Dear Mweb rep dude :)

[nihilist]

Here's your first quest.

Could you please ask the network nazi's there to STOP hijacking the DNS? Yes, I know I can set it manually, but I'm having issues with splitting my 2 ADSL accounts on IPCop, and sometimes the manual settings I've set don't graft.

It's really, really super annoying.

Tell them to add a page on the Mweb control panel page to turn it off.

And, with the extra cap Mweb customers are getting, does that include extra local? I only use my Mweb for local, mostly because I've been too lazy to change to another local provider, since you guys removed the free local only thing.

If you do this, maybe I'll consider staying...

 

[MWEB]

Could you please ask the network nazi's there to STOP hijacking the DNS? Yes, I know I can set it manually, but I'm having issues with splitting my 2 ADSL accounts on IPCop, and sometimes the manual settings I've set don't graft.

Hi nihilist,

Are you saying when IPCop brings up the PPPoE sessions, the DNS servers supplied in the PPP negotiation override those manually set. Am I understanding your issue correctly?

And, with the extra cap Mweb customers are getting, does that include extra local? I only use my Mweb for local, mostly because I've been too lazy to change to another local provider, since you guys removed the free local only thing.

Unfortunately the free 10GB local only remains.

MWB

 

[nihilist]

Hi nihilist,
Are you saying when IPCop brings up the PPPoE sessions, the DNS servers supplied in the PPP negotiation override those manually set. Am I understanding your issue correctly?

I've customised my IP Cop dialing so that basically:

First SAIX international account dials up and is ppp0, DNS settings for that account are via DHCP from ISP.

Second account, Mweb, dials and is ppp1, I've hard coded the DNS to what I want them to be.

I also have a script setup so that in case something goes wrong, ie: 1st account dies and comes back up, or 2nd one, or both.. that the DNS settings are manually forced back - however, sometimes this does not work perfectly, especially when Telkom techies are acid tripping while working in the DSLAM and have explored a good Hunter S Thompson novel while playing with wire clippers.

The main problem is, if for some reason, the MWEB dns is used, even for a while, it remains in the windows local DNS cache, meaning I have to then reset all my hosts's dns's via ipconfig /flushdns and my server, and not to mention Firefox has it's own DNS cache..

So it's a pain.

I don't need a page telling me I'm capped, that's what the control panel is fore. I know it's a useful tool for Joe Average at home to be told when they need to buy a booster, but I don't want it.

 

[MWEB]

I don't need a page telling me I'm capped, that's what the control panel is fore. I know it's a useful tool for Joe Average at home to be told when they need to buy a booster, but I don't want it.

OK think I've got it.

Let me run it by some of our techies and we'll see if we can come up with a solution.

MWB

 

[davemc]

Let me get this right - MWeb do a redirect (return an IP Address to an MWeb web server that hosta a - You are capped web page) on the DNS level when an account is capped that then is cache'd by other hosts using the connection.

This then causes hassles later.

I never even thought of the problems that the redirect could cause. ROFL.
Thanks for the warning nihilist.

 

[warwickw]

Surely hijacking DNS should not be allowed at all at the ISP level.

I'm sure telkom would get into serious trouble if you called 1023 and asked for Neotel and they instead gave you their sales number, or you called Vodacom enquires and asked for MTN and they gave you Vodacom's number instead, this is after all what Mweb are doing. It should not be allowed to happen.

ISP's should rather at the firewall/router level redirect you to a capping page if required to inform you of something.

 

[MWEB]

Surely hijacking DNS should not be allowed at all at the ISP level.

Hi warwickw, nothing that dramatic. All MWEB is doing, is redirecting DNS resolution for its customers (and only MWEB customers) to certain major international sites (e.g. Google) once the account has switched to local only mode.

The redirects are to an information page informing the customer they are capped and on local only, and provides suggestions on how to revert to blended should the user so desire. Its either this or a browser timeout page for international sites once capped.

For novice users, this guided approach is far more user friendly, however it has the potential to cause problems for those utilising multiple ISP accounts simultaneously for local/international route splitting.

