Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

How do I go about setting up a repeater with the Virgin Super Hub? I'm trying to keep the circle as small as possible as I want to not lose much of my 50 mbps connection but need wireless all over the house!

re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

If you dont have a huge house its probably better if you get a good dual band N router and set the superhub to modem mode. The superhubs range is limited.

re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

Or stick on a wired AP rather than a repeater. You'd need to put the repeater in the same room to maintain decent WiFi speeds if your Superhub is anything like the one I had.

A cheap TP-Link N AP can be had for £18 (I just got one from Play) but a decent N router with a megabit switch is going to cost north of £60. If you want that AP can be configured as a wireless repeater too. Downside is it's only 2.4GHz 150Mbps so not future proof.

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

That's exactly what I did.

The TP-Link AP provides very good speeds all over the house.

The Superhub wireless is ok - as long as you're sitting next to it.

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

I have the SH in modem mode. An Airport Extreme is the router and this is connected to a Devolo Powerline which punts the circuit through the mains.

In another part of the house, another Powerline feeds an unmanaged switch, intoi which I've connected an Airport Express repeater. This presents the same SSID as the Airport Extreme and gets round the walls problem I have in my house.

You can do this with any combination of kit and no doubt with the SH in router mode - so long as you can get ethernet into your AP.

If you want a more detailed explanation just let me know.

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

Cheers guys - really want to try the Powerline. Problem is, my house has wiring that's probably around 25 years old.. and when I tried it last time, I only managed to get 1-2 mb/s - to be fair though that was from the corner of one floor to the corner of the opposite floor. Might just get some off Amazon and try it?

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

My wiring is more than 25 years old. I do recommend what I've got - the Devolo 200AV with mains passthrough. Max I get out of it in local traffic is about 150 meg. I also tried Belkin, but it was nowhere near as good.

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

This is almost exactly the set up I want but when I put the superhub into modem mode, I lost all internet connection through the Airport Extreme that was connected to it. Is there a setting I need to adjust on the Airport Extreme to make it work? Is there a particular port I need to use from the SH and into the Airport Extreme?
At the moment I have the Superhub in router mode connected to the Airport Extreme which powers my network - is there a downside to this?

If you could help with another question I'd also be really grateful..
I need more ports than the airport extreme has for my wired network. If I get an unmanaged switch should it sit between the superhub and the airport extreme or should it sit between the airport extreme and everything else?

Thanks

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

The unmanaged switch MUST be fed from the Router. Anything on the switch will contend for that router port.

he downside to not using modem mode is the current SH instability reported by some users whein in hub mode. It's a crap router anyway.

Here's what you need to do to get it all set up:

ATTACH AN AE/ATC ROUTER TO A VM HUB IN MODEM MODE
1/
Plug a Cat 5e ethernet cable from your AE/ATC WAN port into the first LAN port on the Hub (assumed already to be in Modem Mode Modem Mode).

2/
Plug your PC into any AE/ATC LAN port and invoke the AIRPORT UTILITY

You're now ready to configure the AE/ATC.

AIRPORT EXTREME CONFIGURED FOR VIRGIN CABLE
AE = Airport Extreme (and AIRPORT TIME CAPSULE)
AU = Airport Utility v5.5.3 or later

Check/configure:

AU
--\Manual Setup -> Supply password if needed
----\Internet------\Internet Connection
------Connect Using -> Ethernet------Ethernet WAN Port -> Automatic (Default)
------Connection Sharing -> Share a public IP address (connected to a cable modem or Modem Mode Hub)
------Connection Sharing -> Off (Bridge Mode) (connected to a non-Modem Mode Hub)

------\TCP/IP--------Confifgure IPv4 -> Using DHCP
--------IP Address -> Renew DHCP Lease (should set itself to your VM static ip-address)
--------DNS Servers -> set to the OPENDNS values. 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220
--------DNS Servers -> or set to the fast Google DNS values. 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4
--------Domain Name -> should set itself to cable.virginmedia.net once the IP address lease is obtained

------\DHCP--------DHCP Beginning Address -> 192.168.1.2 (just a suggestion).
--------DHCP Ending Address -> 192.168.1.200 (This is your router's DHCP scope.)

