1.6Gbit connection new smart hub (white, small box) sporadic issues? DNS MITM?

[allamavortex]

Hello all,

So I recently changed my service from 900mbit to 1.6Gbit and that involved a change of router and obviously the OR ONT on the wall.

Ever since having it installed there seems to be an issue with (most likely DNS issues). Whatever is loaded/playing/game continue to work, but I have spells where NO further DNS requests seem to make it through.

I totally forgot to nslookup during one of these issues, but I will the next time it happens (it's pretty frequent and annoying). I can ping 8.8.8.8 (google) whilst being unable to load any webpages on any device/browser. Thus removing the possibility of it being localised to a single machine/device as some were using the router, some were set to DNS over HTTPS and some were using Google's 8.8.8.8 etc. 

It is very much like the router is playing the MITM and intercepting the requests and then slowly, or failing to process these requests at all for a period of time which ranges up to about 45 seconds.

As I said, cached requests, or those already in process are fine, but even something as trivial as trying to watch a YT video is met with 45 seconds of nothing, totally unable to look up ANY address, but established connections and new connections not requiring DNS all work fine.

I'm not really one for conspiracies but I really feel like this new router is intercepting (MITM), attempting to do something with, and failing the DNS requests. This behaviour is only been present since getting the new Smart Hub (the tall, thing white one).

I did a quick google and it seems I'm not alone with this - is anyone else noticing this type of behavior?

Mixture of wired and wireless devices, same behaviour.

[TraderTravel]

1. As @bobpullen rightly states, 1.6gbps are probably noticing this more simply due to the fact that the new Smart Hub Pro routers are largely only going to 1.6gbps customers. I think most other customers have to pay a higher fee to receive the 'better router'.

2. The issue being experienced is not just related to DNS, but most customers experiencing issues will notice the DNS related problems first because as soon as the hub/router decides to stop working, you will most likely see a DNS error in your browser window. The issues however are well beyond just DNS, and impact all packets coming and going from the network.

3. As I have stated elsewhere on this thread, DNS performance by the Smart Hub Pro (router) seems pretty weak even during normal useage. To try and mitigate the issue, if you setup your own DHCP/DNS server, you will see significantly better performance, although when the Smart Hub Pro (router) decides it is going to take a break from normal usage, you will see packet loss or freezing, and therefore a loss of service. Setting up your own server and disabling DHCP on the Smart Hub Pro does not alleviate this issue.

Having said the above, I have setup a DHCP/DNS server on a Raspberry Pi that I own, using both 'dnsmasq' and 'unbound'. I am pointing these at Cloudflare, and I am using 'DNS over TLS' so that my DNS queries are encrypted, which in 2025 really ought to be the standard. In my experience, Cloudflare is generally both extremely fast and reliable.

My dnsmasq.conf looks like this (truncated version below):

domain-needed
bogus-priv
no-resolv
dnssec
dnssec-check-unsigned
interface=eth0
interface=wg0
listen-address=192.168.1.254,fd78:4c15:7f9d::1,10.0.0.1,fd00:10::1
dhcp-range=192.168.1.10,192.168.1.200,255.255.255.0,12h
dhcp-option=3,192.168.1.254 # Default gateway
dhcp-option=6,192.168.1.1 # DNS server (dnsmasq itself)
enable-ra
dhcp-range=::,constructor:eth0,ra-only
dhcp-option=option6:dns-server,[fd78:4c15:7f9d::1]
ra-param=eth0,10,300

My unbound config looks like this (for forwarding config file):

server:
interface: 127.0.0.1
interface: ::1
port: 8053
chroot: ""
tls-cert-bundle: "/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt"

# Optional hardening
auto-trust-anchor-file: "/var/lib/unbound/root.key"
harden-glue: yes
harden-dnssec-stripped: yes
qname-minimisation: yes
prefetch: yes
cache-min-ttl: 3600
cache-max-ttl: 86400

forward-zone:
name: "."
forward-tls-upstream: yes
forward-addr: 1.1.1.1@853#cloudflare-dns.com
forward-addr: 1.0.0.1@853#cloudflare-dns.com
forward-addr: 2606:4700:4700::1111@853#cloudflare-dns.com
forward-addr: 2606:4700:4700::1001@853#cloudflare-dns.com

4. There are a number of other issues I have noticed with the current latest firmware versions for both the router (Smart Hub Pro) and extender (Smart Wifi Pro). These include:

a. Apple TVs connected via the Smart Wifi Pro using ethernet seem to experience slowdowns (limited to 100-160mbits rather than expect 1gbps). I have a separate thread discussing this issue, and other users seem to have reported the same as me, but suggest this issue also impacts other Apple devices connected to the extender (Smart Wifi Pro) using ethernet. I should state however that ALL my Smart Wifi Pros are connected to the main hub via ethernet (i.e. I use ethernet for backhaul).

b. I have also noticed that if you make a lot of configuration changes to the Smart Hub Pro (router) in quick succession, the hub does tend to throw a wobbly and stop responding. Only a full power off and restart resolves this issue.

c. If you have the 2.4ghz network switched off for your main network, you are unable to change the 2.4ghz network for the 'compatible wifi' network. The workaround for this is to leave the 2.4 network on, change the channel to the desired channel, and then switch it off. Mind you, if you select channel 1, expect it to move to channel 6 upon the next reboot, so clearly there is an issue here. In my case I was just trying to avoid channel 11 (as this includes channel 13 which can be problematic for some IoT devices.

