[Closed] Very odd DNS problem (Virginmedia)

OpenDNS is all you need.

for eample:

The webpage at

might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

Error 102 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED): Unknown error.

after refreshing for a couple of minutes it works again, most odd!

+1 for openDNS never had any problems with it or you could try googles DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Or Google - http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

Hah, simultaneous posts.

This is assuming a DNS issue, of course. Ping the site to get its IP and then stick that in your browser, see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, yes, DNS; if it does, I'd suggest a malware scan.

Cougar - Member
Hah, simultaneous posts.

This is assuming a DNS issue, of course. Ping the site to get its IP and then stick that in your browser, see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, yes, DNS; if it does, I'd suggest a malware scan

Depends on how the web server is set up. Might not respond by using the IP alone

[i]This is assuming a DNS issue, of course. Ping the site to get its IP and then stick that in your browser, see if the problem persists.[/i]

Bit of a catch 22 here. If DNS is the problem then pinging the site will not return the IP because to return the IP will require a DNS resolution.

If you can get to this site then you can do a DNS lookup on the URL -

http://knowledgebase.demon.net/article/internet-tools.html

and then use the IP in your web browser to try and connect. As Xiphon says though, not all websites respond to their IP.

Never had that problem (with Virgin for about 7 years now though origianally Telewest and Virgin's service does vary depening on which company originally set up your location).

Bit of a catch 22 here. If DNS is the problem then pinging the site will not return the IP because to return the IP will require a DNS resolution.

Good point, well made. Using the OP's example, try 69.63.189.26 instead of www.facebook.com.

Resolve the IP address using mancjon's method and then populate your host table with that information.

Facebook may have a large pool of IP addresses but sites like STW will be static.

102 is not an error code and its probably nothing to do with DNS as the message came from a server. The fact that is sometimes works makes me think that it is either;

1) software on your machine messing with the browser's proxy settings, or
2) virginmedia's proxy servers (they will have transparent ones you can't avoid)
3) web browser (try using another one or re-installing this one)

trying a different browser will show if its your briowser or PC. If its 1 its probably spyware or spyware monitoring software. If its 2 you will have to pay for an SSL proxy service otherwise all http traffic will go through virgin's proxy servers anyway.

Official solution:

http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=117805

I'd argue with their suggestion to 'make sure "automatically detect settings" is ticked' - I'd say that the opposite is more likely to work.

You might find some services are actually slower when using a different DNS to your ISP. The ISP's DNS servers may have intentionally "wrong" IP addresses defined for certain things, like iPlayer, so that the traffic flows down a specific pipe to a set of BBC webservers. etc etc

Rachel

allthegear - Member
You might find some services are actually slower when using a different DNS to your ISP. The ISP's DNS servers may have intentionally "wrong" IP addresses defined for certain things, like iPlayer, so that the traffic flows down a specific pipe to a set of BBC webservers. etc etc

Rachel

Sounds hard to believe - do you have anything to back this up??

The whole point of DNS, is that anybody can query any public server..

Sounds hard to believe - do you have anything to back this up??

The whole point of DNS, is that anybody can query any public server..

If you were selling internet access to lots of people wouldn't you do as much as you could to limit the amount you spent on your internet pipe? To do this ISPs install proxy servers they even do deals with websites and host them in their own network to limit the traffic that actually goes onto the Internet. They also prioritise network use so that people paying more or using certain services get a faster response. The can stop you using other people DNS servers as they don’t want their Internet pipe swamped by DNS requests.

If you want to learn more Google 'how do ISPs make money' or something similar

DNS requests are a tiny proportion of the network traffic which flows around the web, compared to video streaming, HTTP (HTTPS is worse!), etc.

And it's common for ISPs to have their own proxy system, for their users. Vodafone have one which compresses all the images (to really poor quality) for their mobile web/3G service.

Traffic shaping is the practise you speak of, but it's more to do with prioritising BGP/HTTP/DNS traffic, over P2P (which is increasing by the day).

Net neutrality is a hot topic at the moment (Google it), and we haven't quite got to the point of companies being convinced to host with a particular ISP just so they can serve up their content quicker 😉

ISPs make money by charging customers for internet access, website hosting, email services (some times), and support.

Quite a few ISPs are just customers of white label resellers...

The ISP's DNS servers may have intentionally "wrong" IP addresses defined for certain things, like iPlayer,

Even if that were true (and it would represent a fundamental brokenness in how DNS works if it was), changing the IP wouldn't change the route, it'd change the resolved destination server.

ISPs can and do proxy, packet-shape etc, for better or for worse (I'm looking at you, Tiscali), but I've yet to come across one that's poisoning DNS for their own ends. There would surely be a massive geek outcry if anyone was doing that.

allthegear - Member
You might find some services are actually slower when using a different DNS to your ISP. The ISP's DNS servers may have intentionally "wrong" IP addresses defined for certain things, like iPlayer, so that the traffic flows down a specific pipe to a set of BBC webservers. etc etc

Rachel

Sorry, but no. Given they can do traffic shaping and service routing/QoS at the network level, they'd never need to do anything so clumsy (and hard to maintain). That sort of thing is common place, but not by mangling DNS.

On the subject of using Google DNS, I have two issues. Firstly the net neutrality issue (too long to go into here) and secondly, and more practical, if, like me at work, you have sets of hostnames that resolve differently depending if you're in our out of a specific location then you'll find it's a bit of a ballache to remember to add it and remove it.