will replace it if it's overheating.

The cabinets built around here as part of Lightning are all light grey to reflect heat and have a bunch more ventilation than the original ones.

The kit VM use was built to sit on top of poles, not in cabinets, so needs the ventilation.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Nice i'm on the new kit then :D ... Down here in Sunny Guildford :D

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I'm on one of the Seacroft UBR's, which is one of the Cisco 10ks and I'm using 10 channels. I would assume, that unless the 'normal' upgrade date changes yet again for our area, that we would get some new kit around that time.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

That makes sense, as long is it works well (which it does) I'm happy, nice to know I'm on the shiny new network equipment though :)

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Not necessarily.

The upgrade to 200Mb can be done quite happily on 10 channels if there are relatively few modems on each 10 channel group. Not cheap but if there's something pressing preventing installation of new CMTS it can be done.

300Mb, will most definitely need 12 channels as a bare minimum. It was tried on 8 and the results were.... unfortunate.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Do we think that's why they scrapped the 300Meg? Maybe we'll see it once more of the country is on 16 channels? :)

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

They didn't scrap the 300, it was only ever quoted by a few websites but VM never mentioned it as a product as far as i know.

My guess is 250 or 300 next year.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Sorry by scrapped I mean it didn't make it to being a final product, I know they were trialling it for a bit with some customers.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

300Mb is coming to some areas in the next month or so. Just not as a free upgrade or part of residential bundles.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Business users in 16 channel areas I suspect.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Yes, I'm on a RiverDelta with 12 DS channels, it's an Ex-NTL area.
Thanks for the information, appreciated :)

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I just checked mine and it says I'm on a Cisco with 12 channels. Would that be the cBR-8?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I am a business user here, currently with the SH1 50 Mb/s based service. The SH1 is running the full 8 downstreams and 2 16QAM upstreams.

The CMTS MAC identifies the New Malden CMTS I am on as a Cisco - so wondering which variant, as I am interested in the higher speed business services with fixed IP address which are due to launch in February with the new business hub.

The ex United Artists network in this area used to be pretty dire I understand, but hopefully some of the upgrade work done on it has left it in a much better state now.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

How do you find the MAC address for the CMTS on the superhub 2ac?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Network log

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Looks like I'm on the new cisco kit not arris according to that site, any differences / limitations between the 2? Since both can do 16+ channels

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Oh I know it's just a config change for them to upgrade us, however I think the actual main rollout's on VM's website is in line with CMTS upgrades from what I can tell.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Kinda right. Certainly 16 channel areas but the other part depends on your definition of 'business users'.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I suspect not just anyone with a business service then?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I was going to be cagey then I remembered:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php...-for-smes.html

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Ah, so does that mean you have to be on a "business" package or not? IE it won't be available to residential customers who work from home?

Can't see a need for 300meg for normal home users anyway mind.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

There's a bit of a difference between residential customers who work from home from time to time and home office users, people who work from home either as part of a home-based business or for an employer and based from home rather than an office.

Reading the quotes this is a business package and cannot be added to residential packages. For a residential customer to do this they'd need to have both a residential contract and a business contract at the same property.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Yep, makes sense :)

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Indeed also on VMB's website here.

Last conversation with sales was a February launch of the new business services at 100 Mb/s, 200 Mb/s and 300 Mb/s all with fixed IP options, which are currently only available to the 50 Mb/s service supplied with the SH1

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I might be stupid but i don't see it

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Kind of off topic, I remember reading a while back that VM were looking to "match or beat" the current upload on FTTC.

Does anyone know if this is still the plan or was it just rumors in the first place?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I do indeed know. :p:

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Damn you :D I suspect you're not willing to tell? haha

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

You didn't expect him to did you?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Nope haha

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

SH3 just updated with new firmware

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

That's very interesting.... as I just had a load of instability with my (business) SH1 losing and re-gaining network connection and resetting several times in succession - it was stable before and is again now. this started about 20:55 and stabilised around 21:10

I wonder if they send out reset signals to all devices to force them to check for new firmware and they all reset ?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

The sh1 wouldn't have been getting new firmware

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Mine hasn't, maybe it's just the trialists' hubs?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Or maybe they are rolling it area by area, just so half the country doesn't go tits up if the problem occurs.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Or that :D

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Just trialists for now.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Troll.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Worth the wait?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Trialists can't tell you due to NDA.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Bumhole. :mad:

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

So did mine.

