Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
01-06-2021, 10:30
|
#16
|
cf.geek
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 785
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Bit of an update for anyone interested...
I was also having issues with Sky go / now tv / BT sport, HD quality was horrendous and 4K streams buffered and dropped to unwatchable quality.
After a bunch of various troubleshooting i worked out that virgin appear to be doing some kind of DNS hijacking (despite all my kit using 1.1.1.1/8.8.8.8) which was still sending various stuff to other IPs.
I got round this by setting up DoH on my pihole to cloudflare, i'm now getting sent to other IPs for all the above services and the quality seems a lot better.
Still testing but the above appears to have resolved this to an extent
---------- Post added at 10:30 ---------- Previous post was at 10:00 ----------
Just to add a bit of evidence to the above, with cloudflare but wiithout DoH, akadash0.akamaized.net gets me to that internal Virgin host in my OP.
However if i switch to my pihole with DoH enabled, i get sent to a104-77-160-89.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [104.77.160.89]
This is repeatable every time i switch, i'm guessing virgin do this to direct customers to their own Netflix cache etc however it seems to be doing something weird in this case!
|
|
|
03-06-2021, 11:42
|
#17
|
cf.addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 160
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
So...that sounds exactly like my problem and pihole and cloudflare are also in use.
In-laws:
Router with DNS set to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
My house:
PiHole configured with Cloudflare on a docker instance in my Synology NAS
Both had the same issues as you e.g. buffering/incredibly bad 4K (BT ultimate) and really poor picture quality on NowTV sports (with boost) and BT sport HD.
I have set both houses to use VM's DNS for now. Will have to test properly.
Synthetic: Did enabling DoH fix this entirely? Can this be done through the PiHole gui or command line?
Last edited by Robertus; 03-06-2021 at 11:45.
|
|
|
03-06-2021, 15:19
|
#18
|
cf.geek
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 785
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
It's done via command line, you need to install cloudflared, there's a nice guide for it here - https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/cloudflared/
As a bit of an update, NOW TV etc is still working fine but BT sport is still poor, i dont believe they're using akamai so it could be another cache with issues but i'm still trying to track that down
---------- Post added at 15:19 ---------- Previous post was at 14:54 ----------
Scratch that, looks like BT use t1-live-euwe2-us-ak-streams-sport.akamaized.net but also seem to use cloudfront, the former appears to hit an ntl host, the latter appears unaffected and resolves to the same IP with DOH and without
|
|
|
03-06-2021, 15:29
|
#19
|
cf.addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 160
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Yeah - think i'll stick with VMs DNS until something pops up RE the BT sport issue you're having.
Spiderplant - is this something you could take a peak at?
|
|
|
03-06-2021, 16:41
|
#20
|
cf.mega poster
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 8,901
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Sorry, I can't help with this.
|
|
|
03-06-2021, 16:53
|
#21
|
cf.geek
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 785
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Robertus, if you stick a static DNS entry in your pihole for the below hosts, does it resolve the BT quality issue? (might need to reboot your tv etc to flush the DNS cache)
t1-live-euwe2-us-ak-streams-sport.akamaized.net 88.221.87.171
britishtelecom.sc.omtrdc.net 18.202.158.78
|
|
|
07-06-2021, 21:28
|
#22
|
cf.addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 160
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Can have a look, though don’t want to faff at the moment with so much sport coming up. Switching to vms own dns seems to have cleared up all of the streaming issues though.
|
|
|
07-06-2021, 21:37
|
#23
|
Ran Away
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Lincoln
Services: phone + 1gbit BB + SkyQ
Posts: 11,021
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robertus
Switching to vms own dns seems to have cleared up all of the streaming issues though.
|
I feel a conspiracy coming on
|
|
|
07-06-2021, 21:48
|
#24
|
cf.addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 160
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
I wouldn’t say conspiracy, more a fault.
I have tried as you asked Synthetic and bt sport seemed ok for the brief time I tested. Nowtv was ropey again, as you’d expect.
|
|
|
08-06-2021, 09:11
|
#25
|
cf.geek
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 785
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robertus
I wouldn’t say conspiracy, more a fault.
