Low-cost focused UK broadband ISP Plusnet (BT Group) has apologised to customers after their internet service was hit by a “mass outage” that struck yesterday afternoon and lasted for several hours. The issue appears to have been related to a problem with their Domain Name System (DNS).
The DNS service typically works by converting Internet Protocol (IP) addresses into a human-readable form and back again (e.g. 123.56.32.122 becomes – examplezfakedomainlols.co.uk). Services like this tend to be provided automatically by your broadband and mobile provider, usually operating seamlessly in the background.
However, it’s not uncommon for ISPs to very occasionally suffer from problems with their DNS servers, which may relate to a fault or misconfiguration in the system. Such an issue is what appears to have impacted Plusnet yesterday afternoon, starting with a surge of complaints – mostly across social media – at around 4pm and then subsiding roughly two hours later.
Sadly, Plusnet doesn’t appear to have a Service Status page any more to centralise related updates for customers (we couldn’t find one), but across social media they did put out a brief statement to those who asked. A spokesperson said: “I’m sorry to hear your internet has gone down, we’ve been made aware of a mass outage that’s currently being investigated as a priority. We don’t have an estimated fix time but are working hard to get this resolved quickly for you.”
Customers of the service quickly figured out that their physical connection to Plusnet was still live and that the disruption to internet connectivity with online services could be resolved by adopting a third-party DNS provider (e.g. Google Public DNS, Quad9, Cloudflare DNS etc.), which is despite the provider asking them not to make this change – possibly because it may prevent some of their other / filtering services from working correctly, and they already had a fix in the works.
In any case, the mass outage was soon resolved and Plusnet have since said that they’re “very sorry for any inconvenience caused“, albeit without providing any details on the cause.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
