Virgin Media Hub 4 - Port Forwarding Issues

[JB1970]

I'm wondering if anyone on here in the UK is using the Virgin Media Hub 4 and has had issues with port forwarding not working/saving.

I needed to port forward a Hub 4 this morning and the GUI wouldn't retain the rule. After entering the IP address, local port range, remote port range, protocol and 'enable' - clicking 'Save' displayed the list of rules with the new rule showing correctly. However clicking 'apply changes' refreshes the page and also deletes the previously entered rule. There were no IP conflicts and no other rule using the ports selected. I tried switching off the firewall, altering the DHCP pool so that the IP was outside of the DHCP range, rebooting the Hub 4 and also tried several browsers all to no avail. Eventually I gave up and had to use UPnP with manual port mapping in the DVR instead.

Reading the VM forum it seems a few are having problems and I wondered whether it's a known bug as the GUI is pretty much identical to the Hub 3 and I've never had issues before.

 

[David]

I'm wondering if anyone on here in the UK is using the Virgin Media Hub 4 and has had issues with port forwarding not working/saving.

I needed to port forward a Hub 4 this morning and the GUI wouldn't retain the rule. After entering the IP address, local port range, remote port range, protocol and 'enable' - clicking 'Save' displayed the list of rules with the new rule showing correctly. However clicking 'apply changes' refreshes the page and also deletes the previously entered rule. There were no IP conflicts and no other rule using the ports selected. I tried switching off the firewall, altering the DHCP pool so that the IP was outside of the DHCP range, rebooting the Hub 4 and also tried several browsers all to no avail. Eventually I gave up and had to use UPnP with manual port mapping in the DVR instead.

Reading the VM forum it seems a few are having problems and I wondered whether it's a known bug as the GUI is pretty much identical to the Hub 3 and I've never had issues before.

Have you tried up / downgrading the firmware?

 

[JB1970]

Have you tried up / downgrading the firmware?

No it's a customers Hub and I was only there to do a password reset and get the system reconnected (without the cloud service). CCTV was installed by another company and they'd not issued him with the admin password for his system (or any password for that matter).

Virgin Media Hub firmware isn't user updatable unfortunately - there is no accessible file or means to load it. They (Virgin Media) are a bit of a nightmare, in that they just push new firmware configs, without warning, at will. I've also known them to factory reset devices without the users permission. The Hub is their property so there's no way to avoid all of that without installing your own router and putting their hub into modem mode.

I've worked on hundreds of Superhub 2's, 2 AC's and Hub 3's over the years and other than the occasional slow page load issue I've never had a problem with the config, so it's of concern that a fairly basic function doesn't appear to work.

 

[David]

No it's a customers Hub and I was only there to do a password reset and get the system reconnected (without the cloud service). CCTV was installed by another company and they'd not issued him with the admin password for his system (or any password for that matter).

Virgin Media Hub firmware isn't user updatable unfortunately - there is no accessible file or means to load it. They (Virgin Media) are a bit of a nightmare, in that they just push new firmware configs, without warning, at will. I've also known them to factory reset devices without the users permission. The Hub is their property so there's no way to avoid all of that without installing your own router and putting their hub into modem mode.

I've worked on hundreds of Superhub 2's, 2 AC's and Hub 3's over the years and other than the occasional slow page load issue I've never had a problem with the config, so it's of concern that a fairly basic function doesn't appear to work.

remote management (TR-069) of my BT hub made me replace it with a router I had control of. If enough people complain VM may push a FW patch.

 

[JB1970]

remote management (TR-069) of my BT hub made me replace it with a router I had control of. If enough people complain VM may push a FW patch.

It looks as though there have been people reporting it on the community since the Hub 4 was released so I won't hold my breath.

You're right regarding remote management. We'd be better going back to the days where the ISP just supplied a modem and the router was the customers responsibility to provide and administer.

 

[David]

Can you force a FW update? There could be one available on the server, better than waiting for a server push.

 

[mantonl]

I've been a virgin customer for years and it all went down hill after the hub 2. I use lots of port fording rules for various apps I run both with CCTV and Microsoft servers for myself and some of my customers. The hub 3 was a nightmare with port fording and other issues, but as 99% of there customers would never use these features, VM would not spend the money to get them fixed. This is why modem mode was introduced. My advice would be to get yourself a low cost router and put your virgin one in modem mode. I do this for all my customers now and no more issues and another advantage is that if you swap BB providers then everything just continues to work as your router is still there with all the port rules in it. I have just gone from a hub3 to a hub4 at home and after the router swap I was up and running in a couple of mins because there was zero config to do on the new router other than flip it to modem only mode.
Good Luck, Lee....

 

[David]

I've been a virgin customer for years and it all went down hill after the hub 2. I use lots of port fording rules for various apps I run both with CCTV and Microsoft servers for myself and some of my customers. The hub 3 was a nightmare with port fording and other issues, but as 99% of there customers would never use these features, VM would not spend the money to get them fixed. This is why modem mode was introduced. My advice would be to get yourself a low cost router and put your virgin one in modem mode. I do this for all my customers now and no more issues and another advantage is that if you swap BB providers then everything just continues to work as your router is still there with all the port rules in it. I have just gone from a hub3 to a hub4 at home and after the router swap I was up and running in a couple of mins because there was zero config to do on the new router other than flip it to modem only mode.
Good Luck, Lee....

Lee,
Good advice, I would get a router with integral VPN server and delete the port forwarding rules. More secure and gives you full access to your home network. I have used a home VPN server (Draytek router) for many years now and have not regretted it.

 

[JB1970]

I've been a virgin customer for years and it all went down hill after the hub 2. I use lots of port fording rules for various apps I run both with CCTV and Microsoft servers for myself and some of my customers. The hub 3 was a nightmare with port fording and other issues, but as 99% of there customers would never use these features, VM would not spend the money to get them fixed. This is why modem mode was introduced. My advice would be to get yourself a low cost router and put your virgin one in modem mode. I do this for all my customers now and no more issues and another advantage is that if you swap BB providers then everything just continues to work as your router is still there with all the port rules in it. I have just gone from a hub3 to a hub4 at home and after the router swap I was up and running in a couple of mins because there was zero config to do on the new router other than flip it to modem only mode.
Good Luck, Lee....

I already do all that for my own systems. This though, was for a customers CCTV system. I’ve never had any issues with port forwarding any router (other than 1 corrupt BT Home hub that needed a factory reset and Sky routers that sometimes freeze temporarily during programming) and all of VMs previous models have been fine. I’ll never get a customer to replace their router on the basis of a flunky port forwarding implementation

 

[mantonl]

Lee,
Good advice, I would get a router with integral VPN server and delete the port forwarding rules. More secure and gives you full access to your home network. I have used a home VPN server (Draytek router) for many years now and have not regretted it.

Hi David,
Yep fully agree about it beefing up the security as well, I use a cisco RV340 VNP router and TP-Link OMADA access points for the WIFI. The virgin router just provides the BB and nothing else. I have created separate VLANS for devices as well so I can keep the CCTV isolated from the rest of the network on its own ip range, stopping the showing up with casual ip scanners and also less likely to have any conflicts with other stuff running on the network. I recommend keeping the CCTV isolated for all my installs where the customer wants to get a bit more serious about the security of their security. For me most of my call backs are where people have swapped BB suppliers or had a router swap that has removed static IP's or port rules and now all the camera have gone off...