Solved: Virgin Hub 3 and Hub 5 port forwarding not working properly.

[extorn]

NOTE: this is might well be, or point one to the solution to a number of issues experienced with the web admin interface (http://192.168.0.1)

Apologies for the long post, but I'm hopeful you'll be glad you took the itme to read it once you've finished if you're trying to get port forwarding working on hub3, hub 5, and probably also the hub 4 .

I have had a virgin media hub 3 for several years. A long time ago, I managed to set up port forwarding some time ago. I have been trying to switch the port I was forwarding the last few days and have noticed a problem but also a couple of bugs in this area within the admin web interface. I felt certain that these were due to a firmware update that had altered the way the UI worked, introducing a bug, but I'm less certain now. These can be worked around I think, which is likely how I managed the first time all those months ago.

First, a note on Using the Hub 3 web admin interface:

1. The hub is VERY slow to respond. DO NOT EVER click refresh on the page, wait patiently (it might take up to 120 seconds to respond for certain operations. This is especially VITAL when you make a change that causes the WIFI connection to be lost to the device using the admin interface, then come back on with your changes applied.

2. When making changes to the routing tables or the WIFI name for example, the WIFI radio is switched off and on 2 or 3 times. If you are trying to use the admin interface, it will make things a LOT less stressful if you wait for it to come up the final time (with internet access). You'll be able to confirm this using a different tab looking at a search engine or news website for example.

3. There is a timeout in the web interface client side (the bit you're using). This will cause the login page to be shown if the web interface (server side) is unavailable for over a certain length of time. Here's the issue to be aware of; the server side timeout for a login is much longer, so, if you try and re-enter your admin password when prompted, you'll be told there is already a session active and thus are unable to log in (there are a couple of different ways the hub has of showing this error, both mean the same - don't try and log in again.). If this happens to you and you're taken back to the login page, wait for the WIFI to come up completely (internet access is a good way to know it is there to stay), and then use the back button in your browser to navigate back to the web interface session you were already using.

So, the above described are really just annoying quirks of the user interface, so what are the out and out bugs?

1. There is a scenario where, you can be prompted to apply or ignore changes mid way through making a port forwarding rule. I don't know for sure what causes this but think it could be linked to DNS settings on your client machine (where your browser is that has the web admin interface open) being not set to automatic - which would be the case if you've either installed a DNS server of your own or simply changed your DNS settings from automatic to some third party provider. If you click apply, the router does not check the information is complete, but writes it to the routing table I think as after this point, one cannot open the port forwarding page any longer, you're taken immediately to the login page. I've experienced this on other pages inside the security section with no changes made – for example; filtering.

2. If you enable port forwarding for the UDP protocol, this is applied immediately. forwarding port 80 or 443 to your web server pc (TCP) does not take effect until you have told the hub to restart. I confirmed that it wasn't dynamic IP address linked by first using the network tools inside the admin interface to trace-route to my domain name - it came back with the same IP address that is visible when you use a web page service such as www.whatismyip.com to show the IP address your laptop is appearing as to websites on the internet.

Something of note:

There is a post on the virgin media forums somewhere about the hub 4 and having the port forwarding ports in ascending order - I haven't proven it, but suspect this was a misdiagnosis of the bug I discovered where a TCP port isn't forwarded correctly until the hub is restarted (which can be actioned from the hub web interface, there is no need to hike out to your router from your home office). There is no logical reason that the order of entries in a routing table would make the slightest difference to how they are actioned (or not).

Conclusion:

I really hope the above helps. The hub 5 has exactly the same issues so far as I can see, it just responds quicker, so it's considerably less likely that you go around in circles chasing your tail if you don't know the above (the client side UI doesn't have time to time out while the WIFI is restarting for example).

Many thanks to the Virgin Media engineers who sat and watched me demonstrate the issue with the hub3 that was driving me nuts. We tried a new hub 3, it seemed to work initially, but then before long, it was borked. I strongly suspect that this is because as the hours of trying to get this very simple feature working ticked by, my patience reduced proportionately. I don't think I'd have re-worked it out so quickly without being given the opportunity to experience the newer version of the hub. I'll never get all those hours spent trying to get this working back, but it is a small consolation that the newer hub is going to make this so much quicker to change in the future and I won't have to experince the above pain again.

As an aside, I recall one of the engineers commenting on using Ethernet access for the admin portal being what they've used in the past. I think that this may well alleviate *some* of the pain - assuming the Ethernet access remains on when making changes to routing tables etc within the router (virgin media hub). You'll need a device with an Ethernet port to try this, but if you have one or could borrow one for an hour, I think I'd recommend it if you're using the hub3 for more than just simple wifi SSID or password changes.