VirginMedia@360M - Compal Modem / Hub 3.0

Ctrl Alt Del

Hi,

First of all,many thanks to the Customer Support Staff for taking my call,processing the upgrade and order,within less than 12 hours,modem arrived and ready to plug and play !

The new router looks and feels right.Nothing fancy like my Netgear router,i don't like the colour white,as it resembles the fruity company,so the router will be hidden behind the furniture.

The interface is completely "home user",very simple to use and to navigate,completely boring for a serious IT guy.




I have disabled the WiFi interface as i want to use it purely as a router,therefore i cannot say whats the speed with the WIFi side.I guess,it depends by the location in the house and not lastly,the "quality of the signal" between end point devices.

The login page is not masking the password,it leave it in the full visibility !

It does allow modem vs router,aka bridge mode configuration,if you know what are you doing:



I cant find the settings to change the LAN interface IP address range,allows only last digit,which is kind of painful if you have a network setup already with a different IP address range:



Tested a speed,wired,full gigabyte interfaces:




There are 16 Downstream bonded channels and 4 Upstream bonded channels,running at various parameters each,probable specific to DOCSIS standard and/or based on the areas of coverage.

Lastly,main page status with version of various software/firmware and so on.



Regards

Ctrl Alt Del

Can't post more than 5 attachments,so a new post.

16 and 4 bonded Channels,up and down,as per below.

ED E

Nice, thanks for the detailed post.

Any word from VM about how long itll take before the CMTS provisions 360Mb to you?

Ctrl Alt Del

Looking at the manufacturer web site here ...it looks like the current supplied device by VM is already old !?

Can't find the CH7465,only xx66 and xx67.
Possible different models for different markets !?

Ctrl Alt Del

Getting lots of errors during configuration steps, changing few things around,waiting for the device to "reload" and cant use the web interface unless i physically "power recycle" the box.

Ctrl Alt Del

Wifi test,5g,on my mobile:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1659123698

Not bad I guess.

Ctrl Alt Del

ED E wrote: »

Nice, thanks for the detailed post.

Any word from VM about how long itll take before the CMTS provisions 360Mb to you?

Hi,
I'll find out in the morning at 9 am.
Regards

bk

Thanks for the great review Ctrl Alt Del.

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

Looking at the manufacturer web site here ...it looks like the current supplied device by VM is already old !?

Can't find the CH7465,only xx66 and xx67.
Possible different models for different markets !?

I'd say the CH7465 is a model specifically specced and designed by Liberty Global (Virgins parent). They are the largest cable company in the world and they seem to be planning to use this new modem across all markets, so I suspect that will be a massive order for Compal, big enough for LGI to have their own model.

I wouldn't say it is an old model at all, just slightly different from those listed on the page.

The Ayatolla

Does it allow you to configure an alternative DNS via the router?

Ctrl Alt Del

The Ayatolla wrote: »

Does it allow you to configure an alternative DNS via the router?

Unfortunately,not that will not allow you to use a WAN DNS server on your own...but will not allow to change the LAN / Internal IP address range either,in standard router configuration.
Looked everywhere in the settings,cannot find it.

I guess-timate that at some point we will be able to access a hidden "admin" login functionality that may allow deeper tweaking the device.

For the moment,that's all what can be edited in the LAN / DHCP / DNS area:

Ctrl Alt Del

ED E wrote: »

Nice, thanks for the detailed post.

Any word from VM about how long itll take before the CMTS provisions 360Mb to you?

Called CS in VM in the morning,spoke with Sales that quickly transferred me over to Tech Support (Thanks Martin) which confirmed package upgraded will be effective in max 24 hours and a router restart needed in order for the change to take effect.
Looking forward.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Is there an option for the silly WiFree/WiFi4All feature? Can it be disabled or is it just not present on the new modem?

bk

Vincenzo Swift Pebble wrote: »

Is there an option for the silly WiFree/WiFi4All feature? Can it be disabled or is it just not present on the new modem?

That option is set in your account on the Virgin site, not in the modem.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

I'm nearly sure my previous modem had the setting in the UI as well.

bk wrote: »

That option is set in your account on the Virgin site, not in the modem.

Spear

That modem mode, does it bridge it, or is just a dumber router mode?

aliveandkicking

What I would like to know is what the range is like on this new modem?

If I was to upgrade could I expect the reception to be better in rooms furthest away from the router?

Ctrl Alt Del

Just back playing with the device...

