random timeouts

[#1]

Sorry - There's been a couple of threads recently asking similar things.
I'm just trying to get an update.

[#2]

Cheers, much appreciated.

[#3]

Mitch - Do you get the same issue when using non-PN DNS servers?

[#4]

Sorry James, haven't tried OpenDNS but as its's not just me thats had an issue with respect I don't think its an issue with my connection tbh.

Its rather random, can anyone else provide any further details (I'll note times and dates if that helps)

[#5]

I'd be interested to see if the problems continue whilst using openDNS rather than our DNS servers.

[#6]

I'll recomfigure my router then.
When would you like an update on the issue?

[#7]

Whenever you can really.
See if you get the timeouts on OpenDNS, switch back to PN after say 24 hours, and see if you notice any difference.

[#8]

Hi James
Been using OpenDNS for 24 or so hours now (not continuously obviously) and had one network timeout while using my bank's online banking servers but apart from that all ok.
Just for info, OD IPs are set on router and PC is set to auto disovery (so of course it uses the router config)
Personally have only experienced the issues in the evenings, has there been any oddities detected with DNS by yourselves or the networks teams?
(It would be useful to see if any of the other posters are still encountering issues)

[#9]

i havent had major issues with plusnet dns serversbut found them to lag abit and the odd page times out or takes a long time.
and reading other posts that seemed that dns could be at the root of there problems changed to opendns a few days ago to see if it was and things improved.
iam now back on plusnets dns servers now. Router auto picking up the dns servers and not had any timeouts today still wee bit under reponsive but nothing major.

[#10]

Just to keep this thread updated, not had an issue apart from once while using openDNS so I do think its PN's DNS cache.

[#11]

We haven't seen any oddities at this end.  That's why I was asking you to check using both

[#12]

@techguy
IIRC you have a Netgear router (however the following applies for a good many different makes).
When you don't explicity specify DNS servers in the router it'll pick up those specified by PN automatically.  The router's DHCP server will then hand out the router's IP address as the DNS server to clients on the network. 
If you speciy the DNS servers the router's DHCP server will hand out those specified to the clients.
In the the first instance PC's on the network will make DNS requests to the router which will act as a proxy and make the request to PN's servers.  In the second case the PC will make the request directly to the DNS server specified (OpenDNS in your case).
DNS proxies in routers are notorious for not being very good (for want of a better turn of phrase!).  It may actually be your router causing the problem rather than PN.
One way to check for sure (unless it's what you're already doing) is to manually assign DNS servers on the PC (or specify PN's DNS servers explicitly in your router where you would normally enter the OpenDNS ones).
May not be your problem but I've seen many DNS problems solved by bypassing the router's inbuilt proxy!!!

[#13]

In the interests of keeping this thread updated (and in the hope it may help others) as suggested by Paul I have been running for the past week with the DNS IPs specifically specified in the Windows TCP/IP config and performance has been noticeably better though during peaks there can be noticeable delay in lookup speed as mentioned by others.