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Hi All,
Hope everyone had a good new year!
Can someone please reality check me and tell me if this is normal for a residential FTTP connection?
I own a IT Company myself that deals with DataCentre, so i'm not a novice here by any means, but Virgin Media are making me feel that way!
I have a FTTP connection with Virgin Media (2000mbps symmetrical), and im experiencing packet loss on my connection.
Although tiny, the BQM still picks this up
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...
Ignore the 100% packet loss at the start, that was a billing issue (oops) but does anyone else experience these little packet loss spikes?
I know from my experience in the world of IT. any form of packet loss is bad news. Virgin Media came out and replaced a bad internal cable to the router as the previous engineer used an external cable (not sure of the difference) but apparently its different and doesn't bend well, there was -5dBm light difference over the internal cable, so he replaced and now it matched the external light levels. - But other than that he cant find a fault.
Connections been on now for a few hours and already seeing little packet loss spikes.
I'm starting to wonder if its the router dropping the BQM requests? - It never happened on my VDSL connection with Vodafone, and that was a terrible line!
Any suggestions? - Router upgrade not really possible with the VM XGSPON network, i do have the XGSPON ONU stick, but it never worked prior as the light level was too low at the SFP end, but maybe now its worth a try as that internal cable has been fixed.
Cheers!
Edited by suttonscloud (Sat 11-Jan-25 05:40:19)
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Looks like there was another 100% loss event around 7:30am for 15-20 mins - do you know what that was about?
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Just in the short space of time I've been looking at your BQM there remains large ongoing packet loss from the event early this morning from approx 7:20am onwards. There is some recovery, but then goes back to full loss after 8am
Right now at 8:15am it looks pretty terrible.
This is definitely not right for an XGS-PON based connection (that has been installed and is operating correctly). Yellow latency spikes are normal and to be expected, especially on a well utilised connection. However there should be no red on that graph at all.
You have an installation issue. I could be wrong, but given the initial installer didn't cover themselves in glory, I would think you may have other/further optical loss issues. These can be intermittent too. Or you could have a duff combo ONT/router.
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I left VM (1gig HFC) for similar issues they could never work out what caused it but only started after going onto the Hub4 (DOCSIS3.1)..
With mine the only place I noticed it other than my BQM was gaming (stuttering and latency spiking) or Twitch used to buffer with it. Was a strange one.
Edited by BuckleZ (Sat 11-Jan-25 20:01:55)
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This is beyond a ‘classic’ virgin HFC issue though -> this is categorically an installation fault / equipment fault. Definitely not a congested bit of local coaxial segment.
Take a look at the snapshot from today.
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Also VM congestion typically pushes up latency and jitter, might also slow throughput, when you see packet loss on VM graphs for coax its usually noise ingress not congestion.
What this issue is, I am scratching my head, I think its just going to have to be reported, and go through the motions until they find what the problem is.
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Equipment / installation fault. There is prolonged loss of service going on in between periods of lower but continued packet loss.
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The OP needs to deal with the Virgin Community Forum team whom can get things resolved better than any call centre.
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
Edited by jchamier (Sun 12-Jan-25 13:43:22)
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Coax on an XGS-PON service
Wow. New one on me 😂
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Wow. New one on me 😂
Oh dear, I missed the "symmetrical" comment. Shoot me now  😳😁
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Bang 💥 😂
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The BQM is looking worse than ever today...
Any word from Virgin Media @suttonscloud ?
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Sorry only just got round to replying to everyone's suggestions.
No response from VM, Community Forums are awful and i dont understand how anybody manages to get help on there.
Had some weird issues with home devices, my Sky Glass TV wouldn't connect to the internet, it shown a network connection but the connection to internet step failed, although all the devices were working properly.
Upload speed today is terrible, 6mbps, and yes just to reiterate, i have the 2gbps symmetrical package.
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Just in the short space of time I've been looking at your BQM there remains large ongoing packet loss from the event early this morning from approx 7:20am onwards. There is some recovery, but then goes back to full loss after 8am
Right now at 8:15am it looks pretty terrible.
This is definitely not right for an XGS-PON based connection (that has been installed and is operating correctly). Yellow latency spikes are normal and to be expected, especially on a well utilised connection. However there should be no red on that graph at all.
You have an installation issue. I could be wrong, but given the initial installer didn't cover themselves in glory, I would think you may have other/further optical loss issues. These can be intermittent too. Or you could have a duff combo ONT/router.
Yes i agree, although we had some packet loss before, for some reason its absolutely terrible now that cable was changed, i dont really know why either.
Im having issues with a few devices not even registering the network connected to the internet. As mentioned above in a previous reply, my speedtest was around 2000mbps download, but 6mbps upload, which is shocking!
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Also VM congestion typically pushes up latency and jitter, might also slow throughput, when you see packet loss on VM graphs for coax its usually noise ingress not congestion.
What this issue is, I am scratching my head, I think its just going to have to be reported, and go through the motions until they find what the problem is.
I think a lot of these issues were solved on the FTTP rollout, latency and jitter has never really been a problem for me, when you do a traceroute you can see some hops in the VM network that shoot the latency from around 2-3ms to 9-10ms but i guess this is just VM's older kit handling newer connections, and now being a bottleneck whereas compared to HFC response times were never a boasting point anyway.
Awaiting a response from VM on my app, today has been shocking!
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The OP needs to deal with the Virgin Community Forum team whom can get things resolved better than any call centre.
Strongly disagree with this comment! - VM Community forums have been a nightmare with me, i have had nothing from them, actually raised a complaint from dealing with them. The Forum team wont deal with XGSPON customers, they outright refuse.
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Sorry only just got round to replying to everyone's suggestions.
No response from VM, Community Forums are awful and i dont understand how anybody manages to get help on there.
Had some weird issues with home devices, my Sky Glass TV wouldn't connect to the internet, it shown a network connection but the connection to internet step failed, although all the devices were working properly.
Upload speed today is terrible, 6mbps, and yes just to reiterate, i have the 2gbps symmetrical package.
Raise a service ticket. Packet loss on your connection is excessive and effectively is an unusable service, as you’ve pointed out in your latter posts. Paint it in black and white terms and don’t take no for an answer.
You either have an equipment fault or an optical issue.
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Sorry only just got round to replying to everyone's suggestions.
No response from VM, Community Forums are awful and i dont understand how anybody manages to get help on there.
