Virgin Media for Business - anyone experienced?

zom

I wonder if anyone here got any experienced with Virgin Media (UPC) for Busines ? To be more specific - about cable router they provide, as I am getting extremally frustrated with the one I got (Hitron CGNV4) ? I am consider canceling it (just started) if they cant provide me with anything better...

Some_Person

I've found UPC rock solid but the Cisco EPC3925 modem has been giving trouble recently (rebooting by itself at random times), maybe it's due to overheating as some have mentioned, haven't checked yet but I'm supposed to be getting a Hitron to replace it shortly.

What issues have you had with the Hitron?

zom

If we're taking about overheat (this is Hitron Rogers range for USA/ Canada):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/rogers-modem-fire-nearly-burned-down-house-says-ontario-man-1.3133391

Mine didn't burned yet thankfuly, but I can't figure out how to set it up correctly and also can't find much info (Virgin said, they got it few weeks ago and they don't know it either).

Biggest problem is rogue DHCP causing problems with my current network. I disabled DHCP in Hitron settings and it is still interfering with my current DHCP.

Second serious problem is terrible build-in firewall, with poor settings that can't really prove it works. I tired to break through random port and I did it, so I'd say, no trust at all.

All web user interface is very poor with lack of some obvious settings. Although there are tons of DOCSIS setting which are no use for average user (just for cable installer). There is also USB (storage) port that may be handy in house / small office environment - not in serious company with dedicated data storages.

I was wondering if I may request any better modem and what may be my options - if anyone already use Virgin (UPC) for Business here??

ED E

Why have you not bridged it? ISPs don't expect larger businesses to actually use their free gateway. That has WPS for fecks sake, what office uses WPS?

Buy something suitable and bridge.

Some_Person

Last I heard you can't buy your own Modem for UPC because it won't connect because it's not using a UPC modified firmware.

UPC's "bridge mode" that they setup is still routing, they just route the public IPs to you.

I manually tried bridging the modem before and put the DHCP client on my own router, which worked but there was no Internet access, probably because of my different MAC address.

I can't get them to setup TRUE bridge.

ED E

You cant use your own modem, theres some logic behind that as its shared medium. They do allow bridging on some devices though and their latest makes it easy.

I havent used the Hitron but with the older Cisco 3925 its fully supported. You do lease your IPs from the bridged modem but theres no logical hop between your device and the Cisco switch deployed upstream of the CMTS.

Cuddlesworth

Some_Person wrote: »

I manually tried bridging the modem before and put the DHCP client on my own router, which worked but there was no Internet access, probably because of my different MAC address.

Pretty sure ED-E is spot on, they simply assign you static addressing within the areas business subnet. So if you want to use your own equipment, you bridge the UPC device, use it as a L2 switch and assign static IP details to the WAN port on your router. UPC Ireland have a long history in this country of supplying substandard equipment, so bypass it and buy your ow.

zom

Can I access company SMTP server (Windows) by static IP if I build chagain of devices like that? A the moment I have CISCO ADSL router (Eircom) which is invisible and all external traffic is going straight to our IIS server.

Why it is such a big deal to add "Access Point" to modem options and disable everything but internet??

ED E

You IIS is probably opening the PPPoE call to the eir RAS. If you bridge with Virgin your IIS server just does WAN DHCP from their modem and gets its IP on the hw NIC interface instead of a virtual PPPoE interface.

This may mean you need to change your software config slightly depending on what services you have running if they dont bind to all interfaces simultaneously.

zom wrote: »

Why it is such a big deal to add "Access Point" to modem options and disable everything but internet??

Thats not what that means. APs are used as extensions, not network borders. TBH from the course of this thread so far you may be better off with somebody familiar with these setups to do it for you.

We have a Hitron in the office with a static IP. VM Business bridged it for us, works with no problems.

Some_Person

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Pretty sure ED-E is spot on, they simply assign you static addressing within the areas business subnet. So if you want to use your own equipment, you bridge the UPC device, use it as a L2 switch and assign static IP details to the WAN port on your router. UPC Ireland have a long history in this country of supplying substandard equipment, so bypass it and buy your ow.

I did that, didn't work, probably because of the unrecognized MAC address of my router connecting instead of the Cisco.

Some_Person

Some_Person wrote: »

I did that, didn't work, probably because of the unrecognized MAC address of my router connecting instead of the Cisco.

VM Ireland don't enforce MAC filtering except on their own equipment (by the way, VM UK do). We normally have the Hitron connected to a Sonicwall but I reattached it to a desktop PC as a temporary test last week. Worked fine once I entered the static IP on the desktop.

Some_Person

Karsini wrote: »

VM Ireland don't enforce MAC filtering except on their own equipment (by the way, VM UK do). We normally have the Hitron connected to a Sonicwall but I reattached it to a desktop PC as a temporary test last week. Worked fine once I entered the static IP on the desktop.

Karsini wrote: »

VM Business bridged it for us

Then the Hitron is probably still in router mode, VM's "bridge" is just routing the publics to your router.
Not REAL bridging where you would have to run the DHCP client on your own router.

And if UPC doesn't identify the customer by MAC, how do they know who's who?

Cuddlesworth

Some_Person wrote: »

Then the Hitron is probably still in router mode, VM's "bridge" is just routing the publics to your router.
Not REAL bridging where you would have to run the DHCP client on your own router.

And if UPC doesn't identify the customer by MAC, how do they know who's who?

They use the external Mac on the coaxial interface for authentication. Limit of 3 ip's per docics device with home services.

ED E

Is "REAL Bridging" an RFC? Oh its not is it....

If you've a dynamic, "internal" mac leases from the pool, different mac different sticky IP (I've used this for testing).

If you've a static then your IP(s) isnt(arent) part of the pool and you manually assign it to the appropriate NIC.

Its really rather easy.

zom

Manual for Hitron CGNV4 is here:
https://www.upc.ro/pdf/manuale/internet/HITRON_CGNV4_UG_V1-1_DRAFT_2014-01-28.pdf

I have Gateway Function disabled (page 48) and DHCP Status disabled (page 47). Thou Hitron is still routing and assigning IPs from 192.168.0.x subnet - even if there was already DHCP server in LAN (different subnets).

My question was if I can get any decent piece of hardware from Virgin to make it simple or just use Hitron as it is and add one more device on our own?

zom

zom wrote: »

Manual for Hitron CGNV4 is here:
https://www.upc.ro/pdf/manuale/internet/HITRON_CGNV4_UG_V1-1_DRAFT_2014-01-28.pdf

I have Gateway Function disabled (page 48) and DHCP Status disabled (page 47). Thou Hitron is still routing and assigning IPs from 192.168.0.x subnet - even if there was already DHCP server in LAN (different subnets).

My question was if I can get any decent piece of hardware from Virgin to make it simple or just use Hitron as it is and add one more device on our own?

What's the first and second hops if you do a traceroute?

cruhoortwunk

Same issue here, just got Hitron and I want to set it to bridge mode so I can use my own proper router.
Is there a way to 'unhide' the option on the GUI the same as the Cisco 3925?

EDIT:I just called Virgin business support and they did the switch for me. They gave me a static Ip to assign to my own router.