Why does my superhub reboot frequently? Can be disastrous if giving a zoom talk

[aaronsloman]

For some reason in the last two weeks or so I've lost internet connection without any warning and have to wait while the superhub reboots itself. Obviously this can be very annoying if I am linked to a zoom conference and worse than annoying if I am actually giving a presentation at the time.

[Zak_M]

That sounds really interesting. 

Glad to hear that you are keeping busy. 

Kind regards,

Zak_M

[aaronsloman]

Noted, thanks.

[aaronsloman]

I guess they must be too busy. Nobody has contacted us about this or turned up to fix it. But the junction box has been like that for at least a couple of years so perhaps it can continue working for a few more years if the team has more urgent tasks.

[aaronsloman]

I am returning to this topic because it is proving to be a serious problem. I think the problem has nothing to do with our permanently open external junction box mentioned earlier, because the loss of connection always tends to occur some time after midnight (as has just happened again, while I was in the middle of a task using a remote connection). I have now found a very clear pattern: every now and again, some time after midnight I lose my external connection for a while, without any warning. The light on my VM hub flashes intermittently, and after a while stops flashing and I can reconnect to the internet. In the process some other work has been seriously disrupted. This happened while I was doing some remote editing this evening. The evidence that the hub has rebooted is clear from this information just copied from the hub "info" page showing that it has only been up 57 minutes, 50 seconds. (I've deleted the cable mac address).

Hub 3.0 device informationThe information below shows current status of this Hub 3.0.

Standard specification compliant	: DOCSIS 3.0
Hardware version	: 10
Software version	: 9.1.1912.304
Cable MAC address	:
Cable modem serial number	: AAAP71155603
System up time	: 0 days 0h:57m:50s
Network access	: Allowed

 

I think that the practice of just assuming that a hub is not in use and can be temporarily disabled without any warning to serve some VM purpose is totally unreasonable nowadays, and especially with so much live international communication going on between people in different time zones, or people just working late (in my case as a retired academic still engaged in research collaboration).

I understand that it may be necessary to install updates at regular intervals but users should be consulted as to whether it is always OK to do this shortly after midnight wtihout warning, or whether they wish to be given a list of possible times before each update from which to choose. I appreciate this will require some non-trivial changes to VM procedures. In the meantime when a reboot is required please send an email message several hours in advance giving a warning, so that appropriate plans can be made. Losing my connection in the middle of a remote edit can be *very* annoying.

Thanks in anticipation...

[Robert_P]

Hello aaronsloman

Thanks for taking the time to provide us with an update, we can understand your frustration. 

We'd like to confirm that we do sometimes need to send updates to the hub, given the diversity of our customer base and how and when they use their connections, there isn't a 'good' time to run these so we usually leave them until the early hours so as to cause minimum disruption. It appears from what you have said this may be the case and we're sorry for any inconvenience caused.

You mentioned the open Omni box, I can see this was raised previously but can you confirm if this has been attended as requested?

Rob

[aaronsloman]

In reply to this comment from Robert P:

"We'd like to confirm that we do sometimes need to send updates to the hub, given the diversity of our customer base and how and when they use their connections, there isn't a 'good' time to run these so we usually leave them until the early hours so as to cause minimum disruption. It appears from what you have said this may be the case and we're sorry for any inconvenience caused."

I'm afraid I regard this as a totally unacceptable reply. I note that you don't even consider my suggestion: giving customers sufficient warning before each disconnection to avoid losing work by being disconnected while in the middle of some interaction. If that's not possible I shall have to investigate alternative service providers. I'll do some research, with the aid of social media. Given the number of individuals and companies that need 24 hour reliability there must be a better way of doing things.

[Kath_F]

Hi aaronsloman, 

Thanks for coming back to us in the Community and I'm really sorry to hear you feel this way. 

When we are pushing updates through, it's not possible for us to schedule them at different times for different people. he updates get pushed for all customers at the same times. 

Where work is needed to be done in the area we will try and ensure notice is given however we're not able to do this for updates as more often than not, they are pushed through at short notice. 

We appreciate this doesn't help you specifically and understand you need to do what's right for you. Should you wish to leave us, speak to the team on 0345 454 1111 option 1, 4 then 4 again so they can go through the disconnection process with you. 

Apologies once again. 

Thanks,

[aaronsloman]

Kath, Thanks for your message, and this advice:

"Should you wish to leave us, speak to the team on 0345 454 1111 option 1, 4 then 4 again so they can go through the disconnection process with you."

I was disconnected again without warning during a zoom meeting yesterday around 1:20pm. It took me 10-15 minutes to reconnect.

For various reasons, including having to do research on alternatives, I shall not be able to switch soon.

Meanwhile, every time I begin a zoom talk I'll say something like "Because my service provider is VirginMedia in the UK I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to finish this presentation as planned, since they frequently disconnect me without notice for periods of several minutes or longer." I'll also have to add that to online advertisements of talks.

I'll also make this known to new colleagues who may be looking for a service provider, e.g. people who have recently joined my department.

Meanwhile, if a senior manager at VM finds out how to organise things better, e.g. by consulting other companies who provide a dependable service, please let me know if they decide to improve this service.

Thanks.

[Akua_A]

We truly apologise for any inconvenience and frustration this may have caused your work @aaronsloman. We can understand that this is certainly not ideal.

I have been able to access your account to take a further look into this for you and I can see some issues flagged. 

Would you be interested in a engineer visit in regards to this?

Thanks,

[aaronsloman]

Thanks to Akua-A for this offer "Would you be interested in a engineer visit in regards to this?". Yes, if it could reduce the frequency of lost connections.

I assume it would not affect the disconnections that typically happen not long after midnight and seem to involve software updates.

However, if random daytime loss of connection while I am working on a remote machine could be reduced that would be much appreciated.

Regarding planned reboots for software updates on hubs, if customers who regularly have meetings late at night (e.g. using zoom) could be given a few date/time options to choose from whenever an update is available that could make a huge difference, e.g. if it prevents connection being lost while I am giving a remote talk using zoom.

Meanwhile I'll have to start each talk or meeting by apologising in case Virgin Medial disconnects me without warning yet again.

Thanks.