Had some weird issues with home devices, my Sky Glass TV wouldn't connect to the internet, it shown a network connection but the connection to internet step failed, although all the devices were working properly.
Upload speed today is terrible, 6mbps, and yes just to reiterate, i have the 2gbps symmetrical package.
Raise a service ticket. Packet loss on your connection is excessive and effectively is an unusable service, as you’ve pointed out in your latter posts. Paint it in black and white terms and don’t take no for an answer.
You either have an equipment fault or an optical issue.
Just wanted to see your thoughts and if anyone else experienced this on XGSPON. I obviously know the ins and outs of fibre networks with the nature of my business but just wanted to see if it was usual behaviour or potentially even a overlook on my behalf and the connection was fine and it was the BQM requests that were being dropped by the router. This was a much more likely scenario previously as the packet loss didn’t really give me any issues, but after that engineer visit to hopefully solve that issue it’s got a lot worse!
The VM Forum team won’t deal with XGSPON customers, I don’t think it’s cause they don’t want to, it’s more likely they don’t have the system yet as it’s fairly new still.
I’ve got to wait another day till I can schedule an engineer visit and have them look into it. As XGSPON isn’t available on business, otherwise I’d be a business customer, I have to go through the same route as all other customers and while I know a lot about networking and telecom, the operator does the usual and just ignores that and still makes you factory reset the router, every time. Which is annoying. Business support is a lot better.
I will keep everyone updated though, I was thinking to take home a fibre cleaner from the office and clean the fibre connector to the router, but as it’s VM’s kit I’m very reluctant to touch any of it unless I absolutely need to.
Once this is all fixed I’ll try the XGSPON ONU Stick and see if I can get it working in my pfSense router which would be a far better solution to me than being limited by the 5X with no modem mode.
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Just to clarify, Modem mode DOES exist on the 5X, it’s a bit of a hack to get it to work though.
But it only works on the 1Gb ports, which are no use to me being a 2Gb subscriber.
Just wanted to clear that up before everyone screams at me for living under a rock, haha.
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Hammer Virgin Media Of Horror! Steer clear!
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Decided to bring home a fibre cleaning kit and cleaned the ONT end fibre, reseated and power cycled the router, things had a glimpse of looking better!
After messing with some WiFi settings as the prior engineer reset the hub, the 5X completely bugged out, and stopped handing out DHCP, wired connection also wouldn’t obtain an IP, and a static IP also resulted in no ping to 192.168.0.1.
Rebooted the ONT/router again, the LED light didn’t even change on the 5X and stayed solid white even straight after powering on, and had the same issue.
Rebooted for a third time and reseated all ports including the fibre which managed to get me back online and DHCP started working again, however back at 2100mbps download and 12mbps upload.
I think this is an ONT/router fault, I can’t explain that behaviour from the 5X. Going to ring them later and explain and hope they actually understand, if they tell me to factory reset the router for the 5th time I might spontaneously combust.
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I think this is an ONT/router fault, I can’t explain that behaviour from the 5X. Going to ring them later and explain and hope they actually understand, if they tell me to factory reset the router for the 5th time I might spontaneously combust.
Yes definitely doesn’t sound healthy. Needs replacing. Good luck with the service team there.
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Just wanted to see your thoughts and if anyone else experienced this on XGSPON. I obviously know the ins and outs of fibre networks with the nature of my business but just wanted to see if it was usual behaviour or potentially even a overlook on my behalf and the connection was fine and it was the BQM requests that were being dropped by the router.
Don't worry about the BQM for now: the fact that your upload speed is so terrible is what matters.
I think the likelihood is that the poor upload speed is caused by high packet loss upstream, which in turn may mean the optical signal is not strong enough in that direction, but it's not your job to diagnose this.
Aside: measuring packet loss separately in the inbound and outbound directions *can* be done with suitable software at both sides of the link. The perfsonar toolkit is one example, although that's a large hammer to crack this particular nut. The underlying tool is owamp for those measurements, so you could just run owamp on a local machine and on a cloud VM somewhere.
By default perfsonar sends 10 packets per second in each direction; this means that over an hour you can measure packet loss as low as 1/36000 = 0.003%
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I think the likelihood is that the poor upload speed is caused by high packet loss upstream, which in turn may mean the optical signal is not strong enough in that direction, but it's not your job to diagnose this.
The extreme packet loss and poor upload are directly correlated, almost without shadow of doubt. Up to VM to get to the bottom of it.
In situations like this a resi-based service can be a nightmare to get through to the team that can actually diagnose and help, in a timely manner. I feel the OPs frustration here.
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Strongly disagree with this comment! - VM Community forums have been a nightmare with me, i have had nothing from them, actually raised a complaint from dealing with them. The Forum team wont deal with XGSPON customers, they outright refuse.
That is a shame, I guess because Nexfibre run the network they have no visibility. As someone in an older DOCSIS Coax area I have had all sorts of issues the call centre were useless but the Community Forum was amazing.
I guess it means VM ISP via Nexfibre is not really VM... and the two companies need to get their joint act together. The sooner Nexfibre offers other ISPs the better for you and my colleagues.
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Just wanted to see your thoughts and if anyone else experienced this on XGSPON. I obviously know the ins and outs of fibre networks with the nature of my business but just wanted to see if it was usual behaviour or potentially even a overlook on my behalf and the connection was fine and it was the BQM requests that were being dropped by the router.
Don't worry about the BQM for now: the fact that your upload speed is so terrible is what matters.
I think the likelihood is that the poor upload speed is caused by high packet loss upstream, which in turn may mean the optical signal is not strong enough in that direction, but it's not your job to diagnose this.
Aside: measuring packet loss separately in the inbound and outbound directions *can* be done with suitable software at both sides of the link. The perfsonar toolkit is one example, although that's a large hammer to crack this particular nut. The underlying tool is owamp for those measurements, so you could just run owamp on a local machine and on a cloud VM somewhere.
By default perfsonar sends 10 packets per second in each direction; this means that over an hour you can measure packet loss as low as 1/36000 = 0.003%
Thanks @candlerb,
I will look into this tonight as i do have a AWS farm i can spin up an instance there, and a DL380 G10 at home in the lab, so ill spin up two VM's on there and see if i can capture anything, more for my own personal gain rather than trying to prove a point to VM.
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Is there anybody else close to you with VM? If they're close enough to be on the same PON then you could swap Hubs with them to rule yours in/out as the issue.
