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DNS problems?

chrisclark91
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎02-06-2011

DNS problems?

Ever since Saturday afternoon, I've randomly been getting disconnected with a DNS problem every once in a while. (When I tried to load a webpage when the disconnect occurs, firefox shows as "Looking up www."; and I managed to catch a long enough disconnect earlier to diagnose through the Windows 7 built in troubleshooter and it claimed that there was a DNS problem and to contact my ISP or something along those lines. So is this a problem plusnet's side?
Thanks.
93 REPLIES 93
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: DNS problems?

I am also running Windows 7 with the latest Firefox and I am using Google as my primary DNS lookup with Plusnet as a secondary and have seen exactly that problem since the latest upgrade to 10.0.2.
I tried disabling DNS caching in Firefox which didn't stop it.
A restart of Firefox always fixes it
chrisclark91
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎02-06-2011

Re: DNS problems?

Are you getting completely disconnected from the net though? When the problem occurs, I also get disconnected/timed out from any online games I'm playing at the time and disconnected from instant messenger programs.
jim:quote
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: DNS problems?

As I don't play games on line nor run instant messenger I don't know about them.
However I know I don't get disconnected from the net as some sites still load even when the problem one is sitting there trying to load
chrisclark91
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎02-06-2011

Re: DNS problems?

Would like a plusnet response about this issue, just literally happened again at 4:57-4:58 pm.
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: DNS problems?

Hi chrisclark91,
It doesn't sound like a DNS issue, as it wouldn't normally manifest as something that lasted just a minute. I would suspect it as being a different kind of connectivity issue. Are you using a wired or wireless connection when this happens?
Jojo Smiley
GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Re: DNS problems?

I'd also welcome feedback on this as I've been plagued by these DNS issues for several months now.
The Win7 support forums (including Microsoft's) are full of queries but with no definitive answers. From the Win7 event logs the event always referencesa DNS Client event with a few web addresses, but not limited to www.msftncsi.com and teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com. This maybe a coincidence, as they are Win7 automated contacts back to Microsoft.
Once I have a disconnect due to this issue, I'm lucky if it reconnects, but I usually have to reboot the router with a reduction in synch speed as a consequence. I always had an extremely reliable line, connecting at the full DSLMax rate, but since these issues I'm lucky to pull 5Mbps.
I'd be interested if any PN support can give an indication as to my line stability from the ISP point of view.
thanks
Graham
chrisclark91
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎02-06-2011

Re: DNS problems?

Hi jojo, I'm using a wired connection.
GrahamC
Grafter
Posts: 257
Registered: ‎19-07-2009

Re: DNS problems?

Chris / OldJim
do you see any references in the Win 7 event logs? Just curious....
cheers
Graham
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: DNS problems?

I didn't check and it hasn't happened recently - I will check if it happens again.
Now going away to find out why VSS has shut down due to idle timeout - from the log
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: DNS problems?

I didn't know Firefox has a DNS cache, but there is a network.dns.disableIPv6 option, if you think the Microsoft IPv6 over IPv4 components have something to do with the problem.
chrisclark91
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎02-06-2011

Re: DNS problems?

Name resolution for the name www.google.co.uk timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.
Name resolution for the name dns.msftncsi.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.
I found those in my event log around the times of when this problem occurs. I don't use any 3rd party DNS such as opendns or google, I only use the plusnet dns servers which are obtained automatically.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: DNS problems?

I suggest changing at least the primary or secondary to either OpenDNS or Google and see if that makes any difference
But before doing that  open a Command Prompt window and type in the command ipconfig /all  (note the space between ipconfig and /all) and see what the DNS servers are reported as - it should be your router's IP address
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: DNS problems?

As Oldjim, I had been using OpenDNS and Google DNS,  however a couple of weeks ago I had a major DNS benchmarking session and discovered that Norton DNS was consistently faster than Google DNS,  so now I use OpenDNS (primary) and Norton DNS (secondary).
Note that Norton DNS uses different addresses depending on what level of security you choose to implement.
My other recommendation is to try the public DNS from "Level 3 Communications" which my benchmarking shows typically being comparable or faster than Google DNS.  The addresses to try are 4.2.2.1 through 4.2.2.6, although 4.2.2.2 is running a bit slow this evening.
ALL the above mentioned DNS are faster and more reliable than Plusnet DNS !  Undecided
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: DNS problems?

I prefer to bypass the proxying DNS server in the router, which you do by configuring the DNS servers on each computer.