Problem accessing Gmail and BBC news websites this morning
 

I am having issues connecting to certain websites this morning, notably gmail, but also BBC news. I can however access various other sites including my bank, talktalk email, but not "my account". Accessing via talktalk router, which appears to be working fine. the BBC a nd gmail sites were accessible earlier this a.m. I am accessing PPRuNe from the same machine as I type this.

Has shut down and rebooted router, and also desktop machine.

Has anyone else identified an issue?

Surely, being unable to connect to the BBC news is a bonus?

You could say that, but not being to connect to gmail is a larger issue. It's almost as though there's an issue with some global server, since there is no rhyme nor reason as the the sites I can and can't reach. One error message suggests setting been changed, and on another site the message is the IP address can't be found.

I am a TalkTalk customer too, cannot get to their Service Status page, issue must be with them.

Did some digging, managed to get on a website that reports issues, and talktalk spiked at between 09:30 to 10.30. Problem now seems to be resolved.

At least we didn't have to do battle with talktalk's inept technical "help" (!!!!!) line.

Daily Mirror reported it:
TalkTalk down

Daily Mail reported it:
TalkTalk & BT down

My best advice is - don't put your eggs all in one basket!
My broadband ISP is EE
My Router is BT (with 2 EE spares and a Belkin spare)
My 2ndary Email is TalkTalk, but hardly monitored
I have a 3 (Hutchison network) 3G Mobile Wifi Dongle for when I'm away from home/wifi (e.g. at the roadside) which is also unlocked and I use a VPN when overseas

I never have a problem when networks go down, but if I did I could swap out 1 element for another and regain connectivity within a couple of minutes.

This is not an isolated occurence
 

I'm using a well known provider in the UK (48 Mb s down & 8.9 Up) and the problem being described here has been evident for a few weeks - Download's speeds are behaving as expected but DNS look-up times are surprisingly slow - The general local WIFI congestion has not changed where I live. 32 bit or 64 bit PC's are behaving in the same way. I'm using DNS over https & 2.4 GHz networking The router has a separate broadcast SSID on 5 GHz. Up until now packet loss has not been a problem. I use both Windows & Linux at home. Surprisingly I recently performed a windows diagnostic check on the Win 7 Pro (an old standby ) and the Win 8.1 Dell Ethernet adaptors - Both tests revealed issues that I had not expected - (Windows auto fix resolved issues). I need to use the Dell for a prolonged period to verify that the problem described has been nailed.

The congestion does appear to be at DNS or protocol level. I'm not using especially new kit (positively ancient actually) I’m beginning to suspect that a) one more mesh networks have been set up in the neighbourhood, b) A firmware update has been applied to the router, c) Windows has subtly changed its stack handling functions. The last one being the most unlikely.

Finally the router is both IPV4 & IPV6 aware. I do not know how this impacts on the situation.

CAT III

I used to do similar, but the problem with that plan is when things go wrong on a long term basis, they all blame each other for the fault.

I wouldn't touch talktalk with a bargepole - and I'm in Australia.
Someone who shares my surname gave them my email address several years ago, and nothing, NOTHING, will persuade them to piss off and stop emailing me crap, both advertising, and notices about "my" account.

No, I know shouldn't, I'm not sure if it's some sort of sadomasochism or a sense of achievement when I actually first, manage to get through to their technical help department, and second get a satisfactory result! But hey, they are cheap! Worst thing was that a few years ago they had a major data breach and although it was no coincidence that those toe-rags from Indian call centres had all my details, including my street address, the refused point blank to admit my details had been hacked though thankfully, the hacking didn't extend, in my case, to banking details.

Their customer service is truly woeful.

I believe the DNS server has gone for an eye test, and is experiencing heavy traffic getting back out of the car park

PDR