Another option might be to take your Hub outside and plug it directly into the cable coming from the street to rule out an issue with the internal lead in.
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I think the likelihood is that the poor upload speed is caused by high packet loss upstream, which in turn may mean the optical signal is not strong enough in that direction, but it's not your job to diagnose this.
The extreme packet loss and poor upload are directly correlated, almost without shadow of doubt. Up to VM to get to the bottom of it.
In situations like this a resi-based service can be a nightmare to get through to the team that can actually diagnose and help, in a timely manner. I feel the OPs frustration here.
So this morning, i'd had enough. Thrown the 5X in the bin and now have used my own custom SFP with the 8311 software, configured my PON address, S/N and MAC address and managed to get a link, put it into my OpnSense server and voila, things are magically better.
Rubbish 5X router looks to be the problem.
I have enabled ICMP on OpnSense so the BQM works, and changed the ip so 'fingers crossed' the graph from 15/01 09:30 should look a LOT better.
Getting 5ms ping responses from most places, facebook.com, google.co.uk, etc etc.
Speedtest here
Back to sleep for another night shift later.....
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Good news. 👍
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Good news. 👍
BQM looks better than ever today, so looks like definitely a faulty router.
Only had a few tiny spikes of packet loss, which was probably me running speed tests.
Long live the WAS-110 SFP.
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Is there anybody else close to you with VM? If they're close enough to be on the same PON then you could swap Hubs with them to rule yours in/out as the issue.
Another option might be to take your Hub outside and plug it directly into the cable coming from the street to rule out an issue with the internal lead in.
There is a handful of neighbours running the service in my street, but i don't think they'd let me borrow their router. - I certainly wouldn't anyway lol.
I actually ditched the 5X off this morning, you can see on the BQM, and used w WAS-110 SFP with 8311 community firmware to authenticate with the OLT, and its been better than ever.
No more double NAT, and better response times!
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Strongly disagree with this comment! - VM Community forums have been a nightmare with me, i have had nothing from them, actually raised a complaint from dealing with them. The Forum team wont deal with XGSPON customers, they outright refuse.
That is a shame, I guess because Nexfibre run the network they have no visibility. As someone in an older DOCSIS Coax area I have had all sorts of issues the call centre were useless but the Community Forum was amazing.
I guess it means VM ISP via Nexfibre is not really VM... and the two companies need to get their joint act together. The sooner Nexfibre offers other ISPs the better for you and my colleagues.
Yeah, its back to the old times of VM equipment engineer, which then has to pass it to the network engineers if theres further faults, rather than the VM engineer coming out and doing it all!
Reminds me of the good old Openreach times (if we class VDSL/ADSL as good?)...
But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub,
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But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub, Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub, Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍
They probably don't want you using your own equipment in the first place, or maybe they were trying to avoid the situation of needing to replace all of the ONT's in everyone's homes like BT is going to have to do because they're only gigabit and can't support 10 gig.
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Good news. 👍
BQM looks better than ever today, so looks like definitely a faulty router.
Only had a few tiny spikes of packet loss, which was probably me running speed tests.
Long live the WAS-110 SFP.
Yes that’s what a healthy FTTP connection should look like. It’s very useful that you were able to effect the ‘fix’ without further hair removal via VM “help” 😅
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(1) check the public IP hasn't changed and you're pinging your router
(2) set up a ping on you home network towards thinkbroadband.com (not www.thinkbroadband.com) and leave it running when you have problems.. see if you have the same issue.. you could install smokeping locally or something but that doesn't catch short issues often.
The upload issue suggests it's VM issue whatever way..
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The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
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Duff Virgin 5X hub innit.
The swap to an ONT stick has worked magically to resolve all the BQM 'tears of death', the paltry 6 Mbps upload when it should've been 2000 Mbps etc.
Nightmare vanquished 🤣
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But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub, Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍
They probably don't want you using your own equipment in the first place, or maybe they were trying to avoid the situation of needing to replace all of the ONT's in everyone's homes like BT is going to have to do because they're only gigabit and can't support 10 gig.
Quite possibly, but Virgin XGSPON isn't available for business customers, that being said its likely to do with the Hub 5X being unsatisfactory, and there being no option for a proper modem mode.
Not being able to use your own SFP/Equipment is a major downfall to business customers.
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But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub, Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍
They probably don't want you using your own equipment in the first place, or maybe they were trying to avoid the situation of needing to replace all of the ONT's in everyone's homes like BT is going to have to do because they're only gigabit and can't support 10 gig.
Didn't think of this, but i agree.
We are scheduled to have Openreach FTTP rolled out to our area, with advertised speeds of 1600mbps download and 115mbps upload, so will be interesting to see what equipment OR decide to use.
Nexfibre really do need to address their current setup though, if you know a neighbours PON address and MAC address for their router, you can basically buy the same SFP as me and probably get a free broadband subscription as long as you have a connection to the same OLT, and the fibre hasn't been made dark.
Very interesting.
Edited by suttonscloud (Thu 16-Jan-25 05:23:46)
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(1) check the public IP hasn't changed and you're pinging your router
(2) set up a ping on you home network towards thinkbroadband.com (not www.thinkbroadband.com) and leave it running when you have problems.. see if you have the same issue.. you could install smokeping locally or something but that doesn't catch short issues often.
The upload issue suggests it's VM issue whatever way..
Buggy Hub 5X was the problem, connection has been stable and solid since moving over to the PON SFP, response times dramatically reduced also.
Not sure what happened with it, but noticed some unusual behaviour software level which made me raise suspicion.
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Duff Virgin 5X hub innit.
The swap to an ONT stick has worked magically to resolve all the BQM 'tears of death', the paltry 6 Mbps upload when it should've been 2000 Mbps etc.
Nightmare vanquished 🤣
Don't get too carried away now, this is Virgin Media! Im sure there's a few more bullets in the chamber yet to be fired.
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But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub, Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍
To be honest, I quite like the idea of having a true 'full fibre' network, mines full fibre into the router, and then full fibre out to the Cisco SFP switch, in which my PC is also 10gb SFP.
I was using the 10Gbit Ethernet port on the 5X, into a Cisco SFP-10G-T-X which went into my SFP switch, and it used to make me boil knowing my 'full fibre' connection wasn't technically full fibre, lol.
