Update to 6.3.9.63-Plus

[lozcart]

My BT2700 updated its firmware automatically last night to 6.3.9.63 has anyone else had this happen?

[RogerP]

Hi Lozcart

Just done a check and I can confirm mine has been upgraded to the above some time yesterday.

Can't at the moment see any differences on router  pages??

Rogerp

[Polchraine]

My 2701 was updated yesterday.

There are a few minor changes to the layout of pages - I have a second 2701 to compare it with.

I have tested the new firmware and it now downloads files greater than 2GB which the older firmware on 2700 and 2701 did not.

[kinmel]

One of my V6s updated yesterday and for some reason is causing problems for my webserver across the LAN.

If I access the pages from outside my LAN, or through a proxy from my LAN, then everything works perfectly.  However, with the updated V6,  pages delivered locally from the webserver are lacking al CSS rendered elements.

I can do a work around by adding the domains into the hosts file pointing directly to the server IP, which suggests it DNS related.

A V6 without the update renders the pages correctly.

Very strange and the loss of Fusion means it is necessary to give visitors access to the LAN, rather than just an internet connection. I know you can lock it down, but the V6 is now just a Singe SSID, with an unusable spare.

BT specialise in buggy firmware.

[Polchraine]

One of my V6s updated yesterday and for some reason is causing problems for my webserver across the LAN.

If I access the pages from outside my LAN, or through a proxy from my LAN, then everything works perfectly.  However, with the updated V6,  pages delivered locally from the webserver are lacking al CSS rendered elements.

I can do a work around by adding the domains into the hosts file pointing directly to the server IP, which suggests it DNS related.

A V6 without the update renders the pages correctly.

Very strange and the loss of Fusion means it is necessary to give visitors access to the LAN, rather than just an internet connection. I know you can lock it down, but the V6 is now just a Singe SSID, with an unusable spare.

BT specialise in buggy firmware.

Single SSID - no,  it still has the Openzone capability.


Buggy firmware - not BT, but 2wire who write/modify the firmware to meet BT's product requirement spec.

[lozcart]

Thanks chaps I'm glad I'm not the only one who got the update.

It's perhaps to early to speculate but I've not come across any problems yet 

[kinmel]

Single SSID - no,  it still has the Openzone capability.

On the dual SSID 2700HGV, the router label provides two SSID identifiers and passcodes. ie BT-Business Hub - xxx and BT-Fusion -xxxx. There is no reference at all on the router to the Openzone facility, which requires no passcode.

With the new firmware, the Fusion identifier and passcode are no longer usable and Openzone remains unaffected.

The second SSID has been disabled and only one of the SSIDs referred to on the router, the instructions and the BT website is now available.

It is a crippleware version of the BT Business Hub and many BT business customers are not happy to have had the facility removed without notice.

[J1mbo]

My router updated recently, and I noticed that accessing externally accessible web servers from an internal host (but using the external address - hope this makes sense!) is broken with this firmware.

However on the plus side, static route entries to other internal subnets is at last fixed (broken in 6.1.48).

Anyway, here is the issue:

- Internel web server 192.168.1.1
- Internal client 192.168.1.10
- BT router 192.168.1.254
- External static IP say 200.200.200.200
- Port forwarding for port 80 configured to 192.168.1.1

So, exernally the web server is accessible as http://200.200.200.200.

Internally, under 6.1.48 it would also be accessible using the same address (sometimes called 'loop back').

However with the new firware, while external access works OK, access from within the network to http://200.200.200.200 results in much mising content and hence incorrectly displayed web pages in certain cases.

Packet traces on the client itself show the router serving dupe ACKs on each GET then after some point reset all connections (literally, TCP reset).  Obviously that stops the browser dead.  More odd is that it seems to serve content from IIS OK, but not from apache.

More research needed...

[Rik]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

[kinmel]

J1mbo
Welcome to the forum 

So far as I can see the missing content is that managed by the CSS, everything else seems to get through ok.

For a reason I have not worked out yet, adding the domain into the hosts file pointing directly to the server's actual IP on the Lan fixes the problem.  (192.168.1.1 in your example ).

[J1mbo]

Thanks 

Adding the local address in hosts file will bypass the router (the browser will be communicating directly with the LAN server) hence the issue won't arise.  CSS is an interesting idea and may well have some mileage - I'm looking at this more now.

