Plusnet DNS Intermittent faults

[#1]

Is anyone else having an issue with using Plusnet DNS?
I spent the past few days trying to find out why I was unable to connect to websites, email, FTP or connect to gaming severs and it appears to be a problem with using Plusnets DNS servers. Trying to view a website takes upto 20 refreshes of the site for it to finally appear.
I tried switching the DNS settings in my router from "Obtain automatically from ISP" to using googles DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) and it immediately fixed the problem. I opened a ticket with Plusnet and they said that nobody else has the problem and gave me there IP's for their DNS which I tried instead of googles DNS and it failed again straight away.
I have resorted to running on googles DNS to be able to contact support and post here.
I just wondered if others had the same connection issue and had not realised that it was DNS related.
It happens on multiple PC's, OS's, browsers and with 2 different routers I have tried so they issue doesnt seem ot be coming from my own hardward or software.
Running traceroutes gives the standard DNS problem message "Unable to resolve target system name".
If anyone's got the same issue or any bright ideas ot sort it let me know.

[#2]

It's not a plusnet dns issue, maybe your router, but not plusnet dns.

[#3]

Hi Tensulp,
We're definitely not aware of any issues with our DNS so I'd say it's more likely that this was caused by an issue in how your router was set up.
We have some guides available here in case you wanted to try specifying our DNS servers but you might want to leave your set up as it is now that you've rectified the issue
http://www.plus.net/support/software/index.shtml

[#4]

I've been having the same problem this afternoon -seems to be OK now tho'

[#5]

Strange, i don't see any issue today or yesterday. Is it a routing issue maybe somewhere? did you do simple ping traces to the dns servers for example ?
Here is a bit of info, i'll post a graph in a short while.

PING 212.159.6.9 (212.159.6.9) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=17.4 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=16.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=3 ttl=250 time=15.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=4 ttl=250 time=16.4 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=5 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=6 ttl=250 time=16.2 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=7 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.9: icmp_seq=8 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
^C
--- 212.159.6.9 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 received, 0% packet loss, time 7007ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 15.947/16.621/17.447/0.451 ms
PING 212.159.6.10 (212.159.6.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=16.5 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=16.3 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=3 ttl=250 time=17.3 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=4 ttl=250 time=16.1 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=5 ttl=250 time=16.4 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=6 ttl=250 time=17.0 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=7 ttl=250 time=17.4 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.6.10: icmp_seq=8 ttl=250 time=16.9 ms
^C
--- 212.159.6.10 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 received, 0% packet loss, time 7009ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.186/16.793/17.413/0.459 ms
PING 212.159.13.49 (212.159.13.49) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=17.3 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=16.2 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=3 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=4 ttl=250 time=17.3 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=5 ttl=250 time=16.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=6 ttl=250 time=16.5 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=7 ttl=250 time=16.4 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.49: icmp_seq=8 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
^C
--- 212.159.13.49 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 received, 0% packet loss, time 7009ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.214/16.783/17.398/0.420 ms
PING 212.159.13.50 (212.159.13.50) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=1 ttl=250 time=17.5 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=2 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=3 ttl=250 time=17.1 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=4 ttl=250 time=16.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=5 ttl=250 time=17.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=6 ttl=250 time=16.9 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=7 ttl=250 time=16.6 ms
64 bytes from 212.159.13.50: icmp_seq=8 ttl=250 time=16.9 ms
^C
--- 212.159.13.50 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 received, 0% packet loss, time 7009ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.634/17.058/17.676/0.357 ms
Nameserver          	Response Time (ms)
                    	min/avg/max/stdev/retries
192.168.0.15        	0.58/0.60/0.68/0.04/0
212.159.6.9         	17.22/17.85/18.64/0.46/0
212.159.6.10        	17.49/17.82/18.18/0.24/0
212.159.13.49       	17.27/18.01/18.63/0.56/0
212.159.13.50       	17.28/17.85/18.17/0.32/0
208.67.222.222      	17.49/18.07/18.83/0.56/0
208.67.222.220      	17.23/17.39/17.65/0.16/0
208.67.222.123      	17.47/17.67/17.97/0.18/0
208.67.220.123      	17.07/17.62/18.20/0.36/0
8.8.8.8             	22.98/23.35/23.88/0.40/0
8.8.4.4             	22.98/23.27/23.65/0.25/0
4.2.2.1             	17.23/17.54/17.73/0.18/0
4.2.2.6             	16.83/17.28/17.70/0.37/0

