Virgin Media to old cablelink box

James 007

All, I was wondering if anyone has installed virgin media internet to an old cablelink box. In our house we have an old cablelink box which has a splitter in it. How do I get the virgin wifi box connected to it.

Is it possible that they will send me out a new output box and I can install it myself.

See attached photo of the cablelink box

bk

This thread is probably more suited to the Broadband forum.

That box is simply a FM-TV splitter.

I think when you get Broadband installed for the first time, they send out an engineer to do the install (at least they use to) and he should clean that up a bit for you, replace the box. Looks like it has rusted badly due to water damage, which might impact broadband performance.

If they don't and just send out the broadband router, then it is pretty cheap and easy to replace yourself.

James 007

bk wrote: »

This thread is probably more suited to the Broadband forum.

That box is simply a FM-TV splitter.

I think when you get Broadband installed for the first time, they send out an engineer to do the install (at least they use to) and he should clean that up a bit for you, replace the box. Looks like it has rusted badly due to water damage, which might impact broadband performance.

If they don't and just send out the broadband router, then it is pretty cheap and easy to replace yourself.

Thanks for that. It costs €50 for engineer to call out.

From my understanding now is that they will provide you with a coax cable

https://www.virginmedia.ie/customer-support/support-by-products/broadband/setting-up-your-broadband/#setting-up-broadband-on-its-own

So it is as simple for me to connect this to my splitter (I can replace this if you feel it is of concern).

But could you just confirm if this is all is required. If so then I dont need the engineer out. (My main concern was that everything is ethernet type connections, but having looked now there seems to be a female connection to the back of the virgin hub modem, someone might confirm this.)

bk

Given how rusted and water damaged everything looks, it might be no harm to get an engineer out to do it. He will have equipment to test the quality of the signal and can replace connectors and cables if they will cause problems.

If you want to install it yourself, then it is as simple as taking that white cable (which I assume is going to the TV) and plugging it into the back of the Virgin router.

If you want to keep both TV and Broadband, then you will need to get another splitter, which will take that white cable and split it to two cables, one going to the TV and the other to the virgin router. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CDL-Micro-Splitter-Connector-Satellite/dp/B00MOIRXEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523613873&sr=8-1&keywords=coax+splitter&dpID=41TqkYD77CL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

While normally I'd happily recommend people to do this for themselves. Given the state of your cables, it might be €50 well spent to get an engineer to clean it up for you.

James 007

bk wrote: »

Given how rusted and water damaged everything looks, it might be no harm to get an engineer out to do it. He will have equipment to test the quality of the signal and can replace connectors and cables if they will cause problems.

If you want to install it yourself, then it is as simple as taking that white cable (which I assume is going to the TV) and plugging it into the back of the Virgin router.

If you want to keep both TV and Broadband, then you will need to get another splitter, which will take that white cable and split it to two cables, one going to the TV and the other to the virgin router. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CDL-Micro-Splitter-Connector-Satellite/dp/B00MOIRXEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523613873&sr=8-1&keywords=coax+splitter&dpID=41TqkYD77CL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

While normally I'd happily recommend people to do this for themselves. Given the state of your cables, it might be €50 well spent to get an engineer to clean it up for you.

I think I will do it myself first, I will get a new splitter anyway. I mean to unscrew and put in new splitter I dont need an engineer for that. I would be more concerned if the brown main cable to the roof would not be able to give me the 240mb that I am looking for. Has anyone had problems with this.

bk

James 007 wrote: »

I think I will do it myself first, I will get a new splitter anyway. I mean to unscrew and put in new splitter I dont need an engineer for that. I would be more concerned if the brown main cable to the roof would not be able to give me the 240mb that I am looking for. Has anyone had problems with this.

Just to note, what I linked to on amazon is NOT what is in that box.

The amazon link is a full spectrum splitter. What is in the box is a TV/FM splitter. They are different things and you will likely to need both.

Yes, bad quality cable, connectors and splitters can cause signal lose and thus slower or no broadband at all.

You will likely need to spend €20 on bits and pieces to replace those. But won't have the equipment to test the signal strength, which is why I'd say an engineer would be best in your case.

spaceHopper

I tried it, then spent the 50 euros on the call out. The cable was old cracked and baked in the sun. Kind of worked I could have TV or internet but not both at the same time.

The guy was great, he ran in two cables from the outside one for TV and one for internet. We have coax in the house so he checked that and replaced some of the F-Connectors. Can't fault the service.

James 007

spaceHopper wrote: »

I tried it, then spent the 50 euros on the call out. The cable was old cracked and baked in the sun. Kind of worked I could have TV or internet but not both at the same time.

