Disappointing 'upgrade'

[Phil501]

I was on 10meg Fibre Optic Broadband and the Virgin 'Large' TV Package. Recently I was advised that my monthly bill would increase by £3.50 with no real explanation as to why, so I called customer support who explained it was an unavoidable increase across the board (!) but by way of compensation I could have my broadband upgraded to 30meg FOC.
I booked an appointment and the engineer fitted a new Virgin supehub (looks very like a large BT Infinity unit) and disconnected the Belkin hub, although I still have it hooked up to a power source.
The engineers on screen indicator showed our speed was now around 28meg, so all fine and dandy.
Actually it wasn't .
We have several Apple devices at home ; i mac on wifi, i mac on firefire, two mac books on wifi and 2 i phones.
We first noticed that the mac systems no longer 'liked' using Firefox so we switched to Safari browser but everything was still noticeably slower.
My son frequently streams movies and the next problem was that he simply couldn't, line speed seemed to have decreased dramatically and kept 'dropping' connection.
I also noticed that the signal from the old belkin router seemed to be stronger and more consistent as my i phone continually reverts to that rather than the new hub.
During high demand times in the evening our system slows down to a crawl and we've all noticed that e mail is much slower also.
Overall the 'upgrade' has been a complete disappointment and we appear to have gone backwards by a couple of years in performance while the price has increased.
My questions are;
a. Can this be improved and how?
b if not, can I have my old Belkin connection back and how do I do it.?

[alexcopeland]

Its possible to put the superhub into modem mode and connect your old Belkin router. The virgin media we site has the instructions.

[Phil501]

Thanks for the reply. Is the hub the problem then? Forgive the ignorance but has the 30meg 'upgrade' been made from the hub - as opposed to an increased signal into the hub?

[alexcopeland]

The super hub wireless channel may need to be change to improve wireless performance.
http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1002&PARTITION_ID=1&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&USERTYPE=1&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=412750

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=472474&CURRENT_CMD=SEARCH&CONFIGURATION=1002&PARTITION_ID=1&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable

[qasdfdsaq]

(looks very like a large BT Infinity unit)
Just because it's black? They look nothing alike!

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2013/08/36.jpg

[Sephiroth]

Thanks for the reply. Is the hub the problem then? Forgive the ignorance but has the 30meg 'upgrade' been made from the hub - as opposed to an increased signal into the hub?

It's a two way thing configured from the VM end. The SH has to be configured as to speed - like setting a modem speed in the old days. The increased signal goes to the SH which then expects to communicate at the upgraded speeds.

Except in modem mode, the SH is known to be problematic particularly where wireless is concerned. There are instabilities well reported across the forums.

No problems that are down to SH implementation are recorded AFAIK against the modem mode.

So, to your original question - as mentioned, the VM support site describes how to attach your own router having put the SH into modem mode.

As regards performance, when in modem mode, your circuit will perform to its best according to any congestion. When you were on 10 meg, you might have been on the "legacy" network - a set of frequencies not used by your 30 meg service. We won't know this for certain unless you have modem stats for both before and after. Anyway, if the legacy network was relatively uncluttered and the current "overlay" network is full of 30, 50, 60, 100 meg users and you are in a densely populated area, congestion could be hitting you.

But the first step is to get back to your previous setup, i.e. modem mode and take it from there. Wireless performance will be stable and will be better.

[doog442]

Just because it's black? They look nothing alike!

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2013/08/36.jpg

If you dont mind me asking but why hasnt my crappy superhub got big horns like the one in your photo.

Its not an issue as I am now with BT but the last 2 years might have been less stressful if I had that big boy

[Jumping]

If you dont mind me asking but why hasnt my crappy superhub got big horns like the one in your photo.

Its not an issue as I am now with BT but the last 2 years might have been less stressful if I had that big boy

Cause it got horny seeing the BT hub ;) its cause he modified it and used some antennas from another router.

[doog442]

Cause it got horny seeing the BT hub ;) its cause he modified it and used some antennas from another router.

nice one :D