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Virgin Media Hub 5x Modem Mode workaround

A quick guide on how to work around the lack of modem mode on the Virgin Hub 5x, this guide makes some assumptions you will not be using the Hub for Wifi or any of the other ethernet ports

  • Login 192.168.0.1
  • Configure the DMZ IP

navigate to (Advanced Setting > Security > DMZ) and set the IP to 192.168.0.9, this will now pass through all traffic from the internet to this IP un-firewalled

  • Disable firewalls

navigate to (Advanced Setting > Security > Firewall) and uncheck Firewall Protection on both IPv4 and IPv6, this step is possibly not needed but I prefer to allow my router/firewall to handle all the traffic.

  • Disable DHCP

navigate to (Advanced Setting > DHCP) and select Disabled, again this is not needed but will help eliminate confusion later if the ethernet ports are used in error.

  • Disable the Hub’s in-built Wifi

navigate to (Advanced Setting > Wireless > Wireless Signal) and disable both 2.4GHz and 5GHz

  • Configure the 3rd Party router

As there are various routers/firewalls out there the below details are just provided for reference.

Connect your own Routers WAN/Internet port to the 10Gbe on the Hub leaving all the other ethernet ports empty.

WAN IP – 192.168.0.9 (this is the IP you put in the DMZ)

Subnet – 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway – 192.168.0.1

DNS (this can either be a public free DNS such as Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 \ 1.0.0.1 or Google 8.8.8.8 \ 8.8.4.4 or even the Hub own IP 192.168.0.1) the Virgin Media Hub does appear to intercept DNS queries so if your hardware support DoH or DoT it highly recommended.

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Aaron

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Comments

44 responses to “Virgin Media Hub 5x Modem Mode workaround”

  1. john avatar
    john

    hey bud – i tried this with my TP Link router, which I have setup as an internal IP of 10.1.1.1.

    Following this guide, the router itself gets internet access, but that access isn’t then passed on to my devices. Could this be due to my IP address structure, and the differences between the hub vs what I’ve got?

    thanks!

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      Possibly what is the Subnet your using on the LAN side? You would need to be using something like 255.255.255.0 also make sure your computers default gateway address is pointing to the router IP 10.1.1.1 and also your DNS on the computer is either the router IP or a public DNS service, also make sure your WAN interface is set to NAT/Masqurade on the TPLink

      Reply
      1. John avatar
        John

        I think it was all set up properly. The LAN subnet was 255.255.0.0, but the one the router was using to get internet ws 255.255.255.0.

        I’m about to change to a Pfsense router, could you describe the steps for that?

        Reply
        1. Aaron avatar
          Aaron

          your internal IP can stay the standard pfsense ones it just the WAN address which need to match what i put in the blog post, also you will probably need to disables these too option which block rfc1918 as your router will fall in to these

          https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/rfc1918-egress.html

          https://imgur.com/HSg3wgT

          You’ll need to uncheck both boxes under the reserved network section

          Reply
          1. John avatar
            John

            No worries. I do have a TrueNAS box setup and have a bunch of machines SMB’d into the IP address I had (10.1.1.X), so would really like to retain that internal LAN IP if possible so that I don’t have to spend ages changing things over.

          2. Aaron avatar
            Aaron

            that should be fine, just match the pfsense LAN IP setup to your current one, i cant image there would be much else to change

  2. Michael Younge avatar
    Michael Younge

    Hi great job.Followed the instruction worked perfectly. Only had the VM fibre installed on the 18th January.The only issue i have at the moment is that i am only receiving 92mbs download against 373 on the VM router.have i done something wrong. (To be honest is not a problem at the moment as i was only getting 20mbs from sky broadband)
    I would like kno know were i may have gone wrong, any ideas?

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      Are you testing Wired and not wireless? also what router are you using?

      Reply
      1. Michael Younge avatar
        Michael Younge

        Thanks for replying.

        Router is Pfsense wired receiving maximum 380mbps wireless 80+. Sorry i was only testing on my iphone. This seems good ??