The guy was great, he ran in two cables from the outside one for TV and one for internet. We have coax in the house so he checked that and replaced some of the F-Connectors. Can't fault the service.

Spacehopper thanks for that. I will give it a go on monday when the box arrives. I bought a new splitter too today as it was only €2.70. I would like to do the same if it is slowing down the internet. Do the guys need to go up on the roof. Our house is a terraced house.

James 007

Guys what likely wireless speeds are you going to get with VM. I am a bit concerned reading alot of posts regarding speeds of VM.

bk

James 007 wrote: »

Guys what likely wireless speeds are you going to get with VM. I am a bit concerned reading alot of posts regarding speeds of VM.

The best way to test your virgin service is by wire (ethernet) cable directly to your PC. By doing this you should get close to the full speed you ordered (either 240 or 360Mb/s).

Wifi then is a whole other story, there are lots of variables depending on your equipment (e.g. type of wifi card in your laptop), etc.

I wouldn't worry, Virgin is excellent, sort of true FTTH, it is the fastest BB in Ireland. Their wifi router is only ok, but if you really want top performance, you can always buy a high quality third party router or even look at mesh network systems.

James 007

bk wrote: »

Wifi then is a whole other story, there are lots of variables depending on your equipment (e.g. type of wifi card in your laptop), etc.

Could you expand on this, I dont understand this. what type wifi card do you need in your laptop to have it working properly

bk

James 007 wrote: »

Could you expand on this, I dont understand this. what type wifi card do you need in your laptop to have it working properly

Ughh.. where to start, it is complicated.

Wifi comes in a variety of different standards and frequencies. Newer standards typically support higher speeds. So you have:

802.11b 802.11a 802.11g 802.11n 802.11ac

In order to get highest speeds, both the router and your laptop and all devices that connect to your router need to support the highest standard, 802.11ac

If your laptop only supports one of the older standards, while you router supports the higher one, then your laptop will be limited to the speed of that older wifi standard.

Besides that, the further you get from a wifi point, the slower it gets. Also walls, etc. can make it slower. Interference from neighbours wifi can also slow you down and also interference from other sources (e.g. baby monitors, etc.). Oh and there are the differences between wifi operating on 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ.

This is why it is important to first test your new Virgin connection with an ethernet cable. First make sure it is working properly. You can then sort wifi issues separately.

James 007

Guys I am getting the following for VM 240MB when I complete the speed test. The download speed = 78.5mb/sec and the upload speed = 20.5mb/sec. What can I do to get faster broadband.

ED E

James 007 wrote: »

Guys I am getting the following for VM 240MB when I complete the speed test. The download speed = 78.5mb/sec and the upload speed = 20.5mb/sec. What can I do to get faster broadband.

Plug in a cable.

James 007

ED E wrote: »

Plug in a cable.

This is with a ethernet cable plugged into the laptop and not through wifi. These are the speeds I got through direct connection.

ED E

Then you likely have a 10/100 NIC in the laptop, and not a very good one (avg on 100Mb Eth would be over 85).

Basically the laptop is too old. You could get a USB - Gigabit Ethernet adapter but its really not practical IMO. Time to go laptop shopping.

ted1

James 007 wrote: »

Guys I am getting the following for VM 240MB when I complete the speed test. The download speed = 78.5mb/sec and the upload speed = 20.5mb/sec. What can I do to get faster broadband.

Did they replace your cable ? The old cable will have limitations

bk

A few things:

- Make sure you have wifi turned off on your laptop, it may really be going over wifi, instead of the ethernet cable.

- Check the specification of your laptops network card, it maybe only 10/100 as Ed says, which will limit the possible speed to 100mb/s. Ideally it should be 10/100/1000 or Gigbit ethernet.

- If your laptop ethernet port is gigabit ethernet, then check your ethernet cable, is maybe old and only support 10/100

If it turns out you really are on gigbit ethernet and getting those speeds, then you will need to get the Virgin engineer out to check it.

Though in this case it maybe your laptop or gear.

spaceHopper

The router has 100 meg ports so after header over heads on ethernet 75M is good You will only get close to demand for 240 if you have more than one device running at the same time

James 007

Attached is a copy of our speed test. Are you saying the max. we will get is around 80mb/s download and 24mb/s upload. Appreciate comment

spaceHopper

James 007 wrote: »

Attached is a copy of our speed test. Are you saying the max. we will get is around 80mb/s download and 24mb/s upload. Appreciate comment

As far as I know the hub has 100M ports so the max you will get is about 80 ish.

You may actually get more out of wireless.

ED E

It has gig ports, not FE. The last four units from VM/IPC have all been gig.

bk

Well the latest hub has Gigabit ethernet ports:

https://www.virginmedia.ie/broadband/learn-about-broadband/equipment/

The important bit from the spec:
Four ethernet 10/100/1000BaseT ports

And pretty much all routers supplied by UPC/Virgin over the last 10 years or so have had gigabit ethernet ports.

