Hub4 -sudden drop from 1.1Gb to 94Mb in download

[ozsat]

So I check my download speed every few days to make sure I get what I am paying for,  Samknows real speed would usually come back with around 1140 and 940 - Ookla would come back with around 940Mbps too. During all this the upload is a constand 52Mbps.

Noticed things going slow on Sunday and the speeds had dropped to around 94Mbps download.

I have two different 1Gb network cards in the PC and swiitching between those (and SH4 ports) made no difference.

After a couple of power resets of the PC and Hub4 all went back to the expected rates.  I suispected the PC had got intob a weird state.

During yesterday I could tell from download speeds that things were not right again - and they were back to 94Mbs download and 52Mbps upload.

Tried the power resets again and still 94Mbps download via Ethenet. 5GHz Wifi is still working at over 300-400Mpbs which has never changed.

I have another device with a 1Gb card which would give similar speed results to those excepted - but that is now maxing at 94Mbps download too. A few other devices would usually achieve over 130Mpbs - and are all maxing at 94Mpbs too.

One device I could always get around 300Mbs download via Ethernet is now showing 94Mbps too - but still 300Mbs when switched to Wifi.

It seems the SH4 is auto-negotiating at 100 and not 1000 on all four ports. Config still shows 1 DOCSIS 3.1 channel connect and config download is still 1230000450.

Have done a pinhole factory reset and before doing any SH4 customisation I tried again and still only 94Mpbs on all four ports.

I am sure it is not a signal issue as Wifi is good and I'm getting between -1.1 and +3.0 on all power levels and between 37.3 and 38.8 on all SNR.

I've not seen anything in the logs to show a firmware update but the logs were lost here in the factory reset - currently cmreg-vmdg640-bbt076+voc-b.cm

I will call TS today and get them to suggest things but I can put the issue down to the SH4.

Power levels are mainly the same after the factory reset so within expected range.

Anyone any other ideas of things to try?

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[andrewglass3]

So I tried a new cable - I now get between 800 and 900 download. Looks like this was a dodgy cable!

[Superdeviant]

This is not the answer, the problem is solved by removing the Ethernet cable, waiting 30 seconds and then plugging it back in. The fact this has been going on for months is quite honestly disgraceful, it’s an issue with the router that Virgin know about, have acknowledged and we’re still awaiting a fix. How many hundreds of others who don’t routinely conduct speed tests or are on this platform are affected by this, whilst paying a premium for “high speed broadband”.

[samosa]

I agree with Superdeviant Either a reboot or removing and reinserting the cable has brought the link back up to 1gb.

@VMSupport - Why have i had to wait a week for a response where as another user has got multiple responses within a few hours? 

[andrewglass3]

Well if this isn’t the answer I’ll report back here tomorrow. However this appeared last week when I changed cables to some new cat 6 that were cheap on Amazon. Possibly a big mistake. If this returns then would we request a new router or is this a bug that’s present in all hub 4s? 

[vikingbeard]

I'm just going to chime in here and say that I have had the exact same problem for a long time. I switched over to Gig1 with a superdud4 modem as soon as it was available. but have frequent problems with speed dropping exactly as described by Superdeviant. Tried every fix & reset, countless engineer visits, I even had the modem swapped out. Now I use modem mode and my own ASUS gaming router, which never has any issues but often reports when Virgin does.

I last had an engineer out a few weeks back because my account kept reporting a "fault with wiring" which I knew was complete rubbish because I had a brand new cable pulled from the cabinet when I switched to Gig1. The engineer who came was surprisingly honest helpful. He looked at my cabling and setup and said there was nothing wrong inside the house. The issue as all long time cable customers (pre virgin) know, is caused by overutilization. Quite simply if you keep signing customers up without upgrading the network, it will eventually reach capacity and fall over.

After visiting the cabinet the engineer said that almost every household was on a splitter, it was that which was causing the line interference and slowing me down. He unplugged me from a shared connection and placed my cable at the top of the panel on its own & my speed almost immediately jumped back up to a little over over 1gbps. However he did warn me that the next engineer that works on the cabinet could easily swap me back. Well after a couple of weeks of fast solid speeds, I'm back down to restarting my modem every few days. So I can only assume what I was told about the cabinet to be accurate.

This is not the first time I have been told this by a VM engineer by the way. However I doubt you'll get anyone at Virginmedia to admit this, less send anyone out to fix it. I would advise all customers to check their speeds regularly and report and not to accept anyone from CSD trying to blame your own devices or wires. Unless there's a massive overhaul of the entire network and equipment noting is going to improve. So for the time being restarting the modem is the only way to keep the speed up. Shocking really when you look at how much we pay out each month.

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @samosa,

Thank you for coming back to us and I'm sorry to hear that your issue is still ongoing and that we've not responded to you sooner.

I have been able to run some further checks on our system and I cannot see any issues that could be impacting your download speeds from what I can see. However, if you have your Hub on Modem Mode, this could impair some data that we receive from your Hub.

In order to receive the most accurate results, we would need to ask you to put your Hub into Router mode for at least 24 hours so that we can run our checks fully to see if there's anything on the line that's impacting your connection.

Let us know how you get on.

Thank you.

[samosa]

Hi @Paulina_Z

The issue isnt with the service itself but with the hub 4 where the RJ45 ports believe they are 100mb rather than 1gb. I've now enabled router mode on the hub4, please try now?

Thanks.

Sam.

[Superdeviant]

I’ve been in router mode for months, it won’t make a difference. Scroll back to the beginning of this thread. Nothing has been done by Virgin to resolve the issue, they just keep on asking for downloads and printouts, and requesting you “hard wire” your connection or change you Ethernet cables. No matter what do as a customer the only thing that TEMPORARILY resolves the issue is to remove your Ethernet cables, wait 30 seconds and plug them back in…… if you’re lucky. Keep doing speed tests, you’ll see. 

[Lisa_CC · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone and thank you for the continued patience you've given us. We've been investigating and working with our Support Team who have confirmed that a proper fix is on it's way and likely to be mid to late August. They've also confirmed that it's affecting the ethernet side so wireless should still run full speed to capable devices.

Regards,

Lisa

[ozsat]

It is good to see something positive from VM - three months after my original post.

But to be honest it has stopped triggering here now.

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@Lisa_CC wrote:

Hi everyone and thank you for the continued patience you've given us. We've been investigating and working with our Support Team who have confirmed that a fix is on it's way and likely to be mid to late August. They've also confirmed that it's affecting the ethernet side so wireless should still run full speed to capable devices.

Regards,

Lisa

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