        Reply
        1. Aaron avatar
          Aaron

          Yeah that seem good wireless is always going to get less or all depends on your wireless equipment, which package are you with with VM? your pfsense could be throttled if the cpu is maxing out best to check this during a heavy download

          Reply
  3. John avatar
    John

    Hey bud

    Have you managed to set up port forwarding via this method yet?

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      You don’t need to with the IP in the DMZ you will just need to configure your router for port forwarding

      Reply
  4. Charles avatar
    Charles

    Hi having a but of a problem setting this with the Deco XE75Pro
    Not convinced I got the setting static right and still getting some double NAT issues. Any advice please?
    Specifically should I set
    1. Operation mode as wifi router / access point?
    2. Where do I set the static WAN IP, I set it but get2 shown in virgin .9/42 Nit sure if it’s referred to as Internet connection?

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      this is double nat so you cant get around this, operation mode should be router and if dhcp is enable on the WAN Interface you should disable it and just set the IP to .9

      Reply
      1. Charles avatar
        Charles

        Thanks Aaron. Didn’t have DHCP disabled.

        So the above process doesn’t stop double NAT?
        Websites like nod vpn / bbc via https and stettings error complaining of hops.

        Reply
  5. Tom avatar
    Tom

    Hi, thanks for this. I’m in a house very recently cabled for Virgin Media and have been on the fence about becoming a customer until I read this guide. Can you confirm that the 10gbps speed would work on the Hub? I note that in your Reddit post about this workaround you said to connect to one of the 1gbps rj45 ports.

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      if you following this guide the 10Gb will work, the 1Gb port only work when your doing the modem mode hack around which i dont recommend

      Reply
  6. Charles avatar
    Charles

    I have wifi 2.5/5 and 6 on same sid.

    I don’t seem to get nat issues on wired or WiFi except when my phone jumps to WiFi 6e and then some sites fail to load complaining of double nat

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      Is it the next which will only allow you to change the last digit of the IP or do you mean the Hub5x? You need to plug the wan port of the next in to the Hub and treat that as if it was the internet connection and then DMZ the IP of the nest

      Reply
  7. RG avatar
    RG

    Hats off man! Saved my life (after I wasted 2 days) trying to connect this stupid VM Hub to my Omada setup.
    Lessons for future – don’t have default LAN network with .0.1 – ER605 router wants this IP and hence we cant modify VM Hub I had to move LAN to 100.1 network, reconfigure whatever was on static IP’s on this network and moslty its working.
    Still have problems with VLAN’s – seems they don’t communicate clearly with other networks :/

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      I should have probably mentioned you can have the same subnet on both sides

      Reply
    2. RAli avatar
      RAli

      Hi,

      I’m having issues with getting this work-around to work with my TPlink Ommada setup too. Can you please advise of the settings you used sucessfully get it all working please? Also hoe stable has the setup been since using this workaround any issues I should be weary of?

      Thanks.

      Reply
      1. Aaron avatar
        Aaron

        Hi There,

        Sorry i cant really offer any addtional advice do you have any specific question? i havent used this my self for any duration as it only works with the 1Gb port and i want to use the 10Gb to get the full 1.2Gb out of the connection.

        Reply
        1. RAli avatar
          RAli

          Hi,

          I tried the the instructions you posted on Reddit too titled: Hub 5x WORKING modem mode

          (https://www.reddit.com/r/VirginMedia/comments/1ah1boq/hub_5x_working_modem_mode/🙂

          Couple of issues I’m encountering.

          Firstly the IP addresses of both the TP link Ommada router and VM Hub5x are both 192.168.0.1. So I cannot access the VMHub via my own router as it directs me to the TPlink router when using the IP address 192.168.0.1.

          Secondly after configuring the VMHUb to modem only mode in step 4 I can no longer access the VMhub after it reboots even with it’s newly allocated IP address of 192.168.100.1.

          and connecting the VMHub to my TP link router using the Wan port on my Router and port 1 on the VMHUb the hub does not issue a public IP address to the router.

          Any assistance would be appreciated.

