DNS fails after 30 hours & daily scheduled restart stopped working

[Tigger]

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.

[PeteG]

I'm all out of ideas, sadly. It's beyond my skillset at this point. If the support team have advised that upgrading to another Hub is the solution, and you agree that the current one is faulty, is there a reason you don't want to go for another? 

Pete.

[Tigger]

@PeteG 

They didn't Advise anything, they didn't understand the issue, they just put me through to sales for an upgrade deal. They didn't understand at all.

Anyway, I believe @JonathanB is going to contact the Device Tech Team about this issue for a possible bug fix on the next software update for the router. That's why I wrote the MC888 Issues Timeline to help assist them to see what was happening before and after the last software update.

[Tigger]

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

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

[JonathanB]

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

[Tigger]

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.

[JonathanB]

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?

[Tigger]

Hi @JonathanB 

Please could you read my MC888 Router Issues Timeline post I posted on Saturday and forward it to your Device Tech Team?

Please could you keep me updated on their progress with this issue? 

I'll check-in to ask how their progress is going from time to time.

May thanks in advance,

Mark

P.s. Please do not reply to this @PeteG . It will only add noise and confusion to the issue and @JonathanB responces. Many thanks advance @PeteG 

[JonathanB]

Hi @Tigger,

I've highlighted your Community topic with some colleagues who work in our Device teams. I'll let you know if we have any updates, or need any further info to help with the investigation.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Tigger]

Hi @JonathanB ,

Most Excellent! Just give me a shout if you anymore info is required.

Many thanks,

Mark

[Tigger]

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).

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.