Ongoing DNS Issues? Timeouts....

[#1]

Which site were you connected to when you saw the problems?  PCL/PTW or PTN?

[#2]

If the router allows you to set a metric of 1 (or any number less than 10)  for google dns or opendns that will have priority even if the PN settings do sneak back in.
eg the PN dns acquired by DHCP have a metric of 10, any custom settings less than 10 will have priority.

[#3]

Quote from: Kelly

Which site were you connected to when you saw the problems?  PCL/PTW or PTN?

PTW.
Since changing to OpenDNS and rebooting the router I'm now on PCL and all seems fine.

[#4]

From here thing's are far from fixed.
See attached dnsbenchmark results.
Many dns servers are now showing failed lookups ( the red through the IP address on the graph)
This includes PN's servers and now opendns.
The following tracerts raises the question of a routing issue with Plusnet/ level3
Lost in Paris: A London based dns server goes through Paris:
Tracing route to ns2.lon.pnap.net [212.118.241.33]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
 1    42 ms    96 ms    98 ms  dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
 2    26 ms    26 ms    27 ms  lo0-central10.pcl-ag05.plus.net [195.166.128.186]
 3    29 ms    25 ms    25 ms  link-a-central10.pcl-gw01.plus.net [212.159.2.176]
 4    25 ms    29 ms    25 ms  xe-1-2-0.pcl-cr01.plus.net [212.159.0.208]
 5    26 ms    25 ms    25 ms  xe-11-2-0.edge3.London2.Level3.net [212.187.201.213]
 6    32 ms    33 ms    32 ms  ae-3-3.ebr1.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.141.86]
 7    32 ms    32 ms    32 ms  ae-71-71.csw2.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.161.82]
 8    32 ms    32 ms    32 ms  ae-2-70.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.71]
 9    33 ms    32 ms    32 ms  global-crossing-xe-level3.paris1.level3.net [4.68.63.230]
10    34 ms    34 ms    34 ms  InterNAP.Tengigabitethernet4-2.401ar4.LON3.gblx.
net [208.49.125.94]
11    34 ms    34 ms    34 ms  border1.bbnet1.lon003.pnap.net [212.118.240.47]
12    33 ms    36 ms    34 ms  ns2.lon.pnap.net [212.118.241.33]
Trace complete.
Tracert to opendns server:
Tracing route to resolver2.opendns.com [208.67.220.220]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
 1    62 ms    98 ms    98 ms  dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
 2    26 ms    29 ms    25 ms  lo0-central10.pcl-ag05.plus.net [195.166.128.186]
 3    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  link-b-central10.pcl-gw02.plus.net [212.159.2.178]
 4    25 ms    26 ms    31 ms  xe-1-2-0.pcl-cr02.plus.net [212.159.0.210]
 5    26 ms    25 ms    26 ms  ae1.ptw-cr02.plus.net [195.166.129.2]
 6    26 ms    25 ms    25 ms  ae2.ptw-cr01.plus.net [195.166.129.4]
 7    40 ms   232 ms    26 ms  te-4-2.car5.London1.Level3.net [217.163.45.249]
 8    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  ae-1-51.edge6.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.76]
 9    26 ms    27 ms    26 ms  OPEN-DNS-IN.edge6.London1.Level3.net [195.50.116.54]
10    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  resolver2.opendns.com [208.67.220.220]
Another opendns server:
Tracing route to resolver3.opendns.com [208.67.222.220]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
 1   223 ms   170 ms    25 ms  dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
 2    26 ms    25 ms   248 ms  lo0-central10.pcl-ag05.plus.net [195.166.128.186]
 3    26 ms    29 ms    25 ms  link-b-central10.pcl-gw02.plus.net [212.159.2.178]
 4    27 ms    25 ms    25 ms  xe-1-2-0.pcl-cr02.plus.net [212.159.0.210]
 5    27 ms    25 ms    26 ms  ae2.pcl-cr01.plus.net [195.166.129.6]
 6    26 ms    26 ms    25 ms  xe-11-1-0.edge3.London2.Level3.net [212.187.201.209]
 7    26 ms    29 ms    75 ms  ae-0-11.edge4.London2.Level3.net [4.69.200.126]
 8    27 ms    26 ms    26 ms  ae-3-3.ebr1.London15.Level3.net [4.69.141.189]
 9    26 ms    25 ms    26 ms  ae-42-42.ebr1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.167.22]
10    27 ms    25 ms    27 ms  ae-56-111.csw1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.153.114]
11    28 ms    72 ms    31 ms  ae-1-51.edge6.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.76]
12    26 ms    26 ms   110 ms  OPEN-DNS-IN.edge6.London1.Level3.net [195.50.116.54]
13    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  resolver3.opendns.com [208.67.222.220]
This time it takes a extra 3 hops to arrive at the same penultimate hop [195.50.116.54]