          Reply
          1. Aaron avatar
            Aaron

            You need to change the TP links internal subnet first and then go through the instructions also the router never flips to 192.168.100.1 and just stays on 192.168.0.1 so that why you can’t access it as you have a conflict.

  8. Lem avatar
    Lem

    Great stuff

    Kinda unrelated question, can I ask what ping/latency you’re seeing on XGS-PON? I was expecting single figures but seems worse than ADSL

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      Normally 4-10ms also it been a lot more stable since I got the upgrade to 1Gb upload

      Reply
      1. Lem avatar
        Lem

        Damn I’m nowhere near that, BQM saying around 20ms

        https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/3db9021461f408ebfd4ccdfd7597e094fe47ceef-05-04-2024

        Did you have any issues adding 1Gb upload? I’m hearing a lot of people having problems with customer service, trying to change people to 2Gb, trying to charge people £17pm extra and such rather than the £6

        Reply
  9. Barry avatar
    Barry

    I’ve just managed to set up my 3x Google Nest WiFi Pro routers using this set up. (FYI there is a typo in the initial instructions. Subnet read 255.25.255.0 instead of 255.255.255.0). Thanks for your help though. 👍

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      Your welcome and thanks for pointing out the typo

      Reply
  10. Ra avatar
    Ra

    Hi

    Is there any reason this method with affect speed?

    Got this setup running and I’m getting approx 1.1/1.2Gb to the Virgin Hub5x however a max speed of around 650Mb to hard wired device connected via my own switch. Previously had 900 – 1Gb to this hardwired device when connected directly to Virgin Hub with default settings.

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      it depends on your router, you now have to factoring the max capable preformance of your device also with being limited to the 1Gb port there are overhead which will reduce you less than the 1Gb so normally around 940Mb.

      Reply
  11. mike Younge avatar
    mike Younge

    Hi i have been using your work around since january 2024 now i am have a problems with pfsense not receiving a IP address from DMZ ip 192.168.0.9.

    I have check the setting all as your instruction.

    Reply
  12. Barry Rose avatar
    Barry Rose

    Will going through the DMZ allow VPN connection and proper gaming?

    Reply
    1. Aaron avatar
      Aaron

      I have not had any issues but I don’t play A lot of games the only online game I played recently is valorant

      Reply
      1. Barry Rose avatar
        Barry Rose

        Will the DMZ allow incoming VPN to own router?

        Reply
        1. Aaron avatar
          Aaron

          yes, in most cases it will, i host a wiregaurd VPN on my router

          Reply
  13. Mike Younge avatar
    Mike Younge

    Hi after following your steps above connecting VMHUB to WAN i am not getting the IP address of 192.168.0.9,LAN connected to switch however 1 am getting internet to the switch some how? Any idea where i am going wrong?

    Reply
  14. Aaron avatar
    Aaron

    You need to specifically set the .9 address on the untraced your using for WAN also you will need to setup a NAT masquerade rule so your LAN device can access the internet

    Reply
    1. Mike Younge avatar
      Mike Younge

      Thanks for gettiing back to me, I am on Virgin Media for my sins, I am receiving a DHCP address. I set .9 when enabling DMZ. I looks like .9 is being accepted by the HUB. I have tried a few times.

      Reply
      1. Aaron avatar
        Aaron

        I guess the key point would be to

        1. disable DHCP on the WAN Interface.
        2. Set the IP statically to 192.168.0.9 for the interface, set 192.168.0.1 as the gateway and some DNS e.g. 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1
        3. Configure NAT for the WAN Interface to masquerade the internal traffic

        Reply
  15. Oliver avatar
    Oliver

    Hi Oliver,

    thanks for sharing this workaround. I was using the Hub 5x in modem mode with the other alternative workaround (accessing to modem mode option through the navigator), however last night something happened and now that workaround doesn’t work, therefore I would like to try with your workaround.

    I’m using a Mikrotik RB5009 as main router, please could you share and screenshot of the Mikrotik menu where I need to set the WAN IP – 192.168.0.9 ?

    Reply
  16. Oliver avatar
    Oliver

    Sorry Aaron, delete my message. Solver. Many thanks.

    Reply

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