Seen a few horror stories of bad patch leads causing people to not get the correct speeds, and customer services having absolute nightmares diagnosing the issue as people assume a cable either works, or doesn't. And most faulty patch leads will pass ISP testing, as they're not generally tested for throughput and only connectivity, so it can be a complete oversight by the support team.
Guess its not all doom at the end of the tunnel.
Edited by suttonscloud (Thu 16-Jan-25 05:17:31)
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We are scheduled to have Openreach FTTP rolled out to our area, with advertised speeds of 1600mbps download and 115mbps upload, so will be interesting to see what equipment OR decide to use.
Nexfibre really do need to address their current setup though, if you know a neighbours PON address and MAC address for their router, you can basically buy the same SFP as me and probably get a free broadband subscription as long as you have a connection to the same OLT, and the fibre hasn't been made dark.
Very interesting.
Have an Openreach-based 1.6Gbps connection (EE) in Suffolk. It just uses their standard deployment method and an ONT with a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port rather than their previous ONTs with a 1Gbps copper port. In my case its a Nokia G-010G-T
When Openreach launch their 1Gbps symmetric plans in a few months, they will utilise existing GPON hardware.
Openreach PON authentication is based on the serial number of the ONT/ONU also. Folks do use ONT sticks for these connections, and spoof the serial number of the ONT.
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So this morning, i'd had enough. Thrown the 5X in the bin and now have used my own custom SFP with the 8311 software, configured my PON address, S/N and MAC address and managed to get a link, put it into my OpnSense server and voila, things are magically better.
Rubbish 5X router looks to be the problem.
To be fair: it *could* be a faulty instance of the VM router, but it could also be that your SFP just happens to have an optical power output 0.5dBm higher, and has just taken you over the threshold where things work properly. If that were the case, your link could still be borderline - and the proper fix might be to sort out a bad splice somewhere upstream.
If your SFP module is DOM manageable you may be able to get some RX power stats from it, which would give you a degree of confidence that the light levels are good.
If you want to be sure that the link is good, it's still worth getting VM to fix the problem using their kit.
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OP given their background, ought to have access to a proper optical power meter…
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But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub, Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍
They probably don't want you using your own equipment in the first place, or maybe they were trying to avoid the situation of needing to replace all of the ONT's in everyone's homes like BT is going to have to do because they're only gigabit and can't support 10 gig.
Doing it this way requires effectively an ONT swap each time a new Wi-Fi standard comes along because it's integrated into the CPE, installing an XGS-PON ONT when someone buys a service that utilises it is probably a once in ten years thing assuming the device doesn't fail or get damaged.
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Doing it this way requires effectively an ONT swap each time a new Wi-Fi standard comes along because it's integrated into the CPE, installing an XGS-PON ONT when someone buys a service that utilises it is probably a once in ten years thing assuming the device doesn't fail or get damaged.
ISPs are doing that anyway though because the Wifi standards drive the speeds offered by ISPs and they do have to provide a piece of plastic capable of achieving those speeds, even if you're going to replace it with your own equipment anyway. From their perspective, swapping a CPE is probably easier than swapping an ONT, even if that's only a once in 10 year thing when the Ethernet standards change. Ignoring the fact that BT tried to save money by not deploying XGS-PON everywhere, could we ever see 25 gig, 50 gig, or 100 gig over Ethernet? If so, Nextfibre will only have to change the CPE but BT will have to go round everyone's homes replacing the PONs again.
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Ignoring the fact that BT tried to save money by not deploying XGS-PON everywhere, could we ever see 25 gig, 50 gig, or 100 gig over Ethernet? If so, Nextfibre will only have to change the CPE but BT will have to go round everyone's homes replacing the PONs again.
You’ve lost me - how are Nexfibre going to deploy 25, 50 or 100GS-PON without changing their gear?
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They'll just send you a new CPE and plug the fibre into that instead. Yes, they'd also have to change their gear too but they won't have to waste man hours replacing an ONT. Or am I misunderstanding how it works?
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A fibre plugs into an ONT or it plugs onto a combo ONT+router. That’s the only difference.
Whether the provider in question deems it necessary to send staff to effect this is unknown.
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I thought so. Plugging it into a new router is something that can be done without sending staff, they can just send you the new CPE in the post along with a "Quick start guide" like they used to do with their hubs on their cable network. They'd only ever have to send staff if something is wrong.
At least that was my thinking. I could be clutching at straws, I was just trying to come up with some reasonable explanation.
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Nexfibre / Virgin a just trying to save two bob to provide one box rather than 2. It’s what a lot of Altnets that don’t wholesale do.
Remembering that Openreach is coming from this a completely wholesale network provider with ~300 odd ISP customers. Some of those customers want to be able to differentiate their offering, want their own kit.
Puts a different complexion on it.
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We'll know with the first upgrade VM do on their service to Wi-Fi 7, I suspect it will be an engineer visit to register the device to the PON and to inspect/clean the fibre.
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That would be a backwards step to me, I felt the DSL router combo units were frustrating, and to learn that FTTP typically uses a ONT tidy on the wall was so nice, doing things properly keep a minimal termination point on the wall, with end users equipment plugged into it via ethernet.
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That would be a backwards step to me, I felt the DSL router combo units were frustrating, and to learn that FTTP typically uses a ONT tidy on the wall was so nice, doing things properly keep a minimal termination point on the wall, with end users equipment plugged into it via ethernet.
+1
The network is mine, the wireless is mine. The ISP gets no say in how it is configured. They don't fiddle with my settings, I don't fiddle with theirs. Having theirs and mine at opposite ends of an ethernet cable really means no doubt as to what belongs to whom.
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They probably don't want you using your own equipment in the first place, or maybe they were trying to avoid the situation of needing to replace all of the ONT's in everyone's homes like BT is going to have to do because they're only gigabit and can't support 10 gig. As GPON and XGS-PON can run together on the same fibre, Openreach will only need to upgrade homes that pay for higher speeds. 1 gig symmetric works fine on GPON as Cityfibre and others demonstrate.
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Doing it this way requires effectively an ONT swap each time a new Wi-Fi standard comes along because it's integrated into the CPE, installing an XGS-PON ONT when someone buys a service that utilises it is probably a once in ten years thing assuming the device doesn't fail or get damaged.
It also hard ties what is advertised as an “open network” to the ISP, in this case Virgin Media, whereas the likes of Openreach or CityFibre’s open networks the ONT belongs to the network provider, and the CPE (router) belongs to the ISP.
