Super Hub by Virgin Media by Hanif Somani - http://www.simplymakingmoneyonline.net/super-hub-virgin-media/
Super Hub by Virgin Media Super Hub by Virgin Media. Virgin Media is a UK based company owned by Virgin Media Inc., a company listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in New York, USA. The company came into existence in July 2006 following the merger between NTL:Telewest and Virgin Mobile to create the Virgin Media company. In February 2013, Virgin Media was taken over by the American cable company Liberty Global.
Virgin Media provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and internet services to residential and business customers in the UK. At the time of writing this article, Virgin Media had a share of 20.2% of the UK internet market, second only to the leader, British Telecom (BT), at 29.3%. Virgin Media broadband is described as Fiber To The Node or Neighbourhood (FTTN) network where a fiber optic cable is run to a cabinet on a street, from where the signal is taken to houses on the street by copper cables. In 2009 and 2010, Virgin Media broadband boasted the fastest broadband speeds in an official test in the UK.
Super Hub – Not All IPs Are The Same
I came across a situation recently when the IP (Internet Protocol) address I was assigned by Virgin Media was “corrupted” in some way. The IP came with a “bad reputation” because the previous user(s) abused the way they used it and now it wasn’t welcome in some parts of the internet. Unfortunately, the IP address was just assigned to me as part of the normal IP lease-renewal process in which it is assigned randomly from a “pool” of IPs once the previous IP lease has expired. This is an instantaneous process to avoid disruption to your internet service.
page 1 / 4
Super Hub by Virgin Media by Hanif Somani - http://www.simplymakingmoneyonline.net/super-hub-virgin-media/
Unfortunately, this duff IP address that was assigned to me had some serious consequences. It prevented me from accessing my own sites! Oddly, I could access any other site I wanted to except for my own sites which are hosted by HostZilla a company based in San Diego, California, USA. After a lengthy conversation with HostZilla customer service, who were very helpful in their responses, I was left with the only option left, that to contact my ISP, Virgin Media. Regrettably, I had a bad feeling about having to deal with Virgin Media Customer Service on this particular issue. Although my previous experience with them had been satisfactory, I was expecting them to escalate this issue to their “technical department” and who knows when I would receive a satisfactory reply back. My situation was urgent since I had to access my sites so I could work on them. After scouring various articles and forums, I identified what the problem might be, a possibly corrupt WAN IP address that had been assigned to me by my ISP after my previous IP had run its lease. I confirmed the issue to be the duff IP assigned to me since I could access my sites from the same laptop but on a different network.
I now had two different options both of which could let me access my sites again: 1) Request/obtain a different IP address from Virgin Media. 2) Use a web proxy server to overcome the restrictions in my IP address. Super Hub – Request/Obtain an IP Address
I looked on my Super Hub settings and it indicated my new IP address lease would run out in five days. Knowing that my previous IP never really “expired” or put another way, I was assigned the same IP for over two years, the chances of a new IP assignment after five days was virtually zero. This suspicion was also borne out by comments I read on some of the forums where other users had exactly the same experience as me with their expired IP addresses.
page 2 / 4
Super Hub by Virgin Media by Hanif Somani - http://www.simplymakingmoneyonline.net/super-hub-virgin-media/
With some ISPs, merely switching the equipment off, waiting at least 15 minutes, then on again would result in the assignment of a new IP address automatically. I tried this several times but unfortunately I got the same IP back each time.
Super Hub – Proxy Server
Web proxy servers have many advantages, one of which is to hide your real IP address. In my situation, this would work out for me. The proxy IP would “hide” my real IP address and I would then be able to access sites that were hitherto not accessible. Doing a search on “free proxy servers” on Google gives many results. There are hundreds of proxy servers available, some free and some not. The free proxy servers are based all over the globe. Most have a limited time span and they appear and disappear without notice.
What I find unpalatable about using free proxy servers is the notion of sending login details and other sensitive information through them. Quite frankly they may as well be run by some criminal gang somewhere for the purpose of capturing sensitive information from unsuspecting users of their service. For this reason, the idea of using a proxy server for any extended period of time was out of the question. The only, the quickest and the sure way of obtaining a new IP address would be to change the MAC (Media Access Control) address of the router, which in my case was the Virgin Media Super Hub . Unfortunately, this equipment did not provide the ability to change the MAC address by “cloning” one as is possible with some advanced routers. Only attaching a new router to the system would supply a new MAC address which in turn
page 3 / 4
Super Hub by Virgin Media by Hanif Somani - http://www.simplymakingmoneyonline.net/super-hub-virgin-media/
would attract a new IP address from the pool of IP addresses. Fortunately, the Super Hub provides the ability to turn it into a modem and then attaching a separate router to it. This way, the “sticky” dynamic IP address can be shaken off for a new one which has a greater chance of being “normal” i.e. not corrupted one. I will discuss this in greater detail in my next article Virgin Media – Forcing A Sticky IP To Change. To your success! Hanif Somani, Ph.D.
Amazon.co.uk Widgets
Please visit my website for product reviews and views on technology and matters related to it that may be important to you. If you are also interested in making money online then even better as I have written articles on these subjects too such as Affiliate Marketing, SEO and Forex Trading amongst others. My Website and Social Media details are here - please join me :) Online Income Sources. Follow me: Facebook Twitter Pinterest
page 4 / 4 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)