DNS errors in Gauteng [and other parts of the country]

[MBB]

Mr MBB

I have reported DNS problems since Thursday am, 27 July.The response from the call centre persons has not helped. In fact they never advised me that it was widespread. Furthermore several call centre persons merely took my number and said they would call back, but they never did. It took 24 hours for a sms, with the reference number to reach me. What happens to the unused bundle on Monday night, 31 July? Do I get a credit for it?
My ref no. is AS-VOWO-KD1FQ.
I wish I had my ADSL line back. Believe it or not, I had fantastic service, but have moved to an area without fixed lines.
My first attempt to log this post was bombed out. "Bad Gateway" [Code =DNS_NO_DATA]The IP address was not found during the DNS look up"
Hopefully this one gets through.

 

[Bugzee]

I am getting DNS errors see attached:

"

 The IP address was not found during the DNS lookup. Contact your system administrator"

 

[Deiphos]

For anyone wishing to use the DNS addresses that V3G posted earlier, here are the steps to follow, note that I am using Win XP, I am sure that on most other versions of Win it would be the same, if you struggle, don't hesitate to ask me.

Firstly click "Start", then go to "Connect To" and right click on "3G Only Connection" (or GPRS Only Connection) and click on "Properties".

Go to the "Networking" tab, select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and then click on "Properties".

At the bottom of the property page, change the DNS selection to "Use the following DNS server addresses".
For preferred: 196.207.32.69
For alternate: 196.43.45.190

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Gunny]

For anyone wishing to use the DNS addresses that V3G posted earlier, here are the steps to follow, note that I am using Win XP, I am sure that on most other versions of Win it would be the same, if you struggle, don't hesitate to ask me.

Firstly click "Start", then go to "Connect To" and right click on "3G Only Connection" (or GPRS Only Connection) and click on "Properties".

Go to the "Networking" tab, select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and then click on "Properties".

At the bottom of the property page, change the DNS selection to "Use the following DNS server addresses".
For preferred: 196.207.32.69
For alternate: 196.43.45.190

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to ask.

Or switch to internetVPN APN no DNS errors here

 

[MBB]

Mr MBB

I have been given the following :
196.25.255.34
196.25.255.3

Still does not work properly.

 

[bruceahibbert]

Those two are, as I understand it, precisely the SAIX addresses that are causing the problem

 

[ic]

While the DNS servers assigned to customers using the internetvpn APN are reportedly working properly, I don't understand why Vodacom hasn't reassigned the DNS servers on the internet APN to ones that actually work...why is it taking so long to get this sorted out?

 

[eagle-slayor]

For anyone wishing to use the DNS addresses that V3G posted earlier, here are the steps to follow, note that I am using Win XP, I am sure that on most other versions of Win it would be the same, if you struggle, don't hesitate to ask me.

Firstly click "Start", then go to "Connect To" and right click on "3G Only Connection" (or GPRS Only Connection) and click on "Properties".

Go to the "Networking" tab, select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and then click on "Properties".

At the bottom of the property page, change the DNS selection to "Use the following DNS server addresses".
For preferred: 196.207.32.69
For alternate: 196.43.45.190

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to ask.

wont this affect or mess up anything else?
is it safe to do?
no extra costs?

 

[Deiphos]

wont this affect or mess up anything else?
is it safe to do?
no extra costs?

Nope, there are no extra costs, and it is safe to do so (if v3g was given working addresses ). If there is a problem with the addresses you can simply do the process again, and instead of selecting to specify addresses, you change it back to "Obtain DNS server address automatically".

A DNS server is just basically an address book for all computers on the internet, when you type in the address of a website, it is not loaded by that address, rather its unique numerical address, in this case an IP address, no other PC in the world has that address at that moment in time, and a DNS just maps the name you entered to the correct IP address, it doesn't cost you anything.

The worst that can happen if those addresses don't work is that you will still get DNS errors, in that case just flip it back to auto as described above.

 

[eagle-slayor]

oh ok cool. many thanks bro
are they working for u?

 

[Deiphos]

oh ok cool. many thanks bro
are they working for u?

No problem.
I haven't had any DNS errors since my last post about it in this thread (a while back) so I am running off of the addresses that vodacom gives automatically. I haven't tried the ones v3g gave, so I don't know if they work or not. But you can follow the method to put in any DNS address.

 

[eagle-slayor]

me too im not getting any error now, was getting some while back

 

[Airmatix]

Eish! Many DNS problems for me now. Initially on InternetVPN APN, so I switched to Internet APN. Even worse there, so I used the DNS Servers supplied by V3G on the Internet APN. Still no improvement, so I switched back to InternetVPN using the supplied DNS Servers. So far it is much better, but still not perfect.

My biggest problem is that I cannot connect to my mail server (pop3) via Outlook. I can connect to the website itself (www.creative-xposure.com/gallery), but for some reason can't get Outlook to download the mail from there...

 

[MBB]

I tried 2 different sets of DNS numbers without success. Nor does the automatic selection work. Eish is an understatement.

 

[Gunny]

MBB try these on InternetVPN

196.207.32.69
196.43.45.190

I have been using it all day and havent had a DNS error

 

[ic]

Keep in mind that DNS servers cache IP addresses and corresponding host names, so if person A accesses sites that are cached by the upstream DNS server(s), that person A has been automagically assigned or has manually assigned, then person A will not get a DNS error for the hosts that he|she is accessing, whereas if person B is trying to access hosts that are not yet cached by the same upstream DNS servers that both person A and person B are using, then person B will experience a DNS lookup error - it gets a bit more complicated bcos DNS servers can defer a lookup request to other DNS servers [e.g. SAIX] if the hostname is not initially found, now if there is a problem with those other DNS servers [e.g. SAIX] then the customer will still see a DNS lookup error.

