Virgin Media: EPC2425/3925 Modem/Router and Speed Issues - POST HERE ONLY

ED E

With wifi NOTHING is guaranteed. Thats the nature of open spectrum.

If you want guaranteed performance ethernet is the way to go...

joe_99

Currently what is the best modem UPC supply? I need to get on to them re poor wifi and i want to be armed with some info so i get sent out the best modem they have.

ED E

joe_99 wrote: »

Currently what is the best modem UPC supply? I need to get on to them re poor wifi and i want to be armed with some info so i get sent out the best modem they have.

They're all kinda dire, and they refuse to ship you a model you want. Techs say theyve a load of Ciscos left in the warehouse, but when you call they'll deny they exist.

sgarvan

ED E wrote: »

They're all kinda dire, and they refuse to ship you a model you want. Techs say theyve a load of Ciscos left in the warehouse, but when you call they'll deny they exist.

I got my white Thompson replaced by the Cisco EPC3925 within the last couple of weeks. WiFi is brutal in comparison to the Thompson. Also makes a whining noise every now and then which only a power off a socket rectifies. And connection drops with it.

UPC's answer on twitter was to change the channel

ED E

The reason you get the Cisco is to bridge it, not to use it as a router

rdosemyfeet

Well lads,

There was an outage during the week in the waterford area , after a few hours when the upstream and downstream regained connectivity , pages etc still were not loading

Long story short - On my Cisco 3925, it is bridged into an Asus NT66U , a secondary un-managed switch connected to the NT66U for tree spanning, anything that can be CAT5'd is.

Since that outage occurred , the Cisco modem/router reset itself back into router mode, so I naturally changed it back to bridge, but it does a bootloop and then forces itself back into router mode

Has anyone had this issue lately?

bealtine

rdosemyfeet wrote: »

Well lads,


Has anyone had this issue lately?

This issue is all over boards and there's a thread in the talk to virgin forum...
http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057514734/10

It's some kind of update they shipped that disables bridge mode like you describe

laugh

Where is the wan connection speed on the epc2425?

ED E

laugh wrote: »

Where is the wan connection speed on the epc2425?

There isnt, its controlled by the CMTS not the client (or you could give yourself "Free speed")

fredotf2

Hi there,

So my cisco keeps dropping connection to extremely slow speeds (around 1 mbps) maybe once or even a couple of times a day now. I usually get 240mb no problem but now it suddenly just drops. I find if I turn the modem off and back on again the US light keeps blinking for eternity on connection, however if I leave it off for 15-30 minutes and turn it back on again the speeds are back to normal (for a couple of hours at least). Nowadays I may have to do this a couple of times a day. Obviously this is not ideal, does this sound like a bad modem issue or a line issue?

Thanks,
Fredo

ED E

The Ciscos overheat, attach a small fan and the problem will disappear.

fredotf2

ED E wrote: »

The Ciscos overheat, attach a small fan and the problem will disappear.

Do you know if the newer virgin media modems have the same overheating problems?

ED E

fredotf2 wrote: »

Do you know if the newer virgin media modems have the same overheating problems?

No sign of no, but unless you upgrade to 360Mb for a Compal the others aren't easy to bridge if thats something you want.

fredotf2

ED E wrote: »

No sign of no, but unless you upgrade to 360Mb for a Compal the others aren't easy to bridge if thats something you want.

Yes so I've heard... Anyways thanks for the help and I'll consider my options.

Dair76

Are the 3925s bridgeable again (might be old news that they sorted this out, but I haven't looked into it recently)?

degsie

Dair76 wrote: »

Are the 3925s bridgeable again (might be old news that they sorted this out, but I haven't looked into it recently)?

Yes, they are

Dair76

Great, thanks! That's a little project for me now over the weekend.

Red Alert

Is bridge mode surviving reboots, and has anyone's disappeared randomly? The reason I ask is I'm going to bridge the parent's one but I don't live there so wouldn't be on hand if it did go wrong.

ED E

Red Alert wrote: »

Is bridge mode surviving reboots, and has anyone's disappeared randomly? The reason I ask is I'm going to bridge the parent's one but I don't live there so wouldn't be on hand if it did go wrong.

Mines been rebooted maybe half a dozen times /yr, no issues. DSLite migrations happen spontaneously and *might* break your bridge though.

srsly78

Why do your parents need bridging tho? Sure sure "power users" want to reduce their latency and host stuff etc... but your parents?

