1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Just reading about the 1gig roll out speeding up.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...gig1-speeds-UK

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Because it is the Express I approached your link with caution. This is the paper that predicts killer snow, cold and heat every single year. :-) However, this looks kosher.

Reports earlier in the year suggested an accelerated roll out. https://advanced-television.com/2020...abit-roll-out/

So, we can look forward to universal 1GB coverage pretty soon. I wonder if a switch to DOCSIS 3.1 on the upstream is in the pipeline. Realistically, to appear to be moving forward, VM needs to be able to deliver at least a 10:1 service next.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Thought it's worth posting the source of the Express story which is the Virgin Media / O2 site here

https://www.nationalconnectivitycham...e-new-pledges/

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Thanks Ben. The 'pledges' video was a good one.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Has Virgin created a site where u can look if ur area has been updated as they have in the past with rollouts.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Yes. Here

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/bro...abit-broadband

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Apparently 500mb which im on is fastest here at the moment and it didnt make that very clear on the page either.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

500Mb has been rolled out pretty well everywhere, so unless you have 1Gb in your area already, then 500Mb is the fastest.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Except that page just takes you to another page that says you can get VM services, but not what. You then need to click on another link to go to the bundles which for me says up top in a green box that I can get gig1 but none of the bundles include it.

Eventually figured out how to get a 1 gig tier, but it takes clicking the right 'choose this bundle' option and then finding the customise bundle option. The entire process for a new customer to order anything is utter dross compared to the Sky and BT new customer flow.

VM's marketing team needs to calm down, they change the bundle selection and purchase flow so frequently the damned thing barely makes any sense these days. In fact the bundle selection carousel is b0rked in Firefox.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Adding 1gbit to the ultimate oomph makes it go from £89 to £111.

I think I'll pass if it ever rolls out here.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

i don't need really fast speeds as I don't download or play games i'm only on 50mbps and that's only reaching 43.38/upload 5.70 I check my speed daily because my pc seemed to be slower than it was and just renewed my contract so if they cant even get my speed right how on earth are the going to achieve 1gbit

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Your modem will be configured for more than 50Mb to allow for overheads. Eliminate factors giving you a low reading, e.g. Is this over wifi or ethernet cable? WiFi often gives a less than optimum speed. Are you certain nothing else in the house was using bandwidth, like a phone or TV? If you consistently get less than 50Mb after checking for local causes, call CS. You should get over 50Mb

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Hm, 1 gig "getting faster" but we've had no particular timescale or schedule on it so far so it's kind of meaningless. I have no idea when VM will do it in my area, this press release perhaps means it will be quicker than it was, but I don't know how much quicker (1 year? 1 hour?) and I don't have a frame of reference in the first place anyway so it's all meaningless.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Despite the blab all the rollouts over the last 12 years or so have taken 2 years from starts to finish. Certain areas ay be brought forward but their are inevitably unexpected delays which in turn delay other areas. It is swings and roundabouts. I have always fallen in the middle so when a new tier or upgrade is announced around October and they say "we aim to get 25% done by Christmas" which sounds great, I know it is always going to be about a year before I get it.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

just checked speed 45.14 6.30 upload i'm using ethernet cable nothing else turned on when I complained about the price they wanted to charge me for new contract when they rang me I said I would go elsewere they then put me through to another dept they reduced the price and locked it for 18 months I have been on 50mb in the past then a free upgrade to 70mb and yet another to 100mb over a period of time, so now I have landed up back on 50mb??? you just cant win with VM :mad:

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I upgraded to the Gig1 Fibre on Monday, area 20 Manchester. Very rarely get 900Mbps, usually always between 600/700Mbps. Upload is fairly solid most of the time though.

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/10/6.png

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I always recommend the Sam Knows Real Speed test if you have a Hub 4 in router mode. It does a two stage test between the Hub and Sam Knows and then your device and Sam Knows.

www.samknows.com/realspeed

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

But that speed is kind of irrelevant if you can't use it due to port speed limitations.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

You aren't meant to.

