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Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

evilandi
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Registered: ‎12-04-2014

Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

Myself (PN fibre, Tewkesbury) and a friend (PN fibre, Cheltenham) both cannot resolve en.wikipedia.org . However my various servers around the world - Amazon Dublin, Blue Square Maidenhead, a Swiss provider and my work account on JANET can all see it just fine.
Anyone else seeing this problem? Does Plusnet have some kind of DNS caching issue with en.wikipedia.org at the moment please?
aoakley@khepri:~$ date
Thu Jul 17 11:59:28 BST 2014
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org
Host en.wikipedia.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
aoakley@khepri:~$ host wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org has address 208.80.154.224
wikipedia.org has IPv6 address 2620:0:861:ed1a::1
wikipedia.org mail is handled by 10 polonium.wikimedia.org.
wikipedia.org mail is handled by 50 lead.wikimedia.org.
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org
Host en.wikipedia.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
16 REPLIES 16
humanracer
Newbie
Posts: 4
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-07-2014

Am I being blocked from using Wikipedia?

No one in my house can view the wikipedia website yet my friends on SKY,BT and Virgin can view it without any problems. What is going on?
Many thanks
Rob
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Am I being blocked from using Wikipedia?

What happens when you try to view a page?
humanracer
Newbie
Posts: 4
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎17-07-2014

Re: Am I being blocked from using Wikipedia?

It just does not load, it takes ages then says page cannot be displayed.
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Am I being blocked from using Wikipedia?

Can you go Start > Run > cmd (Hit Return) > traceroute en.wikipedia.org and post the result?
npr
Pro
Posts: 1,898
Thanks: 119
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

From here Plusnet failed to resolve en.wikipedia.org using their dns servers
212.159.6.9
212.159.6.10
212.159.13.49
Strangely Plusnets dns server 212.159.13.50 does resolve the address.
No problem with other dns servers I've tried.
Roll_eyes
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

Two topics on the same problem merged
dave
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 12,257
Thanks: 306
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

Saw this earlier too:
http://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/2ax0qd/isp_blocking_wikipedia/
Dave Tomlinson
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
npr
Pro
Posts: 1,898
Thanks: 119
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

For those using Plusnets defective dns server.  Roll_eyes
You can access wikipedia.org by entering the following IP address in the browsers address bar.
91.198.174.192
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

Doesn't help explain what's happening, however I don't seem to be having problems and can browse to the site without problems on my FTTC circuit:
C:\Windows\System32>nslookup en.wikipedia.org 212.159.6.10
Server:  cdns02.plus.net
Address:  212.159.6.10
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org
Addresses:  2620:0:862:ed1a::1
          91.198.174.192
Aliases:  en.wikipedia.org
          text-lb.wikimedia.org

C:\Windows\System32>nslookup en.wikipedia.org 212.159.6.9
Server:  cdns01.plus.net
Address:  212.159.6.9
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org
Addresses:  2620:0:862:ed1a::1
          91.198.174.192
Aliases:  en.wikipedia.org
          text-lb.wikimedia.org

C:\Windows\System32>nslookup en.wikipedia.org 212.159.13.49
Server:  cdns01.plus.net
Address:  212.159.13.49
Name:    text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org
Address:  2620:0:862:ed1a::1
Aliases:  en.wikipedia.org
          text-lb.wikimedia.org

C:\Windows\System32>nslookup en.wikipedia.org 212.159.13.50
Server:  cdns02.plus.net
Address:  212.159.13.50
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org
Addresses:  2620:0:862:ed1a::1
          91.198.174.192
Aliases:  en.wikipedia.org
          text-lb.wikimedia.org

Interesting Reddit article. Looks like we might not be the only ones with 'defective' DNS servers Wink
I shall have somebody take a more detailed look into things regardless.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

evilandi
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Registered: ‎12-04-2014

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

The page http://www.plus.net/support/customer_service/using/settings.shtml lists four domain name servers. Two of these 212.159.13.49 and .13.50 are resolving en.wikipedia.org correctly. Two .6.9 & .6.10 are not resolving it.
It would appear that Plusnet's "alternative set" of domain name servers are at fault. My router appears to use these. I'm not going to attempt to remotely reconfigure my home router whilst at work, but those more at home (literally) than I may wish to try changing their router's DNS from .6.9 / .6.10 to 212.159.13.49 and 212.159.13.50 .
aoakley@khepri:~$ date
Thu Jul 17 12:42:01 BST 2014
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org
Host en.wikipedia.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org 212.159.13.49
Using domain server:
Name: 212.159.13.49
Address: 212.159.13.49#53
Aliases:
en.wikipedia.org is an alias for text-lb.wikimedia.org.
text-lb.wikimedia.org is an alias for text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org.
text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org has address 91.198.174.192
text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org has IPv6 address 2620:0:862:ed1a::1
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org 212.159.13.50
Using domain server:
Name: 212.159.13.50
Address: 212.159.13.50#53
Aliases:
en.wikipedia.org is an alias for text-lb.wikimedia.org.
text-lb.wikimedia.org is an alias for text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org.
text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org has address 91.198.174.192
text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org has IPv6 address 2620:0:862:ed1a::1
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org 212.159.6.9
Using domain server:
Name: 212.159.6.9
Address: 212.159.6.9#53
Aliases:
Host en.wikipedia.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
aoakley@khepri:~$ host en.wikipedia.org 212.159.6.10
Using domain server:
Name: 212.159.6.10
Address: 212.159.6.10#53
Aliases:
Host en.wikipedia.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
evilandi
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Registered: ‎12-04-2014

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

BTW I'm using Raspbian (Debian Linux derivative) on a Raspberry Pi at home, so suggestions on Reddit that it's MS-Windows malware is obviously far from the mark. My guess would be dodgy DNS cache/refresh at Plusnet Towers, or some kind of poorly executed DNS poisoning attack from outside.
chenks76
All Star
Posts: 3,274
Thanks: 338
Fixes: 12
Registered: ‎24-10-2013

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

it's not just affecting plusnet user.
sky broadband users also having this issue (as well as BT).
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

Exactly.
There's plenty of grumbling on Twitter from users of other ISPs (that's in addition to the Reddit thread linked up there ^^^). Admittedly, they've not been perfect in the past, but people seem to be very quick to point the finger at our DNS servers Undecided

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

npr
Pro
Posts: 1,898
Thanks: 119
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Wikipedia DNS problem confined to Plusnet?

Quote from: Bob
Admittedly, they've not been perfect in the past, but people seem to be very quick to point the finger at our DNS servers Undecided

I wonder why that is.  Roll_eyes
Still not seeing a problem with opendns, google dns or the root servers.
Level3 dns is giving a suspect IP address so there may be something in the dns poisoning theory.