Why aren't I watching PhoneShop on 4OD whilst I eat my tea this evening?

[#1]

I'm glad you asked ...
[tt]si@minos ~
$ nslookup realmedia.channel4.com 212.159.6.9
*** cdns01.plus.net can't find realmedia.channel4.com: Non-existent domain
Server:  cdns01.plus.net
Address:  212.159.6.9

si@minos ~
$ nslookup realmedia.channel4.com 212.159.6.10
*** cdns02.plus.net can't find realmedia.channel4.com: Non-existent domain
Server:  cdns02.plus.net
Address:  212.159.6.10
si@minos ~
$ nslookup realmedia.channel4.com
*** www.routerlogin.com can't find realmedia.channel4.com: Non-existent domain
Server:  www.routerlogin.com
Address:  192.168.0.1
[/tt]
From A.N. Other web DNS lookup:
[tt]IP address: 208.71.123.62
Host name: realmedia.channel4.com
canonical name: oasc16e.247realmedia.com
Alias: oas000562.247realmedia.com
Alias: realmedia.channel4.com
208.71.123.62 is from United States(US) in region North America
[/tt]
And...:
[tt]si@minos ~
$ ping oasc16e.247realmedia.com
Pinging oasc16e.247realmedia.com [208.71.125.62] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 208.71.125.62: bytes=32 time=103ms TTL=242
Reply from 208.71.125.62: bytes=32 time=115ms TTL=242
Reply from 208.71.125.62: bytes=32 time=103ms TTL=242
Reply from 208.71.125.62: bytes=32 time=104ms TTL=242
Ping statistics for 208.71.125.62:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 103ms, Maximum = 115ms, Average = 106ms
[/tt]

[#2]

Direct link?
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/phoneshop/4od ;

[#3]

I can't watch any 4oD programmes this evening either. 😞
I get similar failure reports from a nslookup for that realmedia.channel4.com domain
I get to the webpage(s) fine, and the flash player seems to load ok.  But then pressing the Play button does nothing except change to a Pause button.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.7 and Safari (and I've also tried Firefox, and got the same fault) and have everything up to date including Adobe Flash Player.

[#4]

Working here OK, though I'm using OpenDNS and not the PN DNS servers.

[#5]

Not working here - same problem as above using Plusnet and Google DNS

[#6]

It seems to be rather more of a general DNS issue now as I couldn't get anything to resolve realmedia.channel4.com - i.e. not only PN DNS failing  Perhaps a correction for a screwed up update is still propagating or something ?
However, a hosts file is always your friend - providing that another friend gives you the relevant IP on a message board as well of course  
I do think PN DNS is being way more than a bit cranky at the mo though in any case. Certainly way more cranky than usual tonight anyway as it took several attempts to get to the portal and here due to repeated DNS lookup failures.
... wanders off to enjoy 4oD thanks to stuffing the relevant  IP address kindly provided by mr.simonmcqueen into a hosts file near me

[#7]

Hmm isn't working for me, although no issues with iPlayer at all. I can't say I've heard any issues regarding this problem with many other PN users.

[#8]

It's looking intermittent for me now.  For repeated lookups on 212.159.13.49/50, sometimes I just get

Quote

ans CNAME realmedia.channel4.com oas000562.247realmedia.com auth SOA 247realmedia.com ns1.247realmedia.com dlrfcaddresses.247

and sometimes I get the right answer:

Quote

ans CNAME realmedia.channel4.com oas000562.247realmedia.com ans CNAME oas000562.247realmedia.com oasc16e.247realmedia.com ans A oasc16e.247realmedia.com 208.71.125.62 ans NS oasc16e.247realmedia.com ns2.247realmedia.com ans NS oasc16e.247realmedia.com ns3.247realmedia.com ans NS oasc16e.247realmedia.com ns1.247realmedia.com ans SOA oasc16e.247realmedia.com ns1.247realmedia.com dlrfcaddresses.247 addt A ns2.247realmedia.com 208.71.125.251 addt A ns1.247realmedia.com 208.71.126.251 addt A ns3.247realmedia.com 208.81.234.251

Still; not sure if it's a problem with realmedia, PN DNS not always doing recursive lookups correctly  or a propagation stylee issue but either way, I give up !
However, there DEFINITELY  are some issues with PN DNS though regardless of the cause of the specific 4oD/realmedia one because I'm seeing more and more random failed lookups when generally browsing 

[#9]

OK, so PN DNS lookup for realmedia.channel4.com is still not working Webstats failed overnight again Random DNS lookup failures are still occurring General browsing speed and performance is far from good and I've had way more PPP disconnects due to network (over)loading in the last few hours than would be in any way reasonable to have seen over the last several months  Happy days  and all for just £21.99 a month with low bandwidth limits
Clearly a PN problem as per usual ... but I've no doubt that it'll be claimed to be someone else's fault and all that if/when someone actually notices the problem(s) and is forced to respond  in one way or another

[#10]

I have just reversed my DNS entries (Google followed by Plusnet) and it is now working - since I didn't check before changing them I don't know if that was the cause

