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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

Not sure, I'm just normal VM

I wish I had seen this thread sooner. I to have been battling VM with this issue. 

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Frequent-dropouts-last-48hrs/td-p/4639187

Im grateful for all your work fellow VM customers. I will now have to follow the same uphill task of getting this fixed for good.

 

Please let us know if you'll manage. VM is still refusing to replace my modem with SH5.

If you can configure your router (assuming you're using the VM supplied box as a modem and have a separate router) to use DNS Forwarding and TLS it will make things significantly better.

Also having MS teams audio issues and packet drops.  homehub issues (3.0). It was even worse today on Cisco Voice platform.

a_gulliver
Joining in

Probably an unusual but related problem. Virgin just foisted a Hub 3 on me, and upon installation one of my devices refuses to work.

I have a "Spectranet" ethernet adaptor for the 1980s 8-bit Sinclair ZX Spectrum. This is a brand new piece of hardware for putting a vintage computer online, and it worked perfectly PnP with the Hub 2. Everything worked with the Hub 2. The Spectranet won't work with the hub 3. It initially connects and gets  an IP number but cannot communicate with any sites. Some research suggests the device uses UDP. This is a bit beyond my knowledge, out of my depth. 

Can anyone help? I tried re-installing the Hub 2 with the intention of throwing the hub 3 back at Virgin but it now refuses to work at all, with any device. 

Respect buddy. Can you do a ping or something from your Spectrum? Maybe it's DHCP, like wrong dnses?

I'm not sure it's possible to ping from the Spectrum. 

Having written to the man who created the Spectranet, I am informed that I need to "allow TCP and UDP traffic over port 16384 in outgoing and return direction".

VM support have no idea what I am talking about. I have little more idea myself. 

legacy1
Alessandro Volta

Try getting a router with 1Gb ports and put hub in modem mode

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