For mucking about reasons I had to do a factory reset (which works well unlike the SH range) and it reverted to the 88J5 firmware. The new 88S firmware did not reload so it's just triallists. I'd say who are getting the new firmware.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I thought it was only me that had problems. :)

Will the firmware update when you next reboot or are you stuck on 88J5 until the next update of firm ware?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Mine was sitting flashing green when I got back last night, left it for a bit but it never came back so had to give it a power cycle.

Came back but logs don't show it trying to update or anything, seemed to just fall over....

Probably purely coincidental.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

If a hard reset is done people will be stuck on J5, he will have to request the latest to be resent from the trial forum.

---------- Post added at 12:58 ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 ----------

You wont get the update anytime soon as it is only for trial people for now.

Sit back and relax :D

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I didn't think so, but when I saw it flashing green I thought maybe it had some how been sent down. But nope, just locked up or something I guess!

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Knowing virgin anything is possible though, i am still surprised they released it to new customers in its current state.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Exactly, so I wouldn't be surprised if they rolled out the new firmware to us lot as well out of the blue.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

As per what SnoopZ said, Ken.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I will have to make shore I don't for a factory reset.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Anyone not on the trial got this yet? Wondering if it makes a difference to the latency spikes some have seen with it...

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Still trial only, ignore all that yellow you see on the TBB graph when on 16 channels, we had a similar issue on the SH2ac when released and they fixed that with firmware as i think it was just reporting it but it didn't affect the connection in anyway if i remember.

I know in my case since moving to 16 channels and getting all that huge yellow on my graph it didn't make the connection any worse or the ping any different than when i was on 8 channels.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

I was slightly worried about that, although I can't setup a TBB graph yet until they give us the ability to enable pings in router mode.

Gaming seems a bit laggy, not sure if it's actual latency or something to do with the NAT issues.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

If you turn the firewall off you can setup a TBB, hopefully you would be using a software firewall too if you did that.

I could be wrong in my thoughts though, regarding all that yellow but from my below graphs it all looks fine to be even though there is all that yellow, which doesn't seem to affect pingtest.net

http://www.pingtest.net/result/138724612.png

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

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

So the Hub3 has a real problem then in your opinion? :)

If so i hope it can be fixed in firmware.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

No, it's what I expected for 16 channels.

People who've shown BQM graphs from Hub 3's on 8 channels looks roughly the same as a SH2/2ac BQM.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

The Hub 3 can't be said to have a "real problem" unless you have a real problem with stuff you're doing that isn't affected by local contention.

It's exactly as Muddie says about the yellow showing the solitary maximum ping return time. The early firmware in the SH2ac had larger yellow than the current firmware.

Do remember that the Hub 3 modem mode is a bridge mode whereby all that has happened is NAT is disabled in the Hub 3 which means that there is no other route than the single port through which data can flow. So if, for example, every so many milliseconds the trial firmware is "doing stuff", perhaps sending diagnostics out, and I have no knowledge that this is the case, then it would expolain the high yellow.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

My main problem with the sh3 is the lack of upnp / Nat for gaming, and I find the WiFi range pretty poor, might just be me expecting too much though....

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Upnp will get fixed eventually but all these fixes will come in drips and drabs, I just wish it was a speedy process.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

You don't need to go out to google, can see ping spikes from wired lan to SH3, seems to occasionally be too busy to bother responding quicky - has more important things to do?

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

This confuses me. The jitter doesn't come from downstream, it comes from upstream. Virgin Media's measured jitter downstream is actually pretty good.

Adding more channels should help with any latency issues on downstream, not hinder them. They aren't considered 2 blocks of 8 channels but 1 block of 16 and the scheduler should use the least loaded channel when deciding which channel to send traffic down. The scheduler has full control over the loading of channels and can easily ensure no channel sees 100ms of queuing.

Sure this isn't just something alongside the same lines as why people are reporting higher baseline minimum latency on this kit, it's a little tardy about responding with the existing firmware?

Nothing wrong with that, mind you.

---------- Post added at 01:12 ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 ----------

If that's the case there are definitely some issues to fix. That really shouldn't happen.

Re: Hub 3 channels?
 

Especially for customers who aren't trialists and have no idea what's going on :D

Last time I'll complain about that, I promise haha