01-10-2021 09:57 - edited 01-10-2021 10:03
Good Morning All,
Hoping I can find some help which I have thus far failed to do from VM Customer Services over the phone.
Last Friday my internet went down for around 6-7h for "planned maintenance" I have been told by a number of sources within VM that this was to upgrade the lines in preparation for Gigabit connections to be available to all in my are by the end of the year. Since last Friday I have had regular drop outs (typically 16:30-18:00), slow speeds, high ping etc. I have had an engineer come to the property who re-wired the house side of my connection and found no problem (there was no issue at the time the connection was running as expected at 220mb), however just a few hours after he left the line went dead again, VM CS claim there is no problem outside "temporary line problems" and advise resetting the router.
On the advise of someone at VM who called me I have installed a broadband quality monitor in an attempt to prove that I am actually having issues. As you can see this morning (Fri 1st) there was considerable packet loss and high latency on the network for around an hour before it cleared, VM CS claim to see no issue and tell me to call when there is an issue (which I've been doing for around a week to no success).
Can anyone identify where/what may be going wrong with the connection? I have successfully used VM for around 4.5 years with no issues, until last Fridays down time and line upgrade.
For clarity, I am running an my Hub 3 in Modem mode (have been since June 2021) with an Asus RT-AC86U providing the routing.
Downstream bonded channels
Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID
1 | 226750000 | -3.2 | 34 | 256 qam | 12 |
2 | 218750000 | -2.7 | 38 | 256 qam | 11 |
3 | 234750000 | -3.5 | 38 | 256 qam | 13 |
4 | 242750000 | -3.4 | 38 | 256 qam | 14 |
5 | 250750000 | -4 | 38 | 256 qam | 15 |
6 | 258750000 | -3.2 | 38 | 256 qam | 16 |
7 | 266750000 | -4 | 37 | 256 qam | 17 |
8 | 274750000 | -3.2 | 38 | 256 qam | 18 |
9 | 282750000 | -3.5 | 37 | 256 qam | 19 |
10 | 290750000 | -4 | 37 | 256 qam | 20 |
11 | 298750000 | -3.2 | 37 | 256 qam | 21 |
12 | 306750000 | -3.5 | 37 | 256 qam | 22 |
13 | 314750000 | -3.7 | 37 | 256 qam | 23 |
14 | 322750000 | -3.5 | 37 | 256 qam | 24 |
15 | 330750000 | -3.7 | 37 | 256 qam | 25 |
16 | 338750000 | -4 | 37 | 256 qam | 26 |
17 | 346750000 | -3.4 | 37 | 256 qam | 27 |
18 | 354750000 | -4 | 37 | 256 qam | 28 |
19 | 362750000 | -4 | 37 | 256 qam | 29 |
20 | 370750000 | -3.2 | 37 | 256 qam | 30 |
21 | 378750000 | -4.9 | 37 | 256 qam | 31 |
22 | 386750000 | -3.5 | 37 | 256 qam | 32 |
23 | 394750000 | -3.7 | 36 | 256 qam | 33 |
24 | 402750000 | -4.2 | 37 | 256 qam | 34 |
Downstream bonded channels
Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors
1 | Locked | 34.4 | 682164 | 94180 |
2 | Locked | 38.6 | 138252 | 227 |
3 | Locked | 38.6 | 59607 | 7359 |
4 | Locked | 38.9 | 3465 | 187 |
5 | Locked | 38.6 | 573 | 306 |
6 | Locked | 38.6 | 583 | 157 |
7 | Locked | 37.6 | 1050 | 398 |
8 | Locked | 38.6 | 675 | 265 |
9 | Locked | 37.6 | 379 | 144 |
10 | Locked | 37.6 | 527 | 0 |
11 | Locked | 37.6 | 549 | 1 |
12 | Locked | 37.6 | 533 | 0 |
13 | Locked | 37.6 | 446 | 7 |
14 | Locked | 37.6 | 428 | 42 |
15 | Locked | 37.6 | 401 | 0 |
16 | Locked | 37.3 | 256 | 0 |
17 | Locked | 37.6 | 426 | 14 |
18 | Locked | 37.3 | 460 | 324 |
19 | Locked | 37.3 | 504 | 93 |
20 | Locked | 37.6 | 134 | 0 |
21 | Locked | 37.3 | 332 | 78 |
22 | Locked | 37.3 | 1820 | 16894 |
23 | Locked | 36.6 | 432 | 2106 |
24 | Locked | 37.3 | 215 | 0 |
Upstream bonded channels
Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID
1 | 46200000 | 41 | 5120 | 64 qam | 2 |
2 | 39399961 | 41.3 | 5120 | 64 qam | 3 |
3 | 53700000 | 42.3 | 5120 | 64 qam | 1 |
4 | 32599985 | 41 | 5120 | 64 qam | 4 |
Upstream bonded channels
Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts
1 | ATDMA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
2 | ATDMA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | ATDMA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4 | ATDMA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Answered! Go to Answer
on 16-11-2021 14:53
Hi Beth,
Yes as mentioned on here the connection is fine other than the random drop outs that no one can explain such as last Sunday and a week last Friday when I posted on here.
