Author Topic: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only  (Read 4032 times)

Gattopardo

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Following on from last night fun, the wireless part of the router keeps dropping and not showing the wireless name.  As I am leaving virgin soon decided to use the hh5.  Now the first problem is the DHCP on the virgin router I changed the setting 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.101 so that gives 100 users and set the hh5 DHCP 192.168.103 but the hh still says no internet.

What am I doing wrong?

Here are the intructions I am using for the hh5
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/networks/8046/how-to-use-the-bt-home-hub-5-with-another-isp


frankly frankie

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #1 on: 28 January, 2017, 09:39:43 am »
My superhub in modem mode has the address 192.168.100.1 - since it's no longer acting as a router the DHCP and most other settings are not relevant.
and then my router (not a homehub, just a typical 4-port plus mixed wireless router) has the address 192.168.0.1 and DHCP enabled over a range of 101-120, and I have wired things connected using mostly static IPs from 2 upwards. 
The router is wired to port 1 of the superhub but doesn't appear to 'see' the superhub at all, the WAN address in the router is just shown as 86.31.114.xx which I take to be Virgin's IP
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Afasoas

Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #2 on: 28 January, 2017, 10:56:01 am »
What is your reasoning for leaving Virgin? If your SH2AC is faulty, why don't you just get a replacement?
Have you checked you get the same symptoms of multiple Wi-Fi clients?

I'm not sure how you can be both running the SH2AC in modem mode and using it's DHCP.
And I don't think a HH will work as a cable modem as it's WAN connection is aDSL/vDSL and PPPoA/PPPoE. You need a cable router which is talking regular TCP/IP on it's WAN port.

With the SH2AC in modem mode, the router will handle the DHCP for you.

If the problem you are solving is faulty Wi-Fi and you insist on solving it yourself in this manner, that what you need to do is just disable the Wi-Fi on the SH2AC, and plug a WiFi access point into one of it's LAN ports. I am running a TP-LINK WA801ND which can be purchased from eBay for <£20. Better Wireless Access Points will offer dual band (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) and wireless AC.





VM have replaced my home hub twice, no questions asked. Initially they gave me an SH3 which just didn't work properly in modem mode*. An engineer replaced it for me with an SH2AC he happened to have on it's van. That one was again faulty, so another engineer swapped the SH2AC for yet another one. Nearly 12 months later, the 3rd SH2AC is still working as it should. With each problem I had an engineer out to me within 48 hours. The customer service was excellent.


Gattopardo

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #3 on: 28 January, 2017, 11:11:29 am »
Well virgin have said there isn't a problem.  Also virgin offer poor speed as the area is oversubscribed the network can't cope.  Also moving to BT.

HH5 is what I have available.  Hence using the hh5 for the wireless bit.

Will try again later.

Afasoas

Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #4 on: 28 January, 2017, 11:22:58 am »
Have you actually done any long term testing to show it's the network? ... from a device that's connected via an Ethernet cable rather than Wi-Fi? In lots of cases where people have complained their 'internet' is slow, it's turned out to be Wi-Fi congestion, poor Wi-Fi signal or even a dodgy browser extension or Anti-Virus getting in the way.

I would factory reset the SH2AC, disable it's Wi-Fi, and then connect a HH5s LAN port to a LAN port on the SH2AC and use it's WiFi. That might work. However I suspect it won't as it's will probably try and route Wi-Fi traffic to it's WAN port which of course is disconnected. And I doubt it's re-configurable without some degree of hackery.

Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #5 on: 28 January, 2017, 05:10:53 pm »
As has been said, if you have the virgin hub in modem mode then none of its other settings are applicable, it just passes all traffic straight through to its first LAN port. So any network features that you might want, such as DHCP, need to all be configured in the BT hub which is best left at its default 192.168.0.1 address.

I recently went the other way, from BT to Virgin. And even when virgin is running at half speed its twice as fast as BTs top speed - it all varies according to where you live, etc, etc. But Wifi problems are more usually down to building layout and nothing to do with provider choice. Mine were solved by a Wifi repeater the other side of the houses central chimney stack. Also obsessing with the provider speed is slightly pointless since even sitting a metre from the hub, using wifi is slower than any physical connection, ie. its an immediate compromise on speed.


Kim

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #6 on: 28 January, 2017, 05:42:03 pm »
Also obsessing with the provider speed is slightly pointless since even sitting a metre from the hub, using wifi is slower than any physical connection, ie. its an immediate compromise on speed.

Not necessarily necessarily true.  If your connection is ADSL then WiFi can easily out-perform it on throughput in good conditions (ie. assuming you're not surrounded by neighbours spewing their own signals in the relevant band, or hampered by damp stone or foil-lined cardboard walls).

Latency is additive (and WiFi adds a fair bit, especially on busy networks), but throughput is determined by the slowest link on the route.

You can't beat a good old fashioned cable for simplicity and reliability, thobut.

