DNS services just stops working on Home Bub 2

[jm1940]

Well, in a word, yes  I’m surprised you are surprised. 

As in my original post, I have a workaround. The various different suggested workarounds all have pluses and minuses, but they are just workarounds.

my presumption would be switching supplier removes the need for any workaround for this specific issue. Obviously, also some risks and a hassle.

[Kimberlin]

@jm1940 

Just buy a decent third party router, DNS issue resolved.

Unless you have a landline of course that just sits in the corner as a useless unused ornament? Or do you actually use it if you have one?

If you’re unhappy with the service, then switch, thousands of customers every month do, it isn’t difficult.

[jm1940]

The ornament (landline) is used every day. It’s how carers and GP and family and friends and I interact with the customer,  my dad, who is in the property and has dementia and is elderly. It’s also connected to a pedant so he can press it if he falls over or has some difficulty. 

I try to be polite, but as I said earlier in the thread people don’t know the reality of a specific situation. Suggestions are welcome. But also can be politely declined when not practical. I maybe visit the property once every 6 weeks myself. There’s not a single person in his immediate daily support circle outside of me who would know what a raspberry pi is.  My dad would presume he could eat one. He can see his TV  is not working 100% right, but he’d have no idea how to power cycle a router. 

of course the above doesn’t preclude using a raspberry pi or secondary router or …. I’m not claiming it does. I’m saying I find it surprising that the BT user community seems focused on telling people not to use the BT supplied equipment for a very very basic element of the procured service. And that’s not to mean it’s not helpful advice, but if that’s where BT is , the business is FUBAR-ed.

thanks again for all suggestions. 

[Kimberlin]

@jm1940 

I’d just point out that the current SH2 is technologically old hat. That’s probably the reason why EE don’t hand them out to their new customers. It’s all very much moving to WiFi 6/7 standard. Granted the SH2 works, to a point, but it isn’t exactly cutting edged tech. I have the Plusnet version still sat unused in its box. There’s a reason I don’t use it, it’s simply not good enough because it isn’t WiFi 6 capable. That may not matter to your particular situation and I respect that.

[harry161]

Hi,

We have a similar issue in the other thread:
https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Fibre-broadband/DNS-issues-with-Smart-Hub-2/m-p/2442592#M361738

I ended up building my own workaround.

I put together a small project called Router Watchdog that automatically power-cycles the router if it loses internet.

It works like a dead man’s switch:

A Tasmota smart plug controls power to the router

The plug runs a local countdown timer

A small service on a cheap VPS resets that timer via MQTT every 15 minutes

If the router loses connectivity, the plug can’t receive the reset

The timer expires and the plug power-cycles the router

Because the timer runs locally on the plug, it still triggers even when the internet is down.

It’s not a fix for the root cause, but it’s stopped me having to manually reboot the router every time DNS drops.

I’ve put it on GitHub here:
[mod edit: third party link removed as community terms]

You’ll need a Tasmota smart plug and a basic VPS (mine costs about £2 per month).