[#5]

Steady as she goes here apart from level3 npr.
[tt]Nameserver          Response Time (ms)
                    min/avg/max/stdev/retries
212.159.6.9        18.20/19.39/22.80/1.72/0
212.159.6.10        18.22/18.49/18.74/0.17/0
208.67.222.222      17.49/17.79/18.01/0.17/0
208.67.222.220      17.88/18.28/18.50/0.23/0
208.67.222.123      18.40/18.55/18.64/0.11/0
208.67.220.123      17.98/18.23/18.48/0.17/0
8.8.8.8            23.20/23.55/23.65/0.18/0
8.8.4.4            17.60/17.82/17.96/0.13/0
209.244.0.3        17.92/18.22/18.58/0.21/0
209.244.0.4        33.70/63.91/75.83/19.20/2
192.168.0.254      19.41/19.75/20.23/0.28/0
192.168.0.15        0.55/0.56/0.57/0.00/0
[/tt]

[#6]

It perhaps depends on which half of the network we're on.
Not something I pay much attention to, so not sure of the details, but the 1st opendns tracert looks strange:
a) starting of on the pcl half then exiting PN from the ptw half.
b) whereas the second,  longer, opendns tracert starts and exits PN from pcl. 

[#7]

here is my route for the same if it helps.
traceroute 208.67.220.220
traceroute to 208.67.220.220 (208.67.220.220), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)  70.201 ms  69.709 ms  69.243 ms
2  lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net (195.166.128.192)  18.125 ms  19.067 ms  18.885 ms
3  link-a-central10.ptn-gw01.plus.net (212.159.2.136)  20.582 ms  20.333 ms  20.219 ms
4  xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr01.plus.net (212.159.0.108)  20.268 ms  19.863 ms  19.946 ms
5  te-4-2.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.249)  20.921 ms te-3-4.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.181)  20.353 ms te-4-2.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.249)  20.601 ms
6  ae-1-51.edge6.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.76)  20.410 ms  18.240 ms  17.705 ms
7  OPEN-DNS-IN.edge6.London1.Level3.net (195.50.116.54)  18.735 ms  19.316 ms  18.637 ms
8  resolver2.opendns.com (208.67.220.220)  19.093 ms  19.196 ms  19.545 ms

traceroute 208.67.222.220
traceroute to 208.67.222.220 (208.67.222.220), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)  79.840 ms  79.474 ms  79.111 ms
2  lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net (195.166.128.192)  19.378 ms  19.886 ms  19.680 ms
3  link-a-central10.ptn-gw01.plus.net (212.159.2.136)  20.841 ms  20.733 ms  20.497 ms
4  xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr01.plus.net (212.159.0.108)  20.373 ms  20.160 ms  19.992 ms
5  te-3-4.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.181)  23.737 ms  23.340 ms te-4-2.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.249)  23.440 ms
6  ae-1-51.edge6.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.76)  19.396 ms  17.862 ms  18.635 ms
7  OPEN-DNS-IN.edge6.London1.Level3.net (195.50.116.54)  18.735 ms  18.694 ms  18.822 ms
8  resolver3.opendns.com (208.67.222.220)  18.706 ms  19.040 ms  20.211 ms

