Home News Forum Articles
  Welcome back Join CF
You are here You are here: Home | Forum | Pinging non existing machines and getting response

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most of the discussions, articles and other free features. By joining our Virgin Media community you will have full access to all discussions, be able to view and post threads, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own images/photos, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please join our community today.


Welcome to Cable Forum
Go Back   Cable Forum > Computers & IT > Networking

Pinging non existing machines and getting response
Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 16-06-2010, 13:24   #1
brum_blue
Inactive
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 3
brum_blue is an unknown quantity at this point
Pinging non existing machines and getting response

Hi, recently I have noticed an odd problem with my LAN.

I can ping any name, even machines that don't exist. eg "ping notexist".
This gives me a reply:

Pinging notexist.cable.virginmedia.net [81.200.64.50] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 81.200.64.50: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=108
etc

I would expect to get an "unknown host" when I ping an unknown machine, I'm sure that is what used to happen. I don't know why cable.virginmedia.net is getting involved.

I'm not sure if this is an ISP issue, a router or cable modem one, or some other lan issue. I'm using XP, but have windows 7 on the lan, which I was troubleshooting when I discovered this.

I suppose it is DNS related, but am not sure how to troubleshoot it.
thanks for any advice.
brum_blue is offline   Reply With Quote
Advertisement
Old 16-06-2010, 13:55   #2
downquark1
cf.mega poster
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Age: 37
Services: Plusnet FFTC
Posts: 4,822
downquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appeal
downquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appealdownquark1 has a bronzed appeal
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

Transparent proxy?
__________________
"Knowledge is Power. Power Corrupts. Study Hard. Be Evil."
downquark1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-06-2010, 14:06   #3
brum_blue
Inactive
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 3
brum_blue is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

thanks. No proxy involved that I know of. How would I know if I had a "transparent proxy"? It is happening on several machines, so cannot be caused by a proxy setting on any one machine.
brum_blue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-06-2010, 15:12   #4
Dai
Inactive
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lincoln UK
Age: 75
Services: 50Mb, TV & Phone
Posts: 3,673
Dai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronze
Dai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronze
Send a message via MSN to Dai
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

That IP address leads back to a company called Nominum who are providers of DNS services amongst other things.
http://www.nominum.com/

I'm not sure of the significance of this. Does the name ring any bells for you?
Dai is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-06-2010, 15:29   #5
duncan1
Inactive
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 4
duncan1 is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

Virgin media name servers seem to catch all non existant
domain look ups and return an ip which takes you to their
search page. You would normally get NXDOMAIN
returned from a nameserver. Try it in a web browser.
duncan1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-06-2010, 15:45   #6
brum_blue
Inactive
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 3
brum_blue is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

ok, that is making sense now.

I have been confused in the past when I type a URL wrong and virgin "helpfully" send me to a page suggesting other alternatives.

I always wondered how that worked without me having installed any software... duh.

Typing that address in the browser as suggested goes to:

http://advancedsearch.virginmedia.com/subscribers

Now I see there is an option to turn it off...

Having done that (by clicking through a series of pages), ping now works properly again.

thanks to all!

Now I can see what machines really are there without these confusing phantom responses.
brum_blue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-06-2010, 01:30   #7
vanman
cf.mega poster
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Luton
Services: Sky
Posts: 1,689
vanman has reached the bronze age
vanman has reached the bronze agevanman has reached the bronze agevanman has reached the bronze agevanman has reached the bronze agevanman has reached the bronze agevanman has reached the bronze age
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaiNasty View Post
That IP address leads back to a company called Nominum who are providers of DNS services amongst other things.
http://www.nominum.com/

I'm not sure of the significance of this. Does the name ring any bells for you?

if you ckick on Customer Spotlight
it leads to http://www.nominum.com/pdf/case-stud...dy_2_19_09.pdf
vanman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-06-2010, 01:38   #8
Dai
Inactive
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lincoln UK
Age: 75
Services: 50Mb, TV & Phone
Posts: 3,673
Dai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronze
Dai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronzeDai is cast in bronze
Send a message via MSN to Dai
Re: Pinging non existing machines and getting response

Quote:
Originally Posted by vanman View Post
if you ckick on Customer Spotlight
it leads to http://www.nominum.com/pdf/case-stud...dy_2_19_09.pdf
Thanks for that.
Dai is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:40.


Server: osmium.zmnt.uk
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.