Virgin Media Community

[Guybrush85]

I'm not contesting the DHCP information with the logs. Everyone seems to be missing the simple point I am making about why I kept the same IP when I swapped hubs or doesn't seem to understand the DHCP handshake. I'm simply saying that if you swap hubs but keep the same 3rd party device in modem mode, you will get the same IP if the DHCP lease hasn't expired and that's due to the MAC address the 3rd party router being sent to the CMTS (DHCP server) in DHCP Discover. It's the 3rd party routers MAC that will be assigned to the WAN address within the CMTS DHCP client table.

Some ISPs don't allow you to use the MAC of the 3rd party router, which is why ASUS and other router manufactures allow you to clone the MAC address from your ISP device.

Little chronological order of events in November on my VM account:

5th November - I swapped hub 3 to hub 4. The 3rd party router stays the same. When I put the hub 4 into modem mode I was assigned the same IP I had on the hub 3 in modem mode.

12th November - I swapped out the 3rd party router. Hub stays the same. My IP changes (as reflect in the fact my BQM says new router in the title)

Yesterday - I swapped the hub 4 to the hub 5 - 3rd party router stays the same. When I put the hub 5 into modem mode I was assigned the same IP I had on the hub 4 in modem mode.

[Stobbsy74]

@Guybrush85, 

Thank you for this post, I too am on 1 gig and been invited to get a hub 5 but as yet not heard anything back.

Your post gives me hope that I may actually get one, as most people on the forums seem adamant that its not available to 1 gig subbers.

I was seriously thinking about buying a 10g router to bind the wan together on my hub 4, but after your post I think I will give it another few weeks.

[Guybrush85]

No probs bud - will keep the post updated if I find any issues and the BQM is still live (in the signature, need to make it a live link/image).

[jem101]

@Guybrush85 

For what it's worth, you are right about the WAN IP being dependent on the MAC address being presented, so, same third party router, different hubs in modem mode and you'll get the same IP address.

The logs do look a bit of a mess at first glance, but DOCSIS modems on startup run through an entire long list of operations, they need to listen to the data being sent along the cable and work out what they are connected to and which channels they need to listen on for configuration information, then they need to configure the connection, then make required adjustments, then start doing all the IP addressing and routing info etc.

The whole thing does look like a complete mess but they get there in the end. But until all of this is done there will be an entire slew of 'critical' errors and messages which is all normal as things just haven't got themselves into a functional state yet.

It does look as if the Hub 5 is much more verbose in what it logs on startup, if you take a look at the log you posted earlier, all of those errors etc. all happen within the space of less than two minutes until it finally logs that it has managed to register itself properly and is just waiting to come fully online - so the startup process hadn't actually completed then, but it's nearly there. I do suspect that as the Hub 5 becomes more widely rolled out, we'll be seeing quite a few posts on here from people seeing all these 'errors' etc. and assuming that there is something badly wrong.

Your earlier BQM did look a little spikey but nothing too badly off, the upstream QAM will adjust itself up and down to compensate for noise issues which is how it is designed to work.

John

[Guybrush85]

Thanks John.

Ultimately I think think you're right as as I've not seen any further logs since boot, but will continue to monitor and feed into the thread should anything change. As I'd not seen any of these logs before, I went to research them like I'm sure most would and although I don't recall finding posts on any VM forums, I found a number on US/EU cable forums.

I found some posts on a netgear forum (some US ISPs allow you BYOD router as I'm sure most know) that suggested they only started seeing these logs when moving on Netgear router X, which support the more verbose logging on some routers. Either way, they weren't directly comparable as the posters were experiencing issues, so nothing I could hang my hat on.

I had come 2 hypothesis, but leaning more towards 1:

1. Exactly what you have said in that, this may just be the new norm (or to be more granular, the new norm on my CMTS type at least (believed to be a cBR-8) when that at boot up you are likely to see these messages within the logs. Would need to see logs from other hub 5 users to support the theory.

2. Some configuration upstream had not been completed to support the hub on my CMTS. 

The hub has performed fine today with the BQM looking better than yesterday and upstream staying at QAM 64, so hopeful that's that sorted.

Couple of notes to add onto here so they're not missed. Downstream levels in the hub have DOCSIS 3.1 information missing, there may be a page you can visit to get this info, but for example the /getRouterStatus page doesn't work (despite the firmware looking to be based on the hub 3)

Also the samknows speedtest that was baked into the hub 4 doesn't work (tested in router mode before anyone asks), which is probably not surprising as the firmware is based on the hub 3.