What doesn't make sense here is why the DNS servers used for the internet APN are not returning the same results as the DNS servers used for the internetvpn APN - if the DNS servers used for the internetvpn seem to mostly be working, then Vodacom should change the upstream DNS server settings on the internet APN DNS servers to defer to the DNS servers used for the internetvpn APN when a host & IP pair aren't [yet] cached by the DNS servers used for the internet APN. This should not be rocket science, based on the posts here, I assume that the DNS servers used for the internet APN are currently deferring to problematic SAIX DNS servers...

 

[Deiphos]

Keep in mind that DNS servers cache IP addresses and corresponding host names, so if person A accesses sites that are cached by the upstream DNS server(s), that person A has been automagically assigned or has manually assigned, then person A will not get a DNS error for the hosts that he|she is accessing, whereas if person B is trying to access hosts that are not yet cached by the same upstream DNS servers that both person A and person B are using, then person B will experience a DNS lookup error - it gets a bit more complicated bcos DNS servers can defer a lookup request to other DNS servers [e.g. SAIX] if the hostname is not initially found, now if there is a problem with those other DNS servers [e.g. SAIX] then the customer will still see a DNS lookup error.

What doesn't make sense here is why the DNS servers used for the internet APN are not returning the same results as the DNS servers used for the internetvpn APN - if the DNS servers used for the internetvpn seem to mostly be working, then Vodacom should change the upstream DNS server settings on the internet APN DNS servers to defer to the DNS servers used for the internetvpn APN when a host & IP pair aren't [yet] cached by the DNS servers used for the internet APN. This should not be rocket science, based on the posts here, I assume that the DNS servers used for the internet APN are currently deferring to problematic SAIX DNS servers...

What I don't understand is why the DNS servers that are giving problems have not yet reloaded their data. As far as I know it is good practice to update caches which are more than 24 hours old, which is why it takes about 24 - 48 hours for new domain names to propogate through the net.

Also, I am using the internet APN, and also using the DNS auto assign setting, so I don't understand how two provinces can use different DNS servers (because I have no problems whatsoever) or that requests made from a certain region are not being acknowledged by the DNS servers themselves, it is completely insane!

As far as I know, if a DNS server cannot find the address it calls another one further up the line, and if that server further up the line doesn't know, then one even further will be called, it will carry on until they reach the global registry (don't know the name of the company off by heart) which have about 20 servers and they are the first servers to get any updates of domain names and such. The update will then be passed down the chain to the first DNS server that called for the address, and that is how it propogates. But if the DNS server has a cached address, it will simply return that address, whether it is correct or not. But, addresses that are more than 24 hours old, should be referred to another DNS server in case of updates, that is how I learnt it should be done

So, this problem could possibly be elsewhere, and not be a SAIX DNS server problem, it could be that the SAIX DNS servers are referring to defunct DNS servers, which then do not return addresses and force the SAIX DNS to return a cached address which is more than 24 hours old. So there could be more to this problem than we think.

 

[ic]

What I don't understand is why the DNS servers that are giving problems have not yet reloaded their data. As far as I know it is good practice to update caches which are more than 24 hours old, which is why it takes about 24 - 48 hours for new domain names to propogate through the net.

Also, I am using the internet APN, and also using the DNS auto assign setting, so I don't understand how two provinces can use different DNS servers (because I have no problems whatsoever) or that requests made from a certain region are not being acknowledged by the DNS servers themselves, it is completely insane!

As far as I know, if a DNS server cannot find the address it calls another one further up the line, and if that server further up the line doesn't know, then one even further will be called, it will carry on until they reach the global registry (don't know the name of the company off by heart) which have about 20 servers and they are the first servers to get any updates of domain names and such. The update will then be passed down the chain to the first DNS server that called for the address, and that is how it propogates. But if the DNS server has a cached address, it will simply return that address, whether it is correct or not. But, addresses that are more than 24 hours old, should be referred to another DNS server in case of updates, that is how I learnt it should be done

So, this problem could possibly be elsewhere, and not be a SAIX DNS server problem, it could be that the SAIX DNS servers are referring to defunct DNS servers, which then do not return addresses and force the SAIX DNS to return a cached address which is more than 24 hours old. So there could be more to this problem than we think.

A newly registered domain name can take up to 72 hours to propagate throughout the DNS servers on the internet.

I don't know if Vodacom has different regional DNS servers, v3g?

The further up the DNS referral chain a DNS lookup goes, the more latency is added to getting back to the initial client that requested the lookup, and usually these clients will timeout the DNS lookup, having said that, by the time that a client makes a repeated DNS lookup request, the client's immediate upstream DNS server(s) should have received a responnse to the previous [same] DNS lookup, which means that the host & IP should then be cached - unless there is a problem with its immediate upstream DNS server(s)...

 

[Deiphos]

ic, is there a way for me to check what DNS servers my client is using?

Edit
Nevermind, I found out.

I am using these servers:
196.207.32.69 and
196.43.45.190

They are the same as what v3g gave us, and I am on the internet APN, so I don't know how they can be causing problems for some and not for others.

 

[ic]

ic, is there a way for me to check what DNS servers my client is using?

I don't follow, if you want to check which DNS server(s) Windoze heXPee [for example] is using for any or all connections you have, then in a Command Prompt window [dos box] type the following:

ipconfig/all

...
They are the same as what v3g gave us, and I am on the internet APN, so I don't know how they can be causing problems for some and not for others.

Depends on which sites your machine is doing DNS lookups for compared to someone else - if the DNS servers have the [correct] host & IP pairs cached that you're accessing then you won't get DNS lookup errors [unless there is a timeout], whereas someone else accessing different sites that are not all cached, will get DNS lookup erros...