BT TV Box Pro flooding the local network with packets

[PsychicSquirrel]

Recently I started to experience poor LAN performance and after a lot of analysis discovered the BT TV Box Pro was generating a huge amount of Broadcast Packets and flooding the LAN.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues and how do I solve it?

[TimCurtis]

@PsychicSquirrel 

Are you using a BT SmartHub or another modem/router.

How are you connected to the router, wifi or powerline or ethernet?

Do you have any switches in the network & if so what make.

I ask these questions because any IP traffic to the Pro box or any other BT Youview box is by multicast and if the wrong equipment is in use then the whole network gets flooded.

[PsychicSquirrel]

Hi and thanks for the reply.

The traffic is coming FROM the BT TV Box Pro.

Router: TP-Link Archer AX11000
Switches: TP-Link TL-SG108S and TL-SG1016D

When I started to investigate this I removed all of the switches and had just what was connected directly to the router which I brought online one by one. As soon as the BT Box connected - Bam! Network flooded.

[TimCurtis]

@PsychicSquirrel 

Are you using the pro box in aerial or IP Mode?

[PsychicSquirrel]

IP mode 

IP for the greater selection of HD channels and synchronisation with the BT TV mini box

[PsychicSquirrel]

I've had a look with Wireshark and you're correct - the network is being flooding with Multicast packets.

My Router has IGMP support and both IGMP Proxy and Snooping are enabled and IGMP V3 which is backwards compatible it V2 and V1. Both the BT TV Boxes are connected via WiFi.

I must admit I'm very disappointed I wasn't made aware of this when I signed up for the service. I specifically asked the agent if there were any issues I should be aware of using a 3rd party router and was told no.

[garybs29]

The fact you're using your own router for the tv isn't even supported by BT so I don't know how you can be disappointed that you weren't told about it as they likely don't even know!

[PsychicSquirrel]

I specifically asked during the sign up and was told it wouldn't be a problem.

BT/EE even sell the very same router.

[TimCurtis]

@PsychicSquirrel 

Make sure your router supports IGMP  over wifi, very many don't.

You could try , as a test, reinstating the SH2 as that does support IGMP over wifi.

It's certainly not a pre-requisite that you use the BT supplied SmartHub so what you were told is correct.

[PsychicSquirrel]

It does support IGMP over WiFi. I can't use the SuperHub because of other work related  security reasons. 

What I can possibly do is configure a VLAN specifically for the BT boxes although I'll have to run cables for that so it's not going to happen immediately.