So it definitely isn't that, you can easily get 360Mb/s from a Virgin router, as long as your laptop are capable of it.

James, did you check the spec of your laptop and ethernet cable as we mentioned earlier?

James 007

spaceHopper wrote: »

As far as I know the hub has 100M ports so the max you will get is about 80 ish.

You may actually get more out of wireless.

SpaceHopper you seem to be dead right. Here are my speeds. Ethernet cable is only giving me 85mb/s approx. download speed and wireless is giving me 210mb/s.

Doesn't this mean that my old line coming from the roof to the VM Hub is capable of taking over 210mb/s, therefore I don't need the new line.

bk

James 007 wrote: »

SpaceHopper you seem to be dead right. Here are my speeds. Ethernet cable is only giving me 85mb/s approx. download speed and wireless is giving me 210mb/s.

Doesn't this mean that my old line coming from the roof to the VM Hub is capable of taking over 210mb/s, therefore I don't need the new line.

No, the Virgin router has Gigabit ports, as I linked to in the spec.

I have Virgin myself, I've had it for years now, I get the full speed (240Mb/s in my case) over ethernet.

Most likely your network card in your laptop doesn't support Gigabit, you can check it using the following steps:

https://www.cozlink.com/pice-a272-2387-2388/article-73447.html

Or perhaps your ethernet cable is old or damaged.

Good news anyway is that it looks like your wifi is fast and the Virgin connection is largely fine.

James 007

Attached are the internet cards, the wireless card is 867mb/s and the ethernet port to the laptop is 1gb/s. So our conclusions would be the main Line from the roof to the Hub is working fine and the ethernet lead could only take 100mb/s or the port to the Hub is restricted to 100mb/s.

bk

James 007 wrote: »

Attached are the internet cards, the wireless card is 867mb/s and the ethernet port to the laptop is 1gb/s. So our conclusions would be the main Line from the roof to the Hub is working fine and the ethernet lead could only take 100mb/s or the port to the Hub is restricted to 100mb/s.

Yes, your laptop has decent specs there, your ethernet port is gigabit enabled and you have decent 802.11ac wifi. Also looks like the coax cable to your Virgin hub is working fine. So all good there

What ethernet cable are you using? The one that comes with the Virgin router or perhaps an old or very long/damaged one?

I mentioned earlier that the Virgin router is 10/100/1000 and so is your laptop. But what that actually means is that there are both backwards compatible. They will try and connect first at 1000mb/s, but if that fails for some reason, for instance a damaged, too bent, too long or mis-wired ethernet cable, then it will fall back to 100mb/s or even further back to 10mb/s until it gets some connection. That is what sounds like is happening here.

Of course the port on the Virgin router could be damaged too, but that would be very unusual, you could try one of the other ports instead, but it is most likely due to a bad ethernet cable.

If you are only going to be using wifi, then you probably don't need to worry about it. But the geek in me would want to figure out why it isn't working.

BTW while your wifi card says it can do 867mb/s, that is only the theoretical, in lab number, in the real world, you won't get much more then around 200mb/s out of that wifi.

James 007

bk wrote: »

Yes, your laptop has decent specs there, your ethernet port is gigabit enabled and you have decent 802.11ac wifi. Also looks like the coax cable to your Virgin hub is working fine. So all good there

What ethernet cable are you using? The one that comes with the Virgin router or perhaps an old or very long/damaged one?

I mentioned earlier that the Virgin router is 10/100/1000 and so is your laptop. But what that actually means is that there are both backwards compatible. They will try and connect first at 1000mb/s, but if that fails for some reason, for instance a damaged, too bent, too long or mis-wired ethernet cable, then it will fall back to 100mb/s or even further back to 10mb/s until it gets some connection. That is what sounds like is happening here.

Of course the port on the Virgin router could be damaged too, but that would be very unusual, you could try one of the other ports instead, but it is most likely due to a bad ethernet cable.

If you are only going to be using wifi, then you probably don't need to worry about it. But the geek in me would want to figure out why it isn't working.

BTW while your wifi card says it can do 867mb/s, that is only the theoretical, in lab number, in the real world, you won't get much more then around 200mb/s out of that wifi.

Thanks for that. I have left the cable in work, so i will have to recheck tomorrow. It is from another internet modem box, so you are probably right, it probably takes the max. 100mb/s. Ill try another cable if I have a spare some where. Its good to know too that the coax main cable is fine. The VM Hub is only new so most likely not damaged, I will try the other ports too.

Lucifer

This thread may be helpful to you
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057367191/1