DNS name resolution failures

[#1]

For the last 10 days or so I've been getting more frequent than expected DNS failures across all of my different devices - e.g. when web browsing the browse says 'Resolving host...' for a few seconds and then reports a DNS resolution failure.  If I retry for a few seconds then it comes good. My guess is that this is increased load on Plusnet's DNS servers (212.159.6.9/10) due to so many people being at home at hammering the internet. I'd like to try using a different service, e.g. Google (8.8.4.4 or 8.8.8.8) to see if the problem goes away.  My Plusnet Hub One router doesn't appear to allow the Primary or Seconday DNS to be changed - is there a way of doing this?

[#2]

@MikeBz Sorry to say the PN Hubs do not allow you to modify DNS servers - which is one of the many reasons I have stuck with the TG582N for my ADSL service. I have Netgear as a back up (other manufacturers are available 😉 ) and if I switch to FTTC I shall buy an alternative.

[#3]

Thanks @jab1 .

Is anyone else seeing a lot of DNS failures?

[#4]

Not a one, @MikeBz .

[#5]

I've just changed the IP configuration for the NIC in my PC (Windows 10) to use 8.8.4.4 for DNS instead of the router's IP address - I assume this will bypass the setting in the router.

[#6]

yes it will.

Are you using a hub one? If so I had a failing hub one which stopped responding to dns requests setting them on individual devices sorted it until I replaced it.

[#7]

I can't answer that, @MikeBz . It's a case of 'suck it and see' - unless someone with more experience comes up with another option.

Edit: @dvorak  beat me to it.

[#8]

Not to discount your observation, but as far as I'm aware our DNS servers are holding up OK. Load looks to have increased around mid-March, no doubt for the reasons you state, but it's still well within tolerance.

I have my own DNS monitoring on my connection at home, and I'm seeing an average 9ms response from the Plusnet servers, with some variance during the waking day, but nothing that's indicative of an issue.

Depending on the device you're experiencing the problems from, you could try specifying Google's DNS on the device itself, rather than the router.

One other thing: do you know what DNS addresses your router is currently using?

Edit: Looks like you've already specified alternatives at device level, so interested to see how that goes...

[#9]

@dvorak yes it is a Hub One.  It's not a permanent failure, it happens sporadically and resolves itself within a few seconds.  The router is hard-coded to use 212.159.6.9 and 212.159.6.10.

@bobpullen thanks for your feedback.  I have changed my laptop's IP config to use Google (8.8.4.4) and will see if the behaviour changes.

[#10]

No consolation, but I have this exact same issue.  I've changed to uses Google's DNS servers on my laptop but not all of my devices let me change the DNS used.  Rebooting the router seems to fix it for a few days.

Just as a matter of interest, what version is the firmware on your router?

Mine is version 4.7.5.1.83.8.237.2.2.  A colleague has version 4.7.5.1.83.8.263 and hasn't seen the issue.

The issue does appear to be a long standing one - https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/HubOne-firmware-issue-with-DNS/td-p/1509006.

[#11]

Coincidentally I started getting the issue shortly after lockdown, so I thought it might simply be down to server load.

I'm on firmware [4.7.5.1.83.8.263 | Last updated 22/03/19].

I've changed some of my devices to use Google DNS, I'll see how they go for the next few days.

[#12]

Hi Sadly ive been back and forth with plusnet with this issue for the last month. my internet only holds for 1hour on average before having to hard reset the router to allow data to pass through. quite disappointing as ive had engineers out and everything my side and Bt's line is all good. Just a massive fault that plusnet can seem to understand or rectify.

mine is almost identical to what your describing Mike. 

[#13]

Mine self-sorts after a couple of seconds - usually without even having to refresh the browser page, it just does it itself (Chrome).

As an update, I had no instances of this yesterday after changing my laptop & 'phone IP configuration to use Google's DNS server (8.8.4.4).  This morning I reverted my laptop to do DNS through the router and had a couple more instances of the issue.

Given that the router must just punt the DNS request on to the IP address which is coded into it it's hard to see how this is a router issue, although from @dvorak's experience complete DNS failure can be a router issue.

Edit: Just to be clear @timpeckham , the problem I have manifests itself in exactly the way @ROBICKS15 has described in his topic here: https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Intermittent-Broadband-problems/td-p/1723752

[#14]

@PaulBramley & @timpeckham, your issues sound different to @MikeBz's. As they've explained, a retry often results in success, whereas if I'm reading things correctly, you guys have to reboot the router to restore service.

@PaulBramley, are you able to 'break' things and leave them in a broken state for a while whilst we get some remote hands to take a look at what's going on? I've been trying to get somebody to help us with this for a while but keep drawing blanks.

Edit: In fact, I don't seem to be able to 'see' your router Paul. Can you confirm your serial number ends A039EE?

[#15]

Thanks for getting back to me @bobpullen.

I think the problem I've had is like @MikeBz's.  As he says, Chrome usually sorts itself out after a few seconds and loads the page.  In addition, I found that rebooting the router often made the problem go away totally for a little while (so Chrome didn't display the "Resolving host..." message at all).

Just to add to the confusion though (or perhaps it will help point at a solution 😕), I've recently switched to a static IP address in order to "fix" an issue accessing a particular website (see https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Unable-to-access-WMO-website/td-p/1723475 for details).  Just for the hell of it, I thought I'd switch back to using Plusnet's DNS server.  So far, I've not seen any DNS issues. 😀