Superhub : The All New Super Hub 2AC from virgin media, Did we mention its as bad as the 1st

[vmandy]

Well as the title suggests it is as bad as the first.
I am an ex employee of virgin.
I worked on the telco and ethernet networks carrying out maintenance.

Yesterday I received the new hub2ac and I am not at all surprised about its poor performance.

As a connection for 50mbps it would be fine, However this being said it performs well on 50mbps on a wireless connection at 2.4ghz.
The 5.0ghz cannot go above 50, My bandwidth is set to 100mbps DL.

On an ethernet connection it can only handle between 20 and 40mbps, which is pretty poor considering its hard-wired, as is most of the equipment in my workroom.

Upon speaking to an old friend from the operations centre, my area has some utilisation issues that would only affect the local area.

This old friend has also stated that the 2ac is as bad if not worse than the hub 1 or 2.

So, What I am getting to is.

Virgin media released the superhub 1 whilst netgear were still beta testing!.
They rolled out the hub 1 to above 2500 unsuspecting customers in the first month.
One of the main problems that hub 1 had was the wireless signal would keep dropping as the firmware was full of bugs.
On ethernet the hub 1 would be fine.

Upon me being made redundant, vm rolled out the hub2, I am uncertain of any bugs within the hub2 apart from a slow startup and slow dns resolution so i wont cover that.

So on the the new fabulous fandabbydoseytastic hub2ac.

Upon unboxing you get the hub itself a psu and a plastic spanner.
No cheap and cheerful ethernet leads or crappy software to install.

So it goes online takes its time to aquire the network signals, then it downloads new firmware.

So I put in into modem mode ready for my cisco gateway to connect.

All goes well apart from the download speeds.

15mbps on install, this ups to around 40 about 6 hours later.

I give tech support a call and they seem shocked to be speaking to a ex engineer.
They want me to download their software so they can take over my pc , I tell them not a chance.

So they ask me to plug direct to the modem which gives the same speed.

They then book and engineer to attend and then cancel because there is a fault in the area, I call the operations dept and they say the network is running with no known faults.

I call them today and they tell me the following.

There is a bug on the firmware with the hub2ac, we are working with netgear to get this resolved which we hope to be in the next few weeks!

So they didnt learn from the hub1, they didnt learn from the hub2.

I may just have to revert to a hub1 as a modem.

Get this.

The 5.0ghz light on the front of the device was pulsating even though it was in modem mode, they have no reason for this and say it should only have 3 lights on the front panel.

Will keep you updated but i have as always, my utter doubts

Andy

[jb66]

IM getting 160 on my hub AC, I agree the SH1 is pants, but I think you have been fed some BS about the AC, ive installed almost 100 and never heard of this phenomenon

[vmandy]

hmm, strange.
what area are you in?
could just be a problem with the node in my area

[DOT COTTON]

Originally Posted by vmandy

hmm, strange.
what area are you in?
could just be a problem with the node in my area

What on EARTH is a node?

[Stephen]

I agree the Superhub 1 was pretty awful but the Superhub 2 has been almost perfect for me. Both wired and wireless.

I am a former VM employee too and was part of the first beta test trials for the SH1 and SH2. At the time I had the SH1 about 8 months before its release and saw very little in the way of problems with it.

Wasn't till it rolled out on the network to customers that the issues started to appear.

[SnoopZ]

No issues with my SH2ac.

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by DOT COTTON

What on EARTH is a node?

Dot, why the heck do you post?

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by DOT COTTON

What on EARTH is a node?

it is like a toad but it is nocturnal

Originally Posted by vmandy

I am an ex employee of virgin. I worked on the telco and ethernet networks carrying out maintenance.

I don't think so because your use of the correct terminology is appalling......

Originally Posted by vmandy

My bandwidth is set to 100mbps DL.

Originally Posted by vmandy

On an ethernet connection it can only handle between 20 and 40mbps.

really? If VM really let you loose on their network I would assume you would know that their cpe offerings have been good for 400mbits for the last couple of years

Originally Posted by vmandy

Upon speaking to an old friend from the operations centre, my area has some utilisation issues that would only affect the local area.

Bit of a contradiction going on. Is there an area fault or is it because the shub can only do 40mbits?

Originally Posted by vmandy

This old friend has also stated that the 2ac is as bad if not worse than the hub 1 or 2.

Really? He can't be paying much attention then

Originally Posted by vmandy

15mbps on install, this ups to around 40 about 6 hours later.

It's magic

Originally Posted by vmandy

I give tech support a call and they seem shocked to be speaking to a ex engineer.

Because they are probably wondering why somebody who is supposed to know what they are talking is ringing them

Originally Posted by vmandy

So they ask me to plug direct to the modem which gives the same speed.

Great, so that rules the routing half of the shub out

Originally Posted by vmandy

They then book and engineer to attend and then cancel because there is a fault in the area, I call the operations dept and they say the network is running with no known faults.