traceroute 212.118.241.33
traceroute to 212.118.241.33 (212.118.241.33), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)  65.904 ms  65.478 ms  65.101 ms
2  lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net (195.166.128.192)  18.289 ms  18.442 ms  18.489 ms
3  link-b-central10.ptn-gw02.plus.net (212.159.2.138)  19.943 ms  19.834 ms  20.814 ms
4  xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr02.plus.net (212.159.0.110)  19.617 ms  20.439 ms  20.256 ms
5  ae2.ptw-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.4)  20.148 ms  19.906 ms  20.145 ms
6  ae2.pcl-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.6)  19.909 ms  17.157 ms  18.138 ms
7  ae-51-51.csw1.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.88)  21.118 ms xe-11-2-0.edge3.London2.Level3.net (212.187.201.213)  18.095 ms ae-51-51.csw1.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.88)  19.587 ms
8  ae-117-3503.edge3.London1.Level3.net (4.69.166.138)  17.823 ms ae-115-3501.edge3.London1.Level3.net (4.69.166.130)  19.096 ms ae-116-3502.edge3.London1.Level3.net (4.69.166.134)  18.973 ms
9  ae-61-61.csw1.Paris1.Level3.net (4.69.161.78)  25.510 ms gblx-level3-50g.London1.Level3.net (4.68.110.158)  19.630 ms ae-81-81.csw3.Paris1.Level3.net (4.69.161.86)  25.533 ms
10  ae-2-70.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net (4.69.168.71)  25.857 ms ae-1-60.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net (4.69.168.7)  25.658 ms InterNAP.Tengigabitethernet4-2.401ar4.LON3.gblx.net (208.49.125.94)  18.427 ms
11  global-crossing-xe-level3.paris1.level3.net (4.68.127.98)  24.087 ms border1.bbnet1.lon003.pnap.net (212.118.240.47)  18.379 ms border1.bbnet2.lon003.pnap.net (212.118.240.111)  19.183 ms
12  ns2.lon.pnap.net (212.118.241.33)  18.477 ms InterNAP.Tengigabitethernet4-2.401ar4.LON3.gblx.net (208.49.125.94)  25.773 ms ns2.lon.pnap.net (212.118.241.33)  18.389 ms

[#8]

I've rechecked tracer 208.67.222.220.
Still 13 hops from here, and we're both on ptn. 

[#9]

have you tried 'em all?
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
208.67.222.220
208.67.220.222
I had the same about a week ago with 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 it lasted about 24 hours routing via paris, then they swapped back to london.

[#10]

Switched gateway to ptn-ag04
Tracert to 208.67.222.220 now only takes 9 hops.
And  212.118.241.33 nolonger goes through Paris
Benchmark results still poor.

[#11]

I've just got back and mine is still rock solid apart from level3, but only 4.2.2.2/4/6 on edge5 is bad. 4.2.2.1/3/5 on edge4 are all ok for me
so yeah still not as it should be by the looks of it. I can see why some may still be having trouble.

[tt]Host                                Loss%  Snt  Last  Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1. 192.168.0.254                    0.0%    47  40.2  62.2  0.8  93.3  17.9
2. lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net  0.0%    47  17.0  38.2  16.8 317.0  48.1
3. link-b-central10.ptn-gw02.plus.n  0.0%    47  16.8  17.3  16.7  19.3  0.5
4. xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr02.plus.net        0.0%    47  16.8  17.3  16.3  21.9  0.9
5. ae1.pcl-cr02.plus.net            0.0%    46  17.5  18.6  16.7  40.0  3.4
6. ae2.pcl-cr01.plus.net            0.0%    46  17.2  19.7  16.4  57.3  7.0
7. xe-11-2-0.edge3.London2.Level3.n  0.0%    46  17.5  18.4  16.4  56.5  5.8
8. ae-0-11.edge4.London2.Level3.net  0.0%    46  18.2  19.7  17.1  45.4  6.3
9. ae-3-3.ebr1.London15.Level3.net  0.0%    46  17.5  18.4  17.2  29.0  1.7
10. ae-43-43.ebr1.London1.Level3.net  0.0%    46  18.3  18.0  17.0  20.8  0.6
11. ae-56-111.csw1.London1.Level3.ne  0.0%    46  18.0  18.2  17.1  20.6  0.6
12. ae-122-3508.edge4.London1.Level3  0.0%    46  17.5  18.0  16.9  23.2  1.1
    ae-120-3506.edge4.London1.Level3.net
13. a.resolvers.level3.net            0.0%    46  18.7  17.9  17.1  20.0  0.5
[/tt]
[tt]Host                                Loss%  Snt  Last  Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1. 192.168.0.254                    0.0%    30  49.7  55.9  2.8 100.1  33.4
2. lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net  0.0%    30  18.7  21.4  16.7 121.9  19.0
3. link-a-central10.ptn-gw01.plus.n  0.0%    30  17.3  17.5  16.6  25.6  1.6
4. xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr01.plus.net        0.0%    30  16.8  19.5  16.3  70.6  10.4
5. te-4-2.car5.London1.Level3.net  35.7%    29  150.8  59.2  17.1 223.5  68.0
6. ae-52-52.csw2.London1.Level3.net  0.0%    29  17.9  17.8  17.2  24.4  1.2
7. ae-233-3609.edge5.london1.Level3  0.0%    29  17.6  18.1  16.7  43.0  4.8
    ae-236-3612.edge5.London1.Level3.net
    ae-235-3611.edge5.london1.Level3.net
8. resolver8.Level3.net              3.4%    29  37.5  36.4  20.8  64.3  10.6
[/tt]