As an aside I came across another bug in 6.3.9.63-plus this mornig, which is that is had cut-off the web server altogether due to 'excessive sessions'.  The result of this should have been that all browser sessions were redirected to an explanation of this fact, however the router was serving HTTP 302 (temporary redirect) to http://gateway.2wire.net/xslt?PAGE=HURL07 and since I don't use the router for DNS, this led nowhere (it should have served the redirect to it's IP address, i.e. http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=HURL07).

[mirrorsandglass]

I can confirm kinmel's and J1mbo's bug as happening on my Router.
Definitely the css and js files and even direct access to picture files(png, jpg and gif) failed about 99 out of 100.
Model: BT2700HGV
Hardware Version: 2701-100589-005
Firmware Version: 6.3.9.63-plus.tm
The hosts file change on local machines worked for me.
Thanks for the solution this has been driving me mad for a week.

[Rik]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

[Glenn]

 

[kinmel]

It appears that BT have stopped upgrading to the new firmware, I wonder why ?

[Rik]

Things started going bump in the night, Alan?

[mirrorsandglass]

It appears that BT have stopped upgrading to the new firmware, I wonder why ?

Thank goodness for that. Do you think they do any "real world scenario" type testing or just throw these updates out willy-nilly?

[lozcart]

It's just over a week since my router updated, during this time I've no major problems but web browsing particularly with the iPad seems to have lost some "snappiness" web sites with a lot of pictures seem to load slower and some pictures not at all, this is fixed after a refresh of the page.

I've also had on a few occasions when using a MacBook with Firefox had the router seem to lock out completely, to resolve this I have to turn on/off the wifi on the laptop and the router starts working again.

Given the option I would definitely downgrade to the last firmware version, in fact I've got another 2700 in the loft that's not update I may consider using this.

[lozcart]

I've dug out my other 2700 which runs 6.1.1.48.1 and connected it up. Straight away the difference is noticeable, web sites load quicker with no errors and the snappiness is back. Would this be a DNS issue with the updated firmware.

I will now leave this router connected and hope it's not updated too.

[mirrorsandglass]

I can confirm a "feeling of" slowness in site delivery compared to previous tests(no actual bandwidth tests run).
Also some pictures not being delivered if they are hosted on other sites or are produced by scripts on other sites e.g. things like Google badges etc.
I noticed this when I had to run some tests on new site features this weekend.
DNS seems the most likely to me too.

[J1mbo]

I've also found this, although speed tests should good raw throughput on the line (c.13Mbps measured on an 18Mbps sync in my case).  But browsing is definitely slower, indeed my wife has commented on it.

Re DNS, I run BIND9 internally with OpenDNS as forwarders directly.  I just run a whole bunch of queries with near instant replies.  Running the same queries against the router's DNS server are slower, but not by very much.

So IMO it's not DNS related.

[Hudders]

Seeing the same "loss of snapiness" in web browsing too, although download tests/speeds are still perfect. I called BT, and they just say "we see nothing wrong with your line....it must be your equipment".  I guess the 2700 is "mine"....but has anyone heard any more/info to fix this issue, or do we just sit like lemons and wait for another "upgrade" ?

[kinmel]

Seeing the same "loss of snapiness" in web browsing too, although download tests/speeds are still perfect. I called BT, and they just say "we see nothing wrong with your line....it must be your equipment".  I guess the 2700 is "mine"....but has anyone heard any more/info to fix this issue, or do we just sit like lemons and wait for another "upgrade" ?

BT are aware of the problem, but have offered no date for a fix.  You can sort of work around the problem by adding your server  IP address and domain name into the Windows hosts file on each computer on your LAN.

[Hudders]

Well, I guess atleast BT know about it !  Maybe I will log a call about slowness, and state that it has only happened since the router firmware upgrade.

Not sure I follow your workaround though. Adding my server IP ?  what server IP ?  My clients are DHCP assigned from a server on my network, which within the scope uses and internal DNS server, which forwards directly to BT's DNS servers.  I thought someone said "IMHO this is not DNS"...and I tend to agree. nslookup from a client gives resolution back in milliseconds to a previously non-resolved site.  It is almost like the 2700 is doing content screening...even though it is turned off.

Or am I missing something ?

Does anyone know how to DISABLE content screen ?  It is enabled....but none of my clients have any restrictions (hence disabled in theory).....but I would really like to see status:DISABLED to make me feel better ! Just one thing I have been trying to do since this blessed slow-down 

[J1mbo]

Think some wires are crossed here... there is no known fix to the slowness of response, although it has been suggested that disabling content filtering might help (I've not tried it; apparently content filtering is always running even if it appears not to be).