Got to be cheaper to the ISP to buy routers with Ethernet WAN ports (even up to 10GigE) compared to buying routers with built in PON.
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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This is why I am sceptical that they ever really intend to take being a wholesale network seriously - along with the zero progress that Nexfibre have actually made getting wholesale partners on board.
Do they *really* want to have to handle ONT registration for every retail provider? If they're going to put an ONT in place if you buy a non-VM service then why does the Hub 5X exist?
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This is why I am sceptical that they ever really intend to take being a wholesale network seriously - along with the zero progress that Nexfibre have actually made getting wholesale partners on board.
Yep, other than their graphically rich website that claims “open” all over the place (https://www.nexfibre.co.uk/) it appears to be operating as a division of VM allowing the ISP to choose what the optical termination is? Plenty of closed, single ISP, alt-nets use a powered ONT and a generic ethernet router.
If they're going to put an ONT in place if you buy a non-VM service then why does the Hub 5X exist? Maybe the VM support/marketing machine is unable to cope without what they get with DOCSIS coax…. Although even the coax is supposed to be wholesaled this year… really?!
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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I am in favour of the separate ONT and router thing continuing, all I would change would be to have the ONT powered by PoE as an option, and router WAN ports deliver PoE.
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I am in favour of the separate ONT and router thing continuing, all I would change would be to have the ONT powered by PoE as an option, and router WAN ports deliver PoE.
and +1 to that from me
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This is why I am sceptical that they ever really intend to take being a wholesale network seriously - along with the zero progress that Nexfibre have actually made getting wholesale partners on board.
Do they *really* want to have to handle ONT registration for every retail provider? If they're going to put an ONT in place if you buy a non-VM service then why does the Hub 5X exist?
+1
Im personally not sure if they are still going ahead (or ever were) with the AltNet / Wholesale network idea. - My area is obviously Nexfibre, but looking up the BT poles to the CBT the yellow tags on the fibre running up the pole says 'Property of Virgin Media'.
Surely if Nexfibre planned on running a wholesale network where other ISP's can sell services then they wouldn't be tagging their fibre as Virgin Media. I'd expect it to say Nexfibre.
And should i also mention, the Nexfibre engineers are contractors as far as im aware, when they came to hook up my connection they came in a personal van,
Some strange stuff going on with them, not too sure whats going on.
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Duff Virgin 5X hub innit.
The swap to an ONT stick has worked magically to resolve all the BQM 'tears of death', the paltry 6 Mbps upload when it should've been 2000 Mbps etc.
Nightmare vanquished 🤣
You spoke too soon!
https://prnt.sc/Lc51NpMIWGYn
Connection went off today for some reason, and noticed some weird latency spike pattern on the BQM, not sure if they are doing testing or looking into the fault i raised prior, but it went down bang on 06:30, and the weird latency anomaly's started at 21:00.
WAS-110 SFP was giving me an error relating to 'Mac Address State' and when trying to pull a public IP directly in my PC, it looked like DHCP was just timing out and resetting (Which is exactly what the router used to do. Blink blue when its trying to get an IP).
The weird latency spikes look to be continuing, ill have to keep an eye on them.
I have seen these spikes before on the VM Community Forums and it was some sort of testing or monitoring VM enable, but i hope they disable it as its already setting my OCD off!
Upgraded the 8311 firmware on the PON stick, and then reseated all the fibre and cleaned the ends, and it came back up. But i dont actually think that resolved the issue, i think it generally was just 'down' while they looked into my previous complaint.
Strange.
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Sounds like testing. You got a steady light level reading from the stick?
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OP given their background, ought to have access to a proper optical power meter…
we have a fluke tester under my company, but I was trying to be fairly considerate with how much VM kit I'm touching just in case the engineer some how knows I have been fiddling around with things and that being another issue.
To be honest, without being rude, a lot of the VM engineers that come out just follow the book, and majority don't even have a clue about fibre networks and the bigger picture. I started talking about some networking kit in some of our inhouse DC's and he openly said "Mate i dont have a clue about any of that, i just come out and do what im meant to do"
Fair play i guess
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Sounds like testing. You got a steady light level reading from the stick?
Steady levels yes, sitting around -26dBm which is fairly low. But when we test fibre we throw-out anything thats -30dBm and below, as that can cause issues. (It normally doesn't).
Not uncommon to see residential PON service in excess of -30dBm though, i've seen a few posts.
I could go and rummage through my warehouse and see if i can find a power meter, with the amount of fibre we deal with im sure we have one laying around.
Edited by suttonscloud (Fri 17-Jan-25 09:57:19)
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Get a meter on it. That’s very low. You’re practically on the sensitivity limit of the stick there not even 2dB of headroom.
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Fairly sure your issue at the root of it is optical. Specifically very poor light levels.
You can easily lose several dB if not more through poor mating faces on the SC connectors at the CSP, dirty ferule faces or ….just [censored] splicing. The best way to eliminate excess loss is to remove mated connections and splice (properly).
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The brown box on the wall outside your house is connectorised, check the light levels there. If they are low then disconnect your SFP and call in a loss of service and get VM back out.
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Fairly sure your issue at the root of it is optical. Specifically very poor light levels.
You can easily lose several dB if not more through poor mating faces on the SC connectors at the CSP, dirty ferule faces or ….just [censored] splicing. The best way to eliminate excess loss is to remove mated connections and splice (properly).
I think its one of the fibre couplers im using, its not the worlds greatest quality. The server is racked upstairs otherwise i would try and plug it in excluding the patch cable.
I will see if i can find a power meter and give it a test, i may actually just go and source a better quality connector and see if thats the problem.
But i agree, its usable, but not great
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The brown box on the wall outside your house is connectorised, check the light levels there. If they are low then disconnect your SFP and call in a loss of service and get VM back out.
I could do, i'm trying to be considerate with stuff im touching, just to prevent VM being a PITA if they know ive been messing around.
I am going to find a meter and test the fibre to the SFP, and then from the coupler see where the problem lies. I think its going to be the connector to be honest.
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Aha OK the plot thickens. Yeah thru SC to SC APC couplers especially can be a right nightmare.
A lot of them are just cheap and horrible and you can see it when you replace a bad for a good one how much light that they can lose, even intermittent losses
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If you have access to a calibrated light source and power meter, you should be able to do a loss test on your link.
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My gut feel is that you're losing upwards of 10dB on your internal fibre cabling. It should be sub 2dB by rights if everything is good.
