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.

[baldwins1754]

right! just spoken to a guy in the newly developed plastic ee factory and he said a firmware update got sent out last week.  he said a lot the updates although sent have got stuck and showing as errors so reset the router and power cycle the ons box. this has worked and he said that the update is now applied and no errors are now showing after checking. BTW app we all get around £30 for the hell weve endured! i laughed as he tried saying its only happended over the last few weeks, i corrected him with 7 weeks and he was at that point very quiet!

[tnj]

I think the EE person you spoke to was saying anything to keep you happy. I have seen no sign of any firmware updates for either the Pro router or extenders. I have factory reset them and the ONT and I am still on r2.64.7-R-1303938-PROD-1 for the router and newer extenders and r2.64.6-R-1303886-PROD-1 for the older.

If anyone has received a newer version of firmware I would be very interested to hear.

[ben_flugel]

Nope, no firmware here either. 

I was also told a new version was imminent but no date given. I even offered to beta test it if they did such a thing.

If £30 is true, that's rubbish. This has been happening for several weeks now. Today, for some reason, is back to being particularly bad. 

[TraderTravel]

@baldwins1754 It was not a firmware that was pushed out, but a change to the hub's wifi configuration (specifically a removal of the wifi optimisation) from EE's end that sorted the problem for pretty much most users. There are no new hub firmware versions being pushed out to end customers at this point in time. It did however require your hub to be switched on when EE was applying the fix to the wifi optimisation configuration (from what I can understand from speaking to the tech team).

I should note that I am currently testing a beta version of a possible future hub firmware version for the last few days since the wifi optimisation config change that was pushed out to most of us. So far I have no longer seen the few random DNS freezes that seemed to still sometimes persist post the wifi optimisation config change. There have also been no further dropped packets (although this more serious issue was resolved with the wifi optimisation change that was pushed through to most of us a few weeks back). It is however noting that probably 99% of customers probably would not have even noticed the still persistent DNS freezes unless you were competitive gaming, or running a test script like I was running to test for such issues. Finally I should however state that I doubt the beta version of the hub firmware that I am testing will ever get released to the wider public as it introduced a few other issues which would negatively impact more users.

If for whatever reason you are still experiencing issues, I would try and reach out to EE customer service or a EE community mod here and get them to make sure the wifi optimisation fix that was applied to most accounts has been applied correctly to your account. That should resolve those constant freezes/dropped packets.

[Barneyabz]

I don't know what the issue is, but over the last month I've had to reset my router completely three times. Each time I have a fibre connection ok (aqua light) but nothing  is working. No WiFi connections and no data through wired connections. Restarting the router doesn't help, each time it needs a full reset. I've had enough and put it in a drawer until there is a firmware update (assuming it is a software issue). This is my second smart hub pro and they've been nothing but problematic.  I've now got out my old smart hub plus from storage and it seems to be holding up ok.  Really shocking experience from EEs so called premier product.....

[Britboy4321]

Hi guys.  I am less technical.

After a few weeks of pain, a while ago I unplugged my ee router and put in my old, slower router (slow ports) which at least works! 

Can someone just tell me whether you'd recommend I can now plug in the cool new fast router and not get the issues?  Or would you suggest it remains in my cupboard unplugged for the moment?

[Britboy4321]

I should add to the above message, I was experiencing exacrly the same as the majority of posters throughout this thread .. nothing different ...?

[JimM11]

@Britboy4321 What EE Router did you have on with the issues, as it appears was not so much the Router issue wise but software related to it, so if EE where not aware and is account orientated, putting it back you should get similar as before, then a call to them to get EE to adjust account / router which ever way they did it!

[Britboy4321]

Another non-tech answer.

In September I paid top dollar for the very best router EE does, and the extra white box expansion thing they sent me as part of my 1600 setup.  I think it does something called WIFI7.  The box was such a travesty that I followed someone else's advice and simply plugged my old BT router in which seems perfect, but has slow ports.

[JimM11]

@Britboy4321 You have done right at present, dropping back to your BT Smarthub2 will be Wi-Fi 5 and 1Gb/s Ethernet ports, so lower speeds overall with the device.

As before, the EE Smarthub Pro with it's Smart wireless Pro, few gremlins in it currently but really same for all those trying to get the full Wi-Fi 7 operation smooth as butter so EE are not alone in sorting things out, but they are sure not the quickest.

If you read the post closely and i know it's now very long and very technical, but the crux off the matter is some off the features that are NOT playing very nice at all within the Router, so in your case, 1. EE had to know you specifically to address the issue, 2. The router had to be one working so they could use your supplied info and target your router direct to trim the fault/faults out as is/was suggested by EE, 3. Once they did that then it is alleged fairly good and reasonable stable operation.

All off this precludes if you did have a poor setup before ie the smart wireless was in the wrong place or if multiples off those are in use, then that issue will not be sorted out. Mesh though not rocket science does need some adjustment, it's just not a matter off plonk it here and it better work or else.

So finally if you do wish to return to using the Pro you may just have to let EE know that you are doing so especially for the better/smoother operation with no major waits getting pages loaded. HTH