DNS issues with Gmail

[smorar]

DNS issues with google services

About a week ago, I started having issues with Gmail. I could log in, see my inbox, but couldn't do anything else. Clicking on links would result in a timeout. This also occurred with a lot of other google services.

I have subsequently found out that this issue is due to a problem with the default dns assigned when connecting to Telkom's ADSL. (I am not sure what the default dns assignment is, as our adsl modem / router doesn't show it)

Using the default dns assignment, the following occurs:

smorar@spider:~$ nslookup mail.google.com
Server:		192.168.0.1
Address:	192.168.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
mail.google.com	canonical name = googlemail.l.google.com.
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 74.125.95.18
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 74.125.95.17
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 74.125.95.19
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 74.125.95.83

Now, a traceroute to any of those ip addresses results in the following:

smorar@spider:~$ traceroute 74.125.95.18
traceroute to 74.125.95.18 (74.125.95.18), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)  0.823 ms  1.359 ms  1.667 ms
 2  dsl-245-128-01.telkomadsl.co.za (41.245.128.1)  11.828 ms  14.638 ms  16.487 ms
 3  196.43.33.65 (196.43.33.65)  19.235 ms  22.644 ms 196.43.33.70 (196.43.33.70)  24.466 ms
 4  196.43.33.65 (196.43.33.65)  26.669 ms  28.611 ms  30.959 ms
 5  196.43.10.130 (196.43.10.130)  57.620 ms  59.872 ms  62.230 ms
 6  196.43.33.5 (196.43.33.5)  64.684 ms  34.505 ms  33.808 ms
 7  wblv-ip-lir-1-pos-7-2-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.18.6)  313.240 ms  315.504 ms  318.067 ms
 8  83.245.126.125 (83.245.126.125)  347.900 ms  350.174 ms  352.321 ms
 9  209.85.252.42 (209.85.252.42)  355.765 ms  358.533 ms  359.926 ms
10  216.239.43.192 (216.239.43.192)  361.853 ms  341.563 ms  339.516 ms
11  216.239.46.14 (216.239.46.14)  345.409 ms  346.713 ms  347.162 ms
12  209.85.241.22 (209.85.241.22)  347.252 ms  335.692 ms 72.14.232.141 (72.14.232.141)  347.102 ms
13  209.85.241.29 (209.85.241.29)  339.332 ms 209.85.241.35 (209.85.241.35)  338.497 ms 209.85.241.37 (209.85.241.37)  338.826 ms
14  72.14.239.193 (72.14.239.193)  345.164 ms  343.355 ms 209.85.240.49 (209.85.240.49)  342.864 ms
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

This shows us that there is no direct route to mail.google.com

I have subsequently changed our dns settings to use 196.25.1.11, and the following happens:

smorar@spider:~$ nslookup mail.google.com
Server:		192.168.0.1
Address:	192.168.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
mail.google.com	canonical name = googlemail.l.google.com.
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 209.85.137.83
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 209.85.137.18
Name:	googlemail.l.google.com
Address: 209.85.137.19

smorar@spider:~$ traceroute 209.85.137.83
traceroute to 209.85.137.83 (209.85.137.83), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)  0.796 ms  1.260 ms  1.548 ms
 2  dsl-245-128-01.telkomadsl.co.za (41.245.128.1)  11.518 ms  15.253 ms  16.728 ms
 3  196.43.33.65 (196.43.33.65)  19.102 ms 196.43.33.70 (196.43.33.70)  22.247 ms  24.055 ms
 4  196.43.33.65 (196.43.33.65)  25.851 ms  28.741 ms  30.617 ms
 5  196.43.10.130 (196.43.10.130)  57.939 ms  59.536 ms  61.911 ms
 6  196.43.33.5 (196.43.33.5)  65.090 ms  34.141 ms  36.389 ms
 7  wblv-ip-lir-1-pos-7-2-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.18.6)  310.868 ms  312.560 ms  314.945 ms
 8  83.245.76.221 (83.245.76.221)  344.998 ms  346.980 ms  349.217 ms
 9  209.85.252.42 (209.85.252.42)  444.901 ms  445.027 ms  445.229 ms
10  209.85.248.80 (209.85.248.80)  371.432 ms  349.928 ms 72.14.233.63 (72.14.233.63)  348.898 ms
11  72.14.232.209 (72.14.232.209)  361.400 ms  371.620 ms  372.031 ms
12  72.14.238.128 (72.14.238.128)  374.158 ms 72.14.233.106 (72.14.233.106)  361.633 ms 72.14.238.128 (72.14.238.128)  369.643 ms
13  209.85.241.187 (209.85.241.187)  366.655 ms 209.85.241.189 (209.85.241.189)  361.543 ms 209.85.241.83 (209.85.241.83)  363.022 ms
14  216.239.43.26 (216.239.43.26)  365.819 ms 216.239.43.22 (216.239.43.22)  371.689 ms 216.239.43.98 (216.239.43.98)  371.304 ms
15  mg-in-f83.google.com (209.85.137.83)  372.161 ms  374.049 ms  376.448 ms