The engineer highlighted some more issues today with SNR interference and fixed these to ensure the line was further in spec
Hopefully the Hub5 will allow me to setup SamKnows as the think broadband BQM everyone on here uses is completely worthless to everyone else in Virgin Media. Interestingly the engineer tried to get SamKnows working on my Hub3 which he was adamant should work despite neither of us managing it.
Thanks,
Ben
on 17-11-2021 11:26
Initial feedback, the connection seems much better, I haven’t noticed any latency issues which also seems to be backed up by the BQM. Dare I say its fixed?
on 24-11-2021 10:20
Packet loss creeping in again, suffering from call drop outs on VoIP again.
on 24-11-2021 11:21
Similar drop out of connection as seen previously, this time it came back online without needing a reboot.
on 26-11-2021 12:07
Sorry to hear the issues have returned BENGR33N, I've checked the connection in part and all of the level's and spec's are within the ranges we'd expect to see them. To look into the speeds, latency, packet loss and disconnections we'd need the Hub taking out of Modem Mode.
If you do this for a 24 hour period we should be able to get some test results via SamKnows and see more detail. If there is a period when you're experiencing the issues this would give us the best sample size.
Rob
on 26-11-2021 12:35
on 28-11-2021 12:46
Hi there @BENGR33N
Thank you so much for updating us and it's great to hear we potentially have a fix!
How are things looking now its been a few days since the install?
Thank you.
on 29-11-2021 13:00
Not a great looking BQM, possibly the worst amount of latency spikes I’ve seen. SamKnows monitor still doesn’t appear to recognise the Hub5 even in router mode.
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/29292420101af215a7a9eccc6c2dfee864...
Really not sure what to suggest at this point, surely this level of latency on the BQM is not normal? Fast.com shows a very loaded latency also, which I have never seen on other Virgin Media networks at friends houses or other Fibre providers.
on 29-11-2021 22:00
Can someone from Virgin Media confirm that there are active tests occurring on my line? The latency spikes are absolutely horrific and it seems to be bufferbloat, regardless of wired or wireless connection.
I do not want to continue using the Hub5 in router mode for any longer than is required, the lack of channel optimisation is frankly unacceptable as a device being pushed to customers and the range the router manages to throw the signal is very poor compared to the Asus AC-86 so want to get back to this ASAP.
The bufferbloat/ latency issues are 10 times worse on the HUb5 vs my own router due to lack of adjustable quality of service, frankly this whole scenario is our of hand now, I dont understand how the connection can go from reasonable to poor, to dreadful in the space of a few days!
30-11-2021 19:52 - edited 30-11-2021 20:03
Further to my previous post, the Hub 5 is now back in modem mode where it will stay. The Hub 5 in router mode is not powerful enough to run TP-Link smart plugs (something that the Hub3 fine) at even a reasonable distance in a 3 bed detached house, the channel optimisation is disabled while it is under testing which I suspect is causing interference with neighbours WIFI.
To further prove my point, not that anyone from VM seem to care or believe there is an issue at this point, this test Bufferbloat to show the issue of a loaded network and is exactly the problem I am experiencing regardless of Hub, Hub5 or my own Asus router. This is abundantly clear at this point that you wider network does not have the bandwidth required for the number of user in this area.
https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat?test-id=8daa23ff-fd5a-419a-a816-2639c4ad8a37