[#12]

All seems well now, level3 is back to normal for me.
Nameserver          Response Time (ms)
                          min/avg/max/stdev/retries
212.159.6.9          18.10/18.69/19.78/0.59/0
212.159.6.10        18.30/18.55/19.03/0.27/0
208.67.222.222      17.73/18.23/18.56/0.28/0
208.67.222.220      18.02/18.34/18.57/0.21/0
208.67.222.123      17.75/18.30/18.70/0.31/0
208.67.220.123      18.36/18.60/19.06/0.25/0
8.8.8.8                23.72/24.12/24.90/0.41/0
8.8.4.4                17.75/18.27/19.03/0.43/0
209.244.0.3          17.82/18.19/18.43/0.25/0
209.244.0.4          17.90/18.16/18.40/0.16/0
192.168.0.254      19.11/19.85/20.24/0.40/0
192.168.0.15        0.55/0.57/0.65/0.04/0

traceroute 209.244.0.3
traceroute to 209.244.0.3 (209.244.0.3), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)  86.310 ms  85.879 ms  85.519 ms
2  lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net (195.166.128.192)  19.253 ms  21.763 ms  22.252 ms
3  link-b-central10.ptn-gw02.plus.net (212.159.2.138)  18.414 ms  20.272 ms  20.169 ms
4  xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr02.plus.net (212.159.0.110)  19.919 ms  19.804 ms  19.526 ms
5  ae1.pcl-cr02.plus.net (195.166.129.3)  20.662 ms ae2.ptw-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.4)  20.131 ms  19.889 ms
6  ae2.pcl-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.6)  19.778 ms ae1.pcl-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.1)  19.898 ms ae2.pcl-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.6)  18.052 ms
7  ae-52-52.csw2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.120)  17.956 ms xe-11-2-0.edge3.London2.Level3.net (212.187.201.213)  18.744 ms  18.616 ms
8  ae-230-3606.edge4.London1.Level3.net (4.69.166.21)  19.159 ms  18.970 ms ae-229-3605.edge4.London1.Level3.net (4.69.166.17)  20.580 ms
9  resolver1.level3.net (209.244.0.3)  20.378 ms  20.270 ms  20.067 ms
traceroute 209.244.0.4
traceroute to 209.244.0.4 (209.244.0.4), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)  62.192 ms  61.771 ms  61.397 ms
2  lo0-central10.ptn-ag03.plus.net (195.166.128.192)  18.249 ms  19.065 ms  18.879 ms
3  link-a-central10.ptn-gw01.plus.net (212.159.2.136)  19.146 ms  19.551 ms  21.436 ms
4  xe-5-3-0.ptw-cr01.plus.net (212.159.0.108)  19.708 ms  19.495 ms  19.386 ms
5  te-4-2.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.249)  142.958 ms  143.165 ms te-3-4.car5.London1.Level3.net (217.163.45.181)  143.257 ms
6  ae-51-51.csw1.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.88)  21.396 ms  18.272 ms  18.535 ms
7  ae-123-3509.edge5.London1.Level3.net (4.69.166.33)  18.732 ms  19.143 ms ae-124-3510.edge5.london1.Level3.net (4.69.166.37)  18.641 ms
8  resolver2.level3.net (209.244.0.4)  19.507 ms  19.312 ms  19.204 ms

[#13]

Is the DNS issue connected to slow network speeds as just now can only get 2.40Mb d/l instead of 6.80Mb  ?

[#14]

Hi jetstar,
There's no correlation between the DNS Issue and the speeds you receive. I've just made some changes to some of the settings on your line to see if this improves things. Please allow 4 hours for this change to take effect.

[#15]

I'm still experiencing issues at times, it's on and off all day. It's not as bad as before, but I struggle to watch 1080p youtube or high quality twitch streams without constant freezes when the problem kicks in, also thumbnails on websites etc won't load when this happens