Anyone got any recommendations of routers to replace the Hub 3 as it’s bloody dire!
We were meant to be leaving Virgin as we were now out of contract but the father fell for the old chestnut of “oh we can upgrade your package for the same cost” so we’re in another contract for 18 months.
I can’t do another 18 months of 12mbps when we are being sold a 500mbps package…
Challenge them on what you’ve been sold vs what you are getting?
You’ll have to get Dad to do it though.
Already have, multiple times - I tend to call them on my Dad’s behalf, its just he decided to renew the contract despite knowing the service we get is shite.
The Hub 3 has a dodgy Intel chipset and we have over the 20 recommended devices connected so the performance of it is diabolical, their kit is known for being awful and not able to actually even provide their packages even at the least demanding of times.
Virgin themselves recommended putting the Hub in modem mode and getting a third party one which is better equipped lol
Yeah you’re probably better off just buying a cheapish router, that’ll work much better than any ISP modem/router.
You have a 14 day ‘cooling off’ period in which you can choose not to continue with the contractual obligation for the next 18 months. I’d recommend starting that process immediately if you are not happy with what service you think you are likely to receive.
Try and upgrade to a Hub 4.
My Hub 3 was shite, I too had too many smart devices routing off it. Run a couple of online troubleshoots, and VM should call you to upgrade – that’s what happened with me.
The Hub 4 is solid.
Hub 4 has the same Intel chipset in, rather just stick the Virgin kit in modem mode and splash out on a nighthawk
Fair enough. I can only go on my personal experience. I might hook up Google Mesh at some point.
IIRC, Virgin hubs have a modem mode of sorts, but I don’t quite remember if this completely turns off routing and wireless or just wireless, so this could cause a double NAT issue.
But when I was with Virgin the best experience was always achieved through using my own equipment in front of the hub to interface with my devices. This was the only time I’d ever achieve their advertised speeds.
Even their latest hubs at the time were rather meh. They’d always find an excuse or something else to blame. It was never a fault of theirs or their equipment, it was always an issue with my equipment, according to them. But I’m not your average Troubleshooting Tom, so I knew better. Swapped to my own equipment and eventually left.
I do miss the speeds some times. But I don’t miss the qos.
Turns it all off, the third party router handles it all after. Only reason you can’t fully remove the Hub is so Virgin can still have remote access to it should their be a reason.
Think I’m going to get the ASUS RT-AC85P and see how that goes, currently get <20mbps surplus on the 500mbps package.
The Virgin kit is dog shite, it’s known for it all over the internet, cheap and nasty.
I recently bought an Amplifi router and it works great compared to the BT hub which kept flaking out with all my smart devices connected to it. I thought about Ubiquity, but I couldn’t justify it in my terrace.
You cannot really replace the Virgin hub itself because you still need the modem part from the hub so you should put it into bridged (or modem) mode (if that’s not possible, you just disable all wifi related parts) if you get a new router.
To get rid of my BT hub completely, I also purchased an Openreach modem to go down the line from the Amplifi router. I then put BT’s PPPoE settings into Amplifi (the BT username and password from the old hub) and it works perfectly.
I have the SuperHub 4 running in Modem mode with a Unifi Dream Machine Pro behind that - Creating and managing your own prosumer/small business network is fun and it’s “mostly” plug and play - but expensive
Virgin hubs are generally crap. We’ve had ours in modem mode for years with a real router attached.
Currently using Google WiFi but any number of options would be be a better choice than the Virgin POS.
My setup is the Hub 3 in modem mode wired into a Google Nest WiFi point.
I need a new router, I have a plus net one hub and the WiFi is terrible if your have a lot of devices.
How much actually is a router though? Can someone give an indication of how much one expects to pay for a ‘decent’ home router? We have a lot of devices online but otherwise don’t need any other fancy features. I do want a solid upgrade from my ISP router.
They seem to range from £20 to about £350. I’m thinking £150 is a solid price range?
Just a regular dream machine is probably a little more user friendly being an all in one, and a great device. It’s what I use at home currently.
Amplifi products may be a more suitable and affordable option for folks who don’t want to play around with networking but still want a superb plug and play it just works option without putting more of your privacy into the hands of big data.
In particular the Amplifi Instant system is the UI answer to Google WiFi and Eero.
I had a look at those. They look cool but £300 seems expensive! I bought a TP link V2800 in the end for £150, hopefully will be a big improvement.
I’d be tempted by that £150 Amplifi Instant. Pretty good value for a base and one mesh point.
Modem mode and literally any other router or mesh network = problem solved.
Technically not true as some routers don’t come with gigabit ports
