Skip Navigation
Homepage » News Archive » View News Item 3773

Virgin Media 50Meg cable modem pictures released
Friday 07 November 2008 16:24:48 by Andrew Ferguson

It would seem Virgin Media is not expecting people to hide the fact they have a 50Meg cable broadband service, the styling of the modem has echos of the Sony PS3. Perhaps it even comes with a non-scratch cleaning cloth to keep the black gloss surface in perfect condition.

www.TechRadar.co.uk is one of the sites with the pictures. The modem is designed for the future with a 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet interface and support for four channel bonding. Channel bonding will allow Virgin Media to offer download speeds in excess of 50Mbps, and improve the upload speeds too.

[ Topic: Internet Service Providers | 26 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by browney over 5 years ago
Seen this a few weeks ago and I think it looks sleek better than the current modem imo
Posted by idf03 over 5 years ago
Hands up those who have a shiny designer boiler, or a fancy looking electricity consumer unit. No they're hidden away. A modem/router is no different to me. As long as it works, I don't care what it looks like, it gets hidden away. I'd rather trade a fancy modem for a proper unrestricted service.
Posted by CARPETBURN over 5 years ago
Nice style less function one Ethernet port bwahahaha and a nice virgin media logo on top just to let everyone know you better not touch it after 4pm or they will throw a hissy fit.
Ill pass
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
Carpet - That I can't fault them for. It's a cable modem, not a router. Most customers who want a 50MBit service will have their own router anyway.
Posted by fez1985 over 5 years ago
Why one earth is it a problem that it only has one ethernet port, how many ehternet ports do any of the current modems on VMs network have? One! You need a router after your modem on Cable
Posted by jchamier over 5 years ago
How many routers have 1000mbps WAN ports? It took a while for many to upgrade from 10 to 100 on the WAN side.

VM could be a good ISP, if they'd get serious, stop thinking of Phorm, and have a static IP option.
Posted by andrew (Favicon staff member) over 5 years ago
Even on some routers with 100Mbps WAN ports they have difficulty handling the 100Mbps when routing it.

Switching data on the LAN side is one thing, but routing it is another.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
andrew - Well, that's generally a case of "you get what you pay for". The cheap routers they punt to students, as well as pretty much any Belkin have issues there yes.

WRT54GL or an Asus WL series router? Fine.
Posted by kev445 over 5 years ago
WRT54GL will max out around 30-40Mbit at best, that's without any firewall rules. The truth is, that most consumer cable routers do not have a powerful enough processor.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
kev - I should of specified "with deacent firmware", my bad. Not the pre-supplied cruft.
Posted by kev445 over 5 years ago
Dawn_Falcon: That is my source of information, even with great firmware the processor is still too slow.
Source: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=341

It takes allot of processing power for NAT, even more with firewall rules.
Posted by PeteK over 5 years ago
End of the day folks a Linksys WRT54 and its friends is a 20 quid consumer modem. I don't find it surprising with tomato or any other home brew it caps at 30-40meg and I guess you don't if the truth be known.
Posted by kev445 over 5 years ago
You will also find allot of Drayteks will struggle also, take a look here:
http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/comparison.html

The firewall throughput is indicative only, with other features turned on things will get allot slower.
Posted by lucent over 5 years ago
Enough of all the routers that can't do the job, what can do it?
Posted by lucent over 5 years ago
By the way I like the look, my modem sits on show in my lounge... I hate the horrible little black box, but if I hide it away it gets too hot :D
Posted by comnut over 5 years ago
trouble is looks are NOTHING after the first few months... 'keeping the heat down' is more important!!
- take off the plastic case and drill lots of ventilation holes, and find a good cold place to mount it.. front hallway if poss... then good Cat5 to PC..
Posted by CARPETBURN over 5 years ago
quote"trouble is looks are NOTHING after the first few months... 'keeping the heat down' is more important!! - take off the plastic case and drill lots of ventilation holes"

Errr dont virgin own the equipment? If you do anything like this will it not result in a UNKNOWN bill if you ever have to give it back when you change provider or quit their service?
Leave the ghetto modding lark to stuff you own.
Posted by lucent over 5 years ago
Yeah they own it, but I've never known them ask for one back, I've still got my old one from when I had virgin a few years back, and other people I know have them... not much wonder they get hacked seeing as you can get an old modem for nothing.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
Kev - Sorry, you used the phrase "DD-WRT" and "Great firmware" together, that's just funny.

PeteK - There's only a few players in the chipset market, you realise? Very few "more expensive" routers have different chipsets. I've seen a WL54GL get to 70mbps...
Posted by comnut over 5 years ago
CB: So Draytek & Linksys are owned by Virgin now??? you will notice I made NO mention of any brand, and others were talking about the above modems.... pay more attention...
Posted by CARPETBURN over 5 years ago
quote"CB: So Draytek & Linksys are owned by Virgin now??? you will notice I made NO mention of any brand, and others were talking about the above modems.... pay more attention..."

Virgin will own modem not the company that makes it you pedantic fool. Virgins terms if you bothered to read them clearly state the property is theirs, you hacking it up with holes will result in them billing you if they decide to take the modem back, which in SOME cases they are known to do (depends alot on how long you have had the thing for).
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
Carpet - wake up! He's talking about the ROUTER, NOT THE MODEM.

VM routers are all their own brand.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
..VM modems are all their own brand, I mean
Posted by CARPETBURN over 5 years ago
So he was talking about ghetto hacking a piece of equipment you may own rather than what Virgin LOAN you??? Errr ok..... May as well say what you had for breakfast also as that would be just as much on topic.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 5 years ago
I know reading what people type is hard, but most of this thread's been discussing routers and it's entirely relevant..
Posted by CARPETBURN over 5 years ago
quote"I know reading what people type is hard, but most of this thread's been discussing routers and it's entirely relevant."

You were the person who pointed out to me the item concerned is a modem not a router
You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.