BQM Suddenly red

Hello i noticed my BQM suddenly turned completely red from around 5pm bst yesterday but the traceroute tool seemed to work fine? I'm still pretty new to this so any help is appreciated.

My Broadband Ping

Edited by deleted (Wed 30-Sep-20 14:15:35)

Are you on a dynamic IP address with your ISP? Your connection probably dropped at some point and you have gotten a different IP than previously, so the BQM is pinging the wrong address.

While I agree on the dynamic IP, I think they might also be using an IPv6 Address which can change a lot, especially if running Windows, plus IPv6 will be the machine the Traceroute was done on.

TBH I would use an IPv4 Address or a DDNS with a low TTL and use that.

Paul

In reply to a post by flilot:

Are you on a dynamic IP address with your ISP? Your connection probably dropped at some point and you have gotten a different IP than previously, so the BQM is pinging the wrong address.

No im using a static IP

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

While I agree on the dynamic IP, I think they might also be using an IPv6 Address which can change a lot, especially if running Windows, plus IPv6 will be the machine the Traceroute was done on.

TBH I would use an IPv4 Address or a DDNS with a low TTL and use that.

Paul

I'm with Virgin and i don't think they have IPv6 in england yet only in ireland from what i understand.

In reply to a post by Originalj4y:

I'm with Virgin and i don't think they have IPv6 in england yet only in ireland from what i understand.

Virgin Media don't have IPv6 yet in the UK.

Are you using the Hub 3, or your own router with the Hub in modem mode?
Is the IP set on the BQM the same as shown at https://ipchicken.com/

Why should ipchicken give any different result from the tbb checker? In my case it doesn't.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Why should ipchicken give any different result from the tbb checker? In my case it doesn't.

Not that it is relevant to this problem but they differ here. TBB checker connects/uses IPv6 and shows my IPv6 address whereas IP Chicken using the same PC and browser (Firefox) shows my IPv4 address.

That suggests ipchicken doesn't look for IPv6 . The OP is on IPv4 anyway.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Why should ipchicken give any different result from the tbb checker? In my case it doesn't.

Its limited to IPv4.

I think that some of the Virgin home hubs have a habit of stopping responding to pings.

So after double checking it does in fact seem that after the routers update the ip had changed. How i didnt notice before posting i don't know but i've set up a new monitor so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks guys.

So you aren't on a static IP then.

In reply to a post by Originalj4y:

So after double checking it does in fact seem that after the routers update the ip had changed. ow i didnt notice before posting i don't know but i've set up a new monitor so we'll see how it goes.

Virgin don't do static. They are fairly sticky even through reboots. If you are in modem mode, if you use a third party router then changing the router can change the IP. You should use DDNS to automatically move the BQM to new IPs if the IP changes.

I'm using a Hub 3 in modem mode with my own router, which does DDNS, and I have BQM set to use the DDNS adderss.

As i said i'm stil learning but according to the portforwarding utilities it is static? Also atm i'm only using there hub3 not my own router.

Edited by deleted (Thu 01-Oct-20 13:35:14)

In reply to a post by Originalj4y:

As i said i'm stil learning but according to the portforwarding utilities it is static? Also atm i'm only using there hub3 not my own router.

I don't know what the "portforwarding utilities" are, but Virgin Media in the UK do not sell Static IP for home users. (They have an expensive business product for this).

No software can tell you this.

Can i ask what the difference is between external ip, router ip and computers ip is as it lists all those as different? I've used those utilities program to forward ports for certain games at least that was what it was advertised as.

This may get a bit technical.

The internet uses IP (internet protocol) addresses, there are version 4 and version 6. Virgin don't support v6, so we can ignore this.

1) Your router (the Hub) makes a local network, and gives each of your computers an internal IP address.

2) The Hub itself has its own internal IP address (typically 192.168.0.1)

3) The Hub is provided with a public IP address by Virgin Media.

When you use an application on your computer, and connect to the internet, your computer connects to the Hub, and the Hub then retransmits the request to the internet service. The reply from the internet service comes back to the Hub, and the Hub then relays that to you.

This saves the number of Public IP addresses that your internet provider needs to supply, and given the world has run out of new version 4 addresses, this is a way of sharing 1 address for your home.

The Pubilc address changes, the internal IP addresses are given to your computers, laptops, phones by the Hub. The Hub can be set to always give the same internal IP addresses to a device.

Port Forwarding - this is how you tell the Hub what to do when something from the outside arrives that you haven't requested. Normally the Hub ignores these, but typically for gaming, you need to get these requests to the gaming computer. That is what port forwarding is about.

Ah i see that's basically the impression i'd made but a lot more technical. So the software i use to open ports for gaming and set as static is just between the router and computer etc which would be the 192.168.0.1 or what ever not my actual public IP address?

What "software" are you using to do this? Normally you would just log in to the router admin pages via a browser so it sounds like you are using something that does this for you?

If the address that is "static" starts 192.168 then it is a local private address and not an Internet address (there are groups of IP addresses designed only to be used on private networks that are never used as a public IP).

In reply to a post by Originalj4y:

So the software i use to open ports for gaming and set as static is just between the router and computer etc which would be the 192.168.0.1 or what ever not my actual public IP address?

The software is telling your Hub to send unsolicited traffic to the computer you choose. This software is confusing you and using terms that are not typical.

Static IP means that the address is guaranteed to always be the same. The IP that virgin media give you changes, so it is not static. It is long life (can be 6 months or more) but it CAN change without warning.

The IP addresses that your computers in the home get from the Hub are usually the same, but if you had a power cut and everything went off, it is quite possible that the IP given to your main computer would be different, as everything would come online at the same time.

Did you buy the software from portforward.com? They are selling that software to pay for their web site, it is not needed.

No i didnt pay for it it's just the so called trial version to check the ports. As Ian said i still had to go to my routers settings page and manually forward said ports. But now im wondering if they're forwarding to the wrong address from what you've told me about the static/dynamic IPs.

If the port forwarding was wrong and the games actually needed it to play then you would not be able to play.

Vast majority of consumer games are NAT friendly these days, hosting servers is of course a different thing.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

If the port forwarding was wrong and the games actually needed it to play then you would not be able to play.

Vast majority of consumer games are NAT friendly these days, hosting servers is of course a different thing.

It was just for one specifically being modern warfare as it had been running pretty bad lately and someone suggested the ports. But yes i can actually play it just the connection will sometimes be all over the place.

That suggestions not port forwarding but latency issues.

Port forwarding will show up as game not running, or chat/voice options not being available.

In reply to a post by Originalj4y:

But yes i can actually play it just the connection will sometimes be all over the place.

Most likely if you can get the BQM working it will show this. Cable internet has quite a lot of latency changes, not as stable as DSL / FTTC or full fibre.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Originalj4y:

But yes i can actually play it just the connection will sometimes be all over the place.

Most likely if you can get the BQM working it will show this. Cable internet has quite a lot of latency changes, not as stable as DSL / FTTC or full fibre.

Its working now as you can see here

VM Home

Edited by deleted (Fri 02-Oct-20 23:23:37)