You can use your own gear without bridging, no need to overcomplicate things.

Gadgetman496

srsly78 wrote: »

Why do your parents need bridging tho? Sure sure "power users" want to reduce their latency and host stuff etc... but your parents?

You can use your own gear without bridging, no need to overcomplicate things.

How condescending is that reply?

Parents can have the need for bridging too you know.

What if the had CCTV and needed to access it remotely from their mobiles? Or, are parents not allowed mobiles either?

srsly78

As stated, hosting was one valid reason. Most people don't need it tho. There seems to be a misconception that you need bridging to use your own equipment.

VM have throttled this modem? it rarely gets full speeds- drops to 80-100mb compared to a TC7200 which gets full speed 99% of the time.with only.a 10-20 mb drop to 220-230 on.a 240mb connection. Plus, does anyone know why it gets lower ping times over all of the the modems

ItHurtsWhenIP

Deleted User wrote: »

VM have throttled this modem? it rarely gets full speeds- drops to 80-100mb compared to a TC7200 which gets full speed 99% of the time.with only.a 10-20 mb drop to 220-230 on.a 240mb connection. Plus, does anyone know why it gets lower ping times over all of the the modems

Are you testing over wireless or wired direct into the modem?

You can only get a proper result when wired.

MMFITWGDV

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

Are you testing over wireless or wired direct into the modem?

You can only get a proper result when wired.

Yep, ofc

ED E

Deleted User wrote: »

VM have throttled this modem? it rarely gets full speeds- drops to 80-100mb compared to a TC7200 which gets full speed 99% of the time.with only.a 10-20 mb drop to 220-230 on.a 240mb connection. Plus, does anyone know why it gets lower ping times over all of the the modems

Chances are your cable is falling back to 10/100 instead of GigE. Different switch units can be better able to manage crap cables, test with a shorter run to diagnose.

weiland79

Hi all I've just gotten off the phone with virgin after insisting that I'm not going through all their testing again. I've told them that i want a new router, I'm currently using the technicolor TC7200 and cannot get a decent wireless signal, wired is fine but wirelessly i can't play spotify or youtube etc.

I had an old cisco router and have plugged that in and everything connects and plays fine now but I don't think thats capable of giving me the speed i pay for, or so I've been told by Virgin.

Through the cisco I'm getting a wired test speed of
Down 9865 kbps and up of 1018

They told me that I'll be liable to pay for the technician to come out if there is no fault to be found with the device.

ED E

Wireless isnt guaranteed and isnt a fault. Don't call a tech. Only wired tests are of consequence.

Better wireless:
A. Upgrade to 360Mb without Horizon - Get COMPAL which has a high end pair of wifi chips.
B. Buy your own AC/MIMO wireless AP for about €60 or so.

The_Conductor

People seem to love the Compal unit- personally I think its tat.
I've disabled wireless on mine altogether- and put a Netgear Nighthawk that I picked up secondhand for $200 on ebay- on it in bridge mode.

Probably the biggest issue with wireless solutions supplied by the ISPs- is they all seem to be pre-configured to use the same default channels (Channels 1, 11 and 4 are almost ubiquitous). Simply taking a tick out of the autoselect channel box- and instead specifying a non-standard channel- a fairly simply step- can make a massive difference.

Another big step- if you don't want to buy your own a/c box- is to try to use the 5Ghz band whenever possible- its range may not be as good as the 2.4Ghz band- but the speed is far better- plus there are 10 times fewer conflicting devices on the 5Ghz bands than on the legacy 2.4Ghz bands.

I've had 2 Compal boxes at this stage- and find them flakey- as in they drop signals and insist on reauthenticating for no good reason. One of the Virgin Techies told me that's just the way they are.

My own reason for getting a good a/c box- was because I wanted beam forming capabilities alongside the ability to vary transmit levels etc- which you don't get on entry level devices (though the R8000 is getting long in the tooth at this stage).

ED E

The COMPAL is a best of a bad lot, still not good gear though. Really the F2000 stands out as a decent all rounder while all other ISPs supply ISP grade gear, aka junk. The problem just shows up more with Virgin as their average downstream is far higher.

Remember, the device they'll sell you for €49.99 probably costs them €5-10 before VAT.