Business Smart Hub 3, 1 Static IP, Server, Hybrid Connect problem

[satsig]

3 weeks ago we upgraded from Wired and BTBHub 6 to Full Fibre FTTX 3  and Business Smart Hub 3.

 Works well on FTTX (Internet access good and server traffic down/up good), but during tests of the Hybrid Connect internet access is good but no incoming traffic to the server. The public Static IP address moves across as expected and a remote trace route gets to our public IP address.  Any ideas why no incoming traffic to the server during these "Resilience events".  We've lost a total of more than 90 minutes service over last 3 weeks testing and waiting for the 15min timeouts and don't want to do more tests without some good ideas of what needs fixing. Please help.

[BethM]

Hi satsig

Is it just this one server that isn't working?

[satsig]

There is one Firewall PC on 198.168.1.94, wired to one physical server at 192.168.2.90.

Multiple virtual web sites on the server are all working well during normal FFTX operation. All web sites have their DNS pointed at our static public IP address.

The problem is during Hybrid Connect failover during which traffic to/from the server fails. During failover, the Hub manager showed our (correct) public IP address and a remote traceroute to our public IP address worked OK. Access to the internet by any local PC was good.

BT Business Smart Hub 3 has local static IP .94 with same to same port forwarding rules 22, 80, 123, 443, 4444.

*** All worked well with the old wired BT Business Smart Hub 6 Type A + 4G Assure backup. ***

Good ideas as to what might be wrong would be appreciated. I wish to avoid trial and error attempts, based on pure guesswork, each of which will involve a long 15 minute outage?

[BethM]

Hi satsig

I am querying this with the technical team and will come back to you once I have a response.

[BethM]

Hi satsig

As it is regarding non-BT maintained equipment, we can not help with in-depth diagnosis. If you want to continue their trial error testing but not wait the 15 mins for the fixed line connection to come back after a resilience event you can reboot the hub with the fixed line connected which only takes a couple of mins and will kick the hub straight back in to fixed line mode.

The 15 mins timeout is there so that in the even of a real fixed line failure the hub will wait to make sure that any fix on the line is stable before failing back from the 4G connection to avoid a scenario where the hub switches back to the fixed line and the connection goes down again.

[satsig]

I have reluctantly continued with tests to hopefully eventually find the reason why the Hybrid Connect blocks incoming server traffic when in resilience mode.

My first step, before starting to investigate the Hybrid Connect, is to check that the normal FTTX is working as expected: Internet access is good and incoming and outgoing server traffic seems normal.

But anomalies noted:
. Hub shows ZERO bytes being recorded against local Static IP addresses. (probably just a 'feature', and not a problem).
. Using the BT tool at https://lg.bt.net/cgi-bin/welcome I have been unable to ping or tracert to our public IP address (from Austria). My BT Business Smart Hub 3 firewall configuration definitely has Incoming Ping set to ON.
I have power cycled the Hub (4 minute traffic outage) with no change in the before/after test results. The Hub config is unchanged, except it now has a new IPv4 IP gateway address.
I also tried a web remote ping facility with multiple origins and it failed from all 8 countries tested.

If I use the BT hub itself at Advanced, System, Ping, then Ping works well to public IP or domain name.

I am a bit concerned about the ping and tracert failures.

Can you please try ping and tracert from your end to our public IP address 81.130.171.187 or to one of my websites such as roycarnon.art and tell me here what happens. If the tests fail please try to resolve. Thanks.

[satsig · Accepted solution]

Today I logged in to our BT account and spoke with an engineer.   He was most helpful and clearly explained how BT HUb3 and Hybrid Connect worked.  There was nothing actually wrong at all. It was me expecting more than what the Hybrid Connect  is designed to provide. The Hybrid Connect does work well and provides continuity of the broadband internet access and we get good access to the internet and Cloud Voice phone during simulations of fibre outage.