What are the DNS servers playing at ? Ridiculous and unacceptable.

[paulscottrobson]

Seriously, this is farcical.

Since switching from EE a couple of days ago it takes 30 seconds to connect to an imap mailbox.  Thunderbird, or Evolution. Telnetting into it is the same problem.

The firewall is off.

Similarly I cannot whois www.google.com (takes 30 seconds) or ping www.google.com (doesn't work at all), why not ?  I can't ping anything out there. What use is this ?

Nor can I change the DNS server to 8.8.4.4 or similar.

I am still within the period and if there is no answer to this I am out of BT Broadband.  I'm not prepared to wait ages every time I want to check email, nor do I want some sort of scam system.

I have no VPN or other intervening device. It is a direct physical connection to the router, and worked perfectly under EE.

[gg30340]

Make sure you turn off "smart setup" on the Smarthub.

See link how to do that.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44328/~/what-is-smart-setup-on-the-bt-hub%3F-how-can-...

You should also turn off BT Webprotect which is turned on by default.

See link.

Learn about BT Web Protect | BT Help

You can check by logging onto your MyBT and going to "Your Security".

[paulscottrobson]

Thanks, I already had Smart Setup turned off and I checked the other and it wasn't activated ; I activated it and turned it off just to be on the safe side, same problem.

[paulscottrobson]

So, part the second.

Took a Windows box, and plugged it into the same physical connection. Same email application, Thunderbird. Connects immediately.

Took that out, plugged Linux box back in back to the 30 second iMap connection time again.  No firewall (or *anything* it's Arch Linux). Evolution mail client displays the same behaviour. So does telnetting into the imap server.

Still can't ping anything outside the local network. Can ping 8.8.4.4 no problem. Can't ping google.com. Can't change the DNS server which is a huge red flag ; why not ?

No problems accessing (say) google via http, it's actually slightly faster than the old connection.

Tried the suggestions someone made here (which actually I'd already done, didn't apply) but thank you for answering.

Never had any problems with either on EE Broadband and it started immediately after the switch.

Conclusion:

There is some half a**ed software fudge on the broadband connection BT provide that is trying to do something clever and failing miserably.

Unless there's some explanation/solution by Monday I'm invoking the 14 day clause.

[licquorice]

Conclusion: it works fine with Windows but not with your Linux box points to a configuration issue with your Linux box. Everything is fine with my Ubuntu box. The hub has no idea whether it is a Linux box or Windows box connecting.

You can change DNS servers to whatever you wish, just not on the BT hub, you need to change it on each device.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Perhaps Linux box is manually configured for the wrong subnet or default gateway, which is likely to be different between EE and BT Retail?

[paulscottrobson]

Nope. It doesn't work on booted from USB key Ubuntu either.

[paulscottrobson]

Doesn't work with a USB booted Ubuntu, and it worked perfectly with the previous EE Broadband service. It's Arch Linux and there is nothing between it.

TBH the refusal to allow usage of a different DNS is a red flag anyway.

[gg30340]

---

@paulscottrobson wrote:

TBH the refusal to allow usage of a different DNS is a red flag anyway.

---

BT do not refuse to allow you to use different DNS. You can use any DNS that you wish. What you can not do is change it on the BT hubs. You can change the DNS on each of your devices or if you want you can use a third party router.

BT have locked down their domestic hub because the vast majority of users have no wish to change their DNS and also it is not unknown when people with little knowledge about what they are doing start "tinkering" with router settings they can cause problems that they have no idea how to resolve and end up with no service and blame the ISP.

If turned on the BT Parental controls also work at a network level using the BT DNS servers.