Virgin Superhub 3 connectivity issues

[mightyoakbob]

Hi,
Anyone got any advice or words of wisdom please.

I'm in the UK with VirginMedia and I've been using this fork for a couple of years on my N66U. When I first started Virgin had supplied a Superhub 1 and that worked really well (in modem only mode) with the N66U, no issues.

Then in March 17, Virgin supplied an new Superhub 3 and since then I dread re-booting the N66U or the SH3 because ivariably the N66U will fail to get a WAN connection due to DHCP failure.

If you keep rebooting one device then the other, if you're lucky, very lucky it will connect and you'll be OK but it will waste 2 hours of you life at the least trying to get a connection.

Of course Virgin don't want to know about this, they say just use their SH3 in router mode.

What if anything can I do about this?

Is there anything I can do before giving up and doing as they suggest?

OK, I'm a little out of date I'm 0n version 28, for fear of re-boots.

thanks

Bob.

 

[cowst]

I suggest you provide the log, because at least John could tell that my crappy rebooting modem was doing a weird double WAN restart, and that could help understanding the issue.

 

[mightyoakbob]

I suggest you provide the log, because at least John could tell that my crappy rebooting modem was doing a weird double WAN restart, and that could help understanding the issue.

OK, that sounds good. Where would I find that, is it obvious? I'm at work at the moment so can't look.
Is it likely to have last night's woes in store as I'm very reluctent to reboot and kill my tinternet whislt I have it.

Thanks

Bob.

 

[john9527]

Then in March 17, Virgin supplied an new Superhub 3 and since then I dread re-booting the N66U or the SH3 because ivariably the N66U will fail to get a WAN connection due to DHCP failure.

I'm sorry to hear you were forced to a Superhub 3. From what I have read its pretty much a train wreck, from port flapping issues to latency spikes based on the Puma 6 chipset.

Only things I can recommend right now are
- make sure the SH3 has been updated to the latest firmware
- try the latest 'E' version fork for the N66. It picked up some PPPoE changes as part of some CTF work.
- try with CTF disabled
- try with IPv6 disabled

 

[mightyoakbob]

I'm sorry to hear you were forced to a Superhub 3. From what I have read its pretty much a train wreck, from port flapping issues to latency spikes based on the Puma 6 chipset.

Only things I can recommend right now are
- make sure the SH3 has been updated to the latest firmware
- try the latest 'E' version fork for the N66. It picked up some PPPoE changes as part of some CTF work.
- try with CTF disabled
- try with IPv6 disabled

John I have been blocked whatever that means and can't reply properly.
Bob.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Then in March 17, Virgin supplied an new Superhub 3 and since then I dread re-booting the N66U or the SH3 because ivariably the N66U will fail to get a WAN connection due to DHCP failure.

Two weeks ago I had my hub "upgraded" to a Hub 3.0 (aka SH3). Since then I've rebooted it quite a few times due to circumstances unrelated to the hub. I've never experienced the DHCP problem you describe, although I have an AC68U not an N66U. Have you looked in the network log on the hub for errors? It might indicate a problem with the upstream network rather than any of your equipment. If you log into Virgin Media's site you can get it to do an automated diagnostic on your connection. Also, check for a faulty Ethernet cable between the hub and the Asus, and that the coax cable into the hub if tightly screwed on (engineers tend to leave them loose).

On a side note my hub received the long awaited firmware update yesterday and it does improve the Puma 6 issues noticeably (but not entirely).

@john9527 FYI Virgin Media don't use PPPoE, just a standard Ethernet connection.

 

[mightyoakbob]

John thanks for your help.

I now think I've uploaded my log file from last night, could you have a look please.

I'll try try all of your suggestions when I'm next unable to connect as if I re-boot I'll lose my internet and wont be able to get it back. When this problem happens, my router will not let me talk to the SH3 and so I can't put it back to router mode to get some net.

No, I can't find a way to upload the log file, everything fails. I can't work it out.

What is CTF?

Thanks

Bob.

 

[mightyoakbob]

Two weeks ago I had my hub "upgraded" to a Hub 3.0 (aka SH3). Since then I've rebooted it quite a few times due to circumstances unrelated to the hub. I've never experienced the DHCP problem you describe, although I have an AC68U not an N66U. Have you looked in the network log on the hub for errors? It might indicate a problem with the upstream network rather than any of your equipment. If you log into Virgin Media's site you can get it to do an automated diagnostic on your connection. Also, check for a faulty Ethernet cable between the hub and the Asus, and that the coax cable into the hub if tightly screwed on (engineers tend to leave them loose).

On a side note my hub received the long awaited firmware update yesterday and it does improve the Puma 6 issues noticeably (but not entirely).

@john9527 FYI Virgin Media don't use PPPoE, just a standard Ethernet connection.

Thanks Colin,
I'm trying and failing to upload last night's log from the N66u. It goes through the motions but doesn't seem to appear anywhere. How do you do this?

I get a black box which lets me navigate to the log file and then displays the name in the box but there is no send button, just a close button. No idea at all.

Bob.

 

[john9527]

John thanks for your help.

I now think I've uploaded my log file from last night, could you have a look please.

@ColinTaylor provides a good reminder...check the physical connections first.

