A number of TalkTalk’s UK broadband customers have informed us that, since as far back as Wednesday last week, they’ve been unable to access BT’s website and some related online services (e.g. email and the BTSport App). The issue seems to be due to an unspecified fault with the provider’s Domain Name Service (DNS).
A DNS provider will typically work to convert Internet Protocol (IP) addresses into a human-readable form and back again (e.g. 123.56.32.1 becomes – examplezfakedomainlol.co.uk). Services like this tend to be provided automatically by your fixed line internet and mobile operator, thus operating seamlessly in the background.
However, a number of our readers nudged us over the bank holiday weekend to say that they couldn’t access the BT.com website from their TalkTalk lines, which seemed to be due to a problem with the provider’s DNS. Customers who attempted to access BT were instead given an error that the “site can’t be reached” and advised to run a diagnostic, which reported that the ISP’s “DNS server isn’t responding“.
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Most of the reports we’ve had about this fault suggest that the problem began on Friday, although a few claimed to have been seeing it since Wednesday last week. In all cases, customers who changed their default DNS to a free third-party solution (e.g. Google Public DNS, Quad9 or OpenDNS) found that it resolved the problem, as did using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
We also uncovered various related complaints on social media (e.g. here) and TalkTalk’s own community forum (e.g. here and here). So far as we can tell, the issue was still ongoing yesterday evening.
Example Customer Complaint 1
“I have same frustrating issue. Was told it’ll be resolved by 7 May. It hasn’t. I’ve found using VPN resolves the issue but longterm dont see it as solution for major ISP.”
Example Customer Complaint 2
“6th day of not be able to access my talk21 emails managed by bt.com. When is this problem going to be fixed. With a D-Link DSL3782 the DNS settings are fixed so the work around isn’t available.”
Example Customer Complaint 3
“I have noticed I am having the same issues when trying to watch BT Sport last night and am so glad I have found this thread. It’s helpful for me to know that I am not the only person suffering in accessing any BT websites or apps, although I hope this will be sorted soon by TalkTalk.”
Example Customer Complaint 4
“Exactly the same problem since Friday. I have looked at my router and followed the instructions as provided by Davecm to change the DNS to Google and then I could connect to by webpages and by app. So must be something changed by Talktalk.”
The good news is that TalkTalk are aware of the problem and say they’re investigating. The provider’s Service Status page also mentions problems with access to the BTSport App, which we suspect is related: “We’re aware of an issue affecting some customers who are unable to access the BT Sports App on their smart device such as their phone or tablet when connected to their TalkTalk WiFi. We’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and assure you that we’re investigating the issue as a priority.”
We’ve asked TalkTalk for an official update this morning and are awaiting their response. Naturally, blocking the website of a major broadband rival, while also disrupting connectivity to related services (TV, email) and making switching to BT harder, is an awkward subject for any ISP.
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UPDATE 2:57pm
We’ve had a response from a spokesperson for TalkTalk: “We’re aware that a small number of customers experienced an issue when accessing specific websites, such as BT.com. This has now been resolved. Our engineers identified an issue within a third-party system and rerouted the traffic.”
Who in their right thinking mind would use their ISP’s DNS servers when they also know about the existence of ISPreview enough to send reports to it about sites being blocked from it.
Your comment is a bit unfair, most consumers are not even aware of what DNS is.
As I said in my post, ISPreview is basically a website for people who know a whole lot about the internet. Its a niche technical site that would be of no interest to people who didn’t even know what DNS was. The article says these people have been directly reporting this issue to ISPreview.
As I’ve said plenty of times before, my own analysis of visitor traffic and past surveys suggests that over a third of ISPreview’s visitors are more technically minded. The site is actually focused on helping those who don’t know as much about the sector and IT, which is why I try to simplify the language as much as possible.
To add to the above your question is not relevant really. Even if we assume that all ISPreview visitors are technical and know about DNS there could be many reasons as to why the don’t change them. Maybe they lack the access right to do it. Maybe they want to run with a default configuration to catch this sort of issues. I used to change my laptops DNS settings until my wife went to some conference and couldn’t connect to the WiFi due to this. Now I use pfsense DNS resolver and leave the machines in DHCP settings. Even people that you think should know about DNS may not even know about it. When Community Fibre was installed in my house the installer didn’t even know what the term “altnets” was even though he could speak about FTTP way more than I can.
This explains the issues I started seeing last week, wasn’t aware that I was using their DNS. Changed DNS and the problems went away.
Their DNS servers are terrible. I’m an engineer at a web hosting company and have on multiple occasions had to explain to a customer why their clients are unable to see their website. It’s because TalkTalk’s DNS servers sometimes fail to pick up changes and will keep the old records cached for a day, a week, a month.. who knows.