topic Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working in Broadband

DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 09:56:24 GMT

Hi, I became a new customer around the end of June 2024. I have Three Home Broadband with the supplied Three ZTE MC888 Router / Hub.

Since around 4 days after day one (back in late June), the DNS has stopped working and the Hub requires a restart to restore normal service. This was happening every 4 to 5 days afterwards too, so as a workaround, I set the restart scheduling to restart every 1 day at 0200 hours.

This was fine until about a month ago when I notice the Hub had done an automatic software / firmware update. Now software V1..0.0B09, firmware V1.0.0. Since this update, it’s got worse and no longer restarts everyday and the DNS stops working after around 30 hours. So a manual restart is now required daily.

If I manually set the DNS on my devices (e.g. 1.1.1.1 & 8.8.8.8) I can get Internet for a few more hours without a restart, however, within a few hours it slowdown substantially until it comes to a grinding halt with network errors. So this workaround doesn’t last long until a manual Hub restart is required again.

I read somewhere on this forum, setting the APN to ipv4 only (from ipv4 & ipv6) may help, however, I’ve tried this and it made no difference.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:20:01 GMT

Please can a Team Member reply quickly to this before I cancel my 30 day rolling contract. I've just spoken to customer support and they asked me to do a factory reset and monitor it. I told them I've did a factory reset yesterday (and many times before) so it will still be failing tomorrow.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

PeteG — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:34:55 GMT

Hello Tigger.

Oh, that sounds like a frustrating issue to be having. It's not clear what would be causing that based on the fact the issue goes away and comes back after each solution.

It might be worth checking in with the Home Broadband Support team to see if they have ay solutions for the problem, or to see if they are aware of what is causing the issue. Hopefully there will be a work around that restores reliability to your connection.

Pete.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:45:48 GMT

Hello Pete, there has not been any one single solution that I have not already tried, and told them so.

Pete, can you send this to the correct team? Is that team one, two three or four?

Mark

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 20:21:27 GMT

@PeteG You have done your best in your reply and I thank you. You seem like a good guy. Please could you ask your Line Manager to reply to this now?

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

JonathanB — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 13:47:17 GMT

Hi Mark.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been experiencing these issues for so long now. If you can help us understand the issue a bit better, we'll do our best to help or point you in the direction of more support.

How are you encountering these DNS errors, is this an error showing in browser? It sounds like you're describing issues with multiple devices, are you able to share the error message(s) you're seeing, and give us a little insight on what devices, apps, and browsers these are happening with?
Have you been able to test if the issue happens with both wired and Wi-Fi connected devices?
When you've tried factory resetting the router, has this had any impact on how often the errors occur?
Are we showing we're aware of any issues on our Network Status Checker in your area?

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 19:35:25 GMT

Hi JonathanB, Thanks for you message.

When DNS fails Windows 10 says “No Internet, secured” as in image below. The 2x iPhones say “No Internet Connection” in Settings>Wi-Fi. The 2x Samsung A34’s say “Connected without internet” in Settings>Wi-Fi. All at the same time. All apps and browsers on all devices say DNS issues or simply no internet. If I set any or all of the devices DNS from automatic to manual using 1.1.1.1 and or 8.8.8.8, the “No internet” errors on device go away & internet usage resumes for an hour or two.After rebooting, everything's ok again for another 30 hours or so.

The DNS fails on the router when wired by Ethernet and on Wi-Fi.

Factory resetting the router has no impact and the DNS fails again after around 30 hours or so.

Before the router did an automatic software update, the DNS would fail after 4 to 5 days and factory resetting had no impact and would fail again after another 4 or 5 days.

It’s now on Software Version BD_H3GUKMC888V1.0.0B09

Hardware Version MC888HWV1.0.0

The Network Status Checker says “Our systems haven't reported any network problems.”

And has always said that, when I’ve checked from time to time.

I’m getting good download speeds right up until the DNS fails.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 17:10:04 GMT

@JonathanB

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

PeteG — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:25:43 GMT

Hello.

That's strange. After changing the DNS to manual and setting the DNS yourself, what happens when it fails after that? Is it failing with the same manually set DNS? Or is it failing because it's went back to a different DNS?

Pete.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 22:27:30 GMT

@PeteG , the answer to your latest question is already in my first opening question, "within a few hours it slowdown substantially until it comes to a grinding halt with network errors.". In other words, no internet at all untill a reboot of the router.

Why has no one sugested a single possible solution? Wht hasn't this issue and many other Three Customers issues I've seen on here been forwarded to the next level up?

Kind regards, Mark

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

JonathanB — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:19:17 GMT

Hi Mark,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Pete isn't on shift at the moment, but I believe he was questioning whether you were able to inspect the DNS from any of your devices, for example running a command prompt and querying your ipconfig. I honestly don't think this is a DNS issue however, DNS errors occur on most browsers if you try to reach the Internet when you only have a local connection.

