I'm not sure where to start, but I felt it was important I made this post, purely because there aren't many of these threads on here. Bare with, as it's long. But well worth a read.
I signed up to CableForum (which has been an excellent resource) to use as a research tool as I was pondering whether or not to switch from Sky to Virgin Media. As much as my experience with Sky has been excellent, their broadband offering leaves much to be desired [but that's the limitations of the technology, as I was getting the full 20Mb].
Needless to say, I read with dread post after post with regards to the Superhub. As I was opting for the 100Mb I was concerned that this was going to cause problems for me - between us as a family we have several internet enabled devices that need to be connected up. 2 desktop PCs (one wired, one wireless), 4 notebook PCs (all wireless), an Xbox 360 (wireless), a PS3 (wired), a Wii (wired) and a handful of mobile phones. But I overcome this dread with the belief that even if the 100Mb operated at ~50Mb at peak times, that would be an extra 30Mb bandwidth there available. So off I ordered and with the £150 quidco and £50 back on first bill, I couldn't resist.
Installation options were amazing. I ordered on the Friday and install was available on the Wednesday. The installer came well prepared. I opted for the morning slot (8:30am+) and he was there at 8:15am - all ready the minute it turned 8:30am. He was clear, concise and addressed all our concerns [I had read on here about pipe bursts, random holes and unsightly cables]. He wired our TV boxes and modem exactly where we asked and set about connecting it all up. I was expecting him to set up our TV boxes with SCART cables (which a lot of individuals have posted about as being the norm), but nope, he used HDMI cables and spent a good ~5 mins per TV/box in making sure he used the best setting per TV and box combination.
Then came the dreaded Superhub. He explained the 'well known' problems with it, but reassured that out of several 100Mb installs he'd performed, he'd not encountered any problems and the one that was reported was more down to a misconfiguration with the CPE. He installed it, performed all the basic checks on his own netbook, checked the wifi signal around the house on both his netbook and phone and then asked if I wanted advice or support on hooking up my other equipment - at which point I let him leave as he was done.
He left his mobile phone number with me to contact him on directly if there were any problems before 6pm (as he was still in the area till then) - which actually concerned me a little, as if he expected me to have problems.
But, to my surprise, no problems whatsoever. In fact, I get the full 100Mb throughout the day and night, WiFi has never dropped out [with most devices getting near enough the same as the hardwired PC]. The pings are excellent in gaming sessions, BBC iPlayer HD doesn't have buffering issues and I've not rebooted the Superhub once - it's just over a week now.
Plus, I can't say I've experienced a detrimental service during the throttling period either. We get the full ~1.2MB/s upload 24/7 and the same with the downstream. The only time I noticed the throttling was during a download from Usenet [in the evening] but even that was coming down at 2.2MB/s - and the best bit was it didn't interfere with the others in the house who were on their consoles and computers.
It's for the reasons I've outlined above that I would like to thank Virgin Media. I know I shouldn't need to thank them, I'm paying them at the end of the day, but it's been a pleasurable experience. I get exactly what I pay for.
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