topic Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks in Broadband

DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 10:57:06 GMT

Fibre 150

Every few weeks (sometimes days) our broadband dies. Luckily the first time it did this whilst my wife was connected to a VPN and her broadband was just fine but mine didn't as I was connected directly. I figured that broadband was connected but DNS wasn't working.

I jumped into internet settings | advanced settings | internet connectivity

Then set Manually Specify DNS and

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

(Google DNS servers)

And then it starts working again

A few weeks later it will break again.

Reset the settings to Obtain DNS Automatically

And it starts working again.

It is fixable but a right pain.

It strikes me that there might be some kind of DHCP overrun problem here, a buffer or log file getting too large and it failing. (Note if you swap to Google then back again it fixes the problem as well, it's just that you need to change and save the settings on that page to get it working again (instantly - with no restart).

TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub
version SG4K10002816t

Does anybody else get this, or is there an updated firmware to the above which might sort it out, or is there some logging that I need to turn off.

Thanks,

Gez

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 12:06:42 GMT

Hello,

I'm sorry to hear this. Can I just confirm, do any of the lights change on the router or Openreach modem when this happens? Does this happen on both wired and wireless devices?

Thanks

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:18:03 GMT

Weird one isn't it! re. lights I honestly can't remember, but I will check next time it happens and post here.

Applies to wifi and wired.

And some things just keep running throughout - my wife's VPN and if I'm listening to some streamed audio that keeps going too. But email send/receive drops out and browsers report unable to find any sites so I really do think is just the DNS side of things that drops. And as I said when I change the DHCP DNS server it fixes it instantly - no need for restart of any components.

I do have it set to 192.168.0.1 not 192.168.1.1 (else my old NAS drive gets very upset, well, it gets lost 😞 )

Next time it happens I'll look at lights and anything else I can find and post back here!

Cheers, Gez

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 06:29:26 GMT

Hi websanity

Can I just check, have you added the correct landline number to your Community Profile? (please don't post the number on this thread)

Thanks

Debbie

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:38:13 GMT

Hi Debbie, yes, that's the correct number. I saw a few calls from TalkTalk and thought they were spam so ignored them. Sorry - didn't realise you might try to call :-(. I'll pick up next time I see a TalkTalk number - no more DNS issues since I posted, but it does seem to be a timespan of a week or two between occurrences.

Cheers,

Gerald

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:48:01 GMT

Hi Gerald

Do you have a FTTC or FTTP connection?

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:56:16 GMT

Hi,

It's not future fibre for sure. FTTC I don't know, sorry.

The package is "Fibre 150"; we are an ex-Virgin Media customer with cable infrastructure but I don't think the engineer used any of that (engineer had to reconnect line in road to get working) fitted box on wall with integrated filter, ZT Link modem (G.fast MT992 if that means anything to you).

Does that help? I can grab you any details from router admin etc. if you need them.

Cheers,

Gerald

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:01:09 GMT

Hi Gerald

Thanks for your reply. It's because I can't locate any details using your telephone number.

Could you add your TalkTalk account number to the Private Notes section of your Community Profile?

Thanks

Debbie

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:06:53 GMT

Sorry I had the original TT number in there but our old number got ported across over that so I have updated that and put the account ID in the "personal notes" section. Hopefully you can find us now.

Cheers,

Gerald

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:13:55 GMT

Hi Gerald

Thank you 🙂 Found it, It's a G.fast connection.

Would you like me to make a change to the router firmware or would you prefer to monitor the connection for a bit longer?

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:18:37 GMT

Thanks, now I know what we have 🙂

Any chance you could put in diary to update firmware tomorrow (or do they update overnight) - busy day working from home on a Monday and don't want to have a dropout if it can be avoided. Thanks for your help with this.

Cheers,

Gerald

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:28:02 GMT

Hi Gerald

Would it be ok if I did the update tomorrow morning 06:30?

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:31:52 GMT

That would be perfect - thank you!

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:35:33 GMT

Hi Gerald

No problem 🙂

Please can you leave the router powered up.

If you do notice that you lose connection around this time please don't reboot the router.

I will post back here to confirm once the FW update has been fully completed.

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:38:13 GMT

Will do. Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this weirdness for us.

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 08:41:06 GMT

Hi Gerald

No problem. FW version 2816 did have a reported issue with DNS but this wasn't affecting all customers.

The new FW resolved this issue so this is the FW I will pushing to the router.

Hope this helps.

Debbie

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 05:43:36 GMT

Good Morning Gerald

The router firmware has now been updated 🙂

Please let us know how the connection compares.

Thanks

Debbie

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 09:05:06 GMT

Morning Debbie,

Thanks for doing that for us.

Initial tests:

Wired connection running very nicely (perhaps a little faster than before)

2.4GHz running as it does

5GHz basically not working. Kept stalling, e.g. wait 15 seconds for an image to download. Tried repeatedly for 30 minutes. Would load 4 pages fine, then nothing. Reset all devices, set all wifi channels to auto in case it needed to get a fresh set after new firmware etc. etc.

No change.

Couldn't even run a speed test on 5GHz - wouldn't load the initial page (from Which?)

Restarted the gateway and then it seemed to improve a lot.

Maybe that's a consequence of new firmware?

Current status: A speed test on 5GHz now works and reports good numbers but using wifi on 5GHz feels very "laggy" compared to before (I can see BBC/Amazon website images lazy loading which we didn't use to see; you click links, think they haven't worked because of lack of response, then click them again, on occasions clicking on a link just hangs).

I'll try resetting and more tests after work - I hope we haven't swapped an occasional DNS problem for poor general 5GHz performance (which would be bizarre!)

I'll report back later when I get a chance, hopefully it will settle during the day. Fingers cross 🙂

Thanks,

Gerald

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

Debbie-TalkTalk — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 09:06:56 GMT

Hi Gerald

Have you also tried a factory reset on the router (pin hole reset for ten seconds)

Re: DNS service seems to die every few weeks

websanity — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 09:10:09 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion, I will add that of the list of things to try after work!