"Looking up..." Delay

[Rik]

Yes.

[net91]

Ok, thanks for your help.
(If I do find out whether my router is using intervealing I'll post here.)

[Rik]

NP, Dan.

[net91]

I have noticed that the two only times I have recently had to wait a while on the "looking up..." message was on this website;
www.gmx.com
I have pinged this website and the results are below;

<sub>Ping has started ...

PING www.gmx.com (213.165.64.202): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=56.008 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=56.408 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=59.794 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=58.811 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=61.200 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=57.716 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=64.627 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=57.848 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=8 ttl=56 time=57.275 ms
64 bytes from 213.165.64.202: icmp_seq=9 ttl=56 time=60.195 ms

--- www.gmx.com ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 56.008/58.988/64.627/2.454 ms</sub>

(I have been on this website quite a lot as it's my email service and have only been paused on the "looking up..." message twice.)

[Simon]

That's rather    Dan!  I used to use GMX, and then it went all German, and they stopped POP3 access.  Now, it seems it's back again!  That will do nicely for my ever increasing collection of email addresses! 

Oh, sorry, but I don't have any answers for your problem, but I get 'Waiting for...' when I log into the site.  Maybe it's to do with the Java applet?

[net91]

I can reccomend GMX, I have used it with POP3, IMAP and their web interface and all work well. Good amount of storage space as well.

I also get the "Waiting for message...", as far as I know thats not a problem.

[Rik]

It may be the routing or the remote servers - you'll see the same message on the BBC news site if a major story breaks.

[net91]

So it's just the increased demand on the servers?

[Rik]

Usually, yes.

[net91]

I am starting to have the issues where I am paused on the "looking up..."message for quite long periods of time again. 

I think it's time I phoned support with this one.

[Rik]

I'm certainly seeing no DNS delays, Dan. Have you tried pinging the DNS servers? 212.69.36.3  Primary, 212.69.40.3  Secondary.

I'm averaging 25ms.

[net91]

Just pinged the DNS servers. Results below;

212.69.36.3
<sub>Ping has started ...

PING 212.69.36.3 (212.69.36.3): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=0 ttl=59 time=34.255 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=33.566 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=34.524 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=49.485 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=35.275 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=5 ttl=59 time=34.711 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=6 ttl=59 time=33.922 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=7 ttl=59 time=38.074 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=8 ttl=59 time=33.283 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.36.3: icmp_seq=9 ttl=59 time=32.691 ms

--- 212.69.36.3 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 32.691/35.979/49.485/4.713 ms</sub>

212.69.40.3
<sub>Ping has started ...

PING 212.69.40.3 (212.69.40.3): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=0 ttl=61 time=41.112 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=61 time=33.221 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=2 ttl=61 time=34.182 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=3 ttl=61 time=32.829 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=4 ttl=61 time=35.735 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=5 ttl=61 time=33.227 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=6 ttl=61 time=38.082 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=7 ttl=61 time=33.132 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=8 ttl=61 time=37.022 ms
64 bytes from 212.69.40.3: icmp_seq=9 ttl=61 time=37.445 ms

--- 212.69.40.3 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 32.829/35.599/41.112/2.628 ms</sub>


The problem is not constantly happening, just every now and then I'll be stuck with the "looking up..." message for a while. It doesn't seem to be affecting any sites in particular.

[Rik]

Your pings are higher than mine, but they seem to be consistently so. It would be worth a check with support, in case they can see something odd happening from their end. If not, try using OpenDNS, and see if it persists. If so, it would suggest a line, router or machine setup issue. The Open DNS servers are 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220.

[net91]

I'll try those things.

Thanks for your help.
Daniel

[net91]

I've spoken to support and they have suggested it could be a software problem(with Firefox), or my firewall blocking port 80 for the web browser.

[Rik]

Hopefully, both easy to eliminate?

[net91]

I have checked that port 80 is not blocked on my firewall. I also had a programme called little snitch installed, which I have now removed.

I am still experiencing the issue in Firefox. I'm going to see what things are like in the Safari web browser.

[Rik]

That should eliminate all the variables except router and firewall - but the latter seems unlikely if you're getting web pages displayed.

[net91]

Are you talking about the firewall on the machine or router?

Thanks
Daniel

[net91]

I have disabled my machines firewall, so I'm now only behind my router's firewall. Hopefully removing this variable helps find the cause of the problem.

[Steve]

Firefox has its own dns cache you can enable it or disable it by using the add on DNS Cache1.2. You could try flushing the OS DNS cache and restarting the DNS service

[net91]

I'll will try that.

I suppose it means if Firefox has it's own DNS cache then something wrong with the software could cause this issue and only affect firefox?

What is Firefox doing when it displaying this message, and what are the equivalent messages in other browsers?

Thanks
Daniel

[Rik]

I suppose it means if Firefox has it's own DNS cache then something wrong with the software could cause this issue and only affect firefox?

That would be my view.

What is Firefox doing when it displaying this message, and what are the equivalent messages in other browsers?

Making a DNS request of the servers and waiting for a response from them. I've not seen the message in other browsers, and can't make it happen in IE or Opera right now.

[net91]

I've never seen the message in Safari or Internet Explorer so I'm wondering whether this points to it being a software issue with Firefox, I guess I'll just have to look out for long, and unexplained, pauses in Safari and see to indicate whether the issues is occurring there.

[Rik]

It could be Firefox getting into a fight with the OS. It's definitely worth trying to disable the FF cache and see if that helps.