Virgin Media Super Hub review

Too bad they don't offer the Fritz!Box 6360 as an optional upgrade for those with 'particular' requirements. It also satisfies your concerns for a lower power consumption, despite fulfilling more functions.

By dalerm on 13 Feb 2011

Virgin hopelessness

I had just had to cancel my Virgin 20Mbits as they took a month to tell me that half of all SE postcodes in London cannot get any more than 1-2 Mbits for most of the day.
Apparently a huge problem with Lewisham that will not besolved by mid March. I was surprised to find a horrible customer service experience and the Router wa snever the limitation.

By KostasD on 21 Feb 2011

DavidPNash

As an existing user, I found it easy to install and worked on wired Ethernet first time. Not tried wireless yet.

By davidnash1 on 21 Feb 2011

Nothing super about super hub

I have found Very poor performance from this hub, Must find a better one, any one suggest one?

By badassa on 10 Mar 2011

Useless for xbox

I had this box installed yesterday after upgrading from 20mb to 50mb and thought it excellent with the wired pc's in my home. Unfortunately when my son came home and tried to link up his xbox wirelessly disappointment came with a great big bang! He could NOT get more than 2 bars so made playing IMPOSSIBLE. Both my son and grandson have xboxes and could play without too many problems on the 20mb set up! we are all very disappointed with the new hub!

By tinlizzy on 13 May 2011

Try these settings:

Wireless Security: WPA2-PSK[AES]

40MHz Intolerant - Disabled
802,11h+d - Loose 11h
802.11n Preamble - Green Field Mode
Afterurner - Enabled
AP Compatibility Mode - Higher Performance
Association Roam Preference - Disabled
Band Preference - None
Bandwidth Capability - 11a/b/g:20/40MHz
Bluetooth Collaboration - Auto
BSS PLCP Header - Auto (Short/Long)
Disable Bands - None
Fragmentation Threshold - 2346
Locally Administered MAC Address - Not Present
Location - United Kingdom
Minimum Power Consumption - Enabled
Mixed Cell Support - Enabled
Power Output - 100%
Priority & VLAN - Priority & VLAN Disabled
Rate (802.11a) - Best Rate
Rate (802.11b/g) - Best Rate
Roam Tendency - Moderate
Roaming Decision - Optimize Bandwidth
RTS Threshold - 2347
WMM - Enabled
WZC IBSS Channel Number - 11
XPress (TM) Technology - Enabled

By Akita47 on 19 May 2011

Great Upgrade

Got this for free as part of the upgrade to 30mb. First of all it combines the modem and the router so you don't need extra cables, space and plug sockets. Absolute doddle to set up. Overall very pleased as it has basically upgraded my wired network to 1000mb. Haven't been and never really go far enough to test wireless but so far so good. Has all the features I need and likely to need. setup in ours is nas drive, laptop, ps3, xbox 360, iphone and android phone. All works a treat at max speed

By engineerbennett on 1 Jun 2011

Misleading info on IPs in this article

"The guest networks have their own fixed IP ranges, which prevent you from switching the router’s main IP range to the 192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x ranges."
This is inaccurate. If you try to change the IP range and click the Apply button you are indeed shown an a message saying it cant be the same as the host IPs. However, there is a workaround:
i. Enter the main IP you want for the router (do not change the IP range yet).
ii. Instead of clicking the Apply button click the DCHP release button at the bottom.
> The hub restarts with the new IP...
iii. Log in to the hub again but this time log in to the IP that you changed it to (not 192.168.0.0).
iv. Enter the IP range you want and click Apply

By RiverMonster on 23 Sep 2011

Virgin Super S**T

Utter, utter garbage, given this as a free 'upgrade' after complaining about slow internet access and frequent outages since Virgin began rolling out its free doubling of everyone's broadband speed.
Apparently this was due to my 10 year old Motorola cable modem (supplied by Virgin) being unable to handle the upgrade and this would solve all our 'connectivity problems'.

PC is fine as it sits next to the router and uses an Ethernet (wired) connection, but the wireless is all but unusable. The only wireless gadget I have been able to connect without any noticeable deterioration in performance is a Kindle Keyboard.

PS Vita will not even detect it; PSP will detect, but not connect; 3DS will connect but not access the net; Samsung Galaxy S with latest firmware update will detect and connect but gives sub-dial-up performance, 2,400 baud anyone?

At this point having googled the numerous problems other users have been having with PS3, etc on support forums. I gave up, piggybacked the Buffalo AirStation I had been using onto it and all my wireless connectivity problems miraculous disappeared.

I hope whoever commissioned this awful piece of kit and the Netgear designers responsible for it get the sack they so richly deserve.

By RPAAlonzo on 17 Mar 2012

Poor Wirless Range!

ive had the new hub for about a month now and the wireless range is very poor compared to other routers i have in the past, i swapped over from bt and ive had the homehub 2&3 and never had a problem with range could use it all other the house even outside in the garden, but now with this hub downstairs is fine, but apart from at the top of the stairs my wireless range just disapears, sometimes i am able to pick it up but within a few mintues i have lost it agen and the speeds are atleast half, i have solved the problem by buying a homeplug..

