Virgin Routers - Visible devices

Muzzzzy

Newbie
Recently my daughter had cause to ring virgin regarding a problem with her internet. During the conversation the tech support proceeded to name each and every device her modem was connected to which I thought was a bit intrusive.
Personally I run my modem in cable modem only and use a tomato router to run my network. Does anyone know if this prevents all my devices ( except my router) being visible to Virgin?
 
There does seem to be a few posts of people also been told of what they are running and to rename devices if using sat or cable boxes.
 
sure does sound like it, I'd maybe head over to twitter and ask them about why the devices were mentioned etc. I find that social media works wonders when it comes to complaints etc. along with all this GDPR that's going on listing them and reading them sure sounds a bit intrusive.......As for as your devices being connected to the router that has tomato running they should only see that your router is in modem mode, all your devices that are behind tomato will be safe from prying eyes. after all you have to log into the router your self to see them....

On a side note, I ditched "Tomato" and went for merlin as tomato for what ever reason couldn't keep up with the WAN speed of my modem, so after rigorous testing it all came down to the firmware for loss of speeds, I'd never had thought it like as been an avid user of "Tomato" but the good thing about "Merlin" is that it's a lot easier to use, you can set up VPN's for any device on your network to use, so for example I have my mag254 going through a VPN and it will be killed if the vpn drops so no network traffic will be allowed to it, all my other devices running as normal, (you could do this with tomato using a simple script but GUI is easier)I think that's how they block the football using "deep packet inspection" you can check what data is being sent using wireshark, you can see that within packets there's information that reveals certain things about your connections, using a VPN then scrambles all this.....but anyway, that's me blabbering on..so yeah I have the 200 meg connection and have all ways been getting around about 160ish etc. turns out that it was "Tomato" for what ever reason, can't have been the processor etc. as running "merlin" is sweet on my own router.....

:)
 
Last edited:
sure does sound like it, I'd maybe head over to twitter and ask them about why the devices were mentioned etc. I find that social media works wonders when it comes to complaints etc. along with all this GDPR that's going on listing them and reading them sure sounds a bit intrusive.......As for as your devices being connected to the router that has tomato running they should only see that your router is in modem mode, all your devices that are behind tomato will be safe from prying eyes. after all you have to log into the router your self to see them....

On a side note, I ditched "Tomato" and went for merlin as tomato for what ever reason couldn't keep up with the WAN speed of my modem, so after rigorous testing it all came down to the firmware for loss of speeds, I'd never had thought it like as been an avid user of "Tomato" but the good thing about "Merlin" is that it's a lot easier to use, you can set up VPN's for any device on your network to use, so for example I have my mag254 going through a VPN and it will be killed if the vpn drops so no network traffic will be allowed to it, all my other devices running as normal, (you could do this with tomato using a simple script but GUI is easier)I think that's how they block the football using "deep packet inspection" you can check what data is being sent using wireshark, you can see that within packets there's information that reveals certain things about your connections, using a VPN then scrambles all this.....but anyway, that's me blabbering on..so yeah I have the 200 meg connection and have all ways been getting around about 160ish etc. turns out that it was "Tomato" for what ever reason, can't have been the processor etc. as running "merlin" is sweet on my own router.....

:)
Cheers for the extra info.... I was wondering if I shouldn't be looking for a better firmware option as my router does seem to suffer a few hiccups here and there. I also route certain devices through VPN so sounds like a good option I will look in to.
 
They can 'see' hundreds of thousands of zgemma's, Mutant's, Firesticks and Mag boxes connected to their routers, but there's nothing they can do as none of them are illegal to use on Virgin's network, as FTA receivers, obviously
And there's masses of streamed content which is perfectly legal too, so renaming devices and hiding behind firewalls, VPn's and such likes is a waste of time and effort in my opinion
 
They can 'see' hundreds of thousands of zgemma's, Mutant's, Firesticks and Mag boxes connected to their routers, but there's nothing they can do as none of them are illegal to use on Virgin's network, as FTA receivers, obviously
And there's masses of streamed content which is perfectly legal too, so renaming devices and hiding behind firewalls, VPn's and such likes is a waste of time and effort in my opinion
Just a bit disconcerting how much info they have access to. Prefer to have my own router anyway so no effort....think mines quite old now as I have had it a few years.
 
