What kind of problem is this? DNS?

[randyi66]

Hello. I use PacBell DSL in Los Angeles. Over the last two or three
weeks since about mid September I have noticed an intermittent problem
accessing web sites. One moment I'm accessing the Net as usual, then
all of a sudden I'm unable to reach almost any site. I've noticed that
the only sites that I am unable to reach are sites that are bookmarked
by name such as yahoo.com, cnn.com, etc. On the other hand I am able to
reach sites that are bookmarked by their IP address such as
http://209.210.49.50/ (The California Lottery web site).

Like I mentioned before this is an intermittent and sporadic problem.
Usually if I wait somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes later the problem
disappears without having to restart any of my equipment. I use a
Netgear RT314 to network my equip.

Is this some kind of DNS lookup prob with PacBell servers? Anybody else
having this sporadic problem or know any info on it? In the last 1.5
years since I've had PacBell DSL I've never had this kind of persistent
problem (with the exception of their previous newsgroup servers).

Thanks for any feedback.

Randy.

[Duncan]

"randyi66" <randyi6...@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message news:3BCBBE9B...@NOSPAMyahoo.com...

Some versions of the RT311/314 firmware did have a DNS problem, yes. Try upgrading to 3.25 off their site if you haven't already. That might help.

I am running the RT314 here myself, but in a rather complex configuration, with a modem/router in front of it, meaning dual hardware NAT, and Zone Alarm Pro software firewall on my computer. I still have occasional problems, but I think it is ZA based, or another problem that causes ZA to fail, as when I kill ZA and its associated VSMon processes, and restart them, the problem goes away. (Killing VSMon occasionally crashes the computer, though, and I end up rebooting instead of just restarting ZA/VSMon.). At any rate, I can't any longer say it is the 314, because they supposedly fixed its problems.

--
Duncan -- If posted to a newsgroup, replies there get my priority.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

[Brian]

randyi66 <randyi6...@nospamyahoo.com> wrote:
: Is this some kind of DNS lookup prob with PacBell servers? Anybody else

: having this sporadic problem or know any info on it? In the last 1.5
: years since I've had PacBell DSL I've never had this kind of persistent
: problem (with the exception of their previous newsgroup servers).

It sounds like a DNS issue. I use PacBell as well here in San Diego.
I've had quite a few problems with their DNS - issues seemed to come
up weekly.

I suggest you do what I do. Point your DNS somewhere else :) I use
my work DNS server. Eh, I guess I should warn you that PacBell lame
sites won't resolve. I can't say for sure that PacBell actually has
any - I don't use them for any service other than a network transport.

Try that for a couple of weeks. If the problems disappear, voila. If
you do find some lame delegations, you can resolve these in a hosts
file manually. There should be few enough that it's not a hassle.