The idea of the provided 1.14Gb is that the potential bandwidth is shared by multiple devices. It is possible to use all that bandwidth if you had enough devices simultaneously caning the connection. :)

If Hub 4 supported port aggregation my router could take advantage of two ports at the same time. Unfortunately, it doesn't.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

just get a 2.5gb nic that i posted a link to......

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I'm hitting the limits of the ethernet port at all times. Pity we can't aggregate two together when it's provisioned for 1.1Gbps
.
https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/10/8.png

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Which works if you have CAT6 ethernet cables, or better, and if any intervening switches are capable of handling >1Gb. The latter are pretty expensive.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

The Hub 4.0 doesn't have 2.5Gbit ports though, so there'd be no advantage?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

That's what I said above.

I was responding to alanbjames talking about hardware necessary to take advantage of 2.5Gb router ports. As you say, this would only be relevant if port aggregation was available in the Hub 4 and one's own router.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

What browser are you running the speedtest with?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Safari on Mac. Same results with the standalone Speedtest app.

---------- Post added at 19:36 ---------- Previous post was at 19:21 ----------

Apparently it is possible with 2 lan cables from the Hub 4.0 feeding into a router running RouterOS or pfsense configured to aggregate the two inputs. Obviously requires a >1Gbe output port on the device.

https://forums.servethehome.com/inde...54/post-249734

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I was chatting to someone in Customer Service yesterday at Virgin and they claimed that Swansea will see Gig1 during first quarter of 2021. I doubt this very much as there are larger cities with bigger uptakes that Virgin will invest in first.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I have been trying to find out when it may come to Bournemouth but so far havent been able to get any info. Assuming it will also come here later too but we will see

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Bournemouth will probably see it way before Swansea.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

It doesn't work like that. Bigger cities need more work. Southampton and Reading got it first, and neither of them are large cities. It happens where the network is ready.

That said, I'm not aware of any announcement about Swansea yet. Nor Bournemouth.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Makes sense. There have been a couple of outages for upgrades over the past few months so am hoping that means it may be coming but will wait and see :)

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

1 gig comes to my area in Swansea on OCT 31st..So they Say..Thankfully I don't need it and can't afford it anyway. Can just about afford my 350gig..

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Suspect Newcastle will take a while the, as it's mostly old NTL (I believe!)

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Nope, it's ex-Telewest.

Though that isn't relevant. The regions that already have 1gig are a mix of ex-NTL, C&W and Telewest areas.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Had 50% chance of being right haha... i was just under the impression it'd take longer to upgrade the old telewest areas

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Over the 4 years I have lived here, my IP has been very sticky, and even despite account changes (terminate in my name, sign up in wifes for better deal, and vice versa) has stayed, I assume based on router MAC, except when I changed from a Ubiquiti USG to a UDM-Pro.

Until the last few months, when after short outages it has changed a couple of times. I've spent a lot of time keeping an eye on one.network as Cityfibre are slowly rolling out to Ipswich, and VM seem to be doing quite a few works too.

I'm vaguely hopeful this means Gig:1 soon.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Just been upgraded to 600mb from 500 mb I never even asked for the upgrade either

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

That's this https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...php?t=33709132

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Wonder if upload is still 35 for 600....

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Check the other thread for your answer ;)

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Ah i missed that. I logged into myVM and while it no longer shows me as on their "fastest broadband" when i click upgrade, I get an error so not sure how much it'd cost me to bump up

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I wonder when Swansea will get the 600mb upgrade?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

There is a separate thread for the 600Mb upgrade so I'd ask on there. It's not directly connected to the Gig1 rollout.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Now in London and Northern Ireland

https://www.virginmedia.com/corporat...rthern-ireland

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Does this cover those who connect via Luton? I'm in Welwyn Garden City so we could sort of be considered a surrounding area to London, but I believe we come under Luton or at least we did when it was NTL.

The website is confusing because on the first page after entering my postcode I get this:

Attachment 28655

But on the next pages the green banner says the most I can get is 600Mb and if I try to order I get a message saying 1gig is not currently available in my area.

