NTLs DNS ...

Dooby · 26-11-2003, 09:19

if anyone here has any contact with any NTL bods in charge of networks, can you please explain to them that the reason for having TWO ( or more ) DNS available is so that if the first one fails, the second is still available....

how come NTLs seem to fail together? are they connected to the same cable segment or something? wouldnt it make sense for them to be phisically seperate ( perhaps different ends of the country? )
or am i missing something?

Florence · 26-11-2003, 09:29

This was a bigger outage than NTL all ISPs had outage last night. it was all discussed

here

Ignition · 26-11-2003, 10:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dooby

if anyone here has any contact with any NTL bods in charge of networks, can you please explain to them that the reason for having TWO ( or more ) DNS available is so that if the first one fails, the second is still available....

how come NTLs seem to fail together? are they connected to the same cable segment or something? wouldnt it make sense for them to be phisically seperate ( perhaps different ends of the country? )
or am i missing something?

The two main DNS clusters are physically seperate (they are in different towns) and on completely different network segments.

Dooby · 26-11-2003, 11:40

if all dns's were affected, how come i had an uninterupted nights browsing using different DNS?

ok, i will take your word that they are seperate then, still seems like they go down together quite a bit though...

Paul K · 26-11-2003, 12:05

Look how quick NTL were to shift blame
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34204.html

Quote:

damaged undersea transatlantic cable is being blamed for causing havoc for Net and phone users in the UK last night

Quote:

while NTL blamed the cable problem for downing its Net service - including web browsing, email, ftp and newsgroups - for around eight hours.

but

Quote:

Telewest confirmed that its customers also experienced difficulties accessing email and personal webspace for around four hours

Mmmmmm

downquark1 · 26-11-2003, 12:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

Look how quick NTL were to shift blame
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34204.html

but
Mmmmmm

Maybe NTL's DNS are actually France's

grahamj · 26-11-2003, 12:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by downquark1

Maybe NTL's DNS are actually France's

well i wonder if NTL will refund us!!

I bet fu**ing not!!

then again it 'aint' their fault they only have 1 way out of the UK!!! if it wasnt a DNS issue in the 1st place

downquark1 · 26-11-2003, 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by grahamj

well i wonder if NTL will refund us!!

I bet fu**ing not!!

then again it 'aint' their fault they only have 1 way out of the UK!!! if it wasnt a DNS issue in the 1st place

Well the 1 day in a month would amount to about 50p-ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£1 depending on your package, also DNS is probably only 5 percent of the service cost they probably owe 2p
(that is how ntl would argue it :p )

**Paul** · 26-11-2003, 13:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by grahamj

well i wonder if NTL will refund us!!

I bet fu**ing not!!

then again it 'aint' their fault they only have 1 way out of the UK!!! if it wasnt a DNS issue in the 1st place

Why would they ?. As far as I can see, none of the ISP's will refund you for a failure beyond their control.

If NTL/BT/Freeserve etc only had one way out of the UK you wouldn't have any service now since the cable is still damaged.

The DNS problems were just a symptom, not a cause.

Peach · 26-11-2003, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by pem

The DNS problems were just a symptom, not a cause.

I don't think they were a symptom, I was able to point at non-ntl DNS and browse US sites without issue.

Dooby · 26-11-2003, 13:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peach

I don't think they were a symptom, I was able to point at non-ntl DNS and browse US sites without issue.

same here...

apart from anything, the ONLY thing a transatlantic cable break should affect is transatlantic traffic, apart from some odities with peering agreements whereby UK bound traffic goes via the US first...

Cyrill666 · 26-11-2003, 13:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peach

I don't think they were a symptom, I was able to point at non-ntl DNS and browse US sites without issue.

Me too, as soon as I realised it was a DNS issue, I manually entered the addresses I use when at work and bang - all services return without problem.

I find it a little odd that an undersea cable problem near France should kncok out the NTL DNS servers completely, surely we should have just had a reduced service? Or am I misunderstanding the technology used?

Kind regards,
Cyril666

Hello by the way, I've moved from .com - actually it seems I was evicted

along with all other residents...

cliveb · 26-11-2003, 14:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrill666

Me too, as soon as I realised it was a DNS issue, I manually entered the addresses I use when at work and bang - all services return without problem.

Last night's problems have me confused:

1. I don't use NTL's DNS servers. The only time an NTL DNS should affect me is when one of their web proxies looks up a name.

2. Browsing was next to non-existent last night. But access to my 3rd party email provider (via non-NTL DNS lookup) was fine. I tried switching to different NTL web proxies, and also leaving it up to the local transparent proxies, all to no avail.

3. As soon as I switched to a 3rd party web proxy (a BT Openworld one, as it happens), browsing came back to life.

All the above would seem to suggest it was mainly an NTL DNS issue affecting their web proxies.

And yet, I was unable to ping many sites by explicit IP address (which shouldn't involve any DNS lookups). This suggests some sort of routing problem. Most of the unavailable sites were in the UK, so I don't see how a transatlantic link could be responsible. Access seemed to come and go at random. Maybe the inability to access by IP address was a side-effect of the transatlantic failure putting additional strain on intra-UK links?

If anyone can give a rational explanation for last night's outage that actually fits the symptoms, I'd be most interested.

handyman · 26-11-2003, 14:41

try here

Seems there was some sort of attack on zonealarm aswell.

Dooby · 26-11-2003, 14:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by cliveb

Last night's problems have me confused:

1. I don't use NTL's DNS servers. The only time an NTL DNS should affect me is when one of their web proxies looks up a name.

you will use NTLs DNS every time your browser needs to lookup a domain address ( assuming of course you are connected via ntl and havent overriden the dns settings )

it may well be that the url is passed 'as is' to the proxy so no DNS is required, but i am not sure if that is the case with transparent proxies ( where the browser is not aware of the proxies existence and send the request as if the proxy wasnt there, but the proxy intercepts it )