------\NAT
--------Default -> leave blank unless you want to make a specific assignment (not part of this topic)
--------Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol -> tick


If the AE light turns green, it won’t be necessary to switch off all PCs & networking equipment and switch back on (slowly) in order, VM modem --> AE --> any Homeplugs or switches --> Finally PC/Laptop Xbox etc.


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SETTING UP WIRELESS ACCESS

The AE router supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio modes (simultaneously) depending on the mode of the PC or other device that wishes to connect to the AE.

Configure as follows:

AU
--\Manual Setup -> Supply password if needed
----\Airport
------\Wireless
------Wireless Mode -> Create a wireless network
------Network Name -> xxxxxxx (xxxxxxx is a name of your choice.
--------Allow this network to be extended -> Do not tick this box during this initial setup
------Radio Mode -> Automatic This will allow both 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz modes
------Channel: Automatic

------Wireless Security -> WPA/WPA2/Personal
------Wireless Password -> 8 to 63 characters. A connecting device will need to enter this password.
--------Remember this password in my keychain -> It's up to you. I didn't, preferring to use a memorable word

Click UPDATE to save your settings.

If you want to keep your SSID from being broadcast, then you can go into Wireless Options to make that setting.

Otherwise, at this stage, Wireless Options need not be considered. It contains options to allow you to specifiy a Region, the Multicast Rate and Transmit Power (default 100%) and a couple of other options that may be considered at a later date if necessary.

A word about Access Control. By default it is Not Enabled. In my opinion, it need not be enabled unless you've chosen WEP security which is much weaker than WPA2.

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A quick word about a blinking orange light

You might think the engineer left you in Modem Mode when in fact he hadn't. You may thus have followed the Modem Mode instructions above. You will then see the AE light blinking orange and the AU Status page will show the orange lamp against the warning: "Double NAT".

Note that you are still able to use the internet for normal browsing and if you put the AE into Bridge Mode, the light will turn green. If you definitely want Modem Mode, you'd set the SuperHub into Modem Mode, it will reboot and when everything is up and running, the lamp will be green.

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AIRPORT EXPRESS

The Apple Airport Express documentation is utter rubbish. There is nothing in there to help you avoid the inevitable gotchas - particularly the constant orange flashing light. So these are the key points to note:

1/
Ensure that the Express is in a default state if you screw up anywhere along the procedure. There is a pinhole reset for this purpose.

2/
Connect the Express by Ethernet to youe Extreme base station and plug the Express into the mains.

3/
Invoke the Airport Utility on your PC and you should see both devices present. Select the Express device.

4/
Out of preference (not necessity) you might care to use the Airport Utility to provide a MAC based static IP address for the Express.

5/
In the Express Base Station page, tick "Allow setup over WAN". Otherwise you'll get an error message telling you to do this. It is not necessary to have that set on my Extreme base station.

6/
You may notice the still orange flashing light on the Express device. Go to the Express status page and click on the orange light. You will find two problems, one of which will be double NATting. The advice offered is to put the Express into BRIDGE MODE. When you've done that and clicked Update, you will have knocked out both errors and the Express light will have turned green.

You're ready to use it for both 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz operation. The Express default state is to make the Express an extension of your Extreme network.

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

Thanks, really helpful. Once I've set up the Airport Express as outlined above can I disconnect the ethernet from it to the Extreme and plug it in elsewhere in the house to extend the wireless network?

Re: Use a Repeater with Virgin Super Hub
 

I've done the following:

SH --> Extreme --> Powerline --> Mains --> Powerline --> Switch --> Various + A Express

The wireless network is extended through the wired connection although you can plug the A Express into a mains socket elsewhere and try to pick up the wireless from the Extreme and extend that. I can understand why you might want to do that and you'd have to configure the A Express differently.