Repeated DNS issues with Fibre broadband.

[#1]

@jphdavis I'm sorry to hear that you've been having similar issues.

I've passed this onto our products team to see if there's anything that can be done.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused

[#2]

This problem still exists. There's some issue with the router that stops it answering DNS requests properly. A reboot of the router fixes it temporarily, or setting DNS settings directly on client devices works around it.

My internet was working great for months. Now every other day this happens and the router needs a restart. This is a plea to someone at plusnet to escalate this issue.

[#3]

As far as I can tell this is down to problems with Plus Net's router, most likely firmware. I replaced their router with a decent competitor and all my problems went away.

[#4]

Hi @grahamandzara,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with the DNS settings, can you confirm which firmware your router is running? - This is usually at the bottom of your hub manager page.

Thanks.

[#5]

Sure:

Plusnet Hub One | Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.263 | Last updated 30/01/19

[#6]

Hi there @grahamandzara

Thanks for getting back to us.

I've had a look into this a little further and I've provided a potential solution in the following ticket on your account.

Let us know if you have any further issues.

[#7]

Replied in error and can't delete.

[#8]

Thanks. The new router does work somewhat better. However it is still having issues with DNS. Now a few times an hour, the issue tends to appear, last for about a minute at a time, then go away without a restart. I've seen no other issues (e.g. with directly pinging IP addresses or dropped VoIP calls).

Here's an example demonstrating the issue while it was present. Note how I can resolve google.co.uk using popular known nameservers such as 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8. But asking the plusnet router times out. I then extend the timeout to 10 seconds and it gets a partial (IPV6 only) result after 3 tries (though doesn't print out its own name - dsldevice.lan). Then I ran it again and it instantly returned the full correct result. I therefore suspect I caught it right at the end of one of the windows of errors.

C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup google.co.uk 192.168.1.254
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.254

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup google.co.uk 1.1.1.1
Server:  one.one.one.one
Address:  1.1.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    google.co.uk
Addresses:  2a00:1450:4009:81a::2003
          216.58.210.195


C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup google.co.uk 8.8.8.8
Server:  dns.google
Address:  8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    google.co.uk
Addresses:  2a00:1450:4009:819::2003
          216.58.204.35


C:\Users\Me\Desktop>ping 172.217.169.3 -n 2

Pinging 172.217.169.3 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.217.169.3: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=54
Reply from 172.217.169.3: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 172.217.169.3:
    Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 20ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 21ms

C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup -timeout=10 google.co.uk 192.168.1.254
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 10 seconds.
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.254

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 10 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 10 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 10 seconds.
Name:    google.co.uk
Address:  2a00:1450:4009:80f::2003


C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup -timeout=30 google.co.uk 1.1.1.1
Server:  one.one.one.one
Address:  1.1.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    google.co.uk
Addresses:  2a00:1450:4009:81a::2003
          216.58.210.195


C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup -timeout=30 google.co.uk 8.8.8.8
Server:  dns.google
Address:  8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    google.co.uk
Addresses:  2a00:1450:4009:80f::2003
          216.58.210.35


C:\Users\Me\Desktop>ping 172.217.169.3 -n 2

Pinging 172.217.169.3 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.217.169.3: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=54
Reply from 172.217.169.3: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 172.217.169.3:
    Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 16ms, Average = 14ms

C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup google.co.uk 192.168.1.254
Server: dsldevice.lan
Address: 192.168.1.254

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.co.uk
Addresses: 2a00:1450:4009:810::2003
216.58.206.99

EDIT:

In a subsequent error window I have now tried your own primary DNS server directly. The direct request works, but through the router takes two attempts (and is missing the IPv6 info).

C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup google.co.uk 212.159.6.9

Server:  cdns01.plus.net

Address:  212.159.6.9

 

Non-authoritative answer:

Name:    google.co.uk

Addresses:  2a00:1450:4009:81b::2003

          216.58.206.99

 

 

C:\Users\Me\Desktop>nslookup google.co.uk 192.168.1.254

DNS request timed out.

    timeout was 2 seconds.

Server:  UnKnown

Address:  192.168.1.254

 

Non-authoritative answer:

DNS request timed out.

    timeout was 2 seconds.

Name:    google.co.uk

Address:  216.58.206.99

Let me know if the router is using some other server I should test against or if there's any other useful diagnostic information I can provide.

[#9]

Hi @grahamandzara,

The reason why it is missing IPV6 is because we currently do not support it.

I would avoid pinging google or other large organisations as they tend to have traffic prioritisations which then results on inaccurate data. I would advise you to ping pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com