PTCL's Phone N Net (or whatever it's called)
Shaheer Khan
At different times of the day (and it's night right now).
There are a few hitches I've noticed w/ the services, and some strange-
ness too. I'm in Pindi, so I'll portray it from my perspective.
Firstly, the dialup service isn't using the same DNS that the DSL
users have to use (unless, of course, everyone's been shifted). The
DNS is different - because I remember - when you type in live365.com,
you'd get an "Under Construction" web page. Now, you dont - but it
gets stuck at the "connecting to www.live365.com" state.
Secondly, I've been trying to access random web pages. There are a few
that don't work, and when I reconnect, they start working (which is
odd). One that still isn't working is Telenor's website (Pakistan).
I've tried pinging it, and no response (other websites show a
response). However, I'm not pointing fingers yet, as I've checked it
through nwtools.com (which is also network-tools.com) and they can't
get a ping either. It didn't happen before, so I'm guessing Telenor's
website is down. (edit: Telenor's site is working after
reconnecting... funny, but groups.google.com isn't. I've waited
patiently to submit this post.)
rss.cnn.com was another site that didn't load up. groups.google.com is
another. Some Wordpress blog (in fact, all Wordpress blogs) weren't
loading up, but the main Wordpress website (both wordpress.com/org)
were opening up.
Oh - and another thing: it takes me 2 or 3 tries to connect to the
UIN. I can say the most common response would be "we have a limited
number of lines", but that's not the issue. Sometimes it says "the
connection was closed by the remote computer", sometimes "the remote
computer didn't respond". Sometimes it says in the dial-up window
"registering your computer..." and disconnects right away (meaning I
don't get to see what speed it connects at, though the speed isn't an
issue).
Now, for copyrights and what-not, here's something PTCL should have
thought about before. On their FAQ link: http://ptcl.com.pk/contentp.php?NID=137
note that they have used WOL's FAQ (the telephone numbers and the name
of WOL has been mentioned explicitly on the FAQs). So much for the
"prevention-of-plagiarism" program followed by many institutions...
@PTCL dude, could you help out here? I'm not threatening or dissing
you directly (or indirectly), but since you're our only contact at
these forums who works in the PTCL and knows what's going on there....
ptcl_engr
states 80 (80*30=2400 users)at our Exchange behind Marriot Hotel.
Looks like there are some problems with configuration of Servers at
Paknet.:)
The FAQ is really funny indeed.It goes to show you the COMPETENCE of
HR , PTCL is hiring these days. First there was that glitch in Local
call rates and now this..May God help us. :)
On Oct 11, 9:56 pm, Shaheer Khan <shaheer.a.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Not sure if many of you have used it, but I have... for quite a while.
> At different times of the day (and it's night right now).
>
> There are a few hitches I've noticed w/ the services, and some strange-
> ness too. I'm in Pindi, so I'll portray it from my perspective.
>
> Firstly, the dialup service isn't using the same DNS that the DSL
> users have to use (unless, of course, everyone's been shifted). The
> DNS is different - because I remember - when you type in live365.com,
> you'd get an "Under Construction" web page. Now, you dont - but it
> gets stuck at the "connecting towww.live365.com" state.
Sajjad Zaidi
Shaheer Khan
servers. I stopped using them (Opendns) as they had some dispute with
Google, and now redirect google.com's traffic to their own server-
thing thing. Try it - start > run > cmd (press Enter)
Now type this:
nslookup www.google.com resolver1.opendns.com
OR
nslookup www.google.com 208.67.222.222
You'll see that there's an OpenDNS thing present.
But it provides a bunch of other services too. Oh - and this is the
only reason why I don't use it. Not big, but I would like my DNS to
resolve to a proper place :)
Oh - and they have typo-correction, shortcuts and other stuff too -
you just need to ensure you have a static IP (or use one of their
dynamic DNS clients). Phishing protection is also present. And if a
site doesn't open it, they show a list of search results (which can't
be turned off, I'm afraid - as it's advertising supported... not
intrusive ads though)
Level 3's DNS servers are
resolver1.level3.net
resolver2.level3.net (you can find out their IPs and place them as
primary/secondary servers)
4.2.2.1 - 4.2.2.6 (pick any pair).
All of the DNS servers mentioned above are multi-homed (i.e. they
exist in different parts of the world), but I prefer using the
4.2.2.1-6 ranges. They belong to Level 3, Verizon and another company
(jointly) and their ping time is shorter (for me, atleast).
So the next time you see your internet's not opening pronto pronto,
check if your DNS is at fault. I don't like to use PTCL's DNS as such
(though their dialup internet DNS servers are good - which aren't the
Paknet DNS servers - as per my investigation yesterday).
Hope this helps everyone.
On Oct 12, 7:25 am, "Sajjad Zaidi" <sajjadza...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Even with their DSL service, the DNS servers you get are PakNet's and I've
> had some serious problems with them before. More recently, they seem to
> randomly stop resolving certain sites. I solved the issue by running my own
> DNS cache, but that isn't feasible in most cases.
>
Shaheer Khan
Right now, I'm using PTCL's DNS. Only reason is because the ping time
is less (to contact the level3 DNS servers, it's around 250-290ms).
