Slow and unreliable fiber connection

[Jonathansty]

Since yesterday morning I've had really slow and unreliable internet. I'm on the M500 broadband package. 

My setup is the hub 4 set to modem mode and connected to a deco meshnet. This has always been fine until now.

So far I've done the following things:

• Rebooted the router
• Factory reset the virgin router
• plugged directly in to virgin router using an ethernet cable

Unfortunatly none of the above has helped, I got in touch twice with support (Once yesterday and once today) and both times they tried to diagnose this remotely without luck.

I have setup a broadband quality monitor at thinkbroadband. That can be found here.

This confirms what I'm seeing when pinging various sites such as google, a lot of ping packets get dropped. 

Not sure what to do next but this is making it impossible for me to even open my gmail, browse the internet, work, ..

[topper69]

Have a look at the network logs on the VM hub by entering the IP address of it (might be 192.168.100.1) and see if you have any critical warnings. I currently have 1Gig with a Deco mesh and been getting disconnects for the past 4-5 days so somethings not going to plan in VM I think.

[Jonathansty]

I wanted to originally put that information in the first post but there's a character limit. 

Spoiler

Network Log

Time Priority Description

Thu Jan 1 00:01:27 1970	4	Missing Mandatory MDD TLV on primary DS Channel;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed Jan 4 09:45:36 2023	5	MIMO Event MIMO: Stored MIMO=-1 post cfg file MIMO=-1;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed Jan 4 11:24:35 2023	3	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed Jan 4 12:53:18 2023	3	Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
Wed Jan 4 12:58:01 2023	3	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;

I did try without my decos to limit the variables and the issues happen using a full base setup (how you would set it up when first receiving the kit).

[topper69]

I'm in exactly the same situation as yourself with regular dropouts, not done any hardware or cabling changes at home so the issue must be externally somewhere.

[Adduxi]

Try checking with Area faults on 0800 561 0061 or if you have a VM landline 150 as small local faults are not listed on the VM status page.

If there is an area issue, VM will not send a technician until this is fixed.  Btw, the BQM is really bad !

[Jonathansty]

I've already done this. Contacted support twice. None of the support agents have even suggested getting an engineer out...

[Jonathansty]

Yesterday evening I decided to unplug the entire setup and replug everything. That actually does seem to have helped. The packet loss on the BQM graph is now gone and internet is usable again. Probably a dodgy contact in one of the connections and replugging/tightening them seems to have fixed it.

[Jonathansty]

This issue has started reoccurring. I can fix it temporarily by doing the same steps as before so I'm thinking something in the hub is causing an issue. I made a new BMQ and that's showing a lot of packet loss and my connection is really bad.

Is anyone from virgin able to help here? For example by replacing the hub. 

[Megan_L]

Hi Jonathansty, 

Thanks for using the forums to get this issue with your connection looked into, I am sorry if this has been causing some frustration. I would be more than happy to look into this for you.

I have already taken the time to check out your services on my side, however there were no major issues found that could explain the symptoms you've mentioned ✔

We would not be able to replace the Hub if there are no signs to show it's needed, however I am more than happy to ask you a few further questions to find out if there's anything else we can uncover.

• Do these drop outs over your connection happen over WIFI or Wired connections?
• Do all devices drop out at the same time? 
• Do any lights appear on the Hub to indicate an issue when this happens?
• Can you login to your Online Account and perform a test to see if it detects any issues on your side? 
• Could you also download the Connect App and do a broadband scan of your home to see if you have any WIFI issues in the hard to reach areas of your home?
• If nothing else helps the situation, I would recommend performing a pin hole reset, you can find out how to do this along with more helpful info here - WIFI SOS 

Thanks,

Megan_L

[Jonathansty]

Hi Megan, 

Here's a BQM of when the issue happens: BQM.
As for your questions, I've already answered most of these in previous posts but I'll answer them again for completeness in bold

• Do these drop outs over your connection happen over WIFI or Wired connections? Yes, the issue is at the router level as diagnosed by the BQM
• Do all devices drop out at the same time? No, the packet loss means you might get lucky and get some data through but because it's so high the connection is super unstable and makes it impossible to open specific websites/applications and work.
• Do any lights appear on the Hub to indicate an issue when this happens? No
• Can you login to your Online Account and perform a test to see if it detects any issues on your side? Did this at the time, either unable to diagnose or reported everything was ok.
• Could you also download the Connect App and do a broadband scan of your home to see if you have any WIFI issues in the hard to reach areas of your home? I use my own wifi meshnet system, however I have connected directly to the router by cable when these issues happen to check. This connection also displays the issue, seeing as it's at the router level, again check the BQM. 

I've done the pinhole reset before with no luck. Eventually the issue comes back and I need to manually go in and completely disconnect/reconnect everything. This has never been an issue until this january. I've been with virgin for about a year. 

So in summary, I have got a work around to get the router in a temporary working state again until inevitably this issue turns up again.