ADSL timeout problem ? - webpage not found....

Hi All

A minor niggle (compared to the complete loss of Broadband thatks to
PlusNet's tinkering last week..)

To get the connection back I had to default the Safecom router back to
factory settings. Since then, applications that access the web
(firefox, ie, Agent, mailwasher) tend to return an error message
indicating that they can't find the web - maybe 2 or 3 times out of
ten.

The error message comes back as soon as 'return' is hit on the browser
- but clicking 'try again' in Firefox usually brings up the missing
page. Almost as if the browser's not giving the Router long enough to
get a response...

Wonder if there's a setting for this somewhere in the bowels of WinXP
Home ? - or maybe it's a router thing. Nervous to fiddle with too much
in case I upset the delicate balance that is PlusNet ADSL !

Thanks
Adrian
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"Adrian Brentnall" <adrian-the papers and the (E-Mail Removed)> wrote
in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi All
>
> A minor niggle (compared to the complete loss of Broadband thatks to
> PlusNet's tinkering last week..)
>
> To get the connection back I had to default the Safecom router back to
> factory settings. Since then, applications that access the web
> (firefox, ie, Agent, mailwasher) tend to return an error message
> indicating that they can't find the web - maybe 2 or 3 times out of
> ten.
>
> The error message comes back as soon as 'return' is hit on the browser
> - but clicking 'try again' in Firefox usually brings up the missing
> page. Almost as if the browser's not giving the Router long enough to
> get a response...
>
> Wonder if there's a setting for this somewhere in the bowels of WinXP
> Home ? - or maybe it's a router thing. Nervous to fiddle with too much
> in case I upset the delicate balance that is PlusNet ADSL !

Best thing to try first is do a Windows Update and get all the updates in...
http://update.microsoft.com/microsof...ult.aspx?ln=en
or http://tinyurl.com/7mnnt

Hi Eros

On Fri, 2 Jun 2006 10:41:17 +0100, "Eros" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>"Adrian Brentnall" <adrian-the papers and the (E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi All
>>
>> A minor niggle (compared to the complete loss of Broadband thatks to
>> PlusNet's tinkering last week..)
>>
>> To get the connection back I had to default the Safecom router back to
>> factory settings. Since then, applications that access the web
>> (firefox, ie, Agent, mailwasher) tend to return an error message
>> indicating that they can't find the web - maybe 2 or 3 times out of
>> ten.
>>
>> The error message comes back as soon as 'return' is hit on the browser
>> - but clicking 'try again' in Firefox usually brings up the missing
>> page. Almost as if the browser's not giving the Router long enough to
>> get a response...
>>
>> Wonder if there's a setting for this somewhere in the bowels of WinXP
>> Home ? - or maybe it's a router thing. Nervous to fiddle with too much
>> in case I upset the delicate balance that is PlusNet ADSL !
>
>Best thing to try first is do a Windows Update and get all the updates in...
>http://update.microsoft.com/microsof...ult.aspx?ln=en
>or http://tinyurl.com/7mnnt
>

Thanks for the suggestion.
Did a quick check and MS thinks that we're fully up-to-date...

What's next ? <g>

Thanks
Adrian
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On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

> To get the connection back I had to default the Safecom router back
> to factory settings. Since then, applications that access the web
> (firefox, ie, Agent, mailwasher) tend to return an error message
> indicating that they can't find the web - maybe 2 or 3 times out of
> ten.

*Possibly* your DNS settings are sub-optimal, and it can't look up the
name in time. By the time you try again, the DNS lookup has been done
and you get immediate success. Seen that many a time.

Check your provider's recommendations for DNS servers, and either
configure them in your PC directly, or in your router's DHCP server,
whichever is more appropriate for you.

This is only a hunch - it might well be something else. But I'd say
it's worth a try.

> Wonder if there's a setting for this somewhere in the bowels of
> WinXP Home ?

Depends whether you set up the IP configuration explicitly, or told it
to use DHCP (get the IP and DNS settings automatically, I mean).

> - or maybe it's a router thing. Nervous to fiddle with too much
> in case I upset the delicate balance that is PlusNet ADSL !

The ADSL is presumably BT's. Plusnet only gets involved after you've
got that part working.

Things get easier as you develop a better mental picture of which part
does what, so that you don't waste time trying to fix parts that
aren't broken.