WiFi signal very good,my "crappy plasterboard built" home ,router located in the front,my phone at the other end of the house and got d/loads of over 100Mb.

Found that the maximum number of devices is set / limited / restricted at 10 !

Ctrl Alt Del

Vincenzo Swift Pebble wrote: »

Is there an option for the silly WiFree/WiFi4All feature? Can it be disabled or is it just not present on the new modem?

Cannot find anything resembling that option !

Spear wrote: »

That modem mode, does it bridge it, or is just a dumber router mode?

Never tried, i guess it puts the device from "router mode" in to "bridge mode" and the "other" router has to do some sort of WAN based DHCP IP configuration !?
Dont know why you will need it as the NAT / Firewall section is very well organized,as as a last extreme measure,you can use the DMZ feature.

pm.

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

Just back playing with the device...

WiFi signal very good,my "crappy plasterboard built" home ,router located in the front,my phone at the other end of the house and got d/loads of over 100Mb.

Found that the maximum number of devices is set / limited / restricted at 10 !

Sihte I will need to change that when my one arrives, can you tell me how you get into those settings ( not great with tech)

The Ayatolla

10 devices? :-/

Yggr of Asgard

The Ayatolla wrote: »

10 devices? :-/

I so hope that can be changed because with all the smart home tech in my house that won't be enough.

bob11

The Ayatolla wrote: »

10 devices? :-/

In the UPC CZ version of this modem, this is set to 11, so probably configurable centrally ..

See Page 38 in attached manual :
https://www.upc.cz/pdf/manualy_inet/15258_UPC_Mercury_modem_uzivatelsky_manual_v5.pdf

bk

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

Found that the maximum number of devices is set / limited / restricted at 10 !

Yikes!! Just as well it supports bridging so! Looks like continue to bridge and use something like a TP Link router will continue to be the way forward for power users (pretty much almost everyone willing to pay an extra €15 for 360 IMO).

I most have at least 30 wifi devices in my apartment now due to smarthome tech. Really not that unusual any more.

ED E

I'd have to guess thats max DOCSIS devices not max clients, no reason to prevent 253 usable (or 243 in the above) usable clients.

bob11

ED E wrote: »

I'd have to guess thats max DOCSIS devices not max clients, no reason to prevent 253 usable (or 243 in the above) usable clients.

That makes sense ..

In the manual it states the following :

One broadband connection for up to 253 computers from which you can browse the Web; all computers on the LAN communicate as if they were connected to the same physical network.

The reference to 10 channels is from the following section :

CONFIGURATION
The configuration page is read-only screen that displays the status of general configuration Cable modem service primary current flow downstream and upstream services..

pm.

bk wrote: »

Yikes!! Just as well it supports bridging so! Looks like continue to bridge and use something like a TP Link router will continue to be the way forward for power users (pretty much almost everyone willing to pay an extra €15 for 360 IMO).

I most have at least 30 wifi devices in my apartment now due to smarthome tech. Really not that unusual any more.

So this setting cant be changed ?? My new router has not yet arrived am I best keep it ? We will have more than 10 devices

Yggr of Asgard

So I got mine this afternoon and went through the whole activation wizard and at the end got the old speed, call to tech support sorted that and now I'm on the new speed.

However the WiFi on this device is the worst I have seen in a long time.

You have 2.4 and 5 bands running at the same time with the same name (you can change that) but even AC devices are slow which ever settings I tried (changed channels, changed to single band, changed network names, forced devices onto 5 band).

The max I could get out of this on the 5 band with an ac device connected is 24.52 Mbps down/23.14 Mbps up.

Reverted back to use an old Netgear (N600) device and the same units that only got 24.52/23.14 directly to the Hub Wifi are now getting 130.60/37.15.

How do others go on with Wifi directly from the Hub?

Jofspring

Have found my wifi on UPC to be shocking recently. I used to get between 10-15mb in the bedroom upstairs but now I only get 1mb-4mb and a lot of the time the connection completely drops during use or I can't pick it up at all. Never really had much problems before, the odd box re-set but now I'm re-setting the box pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day.

I'll be interested to hear how people get on with the wi-fi on the new box.

Yggr of Asgard

Also the 10 deceives screenshot shown in the thread is not for the LAN/WiFi, you can set the limit yourself in the DHCP settings:

Ctrl Alt Del

After my account has been enabled for 360":

Cabled:



Cabled:



Wireless,on my mobile phone,from other side of the house:

Yggr of Asgard

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

After my account has been enabled for 360":

Is this using your own router or the Hub?