"Looking Up/Contacting" Slow when switching between webpages.

[net91]

ok cheers

[Dopamine]

The last couple of days for me have been slow again. Initially OpenDNS showed a marked improvement, but now its speed is indistinguishable from IDNet DNS. Reversed IDNet DNS is the same. I've flushed the DNS cache, tried another PC, even borrowed a friend's laptop, but the problem persists. Around 50% of sites take approx 5 seconds to start loading, whereas when it's working properly it's less than a second.

And then, all of a sudden, everything works quickly again for a few hours.

I'll contact IDNet, but I wonder if there isn't something more widespread that's causing the problem.

[Rik]

It's always possible that there's a BT issue out there, maybe affecting the centrals, or possibly it's a peering issue - I'm just guessing. All I would ask is that anyone affected let's IDNet know, together with a note of what they have tried in the way of DNS switching, as the more data they have, the sooner they can isolate the cause.

[Dopamine]

This isn't a very scientific survey, but I've just spent the last 10 minutes clicking every one of my bookmarks, probably 200 or so different sites.

What I've noticed is that UK sites open immediately. Foreign sites, mainly USA based but some in France and Germany, all suffer the 5 second delay.

I don't know what light, if any, that may shed on the problem, but it does seem more than coincidental.

[Rik]

Let support know that, it may just help them. I've found a big delay to the SMF site (the forum software), so I've done a tracert and sent that in. However, El Reg has been running slow, and that's UK hosted. There's nothing that is glaringly wrong to point a finger at, so the more data we can give IDNet, the better.

[trax]

I've also sent info to support.

[Example 1]
[root@localhost ~]# time nslookup jeffgreen.co.uk resolver1.idnet.net
Server:         resolver1.idnet.net
Address:        212.69.40.3#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   jeffgreen.co.uk
Address: 217.160.182.120


real    0m8.308s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.008s

[Example 2]
[root@localhost ~]# time nslookup jeffgreen.co.uk resolver0.idnet.net
Server:         resolver0.idnet.net
Address:        212.69.36.3#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   jeffgreen.co.uk
Address: 217.160.182.120


real    0m8.406s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.008s

[Example 3]
[root@localhost ~]# time nslookup jeffgreen.co.uk resolver0.idnet.net
Server:         resolver0.idnet.net
Address:        212.69.36.3#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   jeffgreen.co.uk
Address: 217.160.182.120


real    0m0.173s
user    0m0.003s
sys     0m0.004s
[root@localhost ~]#

I'm not upto speed on DNS management, but some thoughts:

To me, it looks as if non cached queries are sometimes taking around 8 seconds [Examples 1,2], once cached they are fine.[Example 3]
This 8 seconds causes windows default setting of waiting for 2 seconds to timeout a few times.
[A guess] When using firefox/ie after it tries to resolve the address and timeout a couple of times, the page refuses load until you hit refresh and then the dns entry will now be in idnets cache and return properly.


Does this fit into others experiences?

[Rik]

It does for me. 

Welcome to the forum.

[trax]

Thanks for the welcome, I've lurked on and off for a bit 

[Lance]

Welcome to the forum, trax! 

[Inactive]

Welcome trax...

[Sebby]

[Collie]

Crikey, what a pleasant welcome I received upon posting for the first time in this forum. I feel rather ashamed that I am not wearing a hat so I could tip it in acknowledgment in your direction. Anyway, I have not been on the net much since I made my post about having the same problems as other people in connecting to websites, but right now the issue seems to be affecting many sites I'm visiting. There's a 5-10 pause to lookup the website, then about a 10% chance it fails. I haven't changed any settings yet, but I suppose that is the next step. Hopefully things can be resolved that doesn't require individual customers faffing about with settings most probably don't understand.

Regards.

[JB]

I've also sent info to support.
.
.
.
Does this fit into others experiences?

This fits my experiences exactly. I have tried accessing small less popular web sites and can also see this (approx) 8 second delay whilst they are being resolved. I am running with IDNet's DNS's and have tried swapping the order of the two servers. Currently running with 212.69.40.3 as first entry.

HTH.

JB.

[Sebby]

It's certainly my experience, JB. My problems aren't DNS-related.

[net91]

I have been using the swapped dns servers given by IDNET and is the last few days the performace has got quite bad. I keep seeing the "looking up..." message.

As of next Tuesday I will have some time to contact IDNET and sort this out so I will see how things go form there.

[Sebby]

I think it's worth trying OpenDNS to see if it's IDNet's DNS', but if not, definitely get in touch with them.

[net91]

I have just switched to open dns and it seems to have solved it.

[Sebby]

Okay, so it looks like there are still problems with IDNet's DNS'. It's probably worth dropping them a quick email, and perhaps point them to this thread.

To be honest, I used OpenDNS permanently anyway; I find it faster, more reliable, and quicker to propagate than any ISP's servers.

[alan]

For a non techie,  openDNS, does that mean just putting those primary/secondary DNS numbers in under TCP/IP/Prop/General tab
or am I missing something? Simon gave me 36.3 and 40.3 which seemed a little better but not like it used to be.

Thanks

[net91]

Open DNS is an alternative to using your ISP's (IDNET I assume) DNS servers. The ones you describe seem to be IDNET's, but primary and secondary swapped. They have suggested we try this so they can see wheather they have a problem with their primary DNS server.

I had them swapped like you and did notice an improvement for a while, but then found the performace drop. So far everything has been ok while I have been using Open DNS. I plan on contacting IDNET as soon as I can about this. (Tuesday)

For intructions on how to set up Open DNS click here and choose your operating system.

Let us know how it goes with Open DNS.

[Steve]

Must admit I am not convinced about the switch to open DNS. I find them generally slower and indeed the recent idnet test of their own servers compared to open DNS suggested open DNS servers were overloaded with slower response times. I have returned to the idnet DNS servers in the preferred order.I am suffering the occasional slow load but that seems to be webpage specific. I have also flushed my DNS  cache.I did not realise that firefox has its own DNS cache and should probably be closed down prior to a DNS cache flush. I also found this http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/simple-firefox-hacks-to-boost-performance/

So I have done the suggested modifications, increased the expiry time to one hour and increased the cache size to 1000 and I will see if it makes any difference:)

[Sebby]

Thanks, Steve.

[Rik]

Nice find Steve. 

Quick show of hands please - how many people experiencing the problem are using Firefox?

[Steve]

Seem to recall a recent poll ,cant find it though;D

[Rik]

Indeed there was, but as polls are anonymous, we don't know which way people voted (plus there's some new members in this thread).