Virgin Media Community

[Westie2]

Hi There

I work from home 2 days a week and have a Virgin Media Superhub 2ac. I couldn't upgrade to Hub3 because of the VPN passthrough issues.

The Virgin services is now becoming impossible to use. I work for a number of councils and use VPNs for security reasons because of dealing with highly personal information. The VPN disconnects me every hour and then involves a very long and laborious sign-in process because of security, code generation etc.

Nottingham City Council IT dept has told me that Virgin Media is notorious for disconnecting people after an hour as the internet shouldn't be used for homeworking. This sounds ridiculous, but is it true?

Secondly, I cannot continue with such a poor and not fit for purpose service, so what do you intend to do? Why is the VPN disconnecting hourly.

I have no problems with the internet in general, only when working through a VPN. I use a cabled connection. If we can't rectify this I'll have to move to a different provider that has a stable survive.

Many thanks

Westie

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@Westie2 wrote:

Nottingham City Council IT dept has told me that Virgin Media is notorious for disconnecting people after an hour as the internet shouldn't be used for homeworking. This sounds ridiculous, but is it true?

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1) "Disconnecting people after an hour"  - I have never experienced that and I have worked from home for years but to be fair I do not regularly use a VPN.

2)  "the internet shouldn't be used for homeworking. This sounds ridiculous, but is it true?"

No, as I understand it that is not true.  See their Acceptable Use Policy  https://www.virginmedia.com/content/virginmedia/dotcom/en/shop/the-legal-stuff/acceptable-use-policy...

But for easy reference here is the relevant section:

"5.2. Specific prohibited acts in relation to Virgin Media’s systems, services and equipment are:

5.2.4. trade or business use of our services, except for  remote access to your employer’s corporate network (and remember in any case that we are not liable for any loss occurring as a result of such use), unless you subscribe to a a product that is specifically stated as a business product. "

Coenoby

Just edited to add one final thought. Nottingham City Council IT dept response does not make much sense to me on any level. I know people who use a VPN most of the time for their personal online use. Since when did using a VPN = homeworking?

[Westie2]

Hey Coenby and thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think Nottingham City Council's response is indeed ridiculous about VPN and homeworking, but what they have said, is that they are well aware of the problem homeworkers are having with VirginMedia. It appears to be why a number of the homeworkers have gone over to Sky. It doesn't really make much sense to me. Do you know how I get a definitive answer from VirginMedia themselves about being disconnected from a VPN every hour?

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to reply

[Westie2]

Hi Coenoby, me again!

It seems that the user licence allows me to work from home for the council, I am not self-employed or anything.

I have used personal VPNs in the past and haven't had any issues, the issue definitely is related to going into a company's VPN security system. As I said before, the council seems aware of an issue with VirginMedia, but seem to be wrongly blaming this on the user licence agreement.. The problem arises not just with Nottingham City Council's VPN but those of other councils too who I do work for.

I'm really have no idea to go with this. I think I'll see if I can get a direct answer from VirginMedia, but that is always easier said than done!

Thanks again

Westie2

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@Westie2 wrote:

I'm really have no idea to go with this. I think I'll see if I can get a direct answer from VirginMedia, but that is always easier said than done!

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I would suggest to wait for one of the forum team (VM employees) to pick up this thread and look into the problem for you.

In the meantime another poster with more experience and knowledge of this may be able you offer advice. Also, a bit of online searching might throw some light on the problem if you have not done that already.

As a final (perhaps cynical observation ) , the response from Nottingham's IT Department does strike me as a familiar strategy to push the problem back to you rather than doing any real investigation themselves. By the same token, if you speak to VM support on their 150 phone line they will almost certainly push you back to Nottingham City Council. That's just the way they all operate.

Coenoby

[Kippies · Accepted solution]

Clues in the name really innit?

Virtual PRIVATE Network

Short of DPI, how would VM be able to tell you are using a VPN for work for a specific subset of clients (councils in your case) or indeed for a larger subset (say corporate VPN's) of users? Why would they care? VPN' use fairly little data compared to say streaming Netflix. The reason there are clauses limiting working from home in the TOS is to prevent claims for liability, either through service faults or technical support.

How many resources would it take to monitor every VM connection in the UK for suspected corporate VPN use and kill the connection after an hour? The answer is "more than it would free up just ignoring it"

So I have to echo the above- sounds like lazy tech support employer end to me....

However we should not jump to conclusions. How does the connection perform when NOT connected to a VPN? Have you tested it connecting to a different VPN?

Next

So we can help us to help you, can you

Go to your Superhub Log in screen

Do NOT log in.

Little button top right.....


Can you post Upstream, Downstream and Network logs.



Screen caps are nice, C&P will do- Don't stress about formatting if you C&P. Someone will get a look and see if there's anything obvious amiss.

[Westie2]

Hey Coenoby

I agree, Nottingham City Council's reply seems iffy to me to.However, the same thing is happening when I work with other councils too. The odd thing though, is that people who are homeworking like me, but are using other internet providers, particularly Sky, aren't having any iisues. I think you're likely to be right and neither the council's or Virgin will admit to being the guilty party!

[Westie2]

Thanks Kippies for your reply.

Sorry if this is a daft question, but do you want the info from the hub when it's connected or disconnected from the VPN?

Cheers

Westie

[DreamOfCheese]

It might be related to the old Superhub issue that affected SSH sessions where the timeout on the Superhub was too sensitive, you could try buying a third party router and changing your Superhub to modem mode.

[Westie2]

Hey Kippies

Here is the info you asked for. Thanks again. westie2

[MOD EDIT- Some images removed as contains personal IP address]