Virgin Media - switching SuperHub to modem mode [UK]

[David.WE.Roberts]

Just about to fire up my new Buffalo router.

The quick set up instructions include "Provider Settings" with a user name
and password.

I've checked on the Virgin Media web site and there is no mention of this,
and AFAICS if the router in modem mode authenticated to the VM network,
then this should be the same as an ADSL modem authenticating and you
shouldn't need anything more to establish an Ethernet connection.

Also AFAICS the router should work perfectly well as a zone within a
larger network with no direct connection to the ISP.
As long as it uses DHCP on the WAN side it should all be automatic.

So before I tie myself in knots, has anyone done this recently and if so
did they have to supply and login details for the Virgin ISP in the router?

Cheers

Dave R

[Lee]

Done just that here, VM Superhub 2 in modem mode connected to Airport
Extreme (AC), just connected as "share a public IP address"

Do yourself a favour and use someone else's DNS server though, OpenDNS
or Google, unless you actually want to use WebSafe. The VM DNS servers
are not known for being the most stable....

Lee

[Rob Morley]

On 26 Jul 2014 14:07:43 GMT

You don't need a login, switch on DHCP on the WAN interface and it
should just work.

[Chris Whelan]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2014 15:23:48 +0100, Lee wrote:

[...]

> Do yourself a favour and use someone else's DNS server though, OpenDNS
> or Google, unless you actually want to use WebSafe. The VM DNS servers
> are not known for being the most stable....

I've tested both OpenDNS and Googles's DNS servers against the VM ones,
and found them both significantly slower.

There were problems a while back with the VM ones, but they have been
stable here since then.

Chris


--
Remove prejudice to reply.

[David.WE.Roberts]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2014 15:23:48 +0100, Lee wrote:

Thanks both Lee and Rob. :-)

Two big reasons to replace the SuperHub are that the DNS can't be changed
(and there are some unexplained pauses when refreshing web sites with lots
of 3rd party crap in) and that the management of DHCP reservations against
MAC address is seriously broken.

Oh, and I don't like the fact that VM can allegedly put their hand up the
back of the router any time they chose.

The Buffalo Airstation Extreme + High Power (very modestly named) can also
run DD-WRT if I decide I don't like the interface or want more features.

Tempting to turn on all the 'safety' features, announce to the world that
I am not a porn scraping low life, and then change the DNS :-)

[Oh, and the adware is on the Android tablet which doesn't currently have
an efficient ad blocker.]

Cheers

Dave R

[Lee]

On 26/07/2014 17:05, David.WE.Roberts wrote:

> [Oh, and the adware is on the Android tablet which doesn't currently have
> an efficient ad blocker.]

Might be worth mentioning that NoScript now works with FireFox for
Android, still has whitelist based blocking it's maybe just a little
more clunky to use than the desktop version.

I've been trying it on my phone and it's improved the browsing
experience on certain sites by quite a bit.

[David]

Unless, of course, you switch into modem mode then use your PC to check
you can still manager the router.

Then it seems to latch onto the MAC address of your PC and not offer DHCP
to anything else.

Took me a while to figure out that if it would DHCP with the PC but not
the router (which reported it couldn't find a DHCP server) then you had to
power the modem off and on again to re-enable DHCP.

Now working and seems fine.

It does seem faster on the general DNS front, so I wonder if the SUperHub
was being slow in some way.

Nice to have the second band for the phones and tablets - it may be
wishful thinking but they seem to be faster on the new router.

Cheers

Dave R


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Windows 8.1 on PCSpecialist box