Virgin Media Packet Loss

Set up a monitor on a Virgin connection but it gets 100% packet loss.

Does the monitor simply use ping to get its data?

I can ping the connection in question from home and get a response but get 100% packet loss from the monitor.

In reply to a post by Daveytee:

Does the monitor simply use ping to get its data?

Yes, which Hub version are you on? Most don't respond to ping.

I can ping the connection in question from home and get a response but get 100% packet loss from the monitor.

When you do a "ping" yourself, how are you doing this?

This page will show your IP, you can't ping that from INSIDE your own network. You need a separate internet connection (e.g. a mobile phone on 4G) to try this.
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/tools/what-is-my-ip

I do it myself using the ping command in DOS and get a response.

It's a business Hitron router.

In reply to a post by Daveytee:

I do it myself using the ping command in DOS and get a response.
It's a business Hitron router.

So you are using a computer INSIDE your network, and pinging the public IP of the router? That isn't a valid test.

Get your public IP from the thinkbroadband site, and use this website to ping it, it will tell you where in the world can get a response. I suspect none can, which will be why the BQM cannot.

https://check-host.net/check-ping

The "business" Hitron is rather different to the consumer, and you may also be connected to the VM network from the Hitron using a L2TP tunnel depending what business product you are on.

Ask in the Virgin Media forum on this site about the Hitron and if it can be configured to respond to ping (ICMP ECHO) packets
https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/virgin_cable.html

Edited by jchamier (Sat 25-Jan-25 10:40:15)

Sorry, I did initially write loads more about the issue but think I had to box checked for previewing the post and didn't actually do it.

The connection is a work one, I'm pinging it from home from my broadband connection and get a response.
The initial question was - do I have to set up the monitor from the connection I'm wanting to monitor - I didn't, I did it from home and simple changed the IP address it populated (with my home IP) for the one I wanted to check.

Cheers

That should work.

I'm still no nearer understanding why I'm getting 100% packet loss - I thought that maybe because I'm on a Virgin connection and the work connection is Virgin, maybe they respond to ICMP from other devices on the same network but I've tried from a couple of internet sites, and while I cannot rule out them both being on Virgin it's maybe quite unlikely (Sorry, I didn't say that I got a response to the online ping from them).

If anyone who isn't on Virgin wants to PM me I'll send over the IP for you to let me know whether you get a reply or not.

I know that it shouldn't matter about putting it on a public forum but feels like the proper thing to do is not to post on here.

Happy to try pinging your IP if you want to send it to me.

PS - I'm on EE so external to VM.

Edited by ian72 (Mon 27-Jan-25 14:15:20)

In reply to a post by Daveytee:

I'm still no nearer understanding why I'm getting 100% packet loss - I thought that maybe because I'm on a Virgin connection and the work connection is Virgin, maybe they respond to ICMP from other devices on the same network but I've tried from a couple of internet sites, and while I cannot rule out them both being on Virgin it's maybe quite unlikely (Sorry, I didn't say that I got a response to the online ping from them).

The consumer Hub 3, Hub 4, Hub 5 don't respond to pings. I would assume the business Hitron doesn't respond unless you have a setting to make it respond. I use a Hub 3 in "modem mode" and my own router which does respond.

These devices don't have long access lists that you might find in an enterprise Cisco firewall to say "its another VM line, I will respond". They're much more simple.

Someone in the mid 1990s thought not being pingable was a security feature, and the likes of Netgear implemented in early routers. The rest copied. Those whom have used NMAP or other tools know that ICMP ECHO is the last thing a footprinting attacker is going to worry about.

Thanks, I've been and checked the router today and it is set to respond to WAN ICMP requests - funnily enough this wasn't something I'd changed it came like that.

Dave sent me his ip address and dynamic DNS domain and both are responding to pings (and the dns is resolving to the same IP).

In case anyone is interested here is a tracert with the initial nodes inside my network removed and the final address redacted:
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 16 ms 13 ms * 62.172.102.136
6 15 ms 13 ms 16 ms 62.6.201.201
7 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms 109.159.253.63
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 25 ms 26 ms 20 ms brad-core-2a-ae17-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.254.42.250]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 32 ms 34 ms 32 ms [redacted]

I'm on EE but also able to ping from my work connection via a leased line.

Edited by ian72 (Tue 28-Jan-25 08:49:20)

I've had it confirmed that the router does indeed respond to ICMP requests from external connections that aren't Virgin Media connections so I am still at a loss to understand why the monitor I set up isn't working.

I set up a BQM to the address you gave me. I am NOT seeing 100% packet loss - but I am seeing very high packet loss. That suggests there are responses but that it is very poor.

This is the live graph here

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the effort you're putting to help me with this - yes, initially i was getting 100% (or pretty damn close to) packet loss but when I've checked the initial one i set up I'm seeing the same:

22/01/25 graph

27/01/25 - this is where it seems to be slightly less than 100% packet loss graph


and today's: graph


Still a long way from the odd packet being lost!

Once again, many thanks for everything you're doing to help with this - I'm beginning to think I should put some form of monitoring box on the inside of the network - I've got a Raspberry Pi 3B which I might investigate putting something on to monitor as the form factor lends itself to being placed in the vicinity of the router which is on a shelf in a kind-of public area.
I could run an ethernet cable to a PC (I've got an old PC I was going to run pfSense or OPNsense on at home) - I don't want to run that permanently because it's way overkill for what we need - Ive used pfSense in my previous job and thought it was excellent for combining the 2 ADSL connections we had plus a mobile backup and allowing RDP over SSH for remote workers.

Cheers.

Edited by Daveytee (Tue 28-Jan-25 12:57:47)

And for those who are wondering why I've not contacted VM about this - yes I have but currently am unable to because the connection we have was facilitated by a third party (charity) and we get through our local council.

For some reason nobody seems to have considered that as it's our connection, we might need to speak to VM about it rather than the local council, who, I would imagine have neither the time nor the resource to come out and get the info VM want every time they ask for something.

I'm currently in the process of finding out who I need to speak to to get the ability to discuss the problems with our connection but thought I might as well use this opportunity to gather some intel so I've got something to go back to them with - I've even got screenshots of the router showing no WAN IP address and the DOCSIS Event log showing errors.

I get the feeling that maybe VM do some sort of blocking from TBB due to the amount of monitors set up - perhaps they see it as a potential network attack. I pinged your address for a couple of hours from my home laptop - about once a minute it fails 3 or 4 pings but otherwise kept pinging fine so it looks like it isn't a general block on the router.

Thanks, that's exactly the same as I see when I ping from home. Your explanation sounds entirely feasible

In reply to a post by ian72:

I get the feeling that maybe VM do some sort of blocking from TBB due to the amount of monitors set up - perhaps they see it as a potential network attack.

This would be something on the business router; or in the L2TP tunnel they provide for business services (to give IP address options) that consumers don't have.

I guess the OP needs to go through every screen in the Hitron router; and ask in the VM forum here on TBB.