Broadband fails - connected but Plusnet DNS lookups don't work

[#1]

I have had a few failures where Internet connectivity appears to fail.  Checking further I see the router shows as connected and I can ping external servers vy IP address but not name.  If I switch to using alternate DNS servers, for example Google's, then the connection works fine using name resolution. has anyone else experienced this problem with Plusnet's DNS servers?

I can work around the Plus Net DNS servers on devices that let me override the DNS servers allocated by the Plusnet Hub One's DHCP server but I wondered if anyone can suggested a way forward that would work for all devices?

[#2]

Looked into this further and although TCIP connectivity is in place it appears the  Plusnet Hub One is not forwarding DNS requests, so anything that requires a name lookup fails when connecting using DHCP settings provided by Plusnet Hub One.

[#3]

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

Out of curiosity can you try manually setting our DNS servers when you next have issues to see if that has the same issue?

The addresses in question are 212.159.13.49 for the primary server and 212.159.13.50 for the secondary server

[#4]

Thanks for the suggestion Matthew. I've tried this on devices that allow you to manually set DNS servers and it works around the problem, which partially addresses the issue.  However, those devices that can only get their DNS settings via DHCP still try and use the Plusnet Hub One router to resolve names.  I can work around this by switching off DHCP on the router and using a different DHCP server.  That said, the Plusnet Hub One should be able to reliably forward DNS queries without these workarounds.

[#5]

Hi @GreyElephant would it be possible to advise a few of the devices you're having an issue with. 

[#6]

Devices I tried this with are a Dell XPS 13 laptop and Samsung As and A5 mobile phones.  The Plusnet router gives out its own IP address for DNS lookups when responding to DHCP requests but wasn't resolving DNS queries, so not a device problem but a problem with the router's name resolution. Devices work fine when router correctly forwards requests or they are reconfigured to use different DNS servers.

[#7]

Hi @GreyElephant,  thanks for the update.

We've become aware of an issue relating to the problems you're seeing. At present we don't have a timescale on a fix or workaround but have found that rebooting the router often leads to the devices in question being able to connect.

We're sorry that we can't provide a further update at this time.

[#8]

Thanks for update.  I have disabled DHCP on the Plusnet Hub One and have create an alternate DHCP server that uses external DNS servers for name resolution, so clients bypass the Plusnet Hub Ones name resolution service.  The network seems stable now and I will continue to monitor it.  One interesting side effect is that the Plusnet Hub One can no longer detect devices connected via WiFi on the page advanced_settings, Wireless, Devices, Home Network - Devices.  Odd though this has no impact on connectivity.

[#9]

Hi @GreyElephant,

Thanks for the update. We're glad to hear that at least one of the issues is partially resolved for you.

With regards visibility on the router software - Can you try rebooting the router to see if this solves the problem?

[#10]

A reboot does temporarily solve the problem,

[#11]

Thanks for confirming.

It's a issue we're aware of and investigating

I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to resolve it at this moment in time

[#12]

If you're able to replicate this issue fairly reliably, then I'm interested in grabbing some logs from a device that's in this state?