By FUNKYMONKEY on 9 May 2012

Poor Wirless Range!

ive had the new hub for about a month now and the wireless range is very poor compared to other routers i have in the past, i swapped over from bt and ive had the homehub 2&3 and never had a problem with range could use it all other the house even outside in the garden, but now with this hub downstairs is fine, but apart from at the top of the stairs my wireless range just disapears, sometimes i am able to pick it up but within a few mintues i have lost it agen and the speeds are atleast half, i have solved the problem by buying a homeplug..

By FUNKYMONKEY on 9 May 2012

YOU ARE STUPID

IF YOU ARE USING WIRELESS FOR GAMING YOU ARE A MORON!

USE A LONG ETHER CABLE

WIRELESS IS A FAD AN WITH LINUX ITS PRETTY EASY TO HACK MOST TYPES SO AGAIN GO WIRED OR YOU ARE STUPID AN RISK YOUR FAMILYS SAFTEY, DECT CORDELESS AN WIFI IS LIKE HAVING A PHONE MAST IN YOUR HOUSE ,EMF FROM THESE THINGS IS REALLY NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY TO BATHE IN ,

YOU HOLD THE KEYS TO SAFETY OR DANGER SO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN!

By T1mmy on 16 May 2012

YOU ARE STUPID

IF YOU ARE USING WIRELESS FOR GAMING YOU ARE A MORON!

USE A LONG ETHER CABLE

WIRELESS IS A FAD AN WITH LINUX ITS PRETTY EASY TO HACK MOST TYPES SO AGAIN GO WIRED OR YOU ARE STUPID AN RISK YOUR FAMILYS SAFTEY, DECT CORDELESS AN WIFI IS LIKE HAVING A PHONE MAST IN YOUR HOUSE ,EMF FROM THESE THINGS IS REALLY NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY TO BATHE IN ,

YOU HOLD THE KEYS TO SAFETY OR DANGER SO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN!

By T1mmy on 16 May 2012

YOU ARE STUPID

IF YOU ARE USING WIRELESS FOR GAMING YOU ARE A MORON!

USE A LONG ETHER CABLE

WIRELESS IS A FAD AN WITH LINUX ITS PRETTY EASY TO HACK MOST TYPES SO AGAIN GO WIRED OR YOU ARE STUPID AN RISK YOUR FAMILYS SAFTEY, DECT CORDELESS AN WIFI IS LIKE HAVING A PHONE MAST IN YOUR HOUSE ,EMF FROM THESE THINGS IS REALLY NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY TO BATHE IN ,

YOU HOLD THE KEYS TO SAFETY OR DANGER SO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN!

By T1mmy on 16 May 2012

WIRELESS GAMING POINTLESS

WIRELESS GAMING IS POINTLESS GO WIRED OR GET OWNED

By T1mmy on 16 May 2012

Just Terrible

I don't very option write reviews but anyone considering the virgin superhub, should quickly turn their focus to another provider.

I've been using and tied into a contract for 12 months now. Trying to get my wireless to run smoothly has been a full time job in itself... have clocked up hours of talk time to technical services, had a replacement superhub box (fixed problem for 5 mins), upgraded at additional expense to highest speed and STILL same old issues... wireless keeps cutting out or drops completely.

I now operate with a second laptop plugged into the modem downstairs which I have to manually change wireless channels pretty much every other day (BTW 1, 6 and 11 are not overlapped but equally as useless). I've downloaded the usage software in my area and only two other virgin superhub routers in range and still I have problems! Trying to work from home is a nightmare as everytime the wireless drops out, so do all my work connections.

I've now resorted to buying a 20m cable to run from the hub downstairs which looks great trailing up my stair case!

Anyone considering this kit should run a mile!!!

By Shannelle on 8 Aug 2012

Aweful Wifi

Wasted a day on the line to helpful technicians but sadly limited by the hardware .They admitted the Superhub was having issues with a lot of people and couldnt do much more after re-jigging my settings remotely didnt. I knew there was a catch when I was upgraded to 30mb speeds and this new hub for free - the thing is worse than when I was on a 10mb speed with a dlink. Its really poor on my ps3, which is only 6 meters away next door. Now I used a mains ethernet which still only gets 6mbs of the 30 when directly plugged in.

By CorbinDallas on 25 Aug 2012

Hopeless router and service

So much for dodging the problems with my BT phone line and ISP. The Virgin Media Super Hub is unstable, resets to factory default on a whim and does not allow for internal file sharing. The best Virgin can offer so far is their £10/month home equipment support. I think not guys - I work in IT, in a 4th/5th line MS Windows support role!

Come on BT, get your fiber installed on my street!

