Internet issue

[#1]

Internet contact failed abut 5 - 10 minutes ago where I am. Problem seems to be with Cloudflare DNS servers/network.

Had to revert PC's IPv4 DNS Server address to 'Automatic' and reboot. This seems to have cleared the problem. Either that or Cloudflare DNS problem was a temporary glitch.

[#2]

Follow on from above. I seem unable to contact the Plusnet Gateway or DNS servers using ping (currently both working OK) - this is rather annoying, how would I test if they are contactable or not for test purposes?

The only one I am getting reliable ping returns from are Google DNS servers - still getting erratic returns from Cloudflare DNS.

[#3]

@pvmb It is possible/likely these servers are set not to respond to ping requests.

[#4]

@jab1 absolutely correct!. I don't think the gateways have ever responded to ping, and the PN DNS servers were modified some while ago not to.

[#5]

...So we are rather stuck with random suck it and see when it comes to diagnosing any network issues?

Interestingly, I see a website I know that recently changed to being hosted via Cloudflare servers (Bot issues) is in trouble again this morning.

[#6]

Cloudflare DNS Outage Disrupts Access for Thousands Globally

https://www.fixyanet.com/2025/07/cloudflare-dns-outage-disrupts-access.html

Cloudflare DNS Outage Disrupts Access for Thousands Globally

"So here’s something that caught a lot of people off guard recently — if your internet suddenly felt broken or certain websites stopped working for you, you weren’t alone. There was a major disruption caused by Cloudflare, and it’s been affecting thousands of users all over the globe."

Should be fixed now.

[#7]

if you are a Linux user take a look at the options traceroute provides.
There is also mtr (my trace route) with similar options.
both allow to traceroute using TCP or UDP