Virgin Media Hub 5x keeps disconnecting many times an hour

[Mike_Bow]

My Virgin Media Hub 5x keeps disconnecting from internet then reconnecting randomly every 2-10 minutes.  One minute it is ok, then internet stops and I see the white light flashing for a few seconds then internet is back.  The wifi stays connected.  This was a new installation 5 months ago.  Seems to have started since recent rainy weather.  I have done the usual power off/on with a lengthy wait many times and no change.  Anyone have any ideas?  I have changed nothing and no new devices.

[legacy1]

We really need modem mode to fix the hub 5x

[Sephiroth]

What diagnostics or status data are available on the Hub 5x?  The Forum Team here, when they get to this thread are going to fob you off to call a separate team.

[Mike_Bow]

It has a log that is useless.  Its only entries are moaning randomly "Gateway ipv6 address is empty" and you get an entry if you log into it.  I can't see any way of getting diags.  I think VM need to see what is happening from their end.

[Sephiroth]

Maybe a Thinkbroadband BQM could shed some light on what's going on.  Rainy weather shouldn't affect fibre.  It could be getting into the optical node (cabinet) but that's really unlikely.

[Mike_Bow]

Maybe solved...
When this was first installed my broadband didn't work for a week with a similar but much worse issue.  An engineer had to come back out. He found the internal fibre to modem cable was very dirty on one end and cleaned it which fixed it.  On advice from another web site last night I pulled the fibre cable and inspected the ends using a super cheap 60x tiny microscope thing I have.  The wall box end had small dark dots on it.  I cleaned both ends carefully with isopropyl alcohol and a lint free cloth and when both looked spotless I put it back.  The issue hasn't recurred so far so maybe that's it.  Wall box is too low to floor to look up into the socket to see if there could be residual dirt in it, which is all I can think caused this if indeed it is the cause.

[Sephiroth]

Well done.  I should have thought of that - working with fibre as I do!

That said, whenever we install fibre anywhere, we perform a "Fluke" test to certify the signal strength and loss at each end of a fibre span.  Obviously this is impractical for VM given where the span runs to (the optical node cabinet).  But at least a procedure for cleaning the residential end should be standard.