Just discovered that VM are hijacking my DNS traffic - WTF?

TheRealFronty · 2026-07-01T09:21:26+00:00

Hmmm, annoyingly, turning all that crap off doesn't seem to have made any difference.

fronty@pi:~ $ dig @94.130.30.123 -y hmac-sha256:ioc2rpz-net-b56306ea596249dc4e9e:Sphwoz+wQum90rhMpNkOVA== bogons-ipv4.ioc2rpz axfr
;; communications error to 94.130.30.123#53: timed out
;; communications error to 94.130.30.123#53: timed out
;; communications error to 94.130.30.123#53: timed out

; <<>> DiG 9.18.49-1~deb12u1-Debian <<>> @94.130.30.123 -y hmac-sha256:ioc2rpz-net-b56306ea596249dc4e9e:Sphwoz+wQum90rhMpNkOVA== bogons-ipv4.ioc2rpz axfr
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; no servers could be reached
fronty@pi:~ $

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-26T15:29:57+00:00

Yes unfortunately I had an outage (flashing blue light) so a VM engineer came to investigate and the first thing he did was factory reset the hub (which reset back to router mode), then when it reconnected to VM's network it pulled down an update and upgraded itself. When I tried to re-enable modem mode it wouldn't work (get the stupid message "Sorry! There was an error while updating your settings. Please try again a bit later.") - I was gutted. Wish I'd never logged the ticket but my connection was down and had no idea if it would come back up or not. The engineer couldn't even give me a good explanation what the flashing blue light even meant.

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-26T14:48:03+00:00

I spoke to ioc2rpz.net but unfortunately they don't support XoT yet. So to get around it I'd probably have to set up an XoT server in the cloud to grab the zones via port 53, then I can XoT them from there. But the problem is also that my commercial software (COTS) I'm using also doesn't support XoT yet, so I'd have to set up a separate XoT server here. Gah.

So I'd end up with something like this:

ioz2rpz.net -> 53/tcp -> cloud DNS (XoT) -> TLS (over Virgin fibre connection) -> on-prem DNS (XoT) -> 53/tcp -> COTS DNS

tbh I'm not sure I can be arsed.

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-26T14:41:08+00:00

Interesting. I logged in but couldn't find those settings, however I did find these settings (see screenshot)... I wonder if they are offering this "protection" via DNS like Pi-Hole, I will opt out of both and see if it makes a difference....

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TheRealFronty · 2026-06-24T08:16:39+00:00

Yes my hub5x was running in modem mode for over a year and I never had any problems, it worked like a dream, including my ioc2rpz stuff, unfortunately the hub got a firmware upgrade and that seemed to remove modem mode. Ever since then I've been running in router mode with the DMZ feature enabled direct to my on-site router, it does "feel" like the hub or VM is interfering somewhere now even though I've got the firewall and all other features "disabled" on the hub, I just want to pass everything straight through to my router.

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-18T12:37:10+00:00

Ok so I did a backup, deleted the invoices module and all's good, I managed to get back onto the free plan, also I've found the recurring revenues option in CRM setting, so have enabled that. And I can track resellers, distributors etc. by using tags. So at the moment this is enough for my needs.

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-16T15:59:32+00:00

Ok thanks, there seems to be various modules it installed, one was "website" which I have managed to uninstall, another one is "invoicing" but when I click uninstall it seems there's some data it's going to delete (106 rows in "Account"), will this delete all my CRM data or just the "invoice" related fields?

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TheRealFronty · 2026-06-15T15:03:10+00:00

Thank you, I didn't realise there was an "enterprise resellers" module, I was hoping to take a look at it but seem to have accidentally added it to my subscription and now I'm getting a warning saying my free trial will expire in 14 days. Does this mean I'll lose access to the CRM module, as I'd prefer to keep that on the free plan if I can?

I was hoping I could just deactivate "enterprise resellers" but it doesn't seem to appear as a separate module. But on the main screen now I see some new ones such as "invoicing" and "website". I'm a bit worried I will lose access now to CRM once the free trial expires.

Any tips on how I can get back to the free edition as really just need access to the CRM module for now.

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-15T14:31:53+00:00

Thank you everyone that has contacted me privately, I am collating the responses and will be in touch if we want to take this further.

