[Sephiroth]

In one of these threads, Nopanic suggested I was trolling by making the same points everywhere on "unbeatable wireless".

Someone has to make the point and shove it down VM's throat. Sure, they might resolve the various bugs or defects currently reported. But the issue is much, much deeper as I explain below.

1/
The SH is a stunted/slugged device. Many important normal router features are disabled. VM have never explained why but they still describe the wretched device as unbeatable (in various ways).

2/
The SH is known and proven to be wireless weak. We know that VM are trying to address this through a new driver for the Broadcomm wireless chip - 16 months after the thing was released. Isn't that bad? Very bad? All the time claiming "unbeatable wireless".

3/
Late last year there was a lot of expectation generated by the Huawei VMDG485. Several influential VM bods in this and other forums said it was only natural for VM to want two suppliers for a device so critical to VM's business plans; or words to that effect.

Now, it seems that the Huawei version isn't happening, although I can't confirm that because everyone's clammed up. The VM bods who earlier justified the move (in my eyes to a better supplier) cannot now be drawn on what's going on. In other words our VM bods, helpful as they are in other matters, punt the company line but are at a loss when it comes to dealing with contrary issues such as this.

4/
As the mighty Hugh has said, VM's splurge has made them a "hostage to fortune". For a start, without dual band wireless, the wretched thing is far from the "anything's possible" claim they make.

And what's this all about: "Only we give you 5GHz transfer to avoid wireless congestion and work with the latest gadgets like iPad 2".

The SH is an entry level device and it should be promoted as such unless all of the slugged functions are enabled and they sort the wireless out. The new splurge flies in the face of what their customers are telling them. It's head in the sand if VM think that the silent 3 million customers agree with that splurge; they are supremely indifferent, probably because a large chunk of them are indeed entry-level users. In which case the splurge should address the entry-level, pointing out that there is a "modem mode" for advanced users who wish to attache their own router.

Just so you know, I'm very pleased with my VM services (including Tivo). I'm going through a poor 50 meg performance patch at the moment, but I'll sit it out while they do the 100 meg infrastructure upgrades in the Reading area. I have BT Infinity too, so I'm never without fast internet. And I have to tell you, when my son does his gaming, I have to switch over to BT Infinity.

Is there anything unreasonable in what I've written above?