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Aha OK the plot thickens. Yeah thru SC to SC APC couplers especially can be a right nightmare.
A lot of them are just cheap and horrible and you can see it when you replace a bad for a good one how much light that they can lose, even intermittent losses
Im pretty certain the patch lead from my SFP to the coupler is fine, its the same manufacturer we use for all our optical cables.
The cable im using is a LC to SC cable, to reduce the use of another coupler! - Then this cable is just coupled from the incomming LC/APC,
I highly suspect this coupler is bad, its a cheap one to be honest. Its nothing special
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If you have access to a calibrated light source and power meter, you should be able to do a loss test on your link.
Good shout. I will give that a go!
I think the fibre is long enough bundled up to run it outside the door and connect directly in the brown VM box, but new coupler on the way and should be delivered today!
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You can fudge your own loss test if you don't have a calibrated light source in your warehouse.
Take a reading at the VM CSP as @jpm suggests. Take another reading wherever your patch cable leads to. If there is any more than a few dB of loss it's your couplers and/or patch leads at fault.
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You can fudge your own loss test if you don't have a calibrated light source in your warehouse.
Take a reading at the VM CSP as @jpm suggests. Take another reading wherever your patch cable leads to. If there is any more than a few dB of loss it's your couplers and/or patch leads at fault.
Give me a few hours, i shall do some testing!
I will keep you updated.
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You can fudge your own loss test if you don't have a calibrated light source in your warehouse.
Take a reading at the VM CSP as @jpm suggests. Take another reading wherever your patch cable leads to. If there is any more than a few dB of loss it's your couplers and/or patch leads at fault.
The VM engineer said that to the router he had -12dBm, so im going to use that as a rough estimate of the incoming light level until i can test it.
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You can fudge your own loss test if you don't have a calibrated light source in your warehouse.
Take a reading at the VM CSP as @jpm suggests. Take another reading wherever your patch cable leads to. If there is any more than a few dB of loss it's your couplers and/or patch leads at fault.
The VM engineer said that to the router he had -12dBm, so im going to use that as a rough estimate of the incoming light level until i can test it.
Don't think you need to do any testing. You have your answer already (if the VM engineer was being honest with his light reading, and why would he like)
You have near enough 16dB internal loss which is how do I put this....mmm. Utterly horrendous 🤣
You should have no more than 1/10th of that.
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This is why I am sceptical that they ever really intend to take being a wholesale network seriously - along with the zero progress that Nexfibre have actually made getting wholesale partners on board.
Do they *really* want to have to handle ONT registration for every retail provider? If they're going to put an ONT in place if you buy a non-VM service then why does the Hub 5X exist?
You make a good point, a wholesaler logically would supply their own ONT, as NexFibre and VM should be separate entities.
It would be a bit like if in the DSL days, every retailer fitted their own NTE5.
What happens if Zen e.g. resell NexFibre, they are used to on OR and CF not needing to supply PON equipment, and then with NexFibre they do, it all feels like they not building as a wholesaler, and just pretending to be.
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Surely if Nexfibre planned on running a wholesale network where other ISP's can sell services then they wouldn't be tagging their fibre as Virgin Media. I'd expect it to say Nexfibre.
I just learnt from Wikipedia (assuming it is accurate) that nexfibre started out as a much smaller company owned by Liberty Global as "Virgin Media Networks Ltd" back in 2021. Then in 2022 with the VM & O2 merger into VMO2 UK Ltd, the company Virgin Media Networks ownership moved to the owning company of Liberty&Telefonica, and the French equity capital lot.
So at a guess they don't care a hoot at the moment about being open, they want customers, and are building fast, they are already passing 2m homes, which is quite an achievement given they started a lot later than CityFibre. I guess we will have to watch the next year or so... but the technology choices made don't bode well for future wholesale.
Of course the coax areas are starting to be replaced by PON, but that's under VMO2 ownership, and they also talked about wholesale access to coax & VM PON under "NetCo".
Lots apparently going on, but not much to see maybe?
25 years of broadband connectivity since Sep 1999 trial - Live BQM
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And just to be clear, you're definitely got APC (green) and UPC (blue) in the right places?
Most fibre networks use APC - it gives lower connector losses when mated correctly. Most data patch leads and SFPs use UPC. Trying to mate UPC to APC isn't going to give a great connection.
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Thought had crossed my mind. But I think it’s not our OPs first rodeo with fibre. That would be a very school boy/girl mistake
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And just to be clear, you're definitely got APC (green) and UPC (blue) in the right places?
Most fibre networks use APC - it gives lower connector losses when mated correctly. Most data patch leads and SFPs use UPC. Trying to mate UPC to APC isn't going to give a great connection.
Is this the part when I tell you I’ve patched my LC fibre into an old school ST connector patch panel?🫣🤣
Haha, yea of course. Learnt from that mistake many years ago. People still forget that you can get different types of LC cables, UPC and APC and mixing them together doesn’t end well!
I’ve got a LC/APC to SC cable, purely to reduce the need for extra connectors & loss, so there’s only one LC coupler where the VM patch lead joins to mine.
As much
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Thought had crossed my mind. But I think it’s not our OPs first rodeo with fibre. That would be a very school boy/girl mistake
You have a lot of faith in me! 🙀
I’ve seen some questionable stuff over the years to be fair, the government buildings are terrible, only ghosts know how some of their stuff works, I think the people who worked on it must have died there!🤣
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Interestingly, I asked the same question on a YouTube video posted by a Virgin Media engineer named Jude 6 days ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n32DQsyfoek&lc=UgxkB...
He responded to some of my questions. I asked him why the Nexfibre isn't designed or printed on the omnibox and it only says Virgin Media. Since this can cause confusion especially for those less informed customers who do not know that they could eventually choose another ISP on the network or even know that it is full fibre. It would've also helped differentiate between Nexfibre and Coax DOCSIS 3.1, this is important as not many people even know this yet!
He claims that he is not 100% sure why this is the case but he thinks this is because Virgin Media want to save money not having to re-badge the design equipment as it will increase cost and delay the roll out.
This is the answer to my second question... judepl: In relation to your second question, if you were to join an ISP which uses the Nexfibre network, an XGSPON ONT would be installed, similar to an Openreach FTTP installation. The fibre connection terminates at the XGSPON ONT which is then connected by ethernet to the providers gateway device. If you were a Virgin Media customer beforehand and had moved to another provider on the Nexfibre network, with how we install currently this would need another engineer visit to install an XGSPON ONT, unless they make it so the customer can plug it in and set it up themselves, similar to QuickStart orders. As for your last question, you can use your own router if you require. You can put the Hub 5X in modem mode and connect your own router via ethernet to the Hub 5X.
