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UDP issues on SuperHub3 - collective thread

dinth
Dialled in

Hi. I decided to open a collective thread for UDP issues on SuperHub3, as it seems that many users are pestered by them, the impact is high and Virgin Media is not aware or fails to acknowledge the issue so far (they've been trying to fix my issues for a past year and nobody ever suggested that this has anything to do with UDP packets, until i found whats exactly the issue on my own).

This is the main thread for those issues was this one: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/My-350Mb-connection-is-throttled-to-10Mb/td-p/3953746/pag... but it was originally created over a year ago and has a slightly misleading title. 

What we know so far:

1. The issue only occurs on SuperHub3 (and reportedly on SuperHub4) modem. SuperHub2 users are not affected. 

2. The issue occurs if an app/service is using an UDP connection to the internet. Examples of such apps: BBC Iplayer app, most online games, Microsoft Teams, Skype, third party VoIP apps, all kinds of VPN apps, torrent download apps. 

3. All UDP connections are performing very badly on Superhub3 modem, but also whenever there's a significant UDP traffic passing through the modem, other, non-UDP internet connections are slowed down to crawling speeds.

4. Depending on an user, the reported slowdowns are to between 10Mbps and 2kbps (!) speed measured through Speedtest. At the same time ping times go up all the way to 2000+ ms and huge packet losses (sometimes over 40%) occur. In other words, even web browsing is not possible if there's a significant UDP traffic going on through modem. 

5. VM street level fixes do not fix the problem - i had a whole uplink cable between CATV manhole and Virgin Media cabinet replaced by VM and it has not fixed the issue.

6. Replacing a modem does not fix the problem either - replacement SuperHub3 modems also have same issue.

7. Here's how the issue looks like on ThinkBroadband/Speedtest with just 1Mbps of UDP traffic flowing through the modem:

Screenshot 2020-08-25 at 19.17.25.png

It's really sad, that Virgin Media fails to acknowledge this problem, as hundreds, if not thousands of people may be severly affected by it. The advice VM is giving out to the users is unhelpful and sometimes harmful (I've been told i need to chase the walls in the newly refurbrished house to replace my VM cable and desperate to fix the problem I have done that). Just look how many threads are being open on this forum describing similar issues with apps using UDP connections. 

 

192 REPLIES 192

Hi everyone,

Just curious if this is still an issue for people. I've recently increased my reliance on Wireguard and Cloudflare tunnels which all use UDP. I really don't want to put my Superhub 3 in router mode because thats gross and will break a lot.

I'd just noticed that things had gone quiet on here so kinda wishful thinking my UDP issues (internet totally breaks even under slight UDP load) were maybe related to something else.

Probably just wishful thinking haha!

Unfortunately the issue is due to an inherent weakness in the Intel Puma chipset used in the SH3.  No amount of firmware tweaking is going to be able to fully resolve it and I can confirm I can trigger the issues on demand.

My VPN provider has added Wireshark Protocol so it's very fast and reliable and has solved the problem for me 

Wireguard I meant !!!🙄

I also use Wireguard now, instead of OpenVPN.  For me it has reduce the frequency that the issue triggers but it does still happen when my torrent client is pushing 50+ handles/connections.

I haven't had an issue since I configured for DNS forwarding.  However I don't run WireGuard.

To help resolve this one - I downgraded to a Superhub 2 after about 6 weeks of calling and complaining.

Superhub 4s were then made available in my area and then I swapped to that - I don't seem to experience the issue anymore.

Hi splendid2k thanks for posting and welcome to our community.

Sorry to hear you're having UDP issues on your hub 3.  I would like to take a closer look on your behalf. I am going to send you a private message.  Please look out for the purple envelope in the top right of your screen.

Regards


Lee_R

I think many of us are having UDP issues with the hub 3, if you have a cure that would be great

He won't have a cure because the issue is inherent to the Intel Puma chipset that the SH3 uses.