Netgear WNDR3700v4 does not recognise Virgin Media Hub 3.0 modem

Installing and Using OpenWrt
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Help! After flashing my Netgear WNDR3700v4 with OpenWRT last night, I cannot connect to the internet via the connected modem. The modem is a Virgin Media Hub 3.0 in modem mode. Under the hood the Virgin device is an Arris Touchstone TG2492LG-VM Cable Voice Gateway.

Everything was working fine with the Netgear firmware, but after installing OpenWRT the Netgear router does not seem to recognise the modem. The ping test fails in Network->Diagnostics complaining that openwrt.org cannot be reached. The IP4 and IP6 WAN ports are both set to DHCP mode in OpenWRT (which I have not changed). The original Netgear firmware found the modem no problem. Any advice on why OpenWRT firmware does not?

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Stating the obvious but did you remember to shut down and reboot the Hub 3 modem, because any change in WAN MAC address will prevent new router from connecting to VM broadband with Hub in 'modem' bridge mode?

fwiw, Virgin doesn't support IPv6 so you may as well delete the WAN6 interface.

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by default Netgear use 192.168.0.1 as gateway, openwrt use 192.168.1.1, I don't know if your modem use 192.168.1.1, if so change the openwrt router lan address.

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@bill888 I did reboot the Virgin hub in an attempt to get things working and then powered on the Netgear afterwards. Thanks for the tip on WAN6.

Once the Virgin Hub is in modem mode, it's IP changes to 192.168.100.1, so will not conflict with OpenWRT on 192.168.1.1.
Obviously, I could not connect to the Virgin Hub on 192.168.100.1 as the comms between OpenWRT and the Virgin Hub was not working. When I was using the Netgear firmware, the Virgin Hub was accessible on 192.168.100.1

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Once the Virgin Hub is in modem mode, it's IP changes to 192.168.100.1, so will not conflict with OpenWRT on 192.168.1.1.
Obviously, I could not connect to the Virgin Hub on 192.168.100.1 as the comms between OpenWRT and the Virgin Hub was not working. When I was using the Netgear firmware, the Virgin Hub was accessible on 192.168.100.1

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Have you tried switching the Hub back to router mode and then to modem mode? Either that or turn it off for at least several minutes before trying again.

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just a side note, can you try to use a static lan IP address on your router 192.168.100.2, disable dhcp for lan and use a lan port on the router switch?

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I had to switch it back to router mode to get internet access so I could work today!! Will try switching back to modem mode + Netgear router this evening. Will also disable the WAN6 interface - that may be also adding to the problem

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Not sure what you mean by this. As far as the OpenWRT docs say, the range of the router should not be the same as the modem. The modem is on 192.168.100.1 and the router is using the range 192.168.1.x

Certainly I could configure WAN4 to use a static IP rather than DHCP. Surely that would be 192.168.100.1 rather than 192.168.100.2???

I definitely want my LAN to get DHCP from OpenWRT router as part of my objective is to implement Pi-Hole once the basics are in place.

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I'm talking about dump ap.
are you sure you can use dhcp on the wan if you set modem mode on the provider device?

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It won't be, mine works fine with it enabled. It just sits there doing nothing as there's no IPv6 support.

That won't work if the hub is in modem mode.

1 Like
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So DHCP on the WAN works? So why is it not working as that is what I had?

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No, I have no idea. Hence my post in this forum. TBH I don't see how else it would work, but I don't know for certain.

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Yes, if your hub is in modem mode then you should be using DHCP on the WAN interface in OpenWRT.

As for why it wasn't working for you, my understanding is when the Hub is in modem mode it will connect to the first device it finds, recording the MAC address for that device, and then refuses connections to any other devices. Basically you can only have one device directly connected.

I'd guess that when you tried to connect again after flashing to OpenWRT the Hub still had the MAC address for the netgear firmware stored so refused to connect. Hopefully going to router mode and back to modem mode will clear that. If not then unplugging it for several minutes should do the job.

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Ah, if it Virgin hub records the mac address, then that may be my problem. Restarting both devices, as I did, will not help. I need to put the Virgin hub into router mode then flick back to modem mode and connect my Netgear router. Will do that tonight. Of course, I had to put the Virgin hub in router mode so I could get some internet today. I have a proper job I am supposed to be doing during the day...

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You were exactly right. I powered up the Netgear while not connected to anything, went to the Virgin hub UI and changed it to modem mode. When I clicked the apply, I unplugged network switch and plugged it into the Netgear router and then of course connected the WAN port on the Netgear to the Virgin hub. When the hub came up, it was all working. The default OpenWRT settings worked out of the box. Just needed to reset the Virgin Hub. Now I have a proper use for my short yellow network cable again. Thanks Phil @krazeh and everyone for all for your help

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Please mark as solved.

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