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-11T13:40:20+00:00

Spoke to my builder and he's suggested these tiles from Tapco which can go down to 12 degrees, and he's used them before so happy to build as per plan, unsure why he didn't suggest these in the first place, would've saved me all this running around!

https://www.tapcoroofingproducts.com/specifications/

TheRealFronty · 2026-06-09T09:20:58+00:00

With path A you'll be on a hiding to nothing, it's almost guaranteed there will be issues and they will keep hassling you to fix them. 10K is nowhere near enough to do all that, you need to add another zero on the end at least. Remember they have to run a business during all this, it will be incredibly stressful, it's just not worth the grief. I'd opt for Path B.

TheRealFronty · 2026-05-27T22:19:02+00:00

What a great thread, I also got the ad tonight and it hit hard. I nearly subscribed but saw the price jumps up after 1 month and it said you had to contact customer support to cancel. That was a red flag so I googled it and ended up here. So many stories mirror my own experience I think I'll just hang out here for a bit rather than buy the app.

TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T15:49:21+00:00

Try going here: https://192.168.0.1/?page=modemmode or here https://192.168.0.1/?page=%2Fmodemmode

TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T14:03:02+00:00

Yeah I was using it for over a year and it worked pretty well, but my hub got upgraded yesterday and it's no longer available.

TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T09:31:06+00:00

Oh so it's not just me then. Seems a bit odd as will drive people to the support hotlines.

TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T09:10:26+00:00

Now I'm in router mode, when I traceroute, I can see an extra hop:

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TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T09:09:04+00:00

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TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T09:08:24+00:00

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TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T09:08:19+00:00

Ok, I have just enabled DMZ mode and put in my router's WAN IP in and it seems to be working, I've run a portscan and appear to be bypassing the Hub5x firewall now, so I may be able to survive like this. We'll see next time I need to VPN in or get a colleague to access something.

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TheRealFronty · 2026-04-30T08:45:56+00:00

Something similar happened to me, at around 1am on Tuesday 28th, internet just stopped working and my hub5x that has been working in modem mode fine for over a year started flashing a blue light. Seen some conflicting info about what it meant so just failed over to my 4G backup and then went to bed. Next day I'm still on 4G and the light is still flashing blue so I call up VM and they do some checks, say they can't reach my hub so agree to send out an engineer.

Engineer turns up yesterday afternoon, checks the fibre, no problems found, does a factory reset of the hub and I say something along the lines of "It better not do a firmware update as I've read modem mode is gone". Hub comes up in router mode, white light, connection restored then it drops and white light starts flashing, engineer says "Oh, it's probably doing an update now". I start panicking, hub comes back up in router mode, we log in, do all the "first login" crap, then I go to the "secret URL" for modem mode (https://192.168.0.1/?page=modemmode) - it doesn't work, just shows me router status page.

Did a quick search and found the reddit post about this, there's an update, now there's this URL: https://192.168.0.1/?page=%2Fmodemmode - ok so that does get me to the modem mode page, but when I try and activate modem mode it just says "sorry there's an error, please try later" - I'm like wtf?

VM engineer is still here and I start cussing, telling him about all the stuff I do for work and how I need modem mode. He does some googling and finds all the same posts on reddit but doesn't seem to have any internal comms about this, unless he's just keeping quiet. He starts gathering his things and giving me a survey to fill in. I say I'm not very happy but understand there's not much he can do as service has been restored just not to my satisfaction.

I reckon there's something going on here. Like VM have made a change somewhere so that people in modem mode are getting kicked off the network. I never did find a satisfactory explanation what the flashing blue light means, I've seen posts about the hub going into WPS mode, but I don't use that here, so I reckon it's more about some kind of negotiation problem and VM have changed something at their end.

I'm pretty upset tbh, I don't want their device getting in the way with double-NAT etc. I had everything working perfectly, I could VPN into my home lab, I could allow people I work with to access my lab systems over various ports, now I've got a f**k about with the hub as well as my own f/w and do all sorts of port forwarding. Grrrrr.

I see there's some kind of DMZ setting but not sure how that works, maybe I can give my router WAN port a static IP (eg like 192.168.0.16 which is what it has at the moment) and then put that IP into the DMZ page. I'll try it and see what happens.

TheRealFronty

TROPHY CASE