I have tried as you asked Synthetic and bt sport seemed ok for the brief time I tested. Nowtv was ropey again, as you’d expect.
|
Confirms my theory it's the akamai cache virgin's dns hijacking is sending you to (i think).
No idea how we'd get this raised to anyone in Virgin, i havent tried with virgin's own DNS, it's strange everything is fine with that
I wonder if VM have forgotten they were hijacking other DNS to an old cache, and as most customers will use their default DNS its not been brought up before now
|
|
|
08-06-2021, 09:40
|
#26
|
cf.addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 160
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Synthetic
Confirms my theory it's the akamai cache virgin's dns hijacking is sending you to (i think).
No idea how we'd get this raised to anyone in Virgin, i havent tried with virgin's own DNS, it's strange everything is fine with that
I wonder if VM have forgotten they were hijacking other DNS to an old cache, and as most customers will use their default DNS its not been brought up before now
|
So to confirm:
My in-laws:
Using 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 as DNS entries on the Asus router
My house:
Using pihole, in docker on my Synology DS918+ and cloudflare (NOT cloudflarED)
Both pretty much started at the same time, roughly 2-3 months ago.
Spiderplant, I realise this isn't your bag, but could provide any assistance to getting this looked at by the relevant team? If not no worries, appreciate your responses regardless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Synthetic
Confirms my theory it's the akamai cache virgin's dns hijacking is sending you to (i think).
No idea how we'd get this raised to anyone in Virgin, i havent tried with virgin's own DNS, it's strange everything is fine with that
I wonder if VM have forgotten they were hijacking other DNS to an old cache, and as most customers will use their default DNS its not been brought up before now
|
Strange it worked, wouldn't put it past reverting to type and failling next time I try :lol:
|
|
|
08-06-2021, 10:36
|
#27
|
cf.geek
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 785
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Looks like Virgin are hijacking anything on port 53, which is why using another DNS like 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8 doesnt work, but DoH/DoT does as port 53 is only used from your devices to your local pihole, then encrypted to the upstream DNS with DoH/DoT.
I'm not sure Virgin will even listen to us on this as it appears to be how they redirect customers to their Netflix cache (which works fine) and who knows what other caches, i know they used to do it with youtube aswell but i'm yet to notice an issue there
|
|
|
08-06-2021, 11:39
|
#28
|
cf.addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 160
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Synthetic - are you able to post in this thread:
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5.../false#M272628
---------- Post added at 11:21 ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Synthetic
Looks like Virgin are hijacking anything on port 53, which is why using another DNS like 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8 doesnt work, but DoH/DoT does as port 53 is only used from your devices to your local pihole, then encrypted to the upstream DNS with DoH/DoT.
I'm not sure Virgin will even listen to us on this as it appears to be how they redirect customers to their Netflix cache (which works fine) and who knows what other caches, i know they used to do it with youtube aswell but i'm yet to notice an issue there
|
Looks like I'll need to figure out how to enable DoH via pihole then.
Assuming this fixes all of my issues. It is strange that this did actually work fine though.
---------- Post added at 11:39 ---------- Previous post was at 11:21 ----------
---------- Post added at 11:39 ---------- Previous post was at 11:39 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Synthetic
Looks like Virgin are hijacking anything on port 53, which is why using another DNS like 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8 doesnt work, but DoH/DoT does as port 53 is only used from your devices to your local pihole, then encrypted to the upstream DNS with DoH/DoT.
I'm not sure Virgin will even listen to us on this as it appears to be how they redirect customers to their Netflix cache (which works fine) and who knows what other caches, i know they used to do it with youtube aswell but i'm yet to notice an issue there
|
is there anyway I can test my DoH - I've installed cloudflared, however using the cloudflare encryption test I get a question mark for DNS sec
|
|
|
08-06-2021, 11:56
|
#29
|
cf.geek
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 785
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Easiest way to test - https://1.1.1.1/help
Yes i'll post my finding over there too
|
|
|
08-06-2021, 14:29
|
#30
|
cf.mega poster
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 8,901
|
Re: Virgin Akamai Cache Congestion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robertus
Spiderplant, I realise this isn't your bag, but could provide any assistance to getting this looked at by the relevant team? If not no worries, appreciate your responses regardless.
|
Sorry, I wouldn't even know who the relevant team is.
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 23:11.
|