[#11]

If you were to swap them back then I'd be prepared to put (lots of) money on it not working ! Although I found some non-PN DNS lookups failing last night before finding this thread, it only seems to be PN that is currently not resolving reliably.  With multiple lookups, sometimes it works OK and sometimes it does not but the "real world" effect needless to say is that 4oD (and possibly any other sites using realmedia servers)  will be completely inaccessible when using PN DNS servers  
I'm not sure that it's really worth the effort b*ggering around but there's some more info from a working and non-working enquiry below just in case anyone in PN Towers feels the urge to look into the problem:

Quote

> realmedia.channel4.com Server:  cdns01.plus.net Address:  212.159.13.49 ------------ Got answer:    HEADER:        opcode = QUERY, id = 4, rcode = NXDOMAIN        header flags:  response, want recursion, recursion avail.        questions = 1,  answers = 1,  authority records = 1,  additional = 0    QUESTIONS:        realmedia.channel4.com, type = A, class = IN    ANSWERS:    ->  realmedia.channel4.com        canonical name = oas000562.247realmedia.com        ttl = 85821 (23 hours 50 mins 21 secs)    AUTHORITY RECORDS:    ->  247realmedia.com        ttl = 3021 (50 mins 21 secs)        primary name server = ns1.247realmedia.com        responsible mail addr = dlrfcaddresses.247realmedia.com        serial  = 2011120801        refresh = 10800 (3 hours)        retry   = 3600 (1 hour)        expire  = 2419200 (28 days)        default TTL = 3600 (1 hour) ------------ ------------ Got answer:    HEADER:        opcode = QUERY, id = 5, rcode = NOERROR        header flags:  response, want recursion, recursion avail.        questions = 1,  answers = 3,  authority records = 0,  additional = 0    QUESTIONS:        realmedia.channel4.com, type = A, class = IN    ANSWERS:    ->  realmedia.channel4.com        canonical name = oas000562.247realmedia.com        ttl = 86216 (23 hours 56 mins 56 secs)    ->  oas000562.247realmedia.com        canonical name = oasc16e.247realmedia.com        ttl = 116 (1 min 56 secs)    ->  oasc16e.247realmedia.com        internet address = 208.71.123.62        ttl = 116 (1 min 56 secs) ------------ Non-authoritative answer: Name:    oasc16e.247realmedia.com Address:  208.71.123.62 Aliases:  realmedia.channel4.com, oas000562.247realmedia.com >

Quote

> realmedia.channel4.com Server:  cdns01.plus.net Address:  212.159.13.49 ------------ Got answer:    HEADER:        opcode = QUERY, id = 6, rcode = NXDOMAIN        header flags:  response, want recursion, recursion avail.        questions = 1,  answers = 1,  authority records = 1,  additional = 0    QUESTIONS:        realmedia.channel4.com, type = A, class = IN    ANSWERS:    ->  realmedia.channel4.com        canonical name = oas000562.247realmedia.com        ttl = 83150 (23 hours 5 mins 50 secs)    AUTHORITY RECORDS:    ->  247realmedia.com        ttl = 350 (5 mins 50 secs)        primary name server = ns1.247realmedia.com        responsible mail addr = dlrfcaddresses.247realmedia.com        serial  = 2011120801        refresh = 10800 (3 hours)        retry   = 3600 (1 hour)        expire  = 2419200 (28 days)        default TTL = 3600 (1 hour) ------------ ------------ Got answer:    HEADER:        opcode = QUERY, id = 7, rcode = NXDOMAIN        header flags:  response, want recursion, recursion avail.        questions = 1,  answers = 1,  authority records = 1,  additional = 0    QUESTIONS:        realmedia.channel4.com, type = A, class = IN    ANSWERS:    ->  realmedia.channel4.com        canonical name = oas000562.247realmedia.com        ttl = 84583 (23 hours 29 mins 43 secs)    AUTHORITY RECORDS:    ->  247realmedia.com        ttl = 1783 (29 mins 43 secs)        primary name server = ns1.247realmedia.com        responsible mail addr = dlrfcaddresses.247realmedia.com        serial  = 2011120801        refresh = 10800 (3 hours)        retry   = 3600 (1 hour)        expire  = 2419200 (28 days)        default TTL = 3600 (1 hour) ------------ *** cdns01.plus.net can't find realmedia.channel4.com: Non-existent domain >

[#12]

For me, using Google DNS servers realmedia.channel4.com fails to load, but F9O's link (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/phoneshop/4od) does (also plays correctly after navigating to the player.)

[#13]

@mikeb
switched back and still works after restarting the browser

[#14]

Really Even after an "ipconfig /flushdns" or similar to clear any cached info ?  
Lookups using any PN DNS server are still randomly failing whenever I try them but lookups using (Google I think) 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as well as a couple of others server IPs I have handy always work just fine every single time. It's ONLY the PN DNS servers that I'm seeing as having trouble resolving reliably and nothing has changed in that respect since yesterday evening despite various different gateways being used.
... wanders off to find cheque book just in case  

[#15]

Yes