The issue you've been seeing could be caused by signal fluctuations, as we've seen some similar behaviours in the past when routers either drop out of connection with the nearest mast, or switch between two completing masts. In this situation, we've seen reports that the router will not reconnect by itself, and requires a reboot.

This may seem odd, particularly if your typical speeds and signal are good, but I'd recommend investigating alternate positions for the router within your property. Generally higher locations and at least a metre or two from other electronic appliances are preferable.

I appreciate it's frustrating to ask questions, and be met with more questions, but if there was a clear solution from the info we've discussed so far, we'd have shared this.

As to the question of forwarding your issue, if you're unsatisfied with progress in exploring your issue here on our Community forums, I'd suggest to get in touch with the Broadband team as Pete originally suggested, or you can find options for raising a complaint here.

We'll always do the best we can to help on this platform, but there may be elements of this issue we're overlooking as we don't directly access customer accounts and connection info when providing advice on public platforms

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:31:42 GMT

P.S. it's failing with the same manually set DNS.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:34:13 GMT

The DNS is just the precursor to loosing the internet completely after a further 1 to 4 hours later, until a router reboot.

Repositioning the router isn’t going to be the issue in this case. I’ll explain further.

This is a fault with the router hardware, firmware or software (unless it’s a fault on the mast equipment or some other issue your end).

When the router first arrived, this issue would only occur on a Saturday. This was the only day of the week this would happen. It would not do this on any other day of the week. So I asked myself, could this be some kind Time related in some way.

I had already noticed from day one in the router settings, that the “Reboot Scheduling” had a factory setting of, reboot weekly on Tuesday at 0200 hours (with a 2 hour buffer).

So to test if this out, I changed the weekly reboot schedule day setting from Tuesday to Sunday at 0200 hours. If this was a time related issue, then the day of the week that this issue would occur would change from a Saturday to a Thursday.

As I predicted, That’s exactly what happened. This issued then Only occurred on a Thursday and not any other day of the week. Thus proving that point that it’s time related in some way, for what ever reason.

So, as a workaround, I set the the reboot scheduling to Daily. This workaround was fine for weeks, and apart from the automatic reboot once a day, I had no loss of DNS or internet connection. So almost perfect. Nothing to complain about.

However, along comes automatic software update ( version seen above) and it all goes pear shaped.

Making it worse from day one of the update, Not Only did this issue start to re-occur after around 30 to 34 hours, instead of like before, 4 days, Now this new update has stopped the Daily Reboot Scheduling from working too, which was the workaround for the previous issue. So the update Has compounded the issue.

Surely you must be able to pass this information on to a higher level? There must be hundreds of your customers having this issue? Not unless this is a freak issue in a small subset of router and local mast equipment issues! Who knows? Can you pass this on to a higher level? It needs a software update that can fix this issue, potentially hundreds of customers that have the same issue!

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:32:19 GMT

Hi @JonathanB

A quick update to follow on from previous post to you.

I belive I now have the router auto rebooting on Daily basis again.

I was setting the daily reboot schedule to 0100 hours each day, which was failing to work since the last automatic software update.

However, 2 or 3 days ago, I set it back to 0200 hours daily, and since then it has rebooted itself every day so far. So it seems it don't like the 0100 hours setting. I'll see how it goes and keep you updated.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

JonathanB — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:47:25 GMT

Thanks for the update Mark. I was thinking it would be worth checking if the reboot actually was happening as scheduled, as I wasn't completely clear if it was that the reboot was failing to happen, or if it was failing to prevent the connection drop/this was happening more rapidly. Very odd that it won't reboot at 0100 but shifting an hour has started it off again. So just to be clear, there's been no DNS error for 2-3 days now?

Sorry if we've got off on the wrong foot in regards to your earlier posts also, I'm not refusing to highlight feedback for you, I think we may have had a misunderstanding in terms of whether you were seeking to raise a complaint, or what I think we're more on the same page about now, this is more a case of highlighting to our Device and Tech teams that there's a potential hardware/firmware bug here?

I'll be happy to do so, that was the MC888 and it's as of a B09 firmware update in mid September?

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:29:28 GMT

Hi @JonathanB

Now it's been auto-rebooting daily for 2 or 3 days, there has been no DNS failure for 2 or 3 days now (and no total loss of internet 1 to 4 hours after the DNS failure).

The DNS failure and total loss only happens after around 30 hours, so when the daily auto-reboot does work, the reboot happens at between 24 and 26 hours of use, and so never reaches the 30 hours.

Hopefully it keeps rebooting every 24 to 26 hours, and hopefully on next automatic update, that one dosn't make it even worse and cause the DNS failure and loss shorter than 24 to 26 hours.

