Vodafone Ultra Hub Firmware 17.4.b

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Vodafone Ultra Hub Firmware 17.4.b

jwq

3 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#316060 12-Sep-2024 13:07

I'm running an old Vodafone-branded Ultra Hub on HFC (Wellington region) and was seeing some network slowness and flakiness over the last several weeks. Yesterday the Ultra Hub was slow to respond while I was making changes to the LAN settings via the web interface and then subsequently stopped providing WiFi or responding to HTTP connections. I had to perform a factory reset and restoration from a saved configuration. The web interface is now advising that some settings, only visible when Advanced is selected, have been changed and I should review the Advanced settings. No further details, and the logs are very limited. I've been able to glean that the:

Ultra Hub reports firmware version 17.4.b.0380-0841007-MR1-2
One NZ Ultra Hub | Upgrade firmware page states "Published on: 5/09/2024 08:26 AM"
The firmware downloadable from that page is 17.4.b.0380-0841007-20211013063205-f8c0cc38e6b00eb1da718a7506df0cf999c8d80e

I'm guessing that the firmware hasn't been updated since 2021 and hasn't been updated remotely by One NZ and the recent "published on" date on the firmware page is unrelated to the firmware version, but I'm not sure if configuration changes have been made by remote connection to their "back-door" admin account. The quality of the network connectivity appears mostly unchanged, with several-second-long periods of high latency and/or low throughput every 10 minutes (or so). The only positive is that the web interface is responding quicker after a factory reset.

I'd be curious whether anyone else running an Ultra Hub on HFC has seen similar flakiness or problems over the last week?

Newtown

141 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 60

ID Verified

#3281488 12-Sep-2024 15:23

Something similar happened to me too. The Ultrahub just froze and stopped handing out IP addresses over DHCP. I had a spare modem, so using that for now.

Because the Ultrahub is so old, you should get in touch with VF/One and ask what replacement modems they can offer. You can also get their Superwifi modems.

I have asked for a new modem, but need to wait until the end of my term to avoid paying a break fee.

jwq

3 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3282278 15-Sep-2024 11:33

I looked at earlier saved configurations in a hex editor, the most recent dated 2024-02-02, and the headers say "BUILDVERSION=17.1.7988-2461029-20181022011356-...".

So, at some point between 2 February and 11 September, the firmware on my Ultra Hub has been upgraded to 17.4.b.0380-0841007-20211013063205. I know it wasn't me, so it must have been applied by One NZ using their remote managment back-door.

I'd contacted One NZ chat on the 12th and was told:

According to the system, there are no changes on the firmware of the ultrahub.
...
Please be advised that there is no way for One New Zealand to make changes on the devices that you have. Thank you.

On the evidence, at the very least one of those statements is factually incorrect.

I find with the 17.4.b firmware that I can't modify or delete entries in the Port Mapping and Static DHCP tables - these are the entries I was trying to change just prior to the Ultra Hub locking-up. I guess I'll have to factory reset and manually recreate the configuration in order to make the changes I want to make.

Rickles

3108 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 445

Trusted

#3282494 16-Sep-2024 09:19

@jwq ... nothing untoward here. On HFC with UltraHub in Thorndon.

Occasionally everything on PC slows but that's on Wednesday mornings (Microsoft's patch Tuesday?).

48clyde

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3285186 22-Sep-2024 16:48

I use two of these, one on HFC in Wellington and another on Farmside, both on 17.4.b.0380-0841007-MR1-2. Noticed about a week ago that some things weren't behaving as they had been. Had to do a few restarts which may or may not be related.

One reports the message about changed settings but no idea of what they are. The other doesn't. Both have port forwarding, and DHCP turned off.

The new WIFI analyser graphs look good though.

waynemcl

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3325223 28-Dec-2024 10:23

I also have one of these, running that firmware.

It was rock solid reliable for years until I reconnected to HFC after being on Fibre.

I'd appreciate any thoughts for debug.

The connection seems to drop or lag for ~30s? (I haven't figured out how often). Looking in the logs, I saw some kind of connection renew at 1800s showing an interface DOWN then UP with some IP address details which took about that long. I'll post the logs when I see another one (not many logs from the admin page).

edit: update: this one seemed to go OK, but I see a 10min renew, relates to the frequency of issue mentioned above?

12/28/2024 10:51:39 Rx Byte Check: 77442749 <> 77429671 WAN
12/28/2024 10:51:38 (EWAN) runs L3_EWANMain.check(ETH,timeout) WAN
12/28/2024 10:51:21 wan (2177): Switching to bound; server 10.0.0.100 assigned ip 27.252.xxx.yyy (leasetime 599 T1 299 T2 524) WAN
12/28/2024 10:51:21 wan (2177): Switching to renewing WAN

I'm also seeing these(below), during a Chromecast session lag (so, from device to device on the 2.4G WiFi):

12/28/2024 10:02:36 Rx Byte Check: 76678839 <> 76648257 WAN
12/28/2024 10:02:36 (EWAN) runs L3_EWANMain.check(ETH,timeout) WAN
12/28/2024 10:02:11 setting brightness to 0 System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 writing to /sys/class/leds/voip:green, trigger: none System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 applying state transition action on voip:green System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 setting message to 1111111000000011111110000000000000000000000000 System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 setting delay to 40 System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 writing to /sys/class/leds/voip:red, trigger: pattern System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 applying state transition action on voip:red System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern isActive : false, self.state 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern not deactivated with newstate 'fxs_lines_error', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern not activated with newstate 'fxs_lines_error', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern not deactivated with newstate 'fxs_line2_off', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern not activated with newstate 'fxs_line2_off', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern not deactivated with newstate 'fxs_line1_error', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:11 LED pattern not activated with newstate 'fxs_line1_error', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 setting brightness to 0 System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 writing to /sys/class/leds/voip:green, trigger: none System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 applying state transition action on voip:green System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 setting delay_off to 666 System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 setting brightness to 255 System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 setting delay_on to 1000 System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 writing to /sys/class/leds/voip:red, trigger: timer System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 applying state transition action on voip:red System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 LED pattern isActive : false, self.state 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 LED pattern not deactivated with newstate 'registration_ongoing', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:10 LED pattern not activated with newstate 'registration_ongoing', self.inactivestate 'fwupgrade_state_done' System
12/28/2024 10:02:09 setting brightness to 0 System
12/28/2024 10:02:09 writing to /sys/class/leds/voip:green, trigger: none System
12/28/2024 10:02:09 applying state transition action on voip:green System
12/28/2024 10:02:09 setting message to 1111111000000011111110000000000000000000000000 System
12/28/2024 10:02:09 setting delay to 40 System
12/28/2024 10:02:09 writing to /sys/class/leds/voip:red, trigger: pattern System

waynemcl

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3325333 28-Dec-2024 14:52

I notice there's a lot of noise in the logs from the SIP service, which is not enabled for my account. I haven't correlated that with outages, yet.

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RunningMan

9186 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4839

#3325350 28-Dec-2024 15:08

Have a look at this thread https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=318170&page_no=1#3323894

The OP in that is having similar issues with HFC and seems to have received a replacement router. Info from the OP is a bit confusing, so not 100% clear if that has fixed the problem or not.