John Ranalletta Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 The last few days, there's a noticeable slowdown of downloads via comcast in the evenings. It's not due to my internal net, hardwired or wireless. It's very sporadic. Pages will fail to load one minute, then load normally a few minutes later. I don't have or know how to use diagnostic equipment analyze route tracings. Example: at 8:35pm tonight, bmwst.com loads amazing fast but attempts to use google fail completely as do advrider or quicken. Why would some pages load very quickly all the time while a majority of others fail? Could it be bandwidth shortage when kids and adults jump on the net via a common comcast link? Have there been any national problems in the ip cloud? Link to comment
Tasker Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Same here, and the same with two others who have called me to complain to me, since I was the one who "converted" them to Comcast digital. Last night (Tuesday), I never was able to get on the internet. Yep, I was pissed! I never thought my 56K dial-up would look good! Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 I've been having problems with comcast's DNS servers being flakey. Rather than take the two comcast issues via DHCP, I've configured my router to use one of their servers, and another secondary server. Things are much improved. Link to comment
Jake Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 If I knew what Knapp was talking about, I wouldn't be so damned mad at Comcast right now!!!! Link to comment
John Ranalletta Posted April 14, 2005 Author Share Posted April 14, 2005 Can you share the ip addresses for those servers? Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 DNS - Domain name server. Every computer on the internet has a network address. Us engineering types like numbers, so it's something like 216.109.118.73 But you like www.yahoo.com. The DNS server takes the name, and translates it into the number. Using the number you can connect to the other computer. It's like a phone book for the web. I forget what router you've got Jake, but if you go into yoru windows PC (I know Tasker has no router)...Start->Settings->Network connections Pick the active network connection, right click, pick properties. You'll get a window, look for TCP/IP in the list. Click properties. You'll see a window that has the option to get a DNS automagically, or to specify two. Pick that you'll specify two DNS servers. Some googling turned these up. Pick the closest two. 199.166.28.10 (PS0.NS2.VRX.NET) - Atlanta, Ga 199.166.29.3 (nl.public.rootfix.net) - Nederlands 199.166.31.3 (NS1.QUASAR.NET) - Orlando, FL, USA 199.5.157.128 (ASLAN.OPEN-RSC.ORG) - Detroit, MI, USA Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 You could use my 'ol colleges too: Name: ns-1.iastate.edu Address: 129.186.1.200 Name: ns-2.iastate.edu Address: 129.186.140.200 Name: ns-3.iastate.edu Address: 129.186.142.200 I'm using one iastate, and the primary is still one comcast server: DNS - 68.87.66.196 129.186.1.200 I set it up in my router, so I don't need to futz with each PC. Enjoy! Link to comment
John Ranalletta Posted April 14, 2005 Author Share Posted April 14, 2005 Steve, thanks for the tip. I just changed the dns servers in the properties of my connection. For anyone else on comcast with windoze try this. Open your connections screen. Right click and open properties. Select the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Click "Properties" Select "Use the following DNS server addresses" Enter "4.2.2.1" Enter "4.2.2.2" Click "OK" These are Verizon DNS servers. Sure seems to have solved my problems (computer, that is). Link to comment
Jerry Johnston Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Not just you, I'm on Comcast and they've cut me off completely off & on for three nights now. I was wondering if they've been working on it? There very poor about giving any notice of when they're working on the net. Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Jerry, are you sure your link is down? Mine seemed that way, but it was the DNS servers. Link to comment
Jake Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 That was the trick my friend. Any reason not to leave it this way? Seems to really be humming along now. Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Your PC does a lot of DNS queries. It's best to have the servers as close to you as possible, best performance... Having one close by, the primary, and one that's reliable, the secondary, is a good approach. You should be able to set it up in the router, such that all your PC's reflect this automagically. But until then...go with this. Link to comment
Jake Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Let me add that my 'pooter has never surfed faster than it is right now. What an improvement. Thanks dude. Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Oh and Jake, reading your new "name" I can only think of one thing... "But Tonto he was smarter, one day he said kemosabe, kiss my ass, I bought a boat, I'm going out to sea" Link to comment
steve.foote Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 One other thing to keep in mind about using DNS servers outside of your assigned ISP servers is that not every DNS server will allow "outsiders" access to them. Some are open and others are closed to all but a select set of IP addresses. Link to comment
Jake Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Oh and Jake, reading your new "name" I can only think of one thing... "But Tonto he was smarter, one day he said kemosabe, kiss my ass, I bought a boat, I'm going out to sea" All things come to those who wait. Kemosabe will be thy name... Link to comment
ghaverkamp Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Your PC does a lot of DNS queries. It's best to have the servers as close to you as possible, best performance... Well, it's important that they be close from a network topology POV. Physically close may actually be quite far away in Internet terms. An easier way depending on your home network config is to set up your own caching resolver. I don't use my current one right now, because I haven't suffered from the Comcast DNS issues (which they've admitted to) but it's been helpful when I've needed it. And to be pedantic about a previous post, DNS is Domain Name System, not Domain Name Server. Greg Link to comment
Jerry Johnston Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Jerry, are you sure your link is down? Mine seemed that way, but it was the DNS servers. I'm rather slow getting back to this site sometimes......I think you're right its probably the Domain Server that has been going down the last three days. The speed is great it was just that when I wanted to get on the internet in the evening it was down for 3 days in a row. Link to comment
99Roadster Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Related news article - Comcast suffers DNS outage I understand Comcast is giving account credits for those who have complained. Link to comment
Mike O Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Ditto here. Colorado here. And for those interested, Dsl Reports has more information than you can possibly read in an evening. SUPPOSEDLY...this has been fixed by Comcast. Mike O Link to comment
Mark Tuttle Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Our Comcast ISP connection has slowed down those nights also, so obviously it isn't a regional issue. Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Asking some sys-admin friends, they suggested not having only one domain's DNS server if you can avoid it. Having said that, making my primary a comcast, and the secondary another server seems like a fine idea. I also asked them about the impact of using someone elses DNS server...they said it was quite minimal. So if the owner of the server allows it, don't feel too guilty about it. Link to comment
Bob Palin Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 It's not just Comcast, last month my provider South Central Internet came under attack with somebody poisoning their routers, it took them 6 weeks to figure it out. I talked to them on the phone several times but they never would give me any details saying it was complicated, I told them I had a degree in computer science but then they wanted my advice... The bill came today and they have credited the full month of April, can't really ask more than that. Link to comment
Mike Posted April 18, 2005 Share Posted April 18, 2005 Glad to hear that it's not just me. I've been having problems in the evenings with my Comcast connection. I first noticed it the week of the 8th, but can't say for sure that that was the first day. I eliminated all the usual suspects on my end and it continud sporadically. From Thursday (4/14) through last night (Sunday, 4/17). When I talked to my friendly Comcast service representative about it, he told me that there were problems throug Saturday, but assured me that everything was working just fine by Friday (must have been my imagination, right?). Overall, I've had pretty good service from Comcast; hopefully this problem will be short-lived. Link to comment
steveknapp Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Mike, why bother? Put a secondary DNS server in your config either in the router or PC. When they die, you just skip to the next in the list. Link to comment
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