The important thing to remember is that the configuration of the CPE device/router determines the DNS server usage & search order. It would be thus be optimal to ignore the DNS servers on the local only account, however this would lead to a loss of (local) DNS resolution, should the intl account go down.

The solution I'm working on it to see if we can provide alternate DNS resolution (non-redirecting) which is accessible via an account in local only mode.

MWB

 

[nihilist]

I like the DNS method for home users, I don't feel there's anything wrong with it, provided it's a choice.

Even Wikipedia is on your list of 'major sites'.

This took me HOURS to figure out that Firefox was caching DNS entires, I couldn't figure out why Wikipedia was working on my wife's PC, my laptop, nslookup from the server, etc; reboot pc, ipconfig /flushdns .. wikipedia.org still diverting to MWEB "We want moar moneys!" page..

A few Google searches brought me to a page about Firefox and it's internal DNS cache.

So yes, puhleeease sort this out.

 

[MWEB]

So yes, puhleeease sort this out.

There is only so much I can do, as mentioned before much of the control of how DNS resolution occurs in managed on your side.

Can I confirm that all the PCs on your LAN use the IPCop box as their exclusive DNS server?

Also when you have these instances of DNS redirects, is your other account (i.e. not the MWEB one in local only mode), up and functioning correctly (not capped/disconnected etc.)?

MWB

 

[nihilist]

There is only so much I can do, as mentioned before much of the control of how DNS resolution occurs in managed on your side.

Can I confirm that all the PCs on your LAN use the IPCop box as their exclusive DNS server?

Also when you have these instances of DNS redirects, is your other account (i.e. not the MWEB one in local only mode), up and functioning correctly (not capped/disconnected etc.)?

MWB

Linux server is DHCP/DNS
Server is configured to route outside DNS requests to IPCop box.

No, this happens randomly, it's not to do with us being capped on the 'master' account or not. The problem is random, if Openweb (Saix) or my pre-paid Axxess (IS) account decides to hickup, or Mweb - it will obviously redial and reset the DNS.

I'm using Bernie's rt.set script, which has a few glitches. I've modded it slightly to reset the DNS info in the IP Cop box should Mweb redial, but as I said earlier, it's not perfect and I don't really feel I should have to spend time hacking bash scripts (which I hate doing) to get around this.

 

[warwickw]

Hi warwickw, nothing that dramatic. All MWEB is doing, is redirecting DNS resolution for its customers (and only MWEB customers) to certain major international sites (e.g. Google) once the account has switched to local only mode.

I understand what you are trying to do, however hijacking DNS is bad bad approach. As per the complaints.

Possibly a better approach, is to have a range of IP addresses that are for local use only, then when the user is capped you disconnect him and he reconnects and gets the local IP range.

Then on your edge firewalls/routers/cache you redirect this IP range when they try and go to international sites on port 80 to your capped web page.

 

[bboy]

I had this same problem and have since dumped mweb,
you poison my dns entires i no put money in your account no more, kapish!

 

[MWEB]

No, this happens randomly, it's not to do with us being capped on the 'master' account or not. The problem is random, if Openweb (Saix) or my pre-paid Axxess (IS) account decides to hickup, or Mweb - it will obviously redial and reset the DNS.

Hi nihilist, the only scenario I can think of that would cause your symptoms is if your DNS search order is determined by the timing of the estabishment & re-connection of your PPPoE connections i.e. the primary DNS server of the ISP who's connection re-established last is the one used.

Only sure fire way to avoid this would be hardwire your DNS servers, ignoring the ones negotiated during PPPoE establishment (would have to be set in IPCop).

Then on your edge firewalls/routers/cache you redirect this IP range when they try and go to international sites on port 80 to your capped web page.

Unfortunately this is not currently possible with Telkom's Wholesale ADSL architecture.

MWB

 

[DJNgoma]

MWEB Business, when are the caps being increased?

 

[Giarc86]

MWEB Business, when are the caps being increased?

Weren't they supposed to change today? The 1st of September.

 

[ponder]

Weren't they supposed to change today? The 1st of September.

It's in progress, will be finalised this week or next week. Can't find the mweb dudes post about it. Apparently they had to wait for the 12:00am cut off and there is a lot of systems to be updated etc.