Broadband playing up....

[rico]

Earlier this evening i could only log onto a few sites...

eg. google.com worked, ferrarichat.com worked but rennlist.com didn't and pistonheads.com didn't... msn wasn't working either

did the normal resetting router and still nothing... then about 5mins ago pistonheads.com started working again.

i know there was nothing wrong with PH's server as I rang Jamie (of JamieBeeston/helpline wizard fame) and his connection to PH was working fine.

Is my broadband supplier just crap (won't mention names) or is it just a random problem?

Cheers

Rico

>>> Edited by rico on Wednesday 8th December 22:15

[arcturus]

Which browser are you using. If it's IE, your cache could be getting full.

[rico]

Firefox

It's working fine now...

[icamm]

Souns like there was a DNS problem with your ISP.

[rico]

icamm said:

Souns like there was a DNS problem with your ISP.

Thats what Jamie said... so im glad someone else said it

Does this mean my ISP is crap? Or do most ISPs have similar problems?

[icamm]

Most ISP's will have similar problems at some point. The better ones just manage to hide the problems from their users more often.

Some times it can also be the DNS client on your PC that has got it's knickers in a twist. So it might not be the ISP at all.

[rico]

Fair play...

the service has been a bit irratic recently so i was thinking it was the last straw and time to move on. i guess i'll stick at it then

Another problem i've had (but not recently) was the connection would be fine but slowly slow down over time... then when i reset the router it was back up to full speed.

Any ideas about that one?

muchos thankos

[TheExcession]

I'm assumingthat you are runnign a pretty bog standard connection and don't have your're own cacheing DNS or HTTP proxy servers here.

If your are every wary of your DSL connection then there are a few simple tests you can try.

The first thing is to test the connection is actually working. Normally this is achieved by pinging your dns server. (Simply put DNS servers resolve names of websitess - which humns use - to IP Addresses which computers use) So you need to know your DNS Servers IP Address.

From a DOS box type ipconfig /all e.g.

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : dell
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-F1-91-BA-8B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Now type ping your-dns-server
e.g. in my case 'ping 192.168.1.1' - your's will be different

Ping sends an 'echo request' to the remote computer - providing it is up and running and there are no firewalls intervening then it should respond back to you.

so 'ping 192.168.1.1' gives:

C:>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

You can see it is replying so the machine is reachable and switched on.

This would indicate your DSL line is working - but that's not the end of the story - in order to browse the internet you need to be able to resolve computer names to ip addresses - i.e. DNS must be working

So, in the same DOS box type nslookup www.pistonheads.com

C:>nslookup www.pistonheads.com
Server: ip-192-168-1-1.internal.mobileinternet.aramiska.net
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.pistonheads.com
Address: 195.225.218.139

here the DNS Server has answered my query and told me that www.pistonheads.com is at 195.225.218.139

So the connection to the DNS server is working and the service is working too.

If you still can't browse the chosen web site you can try pinging it:

C:>ping www.pistonheads.com

Pinging www.pistonheads.com [195.225.218.139] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 195.225.218.139: bytes=32 time=609ms TTL=243
Reply from 195.225.218.139: bytes=32 time=1046ms TTL=243
Reply from 195.225.218.139: bytes=32 time=969ms TTL=243
Reply from 195.225.218.139: bytes=32 time=766ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 195.225.218.139:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 609ms, Maximum = 1046ms, Average = 847ms


As you can see the server is responding so connections are good and I cna reach the target machine using its DNS name.

If the site still won't load - likely the web server is not running or it is too busy to answer your request.

Here endeth today's lesson

best
Ex

[icamm]

You could also try www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp to test the speed of your connection. I find I have to switch on the "detailed results" option to see the results before it drops to their next page.

[rico]

Thanks for the info guys.

I've done the speedtest a few times and it always reads what it should (ie 4mbps).

I'm going to give it a month or so, if it still p*sses me off i'm giving Joust's company some well earned cash

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

TheExcession said:

Now type ping your-dns-server e.g. in my case 'ping 192.168.1.1' - your's will be different

Erm, you've just pinged your local router yes? (192.168.x.x is a local address range). That's not testing the ADSL line.