This has solved the gmail problem.
Has anyone else come across this problem, and how does one go about reporting a fault such as this to Telkom?

 

[Tinuva]

Don't know, but that 1st ip works for me.

Tracing route to iw-in-f18.google.com [74.125.95.18]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms  unknown [192.168.2.50]
  2    66 ms    99 ms    99 ms  voxtelecom.lan [192.168.2.254]
  3    18 ms    17 ms    18 ms  dsl-145-160-01.telkomadsl.co.za [165.145.160.1]
  4    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  196.43.35.49
  5    18 ms    17 ms    18 ms  196.43.35.49
  6    43 ms    41 ms    41 ms  196.43.10.130
  7    43 ms    40 ms    41 ms  196.43.33.5
  8   318 ms   316 ms   317 ms  wblv-ip-lir-1-pos-7-2-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.18.6]
  9   346 ms   347 ms   345 ms  83.245.126.125
 10   346 ms   346 ms   458 ms  209.85.252.42
 11   349 ms   348 ms   349 ms  216.239.43.192
 12   355 ms   351 ms   373 ms  216.239.46.14
 13   345 ms   344 ms   346 ms  209.85.241.22
 14   345 ms   344 ms   342 ms  209.85.241.27
 15   346 ms   344 ms   359 ms  72.14.239.189
 16   344 ms   342 ms   344 ms  iw-in-f18.google.com [74.125.95.18]

Trace complete.

I doubt it was a DNS problem. Instead the specific ip could just be having problems at that stage. If you follow international internet news, you would know that google actually had some datacentre problems. In fact one of their datacentres went for 2 hours with 0 traffic!! If you look at the traffic graphs you will know what I mean.

 

[smorar]

It still doesn't work for me...

smorar@spider:~$ traceroute 74.125.95.18
traceroute to 74.125.95.18 (74.125.95.18), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)  0.846 ms  1.419 ms  1.710 ms
 2  dsl-245-128-01.telkomadsl.co.za (41.245.128.1)  12.277 ms  17.155 ms  17.379 ms
 3  196.43.33.65 (196.43.33.65)  19.137 ms  22.455 ms  24.353 ms
 4  196.43.33.65 (196.43.33.65)  26.597 ms  28.977 ms  19.522 ms
 5  196.43.10.130 (196.43.10.130)  45.818 ms  48.582 ms  50.459 ms
 6  196.43.33.5 (196.43.33.5)  52.663 ms  34.480 ms  36.721 ms
 7  lon-ip-dir-telecity-gig-4-0-1025.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.18.121)  318.721 ms  320.964 ms  313.779 ms
 8  83.245.126.125 (83.245.126.125)  350.643 ms  352.669 ms  356.535 ms
 9  209.85.252.42 (209.85.252.42)  358.941 ms  366.000 ms  365.061 ms
10  216.239.43.192 (216.239.43.192)  365.532 ms  369.141 ms  370.968 ms
11  216.239.46.14 (216.239.46.14)  372.417 ms  377.257 ms  346.320 ms
12  209.85.241.22 (209.85.241.22)  346.720 ms  348.461 ms 72.14.232.141 (72.14.232.141)  352.436 ms
13  209.85.241.29 (209.85.241.29)  374.404 ms 209.85.241.27 (209.85.241.27)  349.059 ms 209.85.241.29 (209.85.241.29)  346.420 ms
14  72.14.239.193 (72.14.239.193)  350.069 ms  362.957 ms 72.14.239.189 (72.14.239.189)  351.824 ms
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

While this isn't an actual DNS problem, it is a routing problem...

 

[Tinuva]

That it is a routing problem that I do agree with. It is possible that the ip your tracing to does not know how to get back to your ip. Or it could just be a faulty router between you and the destination.

I suggest escalate this problem to your ISP and have them log a Fault with SAIX. Fastest way to get this sorted out.