I use VM broadband [no TV or phone]----got fed up with their phone calls and mail shots on my PC so installed anti-tracking and VPN---I also use an outside of europe e-mail to contact them or for them to contact me. It all seems to work but, does it? I have a niggling doubt so now turned hub to modem mode and installed a linksy router. Will that beat VM? Somehow I doubt it. Where there's a means, there's always a way.
Reaper.
 
I noticed that with supercack 3, that names of devices aka Hostname would still pop up on the router page, when we'd just moved and not time to put my Asus in.
If not in modem mode, you have to change the name on the hub webpage itself, as when i did via Z..........a, it still showed til webpage names were changed.
But i have since been able to put my Dark knight back in, modem mode only on supercack and all is well, or is it? lol
I run tomato on mine also, and was an interesting read about speeds, someone was mentioning, and may read up on Merlin and see if available for my dark knight.
Best wishes
 
If you are using vpn properly with a decent protocol such as openvpn and say 128 bit aes encryption, it will take the most powerful computer (~ 100 petaflop) approximately 8000 times the age of the universe to crack it by brute force currently. This is why people like Snowden recommend vpn, and why certain countries want to ban or control vpn providers.

But aes is going to become more vulnerable, assuming other tricks are not introduced when the time comes, when quantum computers become useful, which is forecast to happen in around 10 years time.
 
I run tomato on mine also, and was an interesting read about speeds, someone was mentioning, and may read up on Merlin and see if available for my dark knight.
Best wishes

I'm using one and I went for this version of Merlin, ASUS RT-N66U AsusWrt-Merlin Firmware 380.70 strange as I say about the WAN speed, but it is very true as it was the last thing in the chain that got tested and I was like NO WAY! lol bloody Tomato!

We touched on vpn's in another thread and it was quite interesting about what people think or don't think about using VPN's, if you have a spare day you can read about it HERE :P
 
Your ISP has full control of the router they supply you the same way they can see every HTTP (not HTTPS) website you visit.

You can't get around them monitoring you without using a VPN but you can avoid them having control of your router by putting it in modem mode and buying a separate router which will probably be better anyway.
 
You can't get around them monitoring you without using a VPN but you can avoid them having control of your router by putting it in modem mode and buying a separate router which will probably be better anyway.

Actually you do not need to put the isp router in modem mode*. All you need to do is to have your own router (running vpn as a client to a vpn provider) connected to one of the ethernet ports of the isp router - when you do that, all the isp router sees is your vpn router but none of the devices connected to that router. You can easily test this by looking up the "attached devices" list on your isp router - none of devices (identifiable by their mac addresses if not names) connected to the vpn router will be visible.

The advantage of not putting the isp router on modem mode, is that you can still use its wifi service for devices that do not need vpn, i.e. load sharing.

This is also related to the reason why you can bypass the device number limitation imposed by many vpn providers if you run their vpn client on a router (as opposed to individual devices).

* unless you are using certain routers provided by virmin as the isp, but that is out of necessity for a different reason
 
Actually you do not need to put the isp router in modem mode*. All you need to do is to have your own router (running vpn as a client to a vpn provider) connected to one of the ethernet ports of the isp router - when you do that, all the isp router sees is your vpn router but none of the devices connected to that router. You can easily test this by looking up the "attached devices" list on your isp router - none of devices (identifiable by their mac addresses if not names) connected to the vpn router will be visible.

The advantage of not putting the isp router on modem mode, is that you can still use its wifi service for devices that do not need vpn, i.e. load sharing.

This is also related to the reason why you can bypass the device number limitation imposed by many vpn providers if you run their vpn client on a router (as opposed to individual devices).

* unless you are using certain routers provided by virmin as the isp, but that is out of necessity for a different reason

Ah yes I forgot about running a local VPN.
 
I'm using one and I went for this version of Merlin, ASUS RT-N66U AsusWrt-Merlin Firmware 380.70 strange as I say about the WAN speed, but it is very true as it was the last thing in the chain that got tested and I was like NO WAY! lol bloody Tomato!

We touched on vpn's in another thread and it was quite interesting about what people think or don't think about using VPN's, if you have a spare day you can read about it HERE :LOL:

All good, Now Merlin installed, Using 380.70 :)

20180604_132003.jpg Image1.jpg
 
Back
Top