5. As an overall comment, I don't know exactly when the latest firmwares (r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1) & (r2.64.6-R-1303886-PROD-1) for both the Smart Hub Pro and Smart Wifi Pro respectively were put out, but it does appear that there has only been very limited testing which is surprising for a large ISP like EE. Whilst the population of these new routers and extenders might be limited, they have been around for just under a year, so we really should not be treated like 'alpha' or 'beta' testers. 🙂

[bobpullen]

Thanks @TraderTravel, useful clarification 🙂

Might be an idea to keep the observations under point (4) to their own repective threads mind you, so things here don't get confused? The 2.4GHz channel fixing issue has been observed elsewhere BTW e.g. here.

[rainman2871]

Hi Britboy4321

Thanks for the info yes I'm also  Prime amazon customer been with them for years since the prime service started always buying and getting delivery's weekly but I have sent items back to them due to faulty or damage goods and sometimes sent a few items back due to not needing it in the end , but good to know this anyway they have been good to me if delivery's are late or don't turn up they all ways send me a £5 gift voucher to my account to use 

Rainman287

[rainman2871]

Hi Mate

When I spoke to Andy from EE tech support yesterday he has the 900GB Package with EE using the same Router smart Hub Pro and he states he has never had the same issues we are experiencing on the 1.6gb service I agree the firmware is at fault but they need to investigate it further and test longer before they release stable version firmware, He is sending another replacement router I know that will be ok probably for the first day until the firmware gets pushed out remotely, He did mention once I return my old hub pro they will send it to the relevant team who deals in the software /programming /Hardware he  mentioned they will take it apart and diagnose, the tech Guy is phoning me back to get an update on any issues with new router I will take a snapshot of settings including the stock firmware before it upgrades. but he did mention that we need more customers to support this he also mentioned a lot customers would just ignore the errors and try again next day so really the more customers that contact EE about the same issues the outlook would be better for a fix  I also sent him this forum website so he can see for himself customers complaining.  The EE tech guy has sent this to the  team who deals with this type of issues for them to read , The better option is to rollback to more older stable firmware and then stop updates until they find what's causing the problem for customers on the 1.6gb service.

[Scots_Man]

Hi all,

I'm currently on the 900mbps package and bought the wifi 7 router off ebay just for the wifi benefits as it seemed an easy and cheap way to get a wifi7 mesh. I'm here out of frustration as I'm also suffering from the constant pauses when trying to load webpages. 

I can confirm this issue is not related to the 1.6G vs 900M package, but instead appears to be a router issue. 

Just to add, I'm also finding that wifi calling on my mobile is no longer reliable when connected to the EE router via wifi. 

[tnj]

Similar to what I have found.

My Smart Hub Pro delivered in December but finally installed in May had version r2.64.6-R-1303886-PROD-1 on arrival and updated to r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1 once it was online.

My extender Smart WiFi Pro delivered in December came with  r2.64.6-R-1303886-PROD-1 installed and has never updated. A newer extender Smart WiFi Pro delivered in June came with r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1 installed and I cannot see any difference between them.

The Smart Hub Pro WiFi is unusable for around 80 IoT devices and I have been using my old BT SmartHub2 with BT black discs connected to the Smart Hub Pro as a 2.4G wireless mesh.

I have been running a dnsmasq derivative DHCP and DNS for the past week which has improved service slightly.

Tests using Think Broadbands speed test were getting around 400Mb/s on a single stream and near 1600Mb/s on multiple for download on the Smart Hub Pro. The EE app test always gave around 1600Mb/s to the router and not far short to my mobile phone.

Today being sick of all the stutters and waits accessing the Internet I decided to swap the BT and EE routers and kept the separate DCHP/DNS server. This got rid of all of the stutters and waits and the performance changed. On the BT router connected directly to the ONC I was getting around 960Mb/s for both the single and multiple stream downloads. I've lost near half the peak bandwidth but the performance has massively improved.

I tried various WiFi configurations with the EE router thinking if it was only acting as a WiFi access it may work a little better but no change.

So my dilemma now is do I wait for the EE firmware updates that will fix the issues or do I go and buy a third party router and mesh system?

[rainman2871]

Hi Mate

Yes we know its the Router issue caused by faulty firmware software hopefully soon they will bring out a new firmware to fix all these issues

[rainman2871]

 Buy a third party router thats the best choice I ordered mine from amazon will have to wait until my wife finishes work then I disconnect EE HUB PRO and install new router.

This is Router I just Brought

TP-Link Archer BE550 Tri-Band BE9300 WiFi 7 Router, 6-Stream 9.2Gbps Speed WiFi Router, Full 5x 2.5G WAN/LAN Ports, 6x Internal Antennas Covers Up to 2,000 Sq. Ft., VPN Support, Homeshield

[bobpullen]

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@rainman2871 wrote:

Yes we know its the Router issue caused by faulty firmware software hopefully soon they will bring out a new firmware to fix all these issues

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Can this be said for certain? The Pro firmware hasn't been updated for months yet the intermittent 'stalling' seems to be a recent thing 🤔

[rainman2871]

I think the higher tech team know about all these issues with the smart hub pro , and at the moment they haven't got solution to fix or they are  testing it more in-depth before they release new firmware who knows I'm guessing this will take some time to fix,  I'm going to install my new  3rd party router at the weekend and see where I go from there.