Virgin Superhub is anything but.....

Posted by: hungryhalibut on 18 May 2015

We had Virgin fibre broadband installed on Saturday, and it's made a huge difference to the speed of downloading large music files. With our previous standard broadband we got about 4Mb download speed, but having a really strong Draytek router meant we got a good signal all round the house.

 

The Superhub was giving a wireless speed of 12Mb, but the signal was really weedy. Looking on line I discovered that the Superhub is generally considered to be a bit rubbish. Everyone was suggesting that an Asus N66U is the bees knees with Virgin so I duly ordered one yesterday. It arrived today and the Superhub is now running in modem mode with the Asus attached. 

 

What a wonderful thing the Asus is - we are now getting 60Mb wireless and have a strong signal all over the house. It's a shame that the Superhub is so bad as a router, and that we had to spend £99 on the Asus, but at least we can now get the best from our investment. Even with the Superhub a 96k download took a few minutes rather than the best part of an hour, so goodness knows how quick it will be now.

 

And if Naim ever introduce hi-res streaming we are good to go. And if anyone is using the Superhub, get an Asus.

Posted on: 18 May 2015 by garyi

I have an RT AC68U in the house but this week tool delivery an Netgear RT8000. Its very good has to be said but Asus do make exceedingly good routers.

Posted on: 18 May 2015 by GraemeH

The original 'Superhub' was such a shocker it got its own sticky on the forum. The most up to date one gives me 40mb wireless in our largeish Victorian terraced house.

 

I was able to dispense with the previously required Belkin router - so it's not too bad.

 

Glad you are future-proofed HH.

 

G

Posted on: 18 May 2015 by Bart

Congrats on joining the "I actually get high speed internet access" club!  I've been spoiled, as I've had access to broadband internet for many years now.  I reliably get 80Mb up and down from my fibre connection (Verizon FiOS); my only complaint is the cost (not so much for the internet but for the cable TV part).

 

My home modem/router is decent enough at routing over ethernet; it's just as a wifi hub and switch that it fails to perform.  So I disable just the wifi on it, let it do the IP address assignments, and connect it to a 16 port switch.  Wifi is provided by the Apple things, and I get the same 80Mb over wifi that I get wired so something has to be going right.

 

Now you can stream Netflix and download music at the same time, all while playing the latest first-person shooter on your X-Box, and/or other such nonsense.

 

 

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by roo

I've been using a TP-Link Archer D2 ADSL modem since I found a bug with the firewall in the BT HomeHub 4 that was causing outbound HTTPS connections to fail. The Archer D2 is only 60 british pounds and works well with the NDX.

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by trickydickie

I managed to escape the 'Superhub' and they provided a modem.  I run this into a Draytek 2850 router which also services an ADSL line as a backup.

 

It's fast and almost completely reliable.  We have had a handful of occasions over the years where the router couldn't see the connection to the modem.  A 30 minute power down of both devices seems to resolve this when it happens.

 

Are you still using your Airport Express as well?

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by dayjay

I've had no problems with the latest version.  The first was dire and I was using a good quality router with it but I sold it off once I got this version.  I run my music and video set up via Ethernet cables and four tablets, three mobiles and two laptops via wireless with no problems

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by Gingerbeard

Looks like a lovely piece of kit and could be just what the doctor ordered for us. despite up-grading recently to 'up to' 152mb we still get nowhere near this! don't even break the 100mb mark which we should easily be able to do, I have always suspected the router might be at the heart of the issues we have had over the years. Not that Virgin would ever admit to this, hence still having the Superhub. 

 

Forgive me for the numpty question, but we have a 'Virgin' cable (the type with the locking nut) coming out the wall which connects directly into the Superhub but I cannot see how this would connect to the Asus from looking at images of the back of this product online? 

 

Thought it would be wise to check before ordering one, thanks in advance 

 

ATB 

 

Gingerbeard

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by badlyread

SuperHub would be used just as a modem only (wireless facility turned off - this is easily done) and connected to the Asus which would take over wireless duties. (I wait to be corrected).

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by hungryhalibut
You switch the hub into modem mode and then connect the Asus with the Ethernet cable it comes bundled with. It makes a massive difference here in terms of both strength and speed. Worth every penny of £99. I downloaded a CD quality album from Qobuz earlier, using wireless, and it took 40 seconds. Amazing, compared to what I've been used to. The boy can play his computer games without lag now, again wireless, so he is well chuffed.

I'm still using the Airport for the Naim, linked into a switch, but I must say the system works just as well with the iPad using the Asus rather than the Airport. So the AE may be superfluous, I'm not sure.
Posted on: 19 May 2015 by hungryhalibut
We tested the speed earlier (we have the 'up to' 100 Mb version) and got 105Mb using the boy's turbo powered Dell laptop, which is way better than using the Hub as a router.
Posted on: 19 May 2015 by Gingerbeard

Thanks for the replies folks, all makes perfect sense, so will be making a purchase imminently 

Posted on: 19 May 2015 by garyi

Check around first and check if any of your devices are wireless AC, in which case look elsewhere in the asus range, lots of choices out there