Hub One WAN Ping / ICMP

[#1]

Tried a search and couldn't find any information on this (which leads me to believe it isn't possible). Has anyone managed to configure the Hub One to respond to ping / ICMP requests on the public IP address without setting up a DMZ?

[#2]

It is not possible to set the Hub One to respond to pings on its public IP. 

[#3]

I was also disappointed not to see an option on the router to configure this as I use the Thinkbroadband Quality Monitor to help diagnose 'moans and groans' from the family when the internet plays up (normally when I'm away from home).

I've found by adding a device (e.g Amazon Fire TV device) to the DMZ allows the TQM to generate stats on it's graph. Early days yet as to how reliable they are but at least it's a start - otherwise I need different hardware.

[#4]

@jstallan that's a fantastic idea!

I'm now trying it with a Now TV box...

[#5]

So here's my view for today. Changed over to the Hub One just before midday (notice the RED). Things are a bit lively following the change over but let's see how things pan out overnight.

[#6]

I use a Raspberry Pi in the DMZ for Hub One monitoring. Requires a small amount of configuring to respond to the ICMP echoes and it's wise to use iptables or similar to block all the unwanted stuff.

[#7]

I put my Now TV box into the DMZ and set up a TBB Quality monitor and the first thing I noticed was pretty bad packet loss.

After some digging around it turned out that the packet loss was at pcl-ag07, the gateway I was connected to.

See if you can spot when I hopped onto the ptn-bng01 gateway...

[#8]

Seems people have now found a way of getting stats outs of BQM...    For me they aren't as accurate as I was previously getting but way better that I originally experienced with the PlusNet Hub One...  Viva Le DMZ 

[#9]

Hi Bob,

Can you please show a link on getting a PIZero to respond to WAN Pings. I have already got a RPI connected with Asterisk / Softether VPN. Probably not a good idea to leave it in DMZ though but for testing perposes it may be an option.

[#10]

+1 for raspberry Pi, I've had the Raspberry Pi solution working on Smarthub 6 with a DMZ.

Just make sure you change the default password for the pi account as you're exposing the device to the internet.

[#11]

Ha!  And I thought I was going mad.  Really relieved to have found this thread.  

Does anyone know why the PlusNet Hub One does not have the possibility to respond to public IP pings?

Is this something specific to the HubOne?  Could you get another version of the Hub that allows public IP pings?

Lastly, I'm desperately trying to find a way to be alerted when my internet connection goes down, or freezes and I loathe to spend any £ on additional kit - does anyone have a viable solution that could help?  Many thanks in advance for any help.

[#12]

Does anyone know why the PlusNet Hub One does not have the possibility to respond to public IP pings?

The Hub One is locked down like most other ISP supplied routers for ease of support. It has ping blocked as a security feature. So that hackers running scripts sequentially pinging IP addresses can't find you. If they get a ping back they know there is a device there that could potentially be attacked and can then try a port scan or other exploit.

The only way you are going to get it to respond to public ICMP pings without extra hardware, is to flash a different firmware on it like OpenWrt. However, you need to take it apart and solder leads onto the circuit board. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have another router, as it totally voids your warranty and will be unsupported by Plusnet, if it is damaged in the process you would have to buy your own router to replace it.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/Running-OpenWRT-on-the-Plusnet-Hub-One...

Is this something specific to the HubOne?  Could you get another version of the Hub that allows public IP pings?

No, most ISP supplied routers block ICMP ping packets by default, the BT Smarthub, the EE Hub, all block public pings for security reasons.

The cheapest solution is to buy a second hand Raspberry PI for £10 -£15 from an auction site (you don't need the latest version) + £5 for a new power supply. Install Raspbian lite on a micro SD Card, configure it and place it in the DMZ on the router.  You do need some knowledge of Linux, as well as a USB keyboard and mouse to set it up, but I've used this approach successfully on a BT Smarthub 6 using an original Raspberry Pi Model B. The DMZ on the router (Demilitarised Zone) places the Raspberry Pi on the Internet side of the Firewall so that it can respond to ping packets.

[#13]

Just a thought, if you don't want to mod your hub one, you can pick up a second hand BT Homehub 5A (Same hardware as hub one) with Openwrt firmware pre-loaded onto it for around £20 on a well known auction site.

[#14]

I used a Now TV box in the DMZ to allow ping responses.

[#15]

Thank you for your superb response!  Much appreciated.