That first image though isn't very clear does it mean all those speeds are available to me (which they don't seem to be) or are there meant to be different colours for those which are avaliable.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I would be more inclined to go by the green bar

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/1.jpg

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Sorted.

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/3.png

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Noice.

Please share your workings out for the class :D

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Two ethernet feeds from the Hub 4 into a Mikrotek 4011 router. Lan aggregation enabled to bond eth1 and eth6 on hub together using "balance-rr". Using 10GBe out to my PC. Works with hub in both modem mode and router mode. I have it in modem mode with the Mikrotek doing the DHCP and NAT.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Nice, didn't know modem mode would work like that. That's very promising!

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Attachment 28660

895Mbps over first link and 316Mbps over second bonded together to 1212Mbps which is routed out over the SFP+ module to the host computer.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

The whole point of modem mode is that the switch and routing functionality are disabled and only port one is up which means you are limited to 1gbit and can definitely not use two ports for link aggregation.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Both ports remain active maybe as a consequence of the bonding using the same mac address for each part of the interface. That said after a period of time it tends to use one more than the other for downloads, uploads are split equally over both links.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

https://www.speedtest.net/result/10378749949.png

Can't be arsed to buy new equipment to squeeze another 50-100Mb

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

And nor should you. Virgin should have supplied a modem with a 2.5G port in the first place.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

There weren't any DOCSIS 3.1 Hubs with those available when the Hub 4 was designed.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

My GT-AX11000 has port aggregation and a 2.5Gb port. Could this work for me?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Standard port aggregation (LACP) won't work as it requires support at both the modem end and the router end which the Hub 4.0 does not offer. Not sure what your kit supports but if it can be configured to balanced round-robin you might be lucky. Router OS and pfsense have options for this.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Unfortunately, there seems to be no facility for setting up balance-rr. Looks like I would need a smart switch that can, between modem and router.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Yeah the Hub 4.0 has to be the least "future proof" and hopefully shortest lived hub from virgin ever.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

It will have no issue with all of the lower-than-1Gbit tiers of service once DOCSIS 3.1 is available across the network.

So I'd think it's going to be around for a while.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

From a consumer point of view, I do wish Virgin would offer at least the choice of having a dedicated cable modem. After all, the people who will actually make good use of such high speeds as 1Gig will likely want to use their own router (they may even have an old PC dedicated to this task) and other networking hardware.

I'm on 350 Meg (given the choice, I'd go for the Gig) and I have *never* used my Superhub 3 as a router. I would far rather have a dedicated cable modem.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Glad to see they are keeping the webpages up to date. From my account:

Our broadband doesn't get quicker than this.
You're on our top speed broadband tier!

Meanwhile there's a banner stating that 1Gb is available now :erm:

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Now they've got to fix the price.

In my city (Southampton), Toob 900/900 down/up FTTH = £25/month. Virgin 1000/52 down/up Copper = £62/month.

Who in their right mind would pick Virgin's string and copper network over a brand new FTTH symmetrical connection for 2/5ths the price?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Those that don't know any better unfortunately.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I came across this recent technical discussion for bonding LAN ports together on the Virgin / Arris Superhub series to give greater than 1Gbit throughput on modem mode.
https://tech.msh100.uk/virgin/networ...ter-than-gbit/

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Yet business is still stuck on 500/35. (I could actually do with the upload increase when transferring stuff to the office)

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

They haven't, in the past, done automatic speed upgrades on business, so suspect little prospect of the 500/35 service going to 600 as residential has done. Would be great if they did though.

The 1 Gb/s service requires a new hub, so they would need one with business firmware to support the fixed IP options. Suspect one will be available in due course though.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

1 gig service being installed today in Belfast. Wish me luck.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I'm not expecting a free upgrade, I'd happily pay extra for the service.

Just seems odd that the Residential service has a higher tier (double the download and a reasonable bump on upload) than the business service, obviously new hardware is required but that's something that is in their control.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Hopefully the faster tiers will come to the business service soon. I seem to remember the business 200 Mb/s service was before residential, but usually the business service lags a bit when new tiers are available.

