Puzzled by SIRO and Virgin Media

MJohnston

please redirect me if there’s a simple guide to this somewhere but I cannot find one anywhere on the internet —

I’ve moved into an apartment that already had a SIRO box wired up on the wall.

I used their Eircode finder and signed up for Virgin Media.

They have sent out their standard Hub, which expects to be connected to the coaxial points.

So what should I be doing here to get my Internet setup? Virgin have zero guides to this on their site, Siro have zero guides to this on their site, and searching here just gave me a lot of chat about those two providers.

eggy81

Was under the impression siro is Vodafone only? Are there other cables besides the siro box in the apartment.

cml387

The Hub should have come with a setup guide. A five second Google found it online. What's the problem?

MJohnston

The problem is, as stated in my original post, the setup guide is for a regular coaxial connection to Virgin Media, not via the Siro box

MJohnston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093604#Comment_122093604

Yeah there’s an old NTL wall box, I’ll give that a try too.
Siro showed me a range of providers when I used their Eircode finder, not just Vodafone

pizzahead77

It seems that VM sent you a co-ax cable router that connects to their old co-ax network rather than a fibre router that will connect to their new fibre network or to the SIRO network either of which would involve the installation of a fibre ONT first.

As there's an existing VM co-ax connection in your apartment (and probably no upgraded fibre connection), that's why VM sent you one of their cable routers instead

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095485#Comment_122095485

The OP did state they have SIRO box on the wall so would assume that's an ONT.

@MJohnston I haven't seen the most recent Virgin routers, by any chance is there an ethernet port marked WAN on it as well as the Coax connector, or perhaps one of the LAN ports says LAN/WAN?

It does sound like they sent the wrong type of modem, they provisioned your order wrong or you inadvertently ordered the wrong product (they may only do Coax in the areas they already served).

If you really want FTTH rather than Coax you might be able to cancel within your cooling off period and order from another SIRO provider.

MJohnston

Yeah I connected to the Coax and it worked fine — so perhaps I made a mistake during ordering or they sent the wrong thing. I'll get onto them (ugh) and try and resolve it, although the speeds through the NTL coax seem okay (471 Mbps on a 1 gig connection via iPhone on wifi) so maybe I'll just leave it as-is.

Any sense as to whether the SIRO connection or the NTL Coax box would be more future proof?

pizzahead77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122097221#Comment_122097221

The SIRO box would be more future-proof.

VM are slowly upgrading their existing network to be fully fibre.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122097221#Comment_122097221

the SIRO will just be more reliable end of story.
Coax is old fashioned and only virgin use it. It’s not nearly as fast or reliable.

RetroEncabulator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093604#Comment_122093604

Siro definitely has Virgin Media now too.

Full list of ISPs: Digiweb, Sky, Vitel, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Airwire, Blacknight, Carnsore Broadband, Fastcom, Ivertec, Magnet, Pure Telecom, Telecom and Westnet.

ED E

Do Virgin want to offer you RFOG when a classic HFC install is possible? Their margins may be significantly better selling your off their own plant.