Reason being, the 4.2.2.1-6 series have DNS servers in Europe - and
the shortest routes, I've noticed, are to 4.2.2.4 and 4.2.2.6 (and
less ping times too). The resolver1/2.level3.net goes straight to New
York (as they don't have European bases).
FYI.
Shaheer Khan
On Oct 11, 10:30 pm, ptcl_engr <invisible.riazmar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We have plenty of PRIs in Isb for this purpose.The Excel sheet with me
> states 80 (80*30=2400 users)at our Exchange behind Marriot Hotel.
> Looks like there are some problems with configuration of Servers at
> Paknet.:)
Well - I'm not too into the tech jargon, but I'm actually surprised
why it's working slower today than it was yesterday. I mean - the
average ping for Google is shooting up to 450ms. It's usually 400 or
375ms, approx. Know why?
> The FAQ is really funny indeed.It goes to show you the COMPETENCE of
> HR , PTCL is hiring these days. First there was that glitch in Local
> call rates and now this..May God help us. :)
Maybe Eid is approaching....
Shaheer Khan
websites at times.
When I felt that it wasn't connecting, I saw that Xp didn't recognize
the IP address of the server. Rather, it put it as 0.0.0.0, instead of
203.xxx.xxx.xxx. It gets stuck at "contacting website". Since I'm
using another DNS server, I can get the IP and go ahead and surf some
websites. If I turn off the DNS settings (i.e. leave them as the
default settings), it doesn't resolve them at all.
@PTCL dude, I think you need to check this out. Many will probably
reconnect now and then, so that they don't get the error 0.0.0.0 - and
well - if this is PTCL's way of earning for multimetered calls.... and
the internet's really, REALLY instable. Ping times are excessively
high for American websites (European sites ping fine), which shouldn't
be the case. Google's taking ages to load up!
Sajjad Zaidi
Thank you for the info. However, we're likely to see a decreasing number of such open services due to the threat of recursive DNS attacks and cache poisoning.
The service providers will increasingly be under pressure to provide a decent level of service to their users while protecting themselves (and their customers) from external attacks. This is where large ISPs like PTCL will really need to work hard or suffer terribly.
And since you mention it, "dig" is a nicer and more powerful tool for troubleshooting DNS (though AFAIK, only available on non-Windows platforms by default).
Shaheer Khan
two are - and are well-known everywhere. Of course the DNS attacks are
something that we have to take care of, but these are public servers,
and don't belong to an ISP.
It's just a pointer for everyone who faces slow load-up times. Threats
are everywhere - we have to be careful ourselves. And that's why we
have firewalls :)
I'm back to the Level 3/Verizon DNS servers.
On Oct 17, 11:07 am, "Sajjad Zaidi" <sajjadza...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Shaheer,
>
> Thank you for the info. However, we're likely to see a decreasing number of
> such open services due to the threat of recursive DNS attacks and cache
> poisoning.
>
> The service providers will increasingly be under pressure to provide a
> decent level of service to their users while protecting themselves (and
> their customers) from external attacks. This is where large ISPs like PTCL
> will really need to work hard or suffer terribly.
>
> And since you mention it, "dig" is a nicer and more powerful tool for
> troubleshooting DNS (though AFAIK, only available on non-Windows platforms
> by default).
>
Majid Farid
then 10 year of offering the ISP services in Pakistan!!
/Majid
zunera ahmed
> > All of the DNS servers mentioned above are multi-homed ( i.e. they
Shaheer Khan
Many say that the rate advertised is without GST... and if GST is
acounted for, then may all our bills be paid in heaven.
I'm in the Islamabad/Pindi region. The ping times for many US sites
has slowed down, and it's not just PTCL - it's on the entire PIE
network. I've used scratch cards - and they're almost as slow.
On Oct 17, 8:17 pm, "zunera ahmed" <beautyofli...@gmail.com> wrote:
> dont know about your experiences , but i think ptcl's phone and net is not
> at al a good service, it takes several minutes to open a web page and you
> have to reconnect to the internet at least thrice..... i didnt like this
> service, ptcl must improve it.
>
> > > > All of the DNS servers mentioned above are multi-homed (i.e. they
Zaeem Arshad
The service providers will increasingly be under pressure to provide a decent level of service to their users while protecting themselves (and their customers) from external attacks. This is where large ISPs like PTCL will really need to work hard or suffer terribly.
And since you mention it, "dig" is a nicer and more powerful tool for troubleshooting DNS (though AFAIK, only available on non-Windows platforms by default).
OpenDNS folks run the open resolvers on a commercial basis and know the DNS mojo enough to run it in a sane fashion. BTW, dig does work on Windows XP. :)
-Zaeem
Shaheer Khan
"standards compliant" - not sure in which sense though.
And their latency is much less.
On Oct 18, 5:52 pm, "Zaeem Arshad" <zaeem.ars...@gmail.com> wrote:
Faried Nawaz
> But I prefer Level 3's public DNS servers. I read that they are more
> "standards compliant" - not sure in which sense though.
I prefer running my own. Then again, I don't use Windows.