Plusnet Hub 2 Incoming Ping

[#1]

I set up a NowTV box in the DMZ of my Plusnet Hub 2 router, in order to  set up a Thinkbroadband BQM.

It works fine.

I noticed recently that there is an option in the router Firewall settings to "Allow incoming ping requests to the Hub's public IP address". I presumed that this would be an alternative way to run the BQM, but I can't make it work.

Am I misunderstanding what this setting is?

Has anyone else had similar issues?

[#2]

I don't have a Plusnet router so I'm guessing at constructive suggestions here.

Does it work if you disable the DMZ ? (in case routing to DMZ occurs before the WAN ping responder)

When DMZ is DISABLED AND the "Allow incoming ping requests..." is ENABLED,  have you checked the firewall logs to see whether the ThinkBroadband ping requests are being blocked ?.  On my pfSense router I specifically set the firewall to "allow" incoming ICMP echo (ping) requests from the ThinkBroadband server addresses (shown below from https://www.thinkbroadband.com/faq/broadband-quality-monitor) -

[#3]

@Anonymous 

Thanks for the input.

I tried turning off the DMZ but it still didn't work.

I can't see firewall logs on the Plusnet 2 router, don't think it's possible.

Also I don't know if it's possible to allow pings from specific sources, but I am new to this router, maybe someone out there will correct me.

Your router is clearly much more versatile. 

[#4]

The allow ping option in the Firewall configuration pages of the Hub Two should do the trick, without any need to mess about with DMZ assignments.

I have used the feature extensively over the last year or so and haven't had any problems with it.

The Firewall logs are found under 'Event Log' in the Technical detail under Advanced Settings (terminology may not be perfect but that should get you there).

[#5]

@bobpullen 

Thanks for the reply

So any idea what I'm doing wrong.

The BQM has been running for a couple of weeks with the NowTV box in the DMZ.

I disabled the DMZ and enabled the ping option, but that produces the red line on the BQM, I also tried re-booting to no avail.

Is the Firewall log the FRWL selection in the Event Log?

Below is the full list of entries from there; doesn't look like firewall to me.(I've xx'd out some the personal detail)

Selected:FRWLTime and dateMessage

09:00:04, 03 Jan.

DoS(UDP Loopback): IN=ppp1 OUT= MAC= xxxxxxxxxxxxx DST=xxxxxxxxxxxx 14 LEN=189 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=62 ID=xxxxxxxxxxxx=53 DPT=7 LEN=169 MARK=0x8000000

14:45:09, 02 Jan.

remove device [HUAWEI_MediaPad_T3_10-974] from group [Default]

13:01:58, 02 Jan.

remove device [amazon-xxxxxxxx from group [Default]

12:16:20, 02 Jan.

remove device [Honor_9_Lite-xxxxxxxx from group [Default]

11:35:24, 02 Jan.

remove device [Honor_9_Lite-xxxxxxxx from group [Default]

[#6]

@bobpullen 

Could it be that what Browni said in 2017 in his post about setting up BQM:-

"Pings are not blocked by the Hub One, it simply doesn't respond to them" also applies to the Hub 2?

So "allowing incoming pings" is exactly what it says it is; i.e it still doesn't respond to them.

[#7]

When I saw this thread earlier, I enabled it on the Hub Two, and then went and re-enabled my BQM (it got disabled quite a while ago when I was playing around with some routers), and looking at it now it's showing ok.  I've not done anything with Port Forwarding or DMZ.

[#8]

Nope it works fine, here's mine https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/da36f2b13432eb9506f1523da8b2cba7.p...

This is a hub two, nothing in DMZ and ping enabled.

[#9]

---

@dejjones wrote:

Could it be that what Browni said in 2017 in his post about setting up BQM:-

"Pings are not blocked by the Hub One, it simply doesn't respond to them" also applies to the Hub 2?

---

No. Ping responses cannot be enabled natively on the Hub One. They *can* be enabled on the Hub Two, and you do that by enabling the 'allow incoming pings' toggle.

I don't know how you have things configured at the moment, but I can successfully ping your IP from here:-

~$ ping 212.159.XXX.XX
PING 212.159.XXX.XX (212.159.XXX.XX) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=20.4 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=19.8 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=18.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=4 ttl=58 time=17.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=5 ttl=58 time=17.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=6 ttl=58 time=17.1 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=7 ttl=58 time=16.8 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=8 ttl=58 time=20.7 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.XXX.XX: icmp_seq=9 ttl=58 time=19.8 ms
^C
--- 212.159.XXX.XX ping statistics ---
9 packets transmitted, 9 received, 0% packet loss, time 8014ms

[#10]

Could it be a classic case of not upgrading the TBB ip address ?

[#11]

@bobpullen 

Thanks again for your input.

Yesterday afternoon I tried a few things and managed to get it working.

After reading everyone's comments that said it should work, I switched the incoming ping feature on and off several times and looked for it in the event log, there was no record of me switching it, and the BQM still didn't work.

I tried switching the other options in the Firewall configuration; "Enable UPnP", "DMZ on/off", "Enable SIP ALG", only UPnP was being logged.

I knew that turning the DMZ on/off was working because that allowed the BQM to work via my Now TV box, but the switching was not appearing in the log.

So as a last resort I did a factory reset on the router and after that the BQM started working with DMZ off and incoming pings enabled.

However the event log situation was the same; only UPnP was being logged.

This morning before posting this I wanted to make sure I'd got my facts right so I repeated the Firewall config switching above.The results were the same but after re-enabling incoming pings BQM did not restart.

I restarted the router and it is now working.

Do you think this is how it should be or are there some software glitches in my router?

Incidentally the picture for yesterday shows that most of the latency I was getting was from the wifi  connection to the Now TV box which was connected up to 3.45pm, after 4pm is with the "allow incoming pings" connection.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/d8a69c8ed90ebd2ca82c0ff7a081129fb0498230-07-01-2022

[#12]

@dejjones - it's hard to say whether or not there's an inherent issue with the functionality. Taking your experience as described, it definitely sounds like something isn't quite as it should be.

All the testing we did pre-launch is good. If you have some reliable method of replicating the problem, then I'm more than happy to take a more thorough look into things.

Glad to hear you have things working now.

[#13]

---

@bobpullen wrote:

If you have some reliable method of replicating the problem,

---

I don't get what you mean;

I'm pretty sure the symptoms are consistent:- 

i.e. the Firewall changes (except UPnP) are never getting logged, and the "allow incoming ping" is not effective until reboot.

Is that not reliable replication? or am I misunderstanding?

I still haven't located the Firewall selection of the event log, you mentioned earlier.

The UPnP selection is appearing in the MDW section?

[#14]

Let's ignore the logs for a second. What is/isn't getting logged is not a functional problem.

Saying the 'allow incoming ping' option isn't applied until a reboot simply isn't accurate (certainly not in all cases). I have enabled it countless times using a Hub Two, and in every instance it has been effective immediately.

What I'm looking for, is a set of steps that will change my current experience (which is that everything works as intended).

Edit: reading back, my reply sounds a little aggressive. Not intended that way. Just trying to get to the bottom of things.

[#15]

@bobpullen 

Sorry but I'm still confused.

Are you asking me to suggest the "set of steps" or will you?

BTW It doesn't sound aggressive at all, I'm sure some of my posts are not too polite either.

I appreciate you taking the time