By-pass the current DNS outages.
 

i just hope this is made sticky for the time being, coz im tired of all the crap connection in the northwest area, i couldnt connect to MSN a huge bunch of websites for days, so i took measures into my own hands.

ive posted this here, because it applies to dialup and cable users.

ok... ive organised this into categories of programs.

1. The WWW internet, if all you want is to connect to webpages, thats simple as hell, goto your web browsers settings, in IE this is located under tools - internet options, goto the connections tab, and click lan settings, tick the "use proxy server for lan" box, and enter this in the bigger box below, without the "", "inktomi2-lee.server.ntl.com" then in the other box, enter "8080". click ok, then restart IE. (if you use opera like me, i guess you're intelligent enough to enter that proxy on your own)

et voila, you can now access all of the web.

2. MSN and other IM programs that arent working, this takes a little more effort and patience than the plain ol internet.
So... you need to find yourself some kind've proxy, i found the ntl ones didnt work with msn, http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=pro...arch&fr=fp-top is a good place to start.
Once found, and hopefully it works, but youll find that out when you try it in MSN, you need to go into Tools - Options in msn's main window, then the connections tab, tick the i use a proxy button, and then choose the type of proxy you've found, generally theres a million and 1 http proxies a few socks 4, and socks 5, you dont really need to know the differences, but that you dont need to enter a username or password. ok, enter the IP address of your proxy and the port it uses usually split up like this IP.Add.ress:port with the : between the ip and port.

then ok it, and try and sign in, if your proxy is working, you're in.

3. Any other web program that doesnt have proxy entry boxes to fill in.

ok... again this is a long winded one so you just gotta bear with me, goto www.sockscap.com and download the 32bit client once you get to that stage, just put crap in for your name and stuff, its freeware so youve no need to worry, just asks rubbish like apple quicktime download does. Once you have that you should get yourself a working SOCKS proxy, this time http ones wont work.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=pro...arch&fr=fp-top again is a good place to start, once you have one you know/think is working then load up sockscap, and goto the settings option enter the ip and port of the proxy you found.
Then you need to click the "new" button, and add the executable of the program you want to run, if you're not sure what that is, id suggest you either try the file of the same name, "ftpclient.exe" or whatever program you're trying or wait til the DNS problems blow over.

ok, now once you have chosen the exe file, click ok, then highlight your program and click RUN. this will make the program you're using connection through the proxy you have chosen.

4. WARNING! read this regardless which of the above you choose, proxies whilst good for anonymously surfing and routing around problems with NTL are also unsecure, the lists on the net are peoples home computers mostly and in such cases could monitor everything you do. but unless they have programs that look for msn passwords and things in the data stream your safe, and as you have there IP address, you can simply call the police and prove theft, scaremongering aside, i use proxies all the time, depending on where ive been banned from ;-) and whether i want more anonymity or reliability in connection.

oh, and if you really do have problems finding your own working proxy servers i have a select list of working ones, but obviously i dont want everyone using them otherwise they'll disappear from overuse :) and that means i cant use the net... lol

heres a list of all the NTL proxies for HTTP (method 1)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...trancache.html

and heres a list of socks/http proxies that i personally use.

http://www.checker.freeproxy.ru/chec...ed_proxies.php
http://www.atomintersoft.com/product...xy/proxy-list/

I must have tried all those proxies but with no luck i feel like crying why wont it work arrrrrggggghhhhhhh

The good news is i finally got it to work this morning, went thru the proxy settings again and the first one worked, so dupre thanx alot i could hug yer :tu: :wavey:

I hate to be annoying but the methods listed above will not really help with DNS issues.
IIRC, the DNS servers are provided for you when you get an IP from the DHCP server so entering a different proxy will do nothing.

The only reliable method to bypass the NTL DNS is to run your own DNS server which directly queries the root servers and specify that server in your network settings for DNS, instead of "automatically assigned".

Well its worked for me :)

it was the most common terms i found that people were blaming the problem on, im aware its ntl's caching thats gone tits up not DNS but its all part and parcel. so these methods allow you to bypass and connect to IP's you cannot otherwise, therefore DNS problems seemed a good term to use.

I always remember Demon Internet's DNS server's IP addresses if I need to switch DNS lol

am i the ony one that cant access the net at all with a ntl proxy?

The problem seems to have cleared up today.

Had some appalling slowdown problems last night, with some sites refusing to load altogether, some loading at snail's pace and others relatively unaffected. Simply popped Dupre's suggested proxy into my settings and hey presto ... instant hassle-free browsing.

Thanks, Dupre.

Get it sorted, ntl.

well i removed all proxies last night and its all working fine for me, and im glad to see the .co.uk are more attentive than those on .com (MORONS), if you dont want to help yourself and just complain it doesnt work, the FU... but dont expect im gonna post on .com again. (just incase any of em read here)

A huge number of sites are shagged here (Woking, Surrey). It would appear to be some kind of DNS thing as it's on the initial connection to a site that fails randomly, as if it's the "lookup" for the site. Refresh a number of times and it works. The speeds are fine once it gets going so long as the content is all on that site. As soon as it needs to contact another site the page will slow down, as I assume it's making another DNS lookup.

This has been going on for a week now, and is not encouraging me to stay with the 1Meg service I just upgrade to (to "try it out") :(


Changing proxies doesn't help much. Occasionally it does for a short while. Even changing the upstream channel doesn't help.

well why not look at using some of the Telewest proxies? or other ISP's, i know BT ones are usually open for business as UK hosts.

i only put this info up as a guideline, not a be-all end-all.