Home Hub 3A recent upgrade breaks port forward & DMZ

[astarosurf]

Just a heads up - I've managed to work around this for the short term after almost pulling my hair out.

We had our HomeHub 3A upgraded summarily on the evening of 21 Nov.

I couldn't understand why my own little mail server at home was no longer receiving mail.

Admittedly it took me a while to determine it was the router that was at fault - after tracking down a random reboot just before midnight.

So, after completely re-configuring to suit my home network, I still could not make either port forwarding or DMZ work for me. Not any of the firewall options made any difference, and port forwarding, allowed applications, DMZ options all didn't work.

The new version is 4.7.5.1.83.8.94.1.11

Please let me know if there is either a work-around or even if you are experiencing the same symptoms.

-A

[pgregg]

1. Product name:	BT Home Hub
2. Serial number:	xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
3. Firmware version:	Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.94.1.11 (Type A) Last updated 25/11/12
4. Board version:	BT Home Hub 3.0A
5. WAN:	PPP Connected

I just spent the last 2 hours trying to diagnose why I've been getting no email since yesterday.

Basically I have an outside mail server handly my email (antivirus/antispam) and it then forwards the remaining email to my inbound SMTP (port 25) on the HomeHub.   ( I use a dynamic DNS setup so it copes with my IP address changing).

The rest of my family also uses the same setup for IMAPS (port 993) and SMTP (25) for email on our mobile devices when outside the house.

I recreated the port forwards, played with Firewall settings, DMZs and couldn't make it work.

2 hours later I noticed that BT had pushed a Firmware update to my HomeHub.  This update has broken my Port Forwards. Even setting a global DMZ to point to my internal mail server doesn't work.

*really annoyed at BT right now*

How do I revert this bad firmware update and get back to a working one?

Thanks,

PG

[pgregg]

Wow, I posted exactly the same problem just seconds before you. Just posting here to confirm your diagnosis as I'm having exactly the same problem. http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity/HomeHub3-pushed-Firmware-upgrade-broke-my-Port-Forwards/td-p/...

[Rottie]

Hi folks,

I don't think it's possible to revert the firmware of the HH to an earlier version. I can't confirm this one way or the other, unfortunately, as I use a third party router (Netgear WNR3500L) for my connection.

I have, however marked this thread as reported, so hopefully a Mod will look in and advise you further.

All the best and I hope you get it sorted. 🙂

[CraigS]

Hi Guys

If you factory reset the hub the firmware will reset however the latest version will be downloaded to your hub overnight eventually, probably quite quickly.

ta

Craig

[MBR123]

This does not sound like good news, two people with the same complaint. I have not received my upgarde yet but by the sound of things I dont really want it. 😞 I bet it will come through tonight now I have said this!. Please BT fix this before delivering it to me.

[astarosurf]

knowing the way these sorts of projects work, there us very little chance of this being fixed really quickly.
I would have thought that this was one of the simple tests that needed to pass in order for the firmware to pass acceptance: a large proportion of users nowadays are using port forwarding in some form or other.

BT should really halt the upgrade until this is either verified or show that we're doing something wrong.

[pgregg]

Well I got it working again. It dawned on me when I read that one of the fixes was the loopback issue.

Question: Did you use the old "loopback hack" that if you changed the local hostname in the HHub to the FQDN then you could fool the loopback into working?

e.g. Say I have a machine called "homeserver" and my external hostname is "homeserver.dynamic.example.com" you would use the FQDN in the HH and then at the DNS level the HH would make this work both internally and externally.  Turns out with this new update - this "hack" causes it to break.

I simply renamed my FQDN back to "homeserver" and the port forwards started working again.

[pgregg]

Weird - I already replied to this but it got broken off into a separate thread somehow....

-------------------------------------- 

Well I got it working again. It dawned on me when I read that one of the fixes was the loopback issue.

Question: Did you use the old "loopback hack" that if you changed the local hostname in the HHub to the FQDN then you could fool the loopback into working?

e.g. Say I have a machine called "homeserver" and my external hostname is "homeserver.dynamic.example.com" you would use the FQDN in the HH and then at the DNS level the HH would make this work both internally and externally.  Turns out with this new update - this "hack" causes it to break.

I simply renamed my FQDN back to "homeserver" and the port forwards started working again.

[pgregg]

Question: Did you use the old "loopback hack" that if you changed the local hostname in the HHub to the FQDN then you could fool the loopback into working?

e.g. Say I have a machine called "homeserver" and my external hostname is "homeserver.dynamic.example.com" you would use the FQDN in the HH and then at the DNS level the HH would make this work both internally and externally.  Turns out with this new update - this "hack" causes it to break.

I simply renamed my FQDN back to "homeserver" and the port forwards started working again.

[pgregg]

Amusingly I came across this post from *over a year ago*

http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/How-to-request-a-functionality-addition-to-the...

StephanieG

Community Manager

Hello,

We have been following up with the product team and would like to reconfirm as per my previous post that the loopback issue will be fixed in the next firmware update for the Hub 3. We still don’t have a timescale for this, sorry. Firmware is not rolled out on a specific schedule such as 3 monthly, 6 monthly because the nature of a firmware update means they will contain different fixes/updates each time, and the timescales for these will differ. Firmware updates go through rigorous testing and evaluation procedures before they are rolled out, and this process can take a number of weeks/months depending on what is included. To set expectations, the next firmware update is likely to be a number of weeks away, although this can be subject to change.

Sorry we can’t give a more definite timescale for you, but as soon as we have one we will let you know.

Thanks,

Stephanie