[#6]

Very unstable from here today. Was much worse earlier, actually, but this is now.
(The ns_bench figures are from Windows, so subtract 2 or 3 ms for the real figure - but it's the variability compared to OpenDNS which is the notable thing.)
Having said that, it hasn't caused my router any problems.
I'm on ptn-ag02

[tt]
Pinging 212.159.6.9 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=250
Reply from 212.159.6.9: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=250
Ping statistics for 212.159.6.9:
    Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 3ms, Maximum =  15ms, Average =  8ms



Nameserver              Response Time (ms)
                        min    avg    max    stdev  retries
212.159.6.9            5.85    9.55  16.45  4.34  0
212.159.6.10            6.27    8.24  10.79  1.58  0
212.159.13.49          6.65    8.72  11.75  1.86  0
212.159.13.50          6.25    7.26    9.39  1.13  0
208.67.222.222          6.22    6.51    7.36  0.44  0
208.67.220.220          5.88    5.98    6.09  0.08  0

212.159.6.9            5.85    6.74    7.50  0.63  0
212.159.6.10            6.07    6.16    6.35  0.10  0
212.159.13.49          5.90    6.48    6.90  0.37  0
212.159.13.50          6.27    6.89    8.10  0.67  0
208.67.222.222          6.04    6.26    6.49  0.17  0
208.67.220.220          5.94    6.21    6.75  0.29  0

212.159.6.9            5.82    6.19    6.39  0.23  0
212.159.6.10            6.27  10.96  19.82  5.70  0
212.159.13.49          5.91    6.28    7.15  0.46  0
212.159.13.50          6.13    7.23    7.89  0.59  0
208.67.222.222          6.05    6.17    6.32  0.10  0
208.67.220.220          5.90    6.21    6.39  0.18  0

212.159.6.9            6.06    7.74  12.07  2.28  0
212.159.6.10            5.66    6.25    7.04  0.49  0
212.159.13.49          6.21    6.88    8.45  0.84  0
212.159.13.50          6.06    6.22    6.62  0.21  0
208.67.222.222          5.76    6.02    6.34  0.20  0
208.67.220.220          5.71    6.20    6.88  0.41  0
[/tt]

[#7]

My router configuration has not changd in a couple of years, it is setup the same as it always has been. The problems only happend recently.
I also run the exact same router configuration on an identical router with another different plusnet connection and that has had no problems.
It was fixed for a few hours the other day and the plusnet DNS worked correclty but then went intermittent again.
Clearly this is not a plusnet DNS wide issue but its only when using plusnet DNS that I have the problem. If it was a connection issue or router problem then using google DNS would not have solved the problem.
I have switched back to the router DNS "Obtan autmatically from ISP" again and it is currently working so I can't post any ping test results until the problem happens again.

[#8]

The 2 graphs that i've posted show no issue for me that is why i was pointing at routing or even gateway maybe.
Maybe it's just a mirage in the guise of plusneT  

[#9]

@Tensulp try grabbing some info to fire at the guys so they can't dispute it etc...

[#10]

I'm still getting intermittent problems even after I changed over to Google DNS servers -the router log is reporting dns probe {8812} : dns query failed

[#11]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

We're definitely not aware of any issues with our DNS

What about https://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,118268.96.html (77437)?
I seem to have randomly mostly avoided being on Telehouse (ptn and ptw) gateways recently, so I can't say whether it has since been fixed. That problem was only noticeable at peak times.

[#12]

@ 30FTTC06 it's currently back up and working again but I will run some more tests if/when it does it again.
Can someone provide the list of IP's that belong to Plusnet DNS.
212.159.6.9
212.159.6.10
212.159.13.49
212.159.13.50
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Are there just these or more?

[#13]

Quote from: Tensulp

212.159.6.9 212.159.6.10 212.159.13.49 212.159.13.50

These are the plusnet ones.

Quote from: Tensulp

208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

These are OpenDNS.

[#14]

I get the glitches too. I can be surfing away perfectly then all is like treacle. I raised the issue a couple of weeks back and PN could not find any fault. When it happens pings and tracerts can show that errors are occuring while on PN network.
I can complete the BT speedtest without any faults being found so I'm told it must be me.

[#15]

Constipated via Telehouse North.
You are currently connected to gateway ptn-ag01.
This is located in Telehouse North.
Changing DNS to OpenDNS has made a big difference to my speed.