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.

[spacedyemeerkat]

I don't know whether mine had temporary fixes applied yesterday but it anecdotally felt better last night. This morning, however, it's been awful so far.

[bobpullen]

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@TraderTravel wrote:

My only observation is that I still find DNS queries to feel significantly snappier running off my Raspberry Pi rather than off the hub, and I do have a little data to prove that. That said, for the majority of users I doubt that is particularly significant, and perhaps more of a factor that the Pi has a faster processor than the Hub (even if the hub processor probably should have better hardware acceleration to support the networking stack).

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Depending on the delta, this is completely expected I imagine. You're comparing DNS lookups with a machine that's literally in your house, to the hub that is querying a machine in a BT data centre somewhere.

This will definitely be the case if you're running a recursive resolver on the Pi (e.g. Unbound) however, there will probably also be benefit even if you're simply pointing to Pi to another upstream DNS server - as the caching capacity of the Pi will undoubtedly be superior to that of the hub (assuming the hub is even doing any caching).

[TraderTravel]

@bobpullen 100% agree. It was just an observation as my previous kit worked fairly quickly. My last Asus setup used DNS over TLS and it was pretty fast at DNS resolution, so I guess I am just used to that level of performance. Mind you I have to admit I am enjoying using my Pi for more than just it's present smart automation jobs with a little bit of other scripting here and there.

Regardless I am happy that the network connectivity dropouts no longer happen anymore, and my connection overall feels a lot smoother.

The changes EE Mod team have made (to wifi optimisation) appear to have resolved the issue for the time being which is a major step forward. It has not however resolved some of the other strange gremlins I have witnessed like the slow performance of ethernet when connecting an extender (via ethernet backhaul) to an Apple TV (or from other reports Apple native devices in general - i.e. not using a dongle). That however is a topic for another thread.

Still this is a major step forward and will probably pause my decision to both leave EE as well as dive into the prosumer networking marketplace again. I need less hobbies rather than more. 🙂

@spacedyemeerkat I suggest you use one of the scripts discussed in this thread to test your connection so you can confirm there is even an issue still present.

[ben_flugel]

@Alex_H 

I'm not sure if my service is one that has been changed but this morning things seem much better. I haven't had any issues as yet.

Bit concerned as the EE Guides are sending me a new Smart Hub Pro to swap out my current one. Will this put me back a step if changes have been made to my current kit?

[baldwins1754]

I have had nothing but issues with EE broadband since joining in Oct 24. EE wifi calling dropping sound and now this.

Is there any recommendations on a replacement modem/router that can be purchased with 2.5 gbps p/orts and wifi 7?

[JimM11]

@baldwins1754 Would you not consider riding the wave until EE try to get it sorted out! You have already got there cream device and any third party device can be crippled with a bad FW update, it's just one off those things! Third party will be lot better but the learning curve can be huge and you will get no EE support and only asked to put the EE Gear back on!

[spacedyemeerkat]

@TraderTravel Can confirm there's still an issue without running scripts; exactly the same issue that's been present here for the last two weeks or so, and as others have described.

@baldwins1754 I have an issue with WIFI calling dropping sound, too.

[AHarMan2]

So far both Today and Yesterday WFH I have not seen the issue re-occur but my devices are still using google DNS. Whatever changed in the last few days the problem occurred even using google dns. Also I am using  Ethernet and not wifi.

[ben_flugel]

Just a further update from earlier, I'm seeing this issue again on my devices this afternoon. I haven't swapped to the replacement hub yet. 

[rainman2871]

The Issues are still there from testing last night, so this is to the  EE engineers please rollback to a working firmware before  the last buggy firmware updates you rolled out,   so at least we can carry on with what we need to do on a day to day basis gives you Tech guys enough time to diagnose the main issues  as I spoke to Alex_H private message about the stock firmware that came with the smart hub pro unit no problems at all,  (so by rolling back firmware at least the issues we are getting at the moment with slow laggy performance the dreaded DNS issues page not displaying freezing taking a long time to load. That would help and would be a lot better to work with), so then it gives you time testing and do all the alterations on the latest firmware to  make it stable so please just roll back the firmware for now until you get a permanent solution at the moment the way things are with the firmware there is no way I'm going back to your (SMART HUB PRO permanently STICKING WITH THE 3RD PARTY ROUTER for now at least) can not chance it due to me and my wife both rely on a stable connection specially my wife who works home and uses Citrix Server for her to login into work and uses Teams for meetings, If you still need me to carry on testing later after 6pm I will temporarily switch back to Smart hub pro for 3- 4 hours evening only for testing purposes,  so to the engineers please listen a lot of your customers and me are had enough so far and a lot of us have had to pay for a 3rd party router to fix these issues to get a stable connection I understand it takes time to address the problems its just  a bit embarrassing from a major company like yours EE/BT, and I will also be asking for compensation as well for all the hassle we are all getting. Also you can ask the Guys on this forum some of them are a bit Geeky but know there stuff and I'm sure they would let you know which last stable firmware was working ok