Gattopardo

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #7 on: 28 January, 2017, 08:43:56 pm »
Yes it is the network, with a cable connected there was 0 down and upload.  This is with the speed increase, that never appeared.

The wifi network seem to vary in strength even when the channel it is on is clearish. I used wifi analyser to see the clear channels

Kim

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #8 on: 28 January, 2017, 08:52:09 pm »
Wifi analyser (I assume you mean the Android app) can only see WiFi signals.  It won't show you if other systems in the ISM band (eg. Bluetooth, baby monitors, microwave ovens, video senders, whatever) are causing interference that the WiFi chipset can't decode.

Afasoas

Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #9 on: 28 January, 2017, 09:23:33 pm »
Yes it is the network, with a cable connected there was 0 down and upload.  This is with the speed increase, that never appeared.

The wifi network seem to vary in strength even when the channel it is on is clearish. I used wifi analyser to see the clear channels


What are you doing to establish 0 down/upload?
Can you screen shot a couple of status pages from your Virgin modem?

Particularly the downstream and upstream status.

Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #10 on: 29 January, 2017, 10:28:07 am »
Following on from last night fun, the wireless part of the router keeps dropping and not showing the wireless name.  As I am leaving virgin soon decided to use the hh5.  Now the first problem is the DHCP on the virgin router I changed the setting 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.101 so that gives 100 users and set the hh5 DHCP 192.168.103 but the hh still says no internet.

What am I doing wrong?

Yes it is the network, with a cable connected there was 0 down and upload.  This is with the speed increase, that never appeared.

The wifi network seem to vary in strength even when the channel it is on is clearish. I used wifi analyser to see the clear channels

I'm no network guru, but I know I had problems when I tried to use a different subnet on the internal network to the one on the modem (which couldn't be changed). Even when setting the subnet masks correctly, as soon as the modem detected there was a second IP range internally the BB speed dropped to a fraction of what it was before.

On top of that, you might not even have a route between 192.168.103.* and 192.168.0.*
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Gattopardo

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #11 on: 01 February, 2017, 08:50:54 pm »
Have you actually done any long term testing to show it's the network? ... from a device that's connected via an Ethernet cable rather than Wi-Fi? In lots of cases where people have complained their 'internet' is slow, it's turned out to be Wi-Fi congestion, poor Wi-Fi signal or even a dodgy browser extension or Anti-Virus getting in the way.

I would factory reset the SH2AC, disable it's Wi-Fi, and then connect a HH5s LAN port to a LAN port on the SH2AC and use it's WiFi. That might work. However I suspect it won't as it's will probably try and route Wi-Fi traffic to it's WAN port which of course is disconnected. And I doubt it's re-configurable without some degree of hackery.

Long term testing has been using ookla to see the network speed and it has never got near the supposed 50mb  think the most has been 30mb and that is with a supposed 70mb upgrade. 

The problem is several computers having problems connecting if they are wired or wireless. Hence the move to another provider.

Afasoas

Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #12 on: 02 February, 2017, 08:32:22 am »
Have you actually done any long term testing to show it's the network? ... from a device that's connected via an Ethernet cable rather than Wi-Fi? In lots of cases where people have complained their 'internet' is slow, it's turned out to be Wi-Fi congestion, poor Wi-Fi signal or even a dodgy browser extension or Anti-Virus getting in the way.

I would factory reset the SH2AC, disable it's Wi-Fi, and then connect a HH5s LAN port to a LAN port on the SH2AC and use it's WiFi. That might work. However I suspect it won't as it's will probably try and route Wi-Fi traffic to it's WAN port which of course is disconnected. And I doubt it's re-configurable without some degree of hackery.

Long term testing has been using ookla to see the network speed and it has never got near the supposed 50mb  think the most has been 30mb and that is with a supposed 70mb upgrade. 

The problem is several computers having problems connecting if they are wired or wireless. Hence the move to another provider.

If the download speed is your primary concern, ensure you are testing it with no other devices connected to your network and via a wired connection. You could very well be getting a 'supposed' 50 or even 70 Mb/s but if a machine on your network is stealthily downloading updates or syncing dropbox when you are running your tests you will not got a true result.

There's more to a quality broadband connection than download speeds. For some tasks latency is important and generally uptime/availability/reliability are the most important factors.

It's generally good to isolate and tackle one set of problems at a time - Is the problem the internet or is it the Wi-Fi? I generally start with the quality of the internet connection and work backwards, dealing with the actual machines last*. Trying to tackle both at the same time jst leads to miss-diagnosis and confusion and people generally saying 'my internet is slow'

*A problem with a web site or a browser extension is the cause of "broken internet"

Gattopardo

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Re: Virgin superhub 2ac in modem mode and homehub 5 as wireless only
« Reply #13 on: 09 February, 2017, 11:59:33 am »
Solved the problem by not doing anything and moving to BT.