Tech

Telstra Internet Outage cripples connectivity: Fix it yourself with DNS changes

There couldn’t be a worse time for Telstra’s home internet services to go down with millions of Victorians in lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreaks we’ve never been more reliant on the internet.

Hundreds of reports on Social Media triggered by the outage led Telstra to respond saying they are aware of the problem:

The problem is related to Telstra’s DNS servers, the computers that help route your requests for content and ensure the message gets through.

When you type EFTM.com into a browser, your DNS servers see that, and work out that you want to go to 172.67.72.185 – but advertising those numbers wouldn’t be the easiest thing for us now would it?

So without DNS, your requests for all websites, your streaming apps on your TV and pretty much every part of your home internet simply won’t work.

Fortunately the outage appears limited to Telstra’s home broadband network, including their NBN connections, but not any Telstra Mobile services.

There’s no estimate as to when it will be restored, in the meantime, many users have reported success with updating their DNS servers locally on their home network, to bypass Telstra’s faulty servers.

UPDATE: Telstra has identified the issue as a cyber attack or Denial of Service on their DNS servers, a spokesperson telling EFTM “We’ve identified a cyber security attack which is seeking to attack some of our services.

We’re blocking that malicious traffic and, as a consequence, that’s having an impact on nbn services.

When we’re comfortable that we’ve blocked all of the malicious traffic, we’ll get services back up and running.

It’s important to note no customer information is at risk.”

Open and free DNS is available from DNS and other providers, EFTM’s recommendation is to use the Cloudflare DNS servers, ranked among the fastest online.

The Primary DNS is 1.1.1.1 and the Secondary DNS is 1.0.0.1.

You can change these in your router/modem if you know how to access the router admin page, or you can make this change manually within your device itself.

This is a great guide to making those DNS changes on various devices.

Recent Posts

  • Tech

Corsair announce the Vanguard 96 mechanical gaming keyboards with integrated LCD screen and Elgate Stream Deck

Corsair has announced the new VANGUARD PRO 96 Hall Effect Gaming Keyboard and VANGUARD 96…

24 hours ago
  • Tech

Swann announces 2 new cameras in their EVO range

Swann has announced two additional cameras in their popular EVO range. The EVO Wireless 2K…

1 day ago
  • Tech

Anker SOLIX has a new battery-powered portable electric cooler just in time for camping season — the Everfrost 2

Anker SOLIX has announced the Australian launch and availability of the portable electric cooler, the…

1 day ago
  • Tech

Australian pricing announced and pre-orders open for ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X

After announcing the new ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X gaming handhelds back…

1 day ago
  • Product News

Samsung Launches Expanded Galaxy Line-Up in Australia covering wearables, phones and tablets

Samsung has announced a new suite of devices heading to Australia from today, expanding their…

1 day ago
  • Tech

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE Review: A good phone at the right price

Samsung recently announced the new Galaxy S25 FE ahead of IFA, bringing a new more…

1 day ago