Forum Discussion

Joining in

5 months ago

Repeated internet connection loss and huge numbers of packets lost

For many months now we have had repeated occurances of a total loss of internet conneciton through our hub 3. During these events we still have wifi conneciton to our devices. The hub3 does not show any problems or concerns with the upstream or downstream connections, but simply will not provide any internet connection. On these occasions only a power cycle will correct the issue. I can connect to the hub 3 during the internet connection failure and have tried a soft reboot, but that does not correct the issue. The hub comes back up with no internet connection. Even a factory reset from within the menu does not restore internet. Only a power cycle fixes it.

TV through the Tivo box continues to work through most of these issues.

I havent found any tools to understand what is causing the loss of internet conenction while maintaining good wifi and no issues in the hub3.

The hub 3 is in modem more with a netgear router as wifi performance was poor from the hub3 in the early months we had it (years ago), seemingly requiring regular factpry resets from the pinhole in the back to restore wifi service. I have a home automation that requires some configuraiton to forward some ports. Setting this up in the hub3 is a real pain !

When its working, speed is around 40Mbs, which is nowhere near the average 264Mbs for our M250 package.

A recent quality monitor appears to show a huge number of lost packets I think ?

<a title="Broadband Ping" href="https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/ba0fc960aeaca908cebc5853a7a34abc57b53319-30-11-2024"><img alt="My Broadband Ping - My virgin monitor" src="https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/thumb/ba0fc960aeaca908cebc5853a7a34abc57b53319-30-11-2024.png" /></a>

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/ba0fc960aeaca908cebc5853a7a34abc57b53319-30-11-2024

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/e162a056c236e848081894390f34f53f8dc71571

Hub3 info : Downstream

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

1	139000000	2.5	35	256 qam	1
2	147000000	2.4	34	256 qam	2
3	155000000	2.4	35	256 qam	3
4	163000000	2	35	256 qam	4
5	171000000	1.7	35	256 qam	5
6	179000000	1.2	35	256 qam	6
7	187000000	1.2	35	256 qam	7
8	195000000	1.4	36	256 qam	8
9	267000000	0.7	37	256 qam	17
10	275000000	1	37	256 qam	18
11	283000000	1.5	37	256 qam	19
12	291000000	1.9	37	256 qam	20
13	299000000	2.4	36	256 qam	21
14	307000000	2.5	37	256 qam	22
15	315000000	2.7	38	256 qam	23
16	323000000	3	38	256 qam	24
17	331000000	3.2	38	256 qam	25
18	339000000	3.5	38	256 qam	26
19	347000000	3.5	38	256 qam	27
20	355000000	3	38	256 qam	28
21	363000000	2	38	256 qam	29
22	371000000	1.7	38	256 qam	30
23	379000000	1.2	38	256 qam	31
24	387000000	1	38	256 qam	32

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1	Locked	35.5	30600	0
2	Locked	34.9	107817	0
3	Locked	35.7	25355	0
4	Locked	35.7	16248	0
5	Locked	35.7	11477	0
6	Locked	35.5	20050	0
7	Locked	35.7	27278	0
8	Locked	36.3	1924	0
9	Locked	37.3	306	0
10	Locked	37.3	203	0
11	Locked	37.3	133	0
12	Locked	37.6	147	0
13	Locked	36.6	224	15
14	Locked	37.6	171	0
15	Locked	38.9	172	0
16	Locked	38.9	166	0
17	Locked	38.6	124	0
18	Locked	38.6	134	0
19	Locked	38.9	138	0
20	Locked	38.6	113	0
21	Locked	38.6	105	0
22	Locked	38.6	140	0
23	Locked	38.6	134	0
24	Locked	38.6	127	0

Hub3 info : Upstream

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

1	49600114	47.3	5120	16 qam	1
2	36600282	46.5	5120	16 qam	3
3	23600074	46.5	5120	16 qam	5
4	30100094	46.5	5120	16 qam	4
5	43100231	46.8	5120	16 qam	2

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	2
2	ATDMA	9
3	ATDMA	0
4	ATDMA	62
5	ATDMA	0

15 Replies

TimTheVanMan
Joining in
5 months ago
Tims BQM
Sorry - Im not sure the best way to include the BQM images in the post. Hopefully the links work !
- Carley_S
  Forum Team
  5 months ago
  Hi TimTheVanMan
  
  Welcome back to the community forums.
  
