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Change Primary and Secondary DNS

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dickbob
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Registered: ‎05-04-2018

Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Hi,

 

New Plusnet customer here.

 

I'm trying to change the Primary and Secondary DNS IP addresses on my Hub One to the new 1.1.1.1 service but I can't see a way to make the change? 

 

Advanced Settings > Broadband > Internet > TCP/IP settings displays the settings but there don't seem to be an option to change them.

 

Am I missing something or is this setting not end-user changable?

 

TIA

 

Dick

14 REPLIES 14
Mustrum
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Fix

No, you are not missing anything, you can't change DNS on the Hub 1.

dickbob
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Sigh...

 

Thanks for confirming the bad news 🙂

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

@dickbob - You can still change the DNS setting on a client by client basis. If you're using Windows this can be done in the TCP Connection properties.

dickbob
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Thanks, I'm familiar with doing that.

Just looking for a "do it once" solution 🙂

Gandalf
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Welcome to the community forums @dickbob

Unfortunately the above advice is correct. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Let us know if you have any further queries.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
dickbob
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Thanks for the confirmation @Gandalf

Gandalf
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

I'm afraid it's not possible to change the DNS settings on a Hub One.

If you need to use an alternate DNS server, I'd recommend making the changes on each of your devices.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

 

Looks your edit crossed with my post.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
dickbob
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

All good now, thanks 🙂

Gandalf
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Glad to hear that.

Sorry about the confusion earlier. Smiley

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Web-Dude
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS


@Gandalf wrote:
Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

It's not just "inconvenient" but very inflexible.    Is the router incapable of allowing dynamic changes, or has it been a decision made by Plus.Net, and built into the specification for locking this at PN's request, do you know?

 

Sorry, this isn't a personal issue, you perhaps had no knowledge of the decision making process, but it's the sort of thing which can affect the choice of ISP, and along with things like news about IPv6 support (or lack of it), can help (or deter) new customers (especially those who I hope to attract - small business users).

 

Of course, seeing this thread (and only looking once I had tried all the menu options on the router) is rather disappointing.

 

As I've been in IT for 40 years, I can work around it, and assist clients to do so, but it doesn't really do Plus.Net any favours to be restrictive, when people may want the flexibility to not have their ISP potentially "snooping" (*) on what sites they access - allowing the user to alter the DNS entries (and get them to set them back to your if a fault is being investigated) would show a level of flexibility which some other "niche" ISPs have no problem with, and be seen as a positive over your major competitors such as Sky and TalkTalk.  With 9.9.9.9 (from IBM) and 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) there are now some excellent services available, which can protect customers from reaching servers which have been detected carrying malware, etc.  If PN was to use 1.1.1.1 (for example) that might at least get you some brownie points for making a sensible choice.

 

(*) mine is not an accusation that Plus.Net is snooping but once UK Government implements the Investigatory Powers Act then you may understand why some might choose to use smaller ISPs and/or VPNs etc, etc, to make the collection of browsing history far more difficult.  I know there are those who say that if you have nothing to hide, then there's no need to keep your internet use, phone calls and text messages, private, but that privacy is mine and I have no wish to "give it away" to anyone, least of all spies and snoopers supposedly acting for my benefit.  See  https://is.gd/UKIPA20161231  (old article in the Independent).

Baldrick1
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

I agree that it's inflexible but I don't think that Plusnet are alone. However, one advantage of Plusnet is that they are quite happy for you to use your own router rather than their 'freebie' offering. I paid £30 on Ebay for a BT Business SmartHub 6, which does have the facilites to set your own DNS server. Interestingly the more available consumer BT Smarthub 6 version is locked to BT's DNS servers the same as Plusnet, it also has better Wifi performance.

I guess it's all about making the consumer versions as 'idiot proof' as possible by locking them down.

 

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Web-Dude
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

I know they're not alone, and it is one aspect to simplify tech support fault finding if certain aspects are "assumed".

 

But if someone is savvy enough to alter the DNS entries they may well check that's not the problem (by substituting 8.8.8.8 from Google, for example) before they contact PN Support...  It's likely a "last resort" in the face of everything else they'd have tried having failed, given the extended "wait in the queue" times (I have had a few 1 hour waits, and don't want to repeat them - the music is poor {content and audio quality} and the announcements get boring) if one picks up the phone these days (compared with when I used to call, very infrequently, at around 0300).

 

I once bought a Sky router at the local car boot sale for a quid, found it was still working, so who knows whether it was just an oversight at Sky, or whether they got annoyed with their customer.  Once I found I could not make many changes I put it aside, but may consider bringing it out if ever there's a service loss, to see if it is down to PN/BT equipment (!)   It's a pain when something is so "locked down" that staff won't even reveal the username and password details to allow an alternative router to be tried.  I think that was the case for Post Office telecomms (which was using TalkTalk wholesale to provide my BB).

 

PS If it is to assist Tech Support, then I consider that a very poor reason for locking down the entries.  Some may want to take advantage of alternative services and while there are workarounds, the older Thomson router I used was more flexible, so I take exception to having the facility removed from user access.  It clearly makes far more sense to do any alteration in just one place and have DHCP handle the distribution of alternative settings than needing to manually make changes to every device.  Simply more efficient to alter DNS in the router.

Baldrick1
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

The other factor I should have mentioned is that the Plusnet Hub One is a BT Home Hub 5A with a different case and slightly tweeked firmware, so I assume that it's simply replicating the facilities of the original and now obsolete HH5A.

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Mav
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Re: Change Primary and Secondary DNS

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): This thread is now in the appropriate board.

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