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Solution

Frequent "Can't Find Site" Notifications

tiffy
4: Newbie

Just migrated my FTTP BB & phone from BT 5 days ago, all set up and working.

However, I am experiencing frequent and seemingly random duration periods where most web sites will not connect and display "can't find site notifications".
To be clear, the hub never drops internet connection as such, LED's on hub and ONT remain normal.

Main browsers are Firefox and Google Chrome running on Windows 10 Pro desktop PC.
Was suspicious of PiHole which is now disabled, never had any issues previously, nothing changed.
Also disabled my browser ad blocker just in case, again, never had any previous issues with this.

So, is this likely to be a fault or is this just a Vodafone network feature?
It's certainly not a one of, has been happening randomly and usually for a short duration practically every day to date.

19 REPLIES 19

CrimsonLiar
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

*** You have to disable DHCP in PiHole!!!  If you don't both your router and the PiHole will be trying to act on DHCP requests that hit your network, sometimes one will win, sometimes the other.  Which sounds exactly like what is happening!

@CrimsonLiarDHCP has never been enabled in PiHole, I appreciate that would cause conflict.
Remember, this is not a new setup of PiHole, has been working for the past 2 years on my BT FTTP with their SH-2 hub.
I think the mention of PiHole on my part has been causing confusion with this perceived issue, I just mentioned that I had disabled PiHole and my browsers ad blockers to eliminate them as any possible cause of the intermittant inability to connect to most web sites with the hub still indicating full internet connectivity.

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@tiffy When the router is set to auto for DNS it gets the VF DNS addresses and hands these on to the devices connected to the LAN. The VF DNS servers have not always been the best, so tell the router to use alternative ones and see how that goes.

@CynricFunny enough I have just done that this morning already, set 1.1.1.1 & 8.8.8.8, from informed sources these servers appear to be the best/safest choices.
Have also set my desktop PC IPv4 DNS selection to manual and entered the same addresses, probably wasn't really necessary.
Will give that a try for a few days, hopefully will do the trick😉

Will forget about PiHole in the mean time, my old RPi-3B is running "Buster" OS which is problematic  to update now, need to re-vamp on a later OS and re-load PiHole once things stabilise.
At that point can have a serious re-think about method of implementation.

Have updated my VF open fault ticket to that effect, I'am sure they will be glad to be off the hook for now!

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@tiffy. My one is running Bullseye and kernel 6.1.21-v8+

I would have copied the neofetch output, but it's not formatting nicely on a mobile 😄

 

@CynricI took the opportunity to completely re-install PiHole on my RPi-3B now running on 32-bit Bullseye (lite) OS which is still supported and updates without any issues.
Also installed "Unbound" integrated into PiHole which I used previously, found this guide very comprehensive:
https://www.crosstalksolutions.com/the-worlds-greatest-pi-hole-and-unbound-tutorial-2023/
Will definately adopt your recommended method of implementation now, ie, point the hub DNS primary selection to the PiHole RPi's IP address, tried out briefly, worked perfectly however, won't fully adopt until I'am sure my original connection issue is fully resolved, don't want to compound the setup.

Connection looking stable so far with hub's primary DNS selection set to 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) and secondary DNS selection set to 8.8.8.8 (Google).
Windows IPv4 DNS server selection has been left at auto (default).

Assuming the original issue does not return then I can only assume that selection of the Vodafone DNS server (auto mode) was the root cause as nothing else has really changed from my previous service, other than the hub of course🤔

Had a phone call this morning from Vodafone level 2 support.
To be fair, was within the promised 48 hrs since my original support chat where I requested escalation to level 2 support as no solution was reached.
I had great difficulty in understanding the support agent, I would say he was Filipino, suppose location could have been anywhere, I was embarrassed asking for so many repeats, he must have thought I was deaf😊

As per the previous chat line encounter, the agent was totally obsessed with Wi-Fi (must be the flavour of the month), concluded that there was definately not a network issue and I had too many Wi-Fi devices connected to the hub, advised removal of as many as possible?
I tried to steer him towards DNS server selection on the hub, he was adamant that it should be left on auto and stated it was absolutely nothing to do with the issue in hand.
Didn't seem to know anything about Cloudflare or Google DNS servers!!

To be honest, I didn't try to argue, felt there would have been no point!
The kindest think I can say about the VF level 2 agent, he was very polite as indeed I was with him at all times, after all it's not his fault he is in such a position, likely very poorely paid and certainly under trained.

With my short experience with Vodafone, on line for less than a week, it's beginning to look very much like VF's support is living up to it's reputation😒
However, on the positive side, I have had great support from this forum where the patrons technical knowledge is without doubt superior to the support agents I have encountered to date, a big thank you to all concerned.

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@tiffy For unknown reasons the helpdesk often talk nonsense about WiFi even when you tell them it's a wired connection and the number of connections. 


@Cynric wrote:
For unknown reasons the helpdesk often talk nonsense about WiFi even when you tell them it's a wired connection and the number of connections.
Reply: Suppose it's just their cumfort zone, keeps them away from getting involved with things more complex and attempting to answer awkward questions.


@Cynric wrote:
@tiffy  Interesting link, when I test I get 97% blocked.
Reply: Yes, that bit didn't work very well for me either, I consistantly got 100% blocked?
The application did state that it wouldn't work on all systems so took results with a large pinch of salt😊

 





 

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@tiffy  Interesting link, when I test I get 97% blocked.