Forgive me for asking the obvious, but have you tried switching it off, then back on?

Is this happening specifically on your device or all of the devices in your home network?

If this is happening specifically with your computer/laptop then a windows system restore point to an earlier date before the incident had occurred should solve your problem.

Also from the time you have noticed this issue, has there been a recent router firmware update that coincides with your issue? That way you can diagnose if the problem is with the router, devices or the network itself.

Have you installed any VPN software on your device(s) that may have triggered this issue. Also any specific third party antivirus software/firewall program? Sometimes they can also cause network issues by blocking ports.

Thanks,

HB Tier 2 support (via Chinese whispers, through Customer Support/Tier 1) is supposedly working on it, but so far their only official response has been: "Can you try re-booting the Wifi router and see if that resolves it?"

Ping 1.1.1.1 fails. But ping 8.8.8.8 is fine.

Given I have had the same problem in the past, surely this should just be a case of looking back at the previous ticket - but that seems to be too logical for HB Tier 2.....

OK, if something so fundamental as a ping fails there is no point troubleshooting further. It's a network routing issue that only HB can address.

FWIW, Support told me recently a major platform upgrade is happening this Thursday in the early hours so you may find this is resolved then.

All devices on the home network.

Happen once in the past, resolved by HB (don't know how).

No changes to the HB WiFi router recently - still using the original they supplied.

Just started out of the blue, on Friday afternoon.

Neighbours (also on HB) unaffected.

Yes, we got an e-mail about that. I did wonder if our issue was somehow related to any preparatory work, which they may be doing...

In reply to a post by Toothy_Chris:

It is happening on all devices.

We are using the standard (original) TP Link router, from Hey!

I ran the diagnostics in the router and it said it was unable to ping the default Gateway (which is set to 172.16.16.16). This is odd because web traffic which does get through is routed successfully via this IP address. But traffic which tries to go a different route (e.g. Google.com) does not get through. (I'm using Ping Plotter to observe this)

It's all very weird.

That doesn't mean much, not all ISPs have their gateway respond to ping. I think its bad form personally, but its not inherently a problem.

Have you tried using the default DNS out of the box, with no other DNS set in the router and/or at the device level? A lot of ISPs are intercepting DNS, I do not agree with it, it often coincides with marketing data being sold, but ISPs are becoming more strict on this to satisfy certain requirements.

I did enquire with Vodafone the purpose to which someone fairly senior confirmed DNS blocks are used as a method to identify access to illegal child material / access to copywrite - there are other methods but DNS is useful.

Virginmedia informed me it is enabled when you have the virus scanning / parental controls / for certain network performance monitoring.

The issue is when you set your own DNS, if the interception does not work, ie it reverts you forcibly through their DNS, often times sites stop working. It's a mixed bag, in general I can get past interception using VPN / encrypted DNS at a device level, but I do have to have all malicious website monitoring turned off and no parental controls. I noticed virginmedia even somehow intercepted modem mode, with a custom DNS set.

Give it a go - if things work, check for anything enabled that may be filtering. Eg on my ISP setting it to 18+ does not stop filtering, as it still flags if a site may be malicious - so the DNS is still intercepted. You need to be sure that using your own DNS will work, and often that means the ISP needs to turn off any potential interception, which requires confirmation you are ok with the risk of browsing "unprotected" and do not require any filtering, parental controls, ongoing monitoring of device performance / site usage etc.

In my case I have just accepted it will be on, as I got a hub 5 for the speed upgrade and my own kit is not able to get the same sync...

Thanks all for your various comments.

Here is an update:

By mid-afternoon our internet finally returned to normal. The HB Customer Services lady then called me to double-check it was OK at my end. I confirmed it was, but when I asked for a detailed explanation of what had been done to resolve the issue, I was given a rather generic “We reset your Wifi router and optimised some settings”.

I assume a router reset is much more than just a power cycle.

What was interesting is that the Default Gateway IP address was unchanged, but was no longer showing a failed ping test, as part of the router diagnostics. But it did look like our externally visible IP address had changed.

The passwords for the WiFi router also seem to have been reset to default, which supports the suggestion that they did some kind of factory reset.

Chris

So, things have got weird again, but I think this is almost certainly related to the infrastructure updates, which apparently started a day early, last night.

Most internet connectivity is fine, but I cannot get to E-Bay UK because I get the following error message:

‘Pardon Our Interruption...
In compliance with applicable economic sanctions and trade restrictions, eBay is unavailable in your location. If you believe you are receiving this notice in error, please contact eBay’s Customer Service.’

And when one of my kids tried to log into his Xbox, he got a similar message.

The new external IP address I have does seem to be registered to HB, in the UK, so why do these web sites think I am in a country under sanctions??

Anyway, this has been reported to HB who escalated it straight to Tier 2 support (who I assume will be working through the night, given the infrastructure work).