Thanks for watching!  These were the answers to my questions. I watched a few of these videos and found his videos hence why I asked him those questions.
I think Hub 5X exists to save money not to have to install the ONT. They are probably passing on the buck to the ISP rather than Nexfibre taking responsibility. Unless, of-course the ISP calls Nexfibre engineer to fit one manually. But this just means multiple visits and that may incur a cost to the customer indirectly by raising the packages to compensate this loss...
Also putting in modem mode isn't something I would like because if the Hub 5X is faulty then it will make things complicated. We won't know what is causing problems whether our own router or the Hub 5X.
Also someone on YouTube reviewed the Hub 5X named Off Topic Reviews saying you can't open IPv4 websites as VM only has IPv6 support. And also DMZ wasn't working and would not open any of the ports. I'm not sure about the legitimacy of those complaints.
If this is the case, that would be a major disappointment and will repel a lot of potential customers. If the Hub 5X is problematic people are going to skip Virgin Media since I think most people don't use their own router.
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Hahaha. Of course we have faith in you. You just need to get to the bottom of that horrendous loss on your internal cabling.
You said the VM tested light levels at the router previously and it was -12dBm. Your ONU stick is saying it’s got -26dBm. So if they’re both correct that’s 14 dB less. Remember that the dB scale is logarithmic, so every 3dB is a halving (or doubling) in absolute light levels.
At -12 dBm the light level is 0.0630957344 mW
At -26 dBm the level is 0.0025118864 mW
So the light level is actually 25 times weaker! Ultimately that is going to cause you issues over time. Any minor changes in light on the PON will push you into dodgy territory reliability wise. It works both ways with the light your receiving and the light your also sending back. The sensitivity limit on your ONU stick is -28.5 dBm.
Try firstly replacing any couplers. Clean the fibre ends. Ideally inspect them using a scope as they could also be damaged or have stubborn spots which your not removing. Fibre patch leads can also have unseen damage along the cord; if they were ever mishandled or over-bent then there could be micro fractures in the core and cladding which can lead to high loss. So replace any patch leads.
More generally, reducing the total number of mated connections in the overall link is really important. Mated connections introduce the highest loss. They are also a point of weakness for contamination.
Good luck 🤞
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Interestingly, I asked the same question on a YouTube video posted by a Virgin Media engineer named Jude 6 days ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n32DQsyfoek&lc=UgxkB...
He responded to some of my questions. I asked him why the Nexfibre isn't designed or printed on the omnibox and it only says Virgin Media. Since this can cause confusion especially for those less informed customers who do not know that they could eventually choose another ISP on the network or even know that it is full fibre. It would've also helped differentiate between Nexfibre and Coax DOCSIS 3.1, this is important as not many people even know this yet!
He claims that he is not 100% sure why this is the case but he thinks this is because Virgin Media want to save money not having to re-badge the design equipment as it will increase cost and delay the roll out.
This is the answer to my second question... judepl: In relation to your second question, if you were to join an ISP which uses the Nexfibre network, an XGSPON ONT would be installed, similar to an Openreach FTTP installation. The fibre connection terminates at the XGSPON ONT which is then connected by ethernet to the providers gateway device. If you were a Virgin Media customer beforehand and had moved to another provider on the Nexfibre network, with how we install currently this would need another engineer visit to install an XGSPON ONT, unless they make it so the customer can plug it in and set it up themselves, similar to QuickStart orders. As for your last question, you can use your own router if you require. You can put the Hub 5X in modem mode and connect your own router via ethernet to the Hub 5X.
Thanks for watching! These were the answers to my questions. I watched a few of these videos and found his videos hence why I asked him those questions.
I think Hub 5X exists to save money not to have to install the ONT. They are probably passing on the buck to the ISP rather than Nexfibre taking responsibility. Unless, of-course the ISP calls Nexfibre engineer to fit one manually. But this just means multiple visits and that may incur a cost to the customer indirectly by raising the packages to compensate this loss...
Also putting in modem mode isn't something I would like because if the Hub 5X is faulty then it will make things complicated. We won't know what is causing problems whether our own router or the Hub 5X.
Also someone on YouTube reviewed the Hub 5X named Off Topic Reviews saying you can't open IPv4 websites as VM only has IPv6 support. And also DMZ wasn't working and would not open any of the ports. I'm not sure about the legitimacy of those complaints.
If this is the case, that would be a major disappointment and will repel a lot of potential customers. If the Hub 5X is problematic people are going to skip Virgin Media since I think most people don't use their own router.
Modem mode on the Hub5X has never worked properly, and to enable it you have to manually punch in the link to the page on the hub, and even then its a complex and diabolical process to get working correctly.
IF you get it working, it only works on the 1Gb ports, which again is useless for customers with 1Gb+ connections, and potentially useless with the future support of more than 1Gb.
The IPV4 website issue has never been a problem, and i ran a few low maintenance proof of concept websites through my Hub5X, you need to disable the IPV6 option on your local devices which then pulls local, and public IPV4 address. I don't think i have ever seen a IPV6 address from my 5X, ever!
Interesting information about the VM engineer and the nexfibre branding though.
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Hahaha. Of course we have faith in you. You just need to get to the bottom of that horrendous loss on your internal cabling.
You said the VM tested light levels at the router previously and it was -12dBm. Your ONU stick is saying it’s got -26dBm. So if they’re both correct that’s 14 dB less. Remember that the dB scale is logarithmic, so every 3dB is a halving (or doubling) in absolute light levels.
At -12 dBm the light level is 0.0630957344 mW
At -26 dBm the level is 0.0025118864 mW
So the light level is actually 25 times weaker! Ultimately that is going to cause you issues over time. Any minor changes in light on the PON will push you into dodgy territory reliability wise. It works both ways with the light your receiving and the light your also sending back. The sensitivity limit on your ONU stick is -28.5 dBm.
Try firstly replacing any couplers. Clean the fibre ends. Ideally inspect them using a scope as they could also be damaged or have stubborn spots which your not removing. Fibre patch leads can also have unseen damage along the cord; if they were ever mishandled or over-bent then there could be micro fractures in the core and cladding which can lead to high loss. So replace any patch leads.