HI Both

On Fri, 2 Jun 2006 20:17:35 +0100, jannerboy
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>Alan J. Flavell Wrote:
>> On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Adrian Brentnall wrote
>>
>> *Possibly* your DNS settings are sub-optimal, and it can't look up the
>>
>> name in time. By the time you try again, the DNS lookup has been done
>>
>> and you get immediate success. Seen that many a time.
>
>yes, i agree
>most ISPs have 2 DNS servers (a & b)
>each request elicits a response from either a) or b) on a random basis
>if one of the servers is flakey, then 50% of the requests will fail.
>this could be the cause of the symptons experienced.
>
>
>
>ISPs usually assign the DNS sever IP addresses dynamically.
>but there is an option on most routers to enter them manually (usually
>on the 'basic settings' page.
>determine which is the 'good' IP address, and enter that manually.
>web pages, etc. should then load more successfully.

Hmm - didn't know that you had to set that bit up manually <g>

My router only seems to have one 'slot' for DNS - but plugged in
Plusnet's recommended 212.159.13.49 - and on the basis of a short test
it seems to be working fine ! Many thanks !

I suppose that when I move to Ireland (soon!) and get a new ISP I'll
need to find out what their primary DNS is and plug that in instead ??

Thanks again
Adrian
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On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

> Hmm - didn't know that you had to set that bit up manually <g>

You don't *have* to, but it sometimes helps, as you've found.

ADSL routers typically offer to relay DNS requests automatically, so
you'd configure the router's DHCP table to say that the DNS server was
itself (192.168.1.1 - or whichever your own router uses at its own
address). Then you'd configure the hosts to get the DNS automatically
(i.e to get whatever the DHCP lookup tells them to use).

And this works fairly well, but sometimes it goes crabby. Then, a bit
of manual tweaking can help...

> My router only seems to have one 'slot' for DNS - but plugged in
> Plusnet's recommended 212.159.13.49

Yup, that should be fair enough. If it gets crabby, change 49 to 50.
And there's a third address in their list...

There's basically two other options, with increasing levels of
nuisance for the user (especially if you move around, e.g with a
laptop that you use in different places):

- configure the router to know some good DNS server(s) explicitly -
mine actually has slots for two - you say yours only has one.

- configure the individual hosts explicitly to know the address(es)
of suitable DNS servers, instead of getting them automatically.

> I suppose that when I move to Ireland (soon!) and get a new ISP I'll
> need to find out what their primary DNS is and plug that in instead
> ??

Yup.

all the best

Alan J. Flavell Wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Adrian Brentnall wrote
>
> *Possibly* your DNS settings are sub-optimal, and it can't look up th
>
> name in time. By the time you try again, the DNS lookup has been don
>
> and you get immediate success. Seen that many a time.

yes, i agree
most ISPs have 2 DNS servers (a & b)
each request elicits a response from either a) or b) on a random basis
if one of the servers is flakey, then 50% of the requests will fail.
this could be the cause of the symptons experienced.



ISPs usually assign the DNS sever IP addresses dynamically.
but there is an option on most routers to enter them manually (usuall
on the 'basic settings' page.
determine which is the 'good' IP address, and enter that manually.
web pages, etc. should then load more successfully

--
jannerboy

HI Alan

On Fri, 2 Jun 2006 19:06:15 +0100, "Alan J. Flavell"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
>
>> Hmm - didn't know that you had to set that bit up manually <g>
>
>You don't *have* to, but it sometimes helps, as you've found.
>
>ADSL routers typically offer to relay DNS requests automatically, so
>you'd configure the router's DHCP table to say that the DNS server was
>itself (192.168.1.1 - or whichever your own router uses at its own
>address). Then you'd configure the hosts to get the DNS automatically
>(i.e to get whatever the DHCP lookup tells them to use).
>
>And this works fairly well, but sometimes it goes crabby. Then, a bit
>of manual tweaking can help...
>
>> My router only seems to have one 'slot' for DNS - but plugged in
>> Plusnet's recommended 212.159.13.49
>
>Yup, that should be fair enough. If it gets crabby, change 49 to 50.
>And there's a third address in their list...
>
>There's basically two other options, with increasing levels of
>nuisance for the user (especially if you move around, e.g with a
>laptop that you use in different places):
>
> - configure the router to know some good DNS server(s) explicitly -
> mine actually has slots for two - you say yours only has one.
>
> - configure the individual hosts explicitly to know the address(es)
> of suitable DNS servers, instead of getting them automatically.
>
>> I suppose that when I move to Ireland (soon!) and get a new ISP I'll
>> need to find out what their primary DNS is and plug that in instead
>> ??
>
>Yup.
>
>all the best

Thanks for clearing all that up - possibly more information than I
need or can comprehend <g> - but interesting all the same <g>

Seems to be running fine now (fingers crossed !)

Thanks
Adrian
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