By GromitWF2 on 8 Sep 2012

VM engineer

I'm an engineer for them and only just installed mine as was with a long contract at sky, their broadband was ok but damn slow! So far I've found this Superhub to be working really well! You'll find that if yours got installed by someone whos a little inept the signal levels (going into the device) are going to be possibly out. I got mine spot on, tweaked it a little(took 1 min) and can get good signal at the bottom of my garden on my laptop ;-) and no dropouts as yet and excellent speeds. I'm not biased because I work for them, I just tell it as it is. Get someone who knows what they're doing to sort it out. Oh and to the guy who can't game on wireless...seriously mate?? My PS3 in my LOFT works fantastically from the router that's in my front room lol

By crawleyguy on 20 Oct 2012

Improving WiFi - VM Engineer

Just got superhub installed and working fine but wifi range bad with iphones and blackberrys, but better with wireless PCs. Can VM Engineer recommend best way to improve range. Currently looking at buying a Netgear RangeMax Dual band or Belkin N300 Range extender for laptop when using at top of house(hub located gnd floor). Also, looking at buying a Netgear WN3000RP range extender for other devices. Don't believe signal was tweaked as engineer only checked laptop connection close to the hub. Don't know if there will be interconnection problems with these devices. Should I also request optimising signal strength from VM. Can VM Engineer indciate what is involved and can this be done by self. Appreciate feedback

By GDemp on 14 Nov 2012

Rubbish

Dont even bother with this..since I replaced my old router and modem with this 2 days ago , it's been slow to start up , pages take forever to load and it freezes...I will be putting my old modem and router back tomorrow as i have had no problems with it... cheap rubbish

By tony66 on 30 Nov 2012

No Problems Here

OK, I can understand some people having issues and registering their displeasure, but I have to "stand and be counted". I upgraded my Virgin package for the better last month, at no extra cost too. My new VM Superhub is performing way better in every respect than the old black Motorola effort that VM originally supplied me with, and I've reduced clutter too. Wi-fi functions perfectly, and "speedtest dot net" indicates download speed 31.5 Mbps, upload 1.73Mbps, latency 135ms. Big 5GB downloads slam in absolutely effortlessly and I've never had any major problems with VM support since they took over from Telewest. Their V+ and Tivo boxes are excellent too incidentally. Maybe I'm just lucky and/or happen to live in a good area.

By trixx on 9 Mar 2013

Tips on wireless range

Look at the construction of your house. If you have solid metal beams running through it, these are going to attenuate the signal, badly. Don't tuck the router away in a cupboard either, that isn't going to help. Keep it away from other "busy" electrical areas, like near the television. Want to get it in the garden? Stick it on the window sill. You might need to just experiment where to place it to get the best range. You might need to go and buy some additional coaxial cable to get it where it's best.

Bear in mind, that the further away you go, the slower it will get (the review gives a pretty accurate idea how much it will slow down). If you're gaming you really want to be as close as you can to the router, although there I'd highly recommend a cable. If you move far enough away, you're going to end up with a wireless connection that is slower than your internet connection!

My best advice though is to set this cheapo thing to modem mode and go out and buy a decent SO-HO router. I use the Vigor 2130n which is a cracking bit of kit, but I suspect it might have a few too many features most will never use. The higer end Netgear kit is usually reliable, but I can't really comment beyond that.

By Pygmalleon on 14 Mar 2013

Was lucky to be able to Load this web page kind of router

We recently "upgraded" to this new Virgin Media Super hub around a month ago. We generally get around 84KB/s download speed at 15m with no obstructions between the laptop and the router. And YES I MEANT Kilobyte!!! and around 2.4MB/s at about 1 cm away from the router, this is the same for half a meter then it drops to 1.2MB/s and then turns into some kind of Half life graph.for every half meter away from router, and then levels off. I tried to run an internet speed tester online, it failed to load....... -_- ......I gave up after 36 hours...... I have tried several different websites, but all give the same result. DO NOT GET THIS ROUTER. Around 4 different people I know have this router and all are experiencing the same problems if not worse. The router has been installed correctly, their is nothing to interfere with the router. These problems are not just for my local area this also includes many other parts of the country, not just this town.

By TheCreedsinator on 13 Apr 2013

Was lucky to be able to Load this web page kind of router

We recently "upgraded" to this new Virgin Media Super hub around a month ago. We generally get around 84KB/s download speed at 15m with no obstructions between the laptop and the router. And YES I MEANT Kilobyte!!! and around 2.4MB/s at about 1 cm away from the router, this is the same for half a meter then it drops to 1.2MB/s and then turns into some kind of Half life graph.for every half meter away from router, and then levels off. I tried to run an internet speed tester online, it failed to load....... -_- ......I gave up after 36 hours...... I have tried several different websites, but all give the same result. DO NOT GET THIS ROUTER. Around 4 different people I know have this router and all are experiencing the same problems if not worse. The router has been installed correctly, their is nothing to interfere with the router. These problems are not just for my local area this also includes many other parts of the country, not just this town.

By TheCreedsinator on 13 Apr 2013