View Full Version : Internet problems yesterday (3/10)?
My ISP is Tiscali and I had major problems yesterday with what appeared to be a DNS failure, and today it crawls? Reports of Yahoo problems yesterday PM too. Anyone else any problems?
airborne_artist
4th Oct 2007, 14:08
I use BT and yesterday was fine, as is today. Tiscali does not have the best of reputations, I'm told by my geek/anorak friends.
ericlday
4th Oct 2007, 14:22
I am also with Tiscali but - touch wood - it was ok yesterday and is ok today.
Internet traffic slowdowns are a bit like road traffic problems: sometimes it's not actually a local problem, e.g. a problem on a motorway (the major net links) causing traffic to back up in to a town (your ISP). DNS problems are definitely the ISP, it's standard for them to run their own DNS servers.
But if it is a local problem, you can tell how good the ISP is by how well they spot the problem, identify the cause, and do something about it. My ISP here (Eircom ADSL) has had DNS problems for years now - making them average by Irish service standards - but a quick web search found details of alternative (non-Eircom) DNS servers to use, which sped things up considerably. :8
green granite
4th Oct 2007, 16:08
"This year, the internet cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m. PST until 02:00 a.m. GMT tonight (the time least likely to interfere with ongoing work). During that 2-hour period, five powerful Internet search engines situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any old data that they find.
In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:
1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disks and hard drives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam.
:}:}:E:E:E
Salusa
4th Oct 2007, 16:25
Demon was out from approx 4 pm on Tuesday until 9am yesterday
Thanks all - it remains a mystery. Back up to speed now. No1 son got me to change the DNS settings to BT's and that sorted the slow down.
Part II: Almost coincidentally, my router connection (Wifi or RJ45 Lan to USB port) keeps dropping and reconnecting on its own. Often I cannot access the router control panel. Any pointers as to where to look please?
3Com 'OfficeConnect'/ Win XP SP2
batninth
5th Oct 2007, 20:57
BOAC,
If you are on an ADSL link, then what you describe sounds like the MTU setting is incorrect which can be the case with some ISPs.
The old grey matter isn't quite what it used to be & I no longer use ADSL so can't check my own settings. If you are on ADSL then I suggest you look at http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/MTU.htm. For some reason I have a recollect of setting the MTU to 1600 and that some routers couldn't go this far.
Hope this points you in a direction that helps
Thanks, bat - the suggested download of 'DRTCP' would not run properly, but I have run another MTU optimizer and will see how it goes.
My grey cells are on holiday (I'm joining them tomorrow), but I found a nifty little utility that allows you to work out what the "right" MTU is for your system. It worked, too. I'm blowed if I can remember or find it, though. It might even have been on here.
There seem to have been a lot of glitches on a lot of websites and ISPs over the past week - I don't know if it's all coincidence, or if there's something new in the world of hackers and trolls.
I noticed earlier this week that a website I connect to regularly had turned very slow and unreliable. A traceroute showed that the normal "my ISP - Telehouse - the site" had added an extra step that went via a site in Italy. Fishy, that, I thought. Now, the Italian loop has gone again, and it's working normally.
I'm still 'confused' as to why I could not even access the router CP. Is that affected by MTU?
Re the web 'problems' - has anyone seen any threads anywhere else about this?
ground_star
6th Oct 2007, 16:51
Entire backbone seems slow this week & nobody is admitting to anything!
The following, from another forum may explain your speed issues:
Regarding the current issue affecting parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, We have spoken to BT who have confirmed that there are transmission (cabling) faults between Edinburgh-Birmingham and Carlisle-Glasgow affecting parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. This has resulted in BT to reroute traffic over the networks, In turn this is causing the speed issues that some of our users in theses areas are experiencing.
And
From what I can work out there are 2 issues going on.
BT issue, which started yesterday and quite well documented here in this thread, and a routing issue (maybe Telia), which seems to have started a short time back, but has got merged into this thread as everyone is trying to establish a pattern.
Notwithstanding the forgoing, Tiscali does not have a reputation for scintillating performance.
Yes - I'm aware of Tiscali's reputation but my services provider does an overall 'good deal' on the whole package of telephone and energy and unfortunately leases Tiscali lines so I take the pain.
Interesting info on the net. I began to wonder about a massive DOS attack.