More generally, reducing the total number of mated connections in the overall link is really important. Mated connections introduce the highest loss. They are also a point of weakness for contamination.
Good luck 🤞
Sorry for the slow replies, i have still not had time to do this yet! i changed the LC/APC coupler to a better quality one and things have been fine, but ill need to sort out the NAT addressing so i can access my SFP on the local network through OpnSense.
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Very big thread! so not really read it, have you had this sorted?? I use ispreview more than thinkbroadband forums (doesn't really seem user friendly)
I had an issue with realspeed when I went to 2gig, hourly ping issues, I ended up getting the realspeed auto tests turned off, eventually, which sorted the issue for me.
Before ( unable to get an older tbb monitor to show? >.< )
After
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...
Edited by Smir (Tue 21-Jan-25 03:49:51)
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Interestingly, I asked the same question on a YouTube video posted by a Virgin Media engineer named Jude 6 days ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n32DQsyfoek&lc=UgxkB...
He responded to some of my questions. I asked him why the Nexfibre isn't designed or printed on the omnibox and it only says Virgin Media. Since this can cause confusion especially for those less informed customers who do not know that they could eventually choose another ISP on the network or even know that it is full fibre. It would've also helped differentiate between Nexfibre and Coax DOCSIS 3.1, this is important as not many people even know this yet!
He claims that he is not 100% sure why this is the case but he thinks this is because Virgin Media want to save money not having to re-badge the design equipment as it will increase cost and delay the roll out.
This is the answer to my second question... judepl: In relation to your second question, if you were to join an ISP which uses the Nexfibre network, an XGSPON ONT would be installed, similar to an Openreach FTTP installation. The fibre connection terminates at the XGSPON ONT which is then connected by ethernet to the providers gateway device. If you were a Virgin Media customer beforehand and had moved to another provider on the Nexfibre network, with how we install currently this would need another engineer visit to install an XGSPON ONT, unless they make it so the customer can plug it in and set it up themselves, similar to QuickStart orders. As for your last question, you can use your own router if you require. You can put the Hub 5X in modem mode and connect your own router via ethernet to the Hub 5X.
Thanks for watching! These were the answers to my questions. I watched a few of these videos and found his videos hence why I asked him those questions.
I think Hub 5X exists to save money not to have to install the ONT. They are probably passing on the buck to the ISP rather than Nexfibre taking responsibility. Unless, of-course the ISP calls Nexfibre engineer to fit one manually. But this just means multiple visits and that may incur a cost to the customer indirectly by raising the packages to compensate this loss...
Also putting in modem mode isn't something I would like because if the Hub 5X is faulty then it will make things complicated. We won't know what is causing problems whether our own router or the Hub 5X.
Also someone on YouTube reviewed the Hub 5X named Off Topic Reviews saying you can't open IPv4 websites as VM only has IPv6 support. And also DMZ wasn't working and would not open any of the ports. I'm not sure about the legitimacy of those complaints.
If this is the case, that would be a major disappointment and will repel a lot of potential customers. If the Hub 5X is problematic people are going to skip Virgin Media since I think most people don't use their own router.
Modem mode on the Hub5X has never worked properly, and to enable it you have to manually punch in the link to the page on the hub, and even then its a complex and diabolical process to get working correctly.
IF you get it working, it only works on the 1Gb ports, which again is useless for customers with 1Gb+ connections, and potentially useless with the future support of more than 1Gb.
The IPV4 website issue has never been a problem, and i ran a few low maintenance proof of concept websites through my Hub5X, you need to disable the IPV6 option on your local devices which then pulls local, and public IPV4 address. I don't think i have ever seen a IPV6 address from my 5X, ever!
Interesting information about the VM engineer and the nexfibre branding though.
Many thanks for your reply. I've only just seen your post.
I'm aware that Virgin Media does not support IPv6 and indeed it has to be turned off. However, I came across this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XuL8RdER1I
"VIRGIN Media Hub 5X modem mode how to enable (FULLY WORKING)"
The problem is this guy is saying completely the opposite. He is saying that his Modem mode is working but only when he enables IPv6. I really don't know how this is possible since Virgin Media does not support IPv6.
He is also claiming that modem mode works but only with the 10GbE port, yet that is opposite to what you're saying. He claims that the trick to making modem mode work is while rebooting the Hub 5X to then connect quickly modem mode to get it to work.
Indeed, there should not be an IPv6 address coming at all. Just like with TalkTalk I had to disable IPv6 from Windows 10 network adapter properties as it does not support it. But only turned it on when I joined BT. But I don't know why this user is saying that IPv6 is working but IPv4 does not.
While you're saying IPv4 works perfectly but with 1Gb port. There is some contradiction with what he is saying in his video compared to what you're saying.
Nevertheless, seeing that the Hub 5X only connects via the Fibre optic cable. I discovered that there's an ASUS RT-AX89X (AX6000) Dual Band 12-stream WiFi 6 Extendable Gaming Router, Dual 10G Ports that supports an SFP fibre port!
https://www.asus.com/uk/networking-iot-servers/wifi-...
I know that this router is quite expensive and probably an overkill for most users but seeing that this has a 10G SFP+ port, I am wondering whether you could simply directly plug the Virgin Media fibre cable to this router that way you avoid having to use the Hub 5X in modem mode?
If this is possible then that may be the best way of solving these problems. Unfortunately, Virgin Media Nexfibre does not come with ONT and that severely restricts the option to use other routers that do not have an SFP port. I do not know if more ISPs that eventually join the network will install an ONT but that will be the only way to resolve this restriction.
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I think you might have missed a trick there, as the OP is already using an SFP+ pluggable ONT/ONU together with his own router…
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Many thanks for your reply. I've only just seen your post.
I'm aware that Virgin Media does not support IPv6 and indeed it has to be turned off. However, I came across this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XuL8RdER1I
"VIRGIN Media Hub 5X modem mode how to enable (FULLY WORKING)"
The problem is this guy is saying completely the opposite. He is saying that his Modem mode is working but only when he enables IPv6. I really don't know how this is possible since Virgin Media does not support IPv6.
He is also claiming that modem mode works but only with the 10GbE port, yet that is opposite to what you're saying. He claims that the trick to making modem mode work is while rebooting the Hub 5X to then connect quickly modem mode to get it to work.
The man in the video is in the Republic of Ireland not the UK. VM Ireland have IPv6.
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