If somebody has cancelled the tech there will be a registered fault in the area (which may or may not be directly associated with your symptoms)

Originally Posted by vmandy

I call them today and they tell me the following. There is a bug on the firmware with the hub2ac, we are working with netgear to get this resolved which we hope to be in the next few weeks!

Lies

Originally Posted by vmandy

So they didnt learn from the hub1, they didnt learn from the hub2.

They did actually. Shub1 was an absolute disaster but I'll give them credit, they learned from their mistakes for the most part and shub2 has been a million times better. I haven't seen any of the stupid rookie mistakes in shub2 that were in shub1.



Is it just me or does anyone else think telford or nuttehbutteh have signed up for a new account? I feel like I am doing a qas by ripping the post apart and multi-quoting it but as I was reading through it I just want to It is that bad he is actually making me defend VM. Kushan will be proud of me

[ceedee]

Just to be contrary, I received the new hub2ac yesterday and was really quite surprised about how well it performs.

Got a good 5GHz connection on my Nexus7 in a few seconds and 2.4GHz on my phone within a minute. The ethernet link took a bit longer with several devices on my network needing a reboot. Changed all the passwords, switched over to modem mode and linked it through my router (mostly to be able to control DNS servers), the ThinkBroadband speedtester reported a wired connection speed of >53Mb/s.

It'll be interesting to see how the local network holds up when the university students all return in a fortnight but trading up from 20Mb/s will save me a quid a month for a much faster connection.

I've no experience with network engineering and have never worked for an ISP - just your average befuddled middle-aged pillock - so I guess I must be doing something wrong...

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by ceedee

so I guess I must be doing something wrong...

It's all good. Although the shub's still lack what we would class as "fundamental" features for which VM have their reasons for, shub2 stepped up big time for wireless performance and stability and shub2ac grows on that. VM have realised that they can't afford to drop the ball when it comes to wireless because pretty much every single networked device is wireless these days so if your router has pants wireless, for all intents and purposes, the whole property loses their internet connection.

As with everything, you will get the odd one or two shubs which are genuinely faulty and need replacing but as a whole, each model/variant is getting better and better and this is substantiated by all the positive feedback we have had on the forum by the multiple wireless speed tests users have been performing.

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

Big Post

Actually, there IS a known bug on the SH2ac

It affects people using 10/100 Megabit Ethernet cards rather than 10/1000/1000 Megabit and results in connection speeds of from 2-40 Megabit instead of the 90'ish it should. I'm not sure if the fix for this has been found and pushed through to users yet.

However, if someone who was supposed to be a tech still uses such outdated equipment I do have to wonder what he's playing at.

Anyway, rather than randomly assuming...well every possibility OP, have you checked simple stuff like your power levels and network log to see if the Sh2ac can tell you if there's anything on the network side, aside from utilisation at fault?

[horseman]

Originally Posted by Stop It

Actually, there IS a known bug on the SH2ac

It affects people using 10/100 Megabit Ethernet cards rather than 10/1000/1000 Megabit and results in connection speeds of from 2-40 Megabit instead of the 90'ish it should. I'm not sure if the fix for this has been found and pushed through to users yet.......

V1.01.09 hasn't hit production yet but at least one report indicates that particular one has been fixed?

Originally Posted by Stop It

, if someone who was supposed to be a tech still uses such outdated equipment I do have to wonder what he's playing at.

Perhaps we're starting to understand the otherwise redundant "redundancy" comment?

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by horseman

Perhaps we're starting to understand the otherwise redundant "redundancy" comment?

thanks for that, I really appreciate quality sarcasm and that has made me lol big time

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by horseman

V1.01.09 hasn't hit production yet but at least one report indicates that particular one has been fixed? Perhaps we're starting to understand the otherwise redundant "redundancy" comment?

Ah, good to hear that bug is in the process of being squished.

I suppose when the initial firmware was created it was assumed people using 152Mb would have Ethernet connections capable and forgot to test "legacy" Ethernet capabilities.

[horseman]

Originally Posted by Stop It

Ah, good to hear that bug is in the process of being squished.

I suppose when the initial firmware was created it was assumed people using 152Mb would have Ethernet connections capable and forgot to test "legacy" Ethernet capabilities.

Somewhat lacklustre Netgear QA/QC then?.........Well it should have been running on Internal Beta's several months before limited public Beta so surprised their sample size was so small that nobody apparently picked it up previously?

But before I get a snottygram from Trials Manager, I should point out that VM/Netgear responded at least 2 months quicker than I thought they ever would, which is very commendable (imho) and shows they are taking the trial/pilot very seriously and rolling out fixes quite impressively! So well done VM!

Or more cynically I suspect Marketing/Sales have already set a 4Q release date that they have to a achieve - whatever coding resource, development/new products have to throw at it?

Nevertheless, I'm really impressed with the VM response on the current trials, it's magnitudes better than previous ones..... still won't be perfect but point is that there's serious effort to listen,investigate, resolve & achieve and I think they're getting there!

.....that said some will always be working to a hidden agenda and attempt to blindly denigrate any new initiative from VM! Curious that they hardly ever have the technical aptitude to support it with any evidential hands-on data though?....