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.

[JimM11]

@PepsiCola2 Do you have wi-fi 7 devices to hang off the new hub and extenders, and although it's nice to have 1.6Gb/s speed, hopefully you did not get suckered into mobile as well without checking that!

[Scots_Man]

I'm using the Wifi 7 kit on the 900mbps package. The DNS issue seems better, although not absolutely perfect. I still see the occasional delay in web browising. I also work from home and both Teams and Google Cloud has been flawless for me. In fact, both were flawless even during the recent troubles.

[PepsiCola2]

Only a couple wifi 7 devices but seen as I am entering a 2 year contract I reckon the future batch of phones we will be getting will be wifi7.  Most of all I need the hub extenders as the house is quite large and currently we need to use 3 extenders (6e) to get whole house coverage.

Nope not got mobile just broadband 🙂

[PepsiCola2]

That's reassuring, thanks for confirming. Just need to hear from someone on the Wifi 7 kit and 1.6gbs now 

[MikeAlanR]

After a week of stability it's started happening again for me. I've really had enough, this issue has been happening for me for over two months. Router replacement twice. Does EE actually know what is going on?

[JimM11]

@MikeAlanR If it does rear the ugly head up again, unless you call them they will not know!

[MikeAlanR]

Hi @JimM11 

Yup  just off the phone. Awaiting a call back Thursday as an escalation has now been made. To be fair to the team they have tried everything.

MikeAlanR

[bobpullen]

@MikeAlanR - what are the symptoms of your problem and what model hub are you using? This thread is primarily focussed on issues with the Smart Hub Pro since late July, yet you seem to have posted elsewhere recently about a longer suffering problem with the Smart Hub Plus? 

[MikeAlanR]

Hi @bobpullen 

Yes I've got the smart hub plus, but I am seeing devices telling me they are not connected to the internet. Primarily Sky Glass and Stream devices but also Android devices, apple devices, Alexa and Nintendo switch.

The telemetry provided by sky is that the devices are struggling to resolve DNS. I've had 2 new hubs and an engineer but still having issues. Started around the same time as the issue in this thread. It can be stable for a few days and start again.

Power cycling the router (but not the ONT) fixes for anywhere between 8 to 12 hours but then it starts again. 

Interestingly when it's playing up I cannot access the router interface. Loading page is displayed but a time out message is displayed.

MikeAlanR

[Mason1978]

So a full day with the hub running whilst at work, Zoom meetings are better but still not perfect apparently some of my mic audio misses a few seconds.

Also a couple of Wifi calls have been hit and miss today, looks like old hub is going to have to plugged back in again.

Come on EE, we are paying for a decent connection, but your Smart Hub Pro's dont seem up to the job at the moment. Nearly a month with dropouts and having to resort to old hub, which is only capable of wifi 5