As far as the log goes, cut and paste from the syslog and upload to file sharing site and give the link.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I get a black box which lets me navigate to the log file and then displays the name in the box but there is no send button, just a close button.

Yeah, I get the same. It works with other files, so there's something about syslog's that this site doesn't like.

 

[mightyoakbob]

@ColinTaylor provides a good reminder...check the physical connections first.

As far as the log goes, cut and paste from the syslog and upload to file sharing site and give the link.

OK, good idea.

Hang on, apparently drop box need to validate my email address before they'll let me share the file.

Waiting for it to arrive....

Bob.

 

[mightyoakbob]

OK, good idea.

Hang on, apparently drop box need to validate my email address before they'll let me share the file.

Waiting for it to arrive....

Bob.

OK given up on dropbox so slow to send email useless.
Please try this.
http://www.mightyoak.org.uk/syslog.txt

Bob.

 

[john9527]

OK given up on dropbox so slow to send email useless.
Please try this.
http://www.mightyoak.org.uk/syslog.txt

Bob.

Sorry, but that's all normal traffic after the WAN address had been obtained.

EDIT: One thing....it shows you are using local addresses as your nameservers. How is that set up?

 

[mightyoakbob]

Sorry, but that's all normal traffic after the WAN address had been obtained.

EDIT: One thing....it shows you are using local addresses as your nameservers. How is that set up?

Sorry, that is all there was in the log for yesterday, before that was Jan 1st for some reason and nothing since.

Do I need to add logging for something else to be useful next time?

I think the dns is set by virgin in the dhcp and is 194.168.4.100 local? If it was 192.168.4.x then yes but 194?

Thanks
Bob.

 

[ColinTaylor]

http://www.mightyoak.org.uk/syslog.txt

There's nothing unusual in that part of the log. We'd have to see the log entries at the time of the problem.

TBH this doesn't sound like it's anything to do with John's firmware. It's either a physical problem (cables, etc.), a Hub issue, or a Virgin Media issue. The day after my Hub 3.0 was installed I had a problem where my Asus kept saying "ISP's DHCP did not function properly". The error message was correct. Due to a provisioning problem from VM the modem was constantly rebooting itself. Switching the Hub to "router mode" masked the problem but didn't fix it. Looking in the Hub's network log the problem was obvious (also the light on the front of the Hub kept changing from green to white and then back to green).

 

[john9527]

I think the dns is set by virgin in the dhcp and is 194.168.4.100 local? If it was 192.168.4.x then yes but 194?

Sorry....the brain plays tricks sometimes when you look at something....Of course you are right.

With the N66, you lose the syslog on a reboot. So you need to capture the syslog after a 'fail' event, before you try and reboot again.

 

[ColinTaylor]

EDIT: One thing....it shows you are using local addresses as your nameservers. How is that set up?

I think the dns is set by virgin in the dhcp and is 194.168.4.100 local? If it was 192.168.4.x then yes but 194?

You are correct, VM's DNS servers are so similar to 192.168.x.y it's easy to confuse them.

 

[mightyoakbob]

There's nothing unusual in that part of the log. We'd have to see the log entries at the time of the problem.

TBH this doesn't sound like it's anything to do with John's firmware. It's either a physical problem (cables, etc.), a Hub issue, or a Virgin Media issue. The day after my Hub 3.0 was installed I had a problem where my Asus kept saying "ISP's DHCP did not function properly". The error message was correct. Due to a provisioning problem from VM the modem was constantly rebooting itself. Switching the Hub to "router mode" masked the problem but didn't fix it. Looking in the Hub's network log the problem was obvious (also the light on the front of the Hub kept changing from green to white and then back to green).

No I didn't ever think it was john's software. But I did think that you guys on here are more likely than anyone else to be able to give me sensible advice other then don't use your own router.

When the router cannot get dhcp and I can't use the tinternet is there any way to get the SH3 to go back to router mode becaue I couldn't find a way to talk to it and a factory reset had no effect.

Bob.

 

[ColinTaylor]

No I didn't ever think it was john's software. But I did think that you guys on here are more likely than anyone else to be able to give me sensible advice other then don't use your own router.

Then it might be best to move this discussion into its own thread rather than add off-topic entries to the +7100 posts here.

When the router cannot get dhcp and I can't use the tinternet is there any way to get the SH3 to go back to router mode becaue I couldn't find a way to talk to it and a factory reset had no effect.

I would have thought a factory reset would have done it, but apparently not (I never tried). When I had my issue, like you it was hit and miss but mostly I had to power off the hub and the router and then turn them back on. Most of the time I could get back in intermittently for about 20 minutes before I got "locked out" again. That was just enough time to log into the hub and look at the logs or change to router mode.

 

[john9527]

No I didn't ever think it was john's software. But I did think that you guys on here are more likely than anyone else to be able to give me sensible advice other then don't use your own router.

When the router cannot get dhcp and I can't use the tinternet is there any way to get the SH3 to go back to router mode becaue I couldn't find a way to talk to it and a factory reset had no effect.

Bob.

Sounds like @ColinTaylor had the same symptoms....and often in rolling out an upgrade the ISP can tend to repeat an error, like his provisioning problem. He may be able to give you advice on how he handled it with VM and got them to recognize and correct it.