Whilst possible with some of their customised virgin only product “in house kit” this device is used across other cable companies outside the UK. The firmware is administered by the vendor. The UK version issued by virgin also has all of the backgrounds and themes of the other ISPs, it just picks the right theme from the memory. The firmware’s actually the same. Per the cable docsis standard providers have to update the modem / gateway themselves, to avoid customers running old firmware with security weaknesses that newer firmware generally resolves. However the individual ISPs can test the firmware feedback to the vendor and take a decision to reject if it breaks core functionality. Generally ISPs should engage in knowledge sharing to ensure say virgin sees a specific attack against their hub, if another provider abroad has the same hub, they’d ideally be informed to be on the look out via this means. It also helps to pickup bugs such as this.
It’s just shoddy coding by sagemcom, inadequate vetting by virgin, and much of the same. I can see why so many use modem mode. Coming from sky, plusnet, BT, TalkTalk and Vodafone (hate negotiating prices at end of contract so just leave), I never, not once had any of these firmware issues in all the years - starting with my first router from BT in the noughtees (think hub 2) that had a built in voip phone.
Ironically sagemcom supply the BT Hubs and you don’t see sagemcom making these errors on BTs kit. I remember when I got the virgin hub 5 DHCP was broken, it couldn’t give all my devices IPs (granted I have smart bulbs etc which do add up but it wasn’t an issue on my prior ISPs kit).
I considered calling to inform them of this issue with the port, but then I thought about the last call I had, where they told me “Sir. You are wrong,” when asking why a mystery £5 setup appeared on the bill (setup for what)? & still not able to get the WiFi pods approx a year later (included in the package) - despite raising a complaint last year (which concluded “you need to call”). Fabulous!
Another job well done.