I wonder if they have decided on a business hub for the 1Gb/s service that caters for the fixed IP address options.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Is the 1GB upgrade available to Ultimate Oomph subscribers - once their area is enabled?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Yes, but that's a paid increase in top of Ultimate Oomph with M500 or M600

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Thanks - any idea on what the standard difference is?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Ultimate Oomph with Gig1 for a new customer is £111 a month for 18 months.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Thank you

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Ok, you can get over 940meg.

I've just tested this with my hub3.0, but it should work with the hub4.0 on gig1 too.

The superhub has an undocumented feature, in that the LAN ports in modem mode are in a balance-rr group. This means that with a switch or router that supports load balancing, you can connect as many of the ports as you like in one group. As this is balance-rr, it is per packet, and even a single download stream is split across the nics.

I've connected my UDM-Pro via a 10G DAC cable in WAN2 to a Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+IN switch, in SFPPlus3. The other SFP ports are then in a balance-rr bond, bridged with SFPPlus3. The ethernet port is connected to the LAN side of my network, for monitoring and management of the switch, in it's own bridge.

ARP must be disabled on the bond and the bridge.

SFP ports 1-2 have RJ45 1Gig sfps in, these connect to the superhub.

The UDM-Pro obtains it's WAN IP through the switch, and distributes it's wan traffic across the three SH LAN ports, meaning up to 2gbit each way.

Obviously my internet is only 350m, but I can see traffic being split across the two SFP ports during a speedtest. There is no reason I couldn't use the 3rd port to increase the balance-rr group to 3gbit, I just didn't have enough RJ45 SFPs to hand.

I'm now prepped and ready for gig1 or even 2.2gbit in modem mode.

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/8.png

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/9.png

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/10.png

https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/11.png

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Check your bonded group after 6 hours and see if it reverts to a single download link. Mine does on Gig 1 requiring a reboot of the hub

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I'll let you know in the morning, but do you have ARP disabled?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

With ARP disabled I have no connection.
Attachment 28691

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Pretty sure ARP is your issue, as it ends up associating a particular Mac address with the ipv4 address.

I have ARP off and it takes a little while to get an IP at the start, but works fine.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Thanks. :tu:

It would be really helpful if there was an easy to understand diagram of this to allow other members who aren't that technically minded when it comes to networking, like me, to be able to have a go at setting this up.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

The setup I have here assumes you have a router with a 10gigabit WAN, and a 10gbit mikrotik switch running RouterOS, I was kind of assuming people having such hardware would probably be able to follow!

Router is a UDM-Pro. https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/12.png
This has 2x 10gigabit SFP+ ports, 1 WAN and 1 LAN, as well as a gigabit WAN and 8 gigabit LAN. It also takes a hard drive for CCTV recording. It doesn't have wireless - I use dedicated APs for that. It is capable of routing 3.5GBit/sec with all the bells and whistles turned on, IPS/IDS etc, and about 8gbit with DPI but without IPS.

Switch is a Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+IN https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/13.png This is the cheapest switch they do with 10GbE that runs RouterOS rather than SwitchOS.

In essence what we are doing is taking the 10G WAN from the UDM Pro, splitting it into 2-3 1G links, and connecting that to the SH.

My setup I was splitting it into 2 1G links, as I only had 2 rj45 SFPs around. It looks like this:https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/14.png

The left port goes to the LAN side of the UDM, this is so that I can control, setup, and manage the switch while it is in use.

The next port is unused, if I had another SFP module, which is an "adaptor" like this: https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/15.png then it would go in here.

The next two ports have SFP modules in, these connect to the Superhub.

The final port has a 10GbE DAC cable in, this connects to the UDM Pro.https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/16.png

In the settings menu of the switch, I removed the ports I wanted to use for the "VM Bridge" from the default bridge.