Yes, indeed, it's an MC888,Software Version: BD_H3GUKMC888V1.0.0B09
Hardware Version: MC888HWV1.0.0

Many thanks

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

PeteG — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:09:12 GMT

Sorry, I'm not sure my question was clear, as the highlighted section doesn't provide an answer for what I was asking. I was wondering if when the issue recurs, does the DNS remain as you set it, or is it defaulting back to the normal DNS settings on it's own?

Pete.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:05:53 GMT

Hi @PeteG

You may wish read the last 2 or 3 post between @JonathanB and myself re. automatic daily rebooting and no DNS failures or total loss due to the 30 hour issue (which was 4 days before the autmatic update on the router).

Just so it's clear, there are no DNS settings on the MC888 router, so the DNS on the router is on 192.168.0.1.

The only adjustments I make are to manualy set the DNS on our iPhones, Galaxy A34's, laptops, Raspberry Pi's and Desktop PC's to Cloudflare and google DNS, so from the automatic dhcp setting of 192.168.01 to 1.1.1.1 & 8.8.8.8, And they stay like that. They do not default back. So when the DNS fails on the router, they will keep working for another 1 to 4 hours until I have to reboot the router, because all data from the internet then ceases.

However, I have one device perminently set to automatic DNS (the routers 192.168.0.1) to montitor when the DNS on the router fails so I can manualy reboot it before a total loss of internet data. As you will see in the most recent posts between @JonathanB and myself, The DNS has not had the chance to fail, because it's now automaticly rebooting approx every 24 hours before the DNS fails at 30 to 24 hours.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:09:48 GMT

P.S. CORRECTION TO LAST LINE OF PREVIOUS POST:

.......before the DNS fails at 30 to 34 hours.

Re: DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

Tigger — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 10:08:55 GMT

Hi @JonathanB & @PeteG

Hopefully the following timeline may help

MC888 Router Issues Timeline

Monday 24th June 2024
Received MC888 Router and Sim Card.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings.

Saturday 29th June 2024
Loss of DNS on router. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings.

Saturday 6th July 2024
Loss of DNS on router followed by internet slowing down and total loss 1 to 4 hours later. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings.

Saturday 13th July 2024
Loss of DNS on router followed by internet slowing down and total loss 1 to 4 hours later. Manual reboot of MC888 router. to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings.

As you can see, Only on a Saturday!

So I changed the Factory Default Weekly Reboot Schedule setting from Tuesday to Sunday.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed from Tuesday to Sunday).

The following Thursday
Loss of DNS on router followed by internet slowing down and total loss 1 to 4 hours later. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed from Tuesday to Sunday).

The next following Thursday
Loss of DNS on router followed by internet slowing down and total loss 1 to 4 hours later. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed from Tuesday to Sunday).
As you can see, Only on a Thursday now! (And Not a Saturday anymore!)
So I changed the Reboot Schedule setting from weekly on a Sunday to Daily at 0100 hours.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0100 hours).

Weeks went by without any issue. The MC888 router rebooted when it was told to (approx. every 24 hours) and no problems. Nothing to complain about.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0100 hours).

All ok until what ever date it was in September (I didn’t record the date) along comes an automatic update to the MC888 router. It’s now Software Version: BD_H3GUKMC888V1.0.0B09, Hardware Version: MC888HWV1.0.0
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0100 hours).

The following day around 30 and 34 hour later.
Router failed to a daily auto-reboot & loss of DNS on router followed by internet slowing down and total loss 1 to 4 hours later. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0100 hours).

The following day around 30 and 34 hour later.
Router failed to a daily auto-reboot & loss of DNS on router. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0100 hours).

So now, as you can see, it has the same issue as in June & July except it’s every 30 to 34 hour instead of every 4 days. And due to the work around of the automatic Daily reboot not working, the router is exceeding the 24 to 26 hours running time (without the automatic reboot) and reaching 30 hours when the DNS and other issues follow.

This continues in a loop every 30 to 34 hours with the issues………………
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0100 hours).

Later I did experiment with other router settings that I had read about (some mentioned in previous posts), however, nothing worked. So did a factory reset.
Router Staus - Factory Default settings

The following day between 30 and 34 hour later.
Loss of DNS on router followed by internet slowing down and total loss 1 to 4 hours later. Manual reboot of MC888 router to restore normal service.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings

About 4 or 5 days ago, I set the Daily reboot to 0200 hours.
Since then, the router has automatically rebooted itself daily, as it was told too.
The router DNS has been working perfectly and there has been no loss of service.
No manual reboot or other intervention required.
Router Status – Factory Default Settings (except Weekly Reboot Schedule setting changed to Daily at 0200 hours (instead of 0100 hours)

So if the Daily automatic reboot is working all seems ok. However, what happens if the next automatic update causes the the original issue to occur within less than the daily automatic reboot time? The last update caused the issue to happen every 30 hours, instead every 4 days! And it caused the Daily automatic reboot to fail at 0100 hours. It’s only by luck it auto reboots at 0200 hours. So the next update could break this too.