  Sorry to hear of your ongoing service issues.
  
  Checking the systems on our side we cannot see any issues that might explain this today.
  
  With the Hub in modem mode, we aren't able to run other checks on our side as it limits what we can do and see.
  
  I'm also not able to see the BQM you've tried to link. You can create a live link on the thin broadband site itself and then attach this to your post/response so we can see what you're seeing.
  
  For further support, we'd request that the hub be moved into router mode so we can troubleshoot further as well please.
Client62
Alessandro Volta
5 months ago
Hub3 info : Upstream
Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID
1 49600114 47.3 5120 16 qam 1
2 36600282 46.5 5120 16 qam 3
3 23600074 46.5 5120 16 qam 5
4 30100094 46.5 5120 16 qam 4
5 43100231 46.8 5120 16 qam 2
The Modulation mode should be two modes higher faster i.e. 64 qam on all 5 Upstream Channels.
This local noise issue is a fault for VM to rectify, it may well be affecting other customers in your street.
Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
5 months ago
You also noted you are in modem mode with a Netgear Router and yet you talk about setting up port forwarding on the Hub 3?
Client62
Alessandro Volta
5 months ago
Beginning to smell a rattus rattus ?
TimTheVanMan
Joining in
5 months ago
Thanks for your interest @adduxi. I got fed up with having to set up port forwarding on the hub3, after each factory reset to reinitialise the wifi. That was the motivation to switch to modem mode and add a separate router where port forwarding was simple and quick. Initially that worked well, but for the last year or so i have had to power cycle the hub3 at least once a month to reestablish an internet connection. During the internet connection failure, the netgear wifi is fine, and i can acecss the hub3 menus. Soft reboot does not restore an internet connection, and even a menu based factory reset doesnt. Only a power cycle works.
TimTheVanMan
Joining in
5 months ago
Thanks for your review of the data @Client62. I'm not sure of the reason for the modulation being restricted to 16 rather than 64 ? From some googling and a limited knowledge base, the power levels dont appear too concerning?
Virgin dont show any outages or other issues in our area, and dont show any issues with our conneciton based on their online tools.
TimTheVanMan
Joining in
5 months ago
i note that todays BQM is also a mass of red, which sesms to indicate a massive issue with dropped packets - so how can that not be a detectable broadband quality issue ?
[url=https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/1b909dffad169a15a07dc9367c20ecfff96d5b38-02-12-2024]My Broadband Ping[/url]
- Beth_G
  Forum Team
  5 months ago
  Hi TimTheVanMan,
  
  Thanks for your post, I'm sorry to hear you've been facing some issues with your broadband connection recently.
  
  I can see that you're currently in modem mode, so we are limited to what diagnostics we can run from this end. If you can pop into router mode whenever possible and let us know once you are, we'll be able to run further diagnostics.
Client62
Alessandro Volta
5 months ago
Assuming this is your all red BQM, consider either 1) it is the wrong IP or 2) your own router does not reply to WAN pings.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/1b909dffad169a15a07dc9367c20ecfff96d5b38-02-12-2024
TimTheVanMan
Joining in
5 months ago
Sorry - I've been away for the weekend. I can switch to router mode later today. This morning therre was no issue with the conneciotn, even though the BQM still shows a complete mass of red through dropped packets. I'm dont know much about networks etc - would it be Netgear router that is responding to external pings to build the BQM ? I've definitely had much clearer BQM charts with this setup previously, but dont have them recorded anywhere.
I have an alternative router that I could probably dig out and use if that is likly to be the cause of the dropped packets. The time it takes to set up port forwarding etc on the Hub3, and the unreliable wifi we experienced which required factory resets to fix, really count against it as a long term answer though.
Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
5 months ago
If your Hub is in modem mode, then the Netgear will be responding to pings, if you have set it to do so. If the Hub is in Router mode, then the Hub will respond, as the Netgear should be in Access Point mode if the two devices are running. NOTE - Your VM WAN address will be different when in Router mode, or modem mode.
Have you checked if your US channels are all still on 16 QAM? If so, then VM need to get this sorted as they should all be on 64 QAM. They would only drop to 16 if there is an SNR problem with the circuit I'm guessing.