I then created a new bonding group from the two ports with the rj45 SFPs in, making sure to disable ARP, in this image it was with ports 1+2 rather than 2+3 as in the image above:
https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/17.png

I then created a new bridge, also disabling ARP:https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/18.png


I then added the interfaces I wanted to use on this bridge to it, namely the bonding group and 1 other SFP+ port, note that in this image I was using SFP+3 not 4 as in the photo of the switch above:https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/19.png


Crappy MSPaint drawing:https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2020/11/20.png


Stuff you would need to buy to completely replicate this:
Router, UDM-Pro https://linitx.com/product/ubiquiti-...-udm-pro/16313
Switch https://linitx.com/product/mikrotik-...1g-4s+in/15664
SFPs https://linitx.com/product/mikrotik-...r-module/14160
DAC cable https://linitx.com/product/ubiquiti-...dac-sfp+/16375
Example of wireless access points, I have a number of them in the house: https://linitx.com/product/ubiquiti-...njector)/14525

It is probably possible to do this with other hardware that I do not have to test and have never used but is cheaper, but obviously your mileage may vary.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

That will be a huge help, thank you. :tu:

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Are your downloads still being shared over the bonded link today?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Yup

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Must be a Hub 4 quirk as download reverts to one link after six hours. Uploads always use all 4


Attachment 28697
Attachment 28698

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I'm pretty sure it's because you have ARP on. It allows the Hub to see the MAC address behind the switch and route through one link.

When I first connected mine without ARP, I power cycled the hub, and it took ages to obtain an IP, I was like "nope, this doesn't work, lets go unplug an.... WAIT I HAVE A PUBLIC IP"

Like, it took a good few mins to sort it's life out.

If gig1 ever comes to Suffolk I'll let you know how mine goes, although it's currently looking like Cityfibre will reach me first.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Hub 4 installed a new update overnight and currently at 01.02.065.21.EURO.PC20

This now keeps the bonded downloads alive across all the LAN ports on the hub :tu:

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Ok as per rtho782's setup, I plan to adapt this to work with the following:

LAN <- Asus AX86u Wireless router's 2.5Gbps WAN port <- mikrotik switch 10Gbps copper SFP module - (supports 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps modes) / 2 x 1Gbps copper SFPs <- SHUB4.

I would then create the same bond group on the mikrotik for the two ports connecting to the SHUB4 and bridge that to the port with the 10Gbps SFP copper module), cat6 cables will be used for the connections between the AX86U, Mikrotik and SHUB4.

I should then be able to max out the bandwith using the 4 x 1Gbps LAN ports and WIFI6.

Total cost would be £220 for the mikrotik switch + network optics, £20 for cat6 cables and around £240 for the Asus Router (though I bagged it for £180 on Amazon recently so the prices fluctuate).

Hoping this works! will post back with results when I receive the equipment.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Check your Hub 4 firmware before proceeding and if it's older than 01.02.065.21.EURO.PC20 your bonded interface will fail after a few hours. Nothing to do with ARP (but worth investigating - thanks) its a flaw in the Hub's linux lan drivers, fixed in the version listed above.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

will do, btw does that firmware version fix the issue where the hub4 web interface can no longer be accessed on its 192.168.100.1 address when in modem mode?

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Yes it seems to fix it. Was iffy before that.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Still waiting on it to arrive.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

Ive learnt from experience that Nottingham is usually one of the last to get anything

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

You have 600, I’m still stuck on 500

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I believe that the roll out of 600 is due to be completed by March 2021 and 1 gig by the end of 2021.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

We've had a series of outages in the past week (though nothing showing up on service status), and then another extended (3 hour plus) outage today which did show up on service status.

Interestingly I noticed afterwards that I had a new IP with a hostname of a completely different format (specifying "v4wan", so maybe part of IPv6 upgrades too?), and the CMTS MAC address is different (but still within a Cisco owned OUI when looking it up).

Does this typically happen shortly before Gig1 is made available to an area? Where I used to live this made the 200->350mbit upgrade available a few weeks after.

Re: 1gig Rollout getting faster
 

I had similar changing my IP a few months back (although I didn't check the CMTS MAC before/after) and no sign of gig1 so I don't think it's any sort of imminent sign as still no gig1 here.

That said, they like to release large areas at the same time for gig1 so it could be to do with gig1 but it might be you're the first in a massive area to have your CMTS upgraded and you'll have to wait for all the others to be done before they release it.