Web Browsing on Home network gone U.S. (Long)

Hi,

My home network consists of Vigor 2,600 adsl modem/router > us
robotics wireless router > one wired desktop PC + 1 wireless PC + one
wireless laptop.

Hence I have 2 levels of NAT/DHCP but that has worked perfectly fine
since it's inception nearly 1 year ago.

Thursday evening started seeing a problem whereby most HTTP requests
from all the computers on the network were redirected to a BT
Wholesale error page which says

"You have been connected to this page due to one of the following
reasons. You must now shut down your browser and Internet applications
before attempting to reconnect"

All of the reasons are related to setting up the initial DSL
connection with the ISP via BT. My connection is already up and
running. Oh, one other odd thing is that if I do sucessfully reach a
web page usually some or all of it's pictures are missing or rendered
with the BT Error msg. page. Rather odd seeing a multimap page with
with 3 of the adverts replaced with the BT error msg page.

All other protocols seem OK. DNS is OK. For instance I can resolve
www.bbc.co.uk to a dotted quad address, ping it and get replies, 0%
packet loss. But http requests get redirected to the BT Wholesale page
I shouldn't be seeing.

Oddly, www.google.co.uk always works even iust after the browsers
cache has been deleted and the DNS flushed. Web pages I've never
visited before are as badly affected as any other.

9/10 of sites on a google page of links don't work, no rhyme or
reason as to which do which don't . *But* opening the link to Google's
cached copy of the page always works, but trying to open links on
googles cached copy of the page is no more succesful than any other
raw link.

I've spoken to Nildram (My ISP) who took me through the laborious
proceadure of rebooting the router, flushing the DNS, deleting the
browser's history, rebooting the PC but after about 15 reboots /DNS
flushes cache emptying they just conceeded "There may be routing
issues in BT's network" and gave me a trouble ticket No.

That was 32 hours ago. It's still happeneing. Nildrams tech support
works 24/7 but do BT's ?

Anybody understand what's going on here. Can I definitely say it's a
problem outside my network? I think if I go back to Nildram tech
support I'll just end up doing another half dozen reboots (etc), they
work from a script, & it's obvious.

Tnx.

DG

Derek ^ wrote:
>
> Anybody understand what's going on here. Can I definitely say it's a
> problem outside my network? I think if I go back to Nildram tech
> support I'll just end up doing another half dozen reboots (etc), they
> work from a script, & it's obvious.

Hmm. I've seen the BT error page before when the login info was incorrect -
took a while to realise that it was allowing a connection with incorrect
info but then responding to every request with it's error pages...

All anyone normally does is watch to see if the connection is refused -
doing it this way it isn't, but nothing works, and if you aren't web
browsing you don't know what's going on. Score -1 to BT.

On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 17:52:45 GMT, "PC Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Derek ^ wrote:
>>
>> Anybody understand what's going on here. Can I definitely say it's a
>> problem outside my network? I think if I go back to Nildram tech
>> support I'll just end up doing another half dozen reboots (etc), they
>> work from a script, & it's obvious.
>
>Hmm. I've seen the BT error page before when the login info was incorrect -
>took a while to realise that it was allowing a connection with incorrect
>info but then responding to every request with it's error pages...
>

Tnx for your input, but..

1) Google always works even when the dns has been flushed and the
browser's history has been cleared out.

2) 10% of connection requests are succesful, (No rhyme or reason) !
Although some particular sites remain continually unsuccessful.

This behaviour *looks* to me like a problem with a web cache run by
BT. Not that we should be involved withn such a thing.

BICBW

>All anyone normally does is watch to see if the connection is refused -
>doing it this way it isn't, but nothing works, and if you aren't web
>browsing you don't know what's going on. Score -1 to BT.
>
>

DG

Derek ^ wrote:
> On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 17:52:45 GMT, "PC Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Derek ^ wrote:
>>>
>>> Anybody understand what's going on here. Can I definitely say it's a
>>> problem outside my network? I think if I go back to Nildram tech
>>> support I'll just end up doing another half dozen reboots (etc),
>>> they work from a script, & it's obvious.
>>
>> Hmm. I've seen the BT error page before when the login info was
>> incorrect - took a while to realise that it was allowing a
>> connection with incorrect info but then responding to every request
>> with it's error pages...
>>
>
> Tnx for your input, but..
>
> 1) Google always works even when the dns has been flushed and the
> browser's history has been cleared out.
>
> 2) 10% of connection requests are succesful, (No rhyme or reason) !
> Although some particular sites remain continually unsuccessful.
>
> This behaviour *looks* to me like a problem with a web cache run by
> BT. Not that we should be involved withn such a thing.
>

I didn't think it would be the answer since some things work sometimes...

Have you tried another PC on the same router?

How about directly on the ADSL router?

I think it looks like a BT problem too *but* that sort of thing usually
affects more than one user. I have *definitely* seen cases where BT deny all
knowledge of a problem at the time then admit it after it's fixed (in my
case a fraught week later...)

On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 18:21:26 +0100, Derek ^
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>All other protocols seem OK. DNS is OK. For instance I can resolve
>www.bbc.co.uk to a dotted quad address, ping it and get replies, 0%
>packet loss. But http requests get redirected to the BT Wholesale page
>I shouldn't be seeing.

seeing the BT wholesale page points to a BT Central being down, or to
a DNS cache full of its address from when the Central was down. Have
seen this until router was rebooted.

With your double natt-ed connection you might have to cycle the power
on everything in case the DNS is being cached multiple times.

>Oddly, www.google.co.uk always works even iust after the browsers
>cache has been deleted and the DNS flushed. Web pages I've never
>visited before are as badly affected as any other.

check the MTU is set the same on the PC and both routers. sometimes
wrong MTUs mean you get a Google search result but can't see any of
the linked pages.

What are the PC's DNS servers set to ? Do you get the same response
using an IP address and a URL for a dodgy web page ?

Phil
--
Remember - Global Warming is only a weather forecast :-)

On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 19:18:48 GMT, "PC Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>I didn't think it would be the answer since some things work sometimes...
>
>Have you tried another PC on the same router?

Yeah, 3 windows boxen, all the same.

>
>How about directly on the ADSL router?
>

It didn't work ! :-(

Tried that but looks like I've got the Vigor modem router with dhcp
turned off and the USR wireless router with a fixed IP address,
serving dynamic IP addresses to all the clients.

I do have a spare boxed & brand new D-Link modem/router I could try,
that would replace them both. But if the existing wireless cards won't
play ball with it (They wouldn't in our office) it would be a big
hassle installing D-Link adapters on all the PC's.

>I think it looks like a BT problem too *but* that sort of thing usually
>affects more than one user.

Aye. But many users are F*ckwits and this fault mimics a lot of virus
"browser help object/DNS Error)" exploits.

> I have *definitely* seen cases where BT deny all
>knowledge of a problem at the time then admit it after it's fixed (in my
>case a fraught week later...)
>

'Speshly over a weekend if they'd have to get on-call people in ? ??

(

Tnx.

On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 20:37:30 +0100, Phil Thompson
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 18:21:26 +0100, Derek ^
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>All other protocols seem OK. DNS is OK. For instance I can resolve
>>www.bbc.co.uk to a dotted quad address, ping it and get replies, 0%
>>packet loss. But http requests get redirected to the BT Wholesale page
>>I shouldn't be seeing.
>
>seeing the BT wholesale page points to a BT Central being down, or to
>a DNS cache full of its address from when the Central was down. Have
>seen this until router was rebooted.
>
>With your double natt-ed connection you might have to cycle the power
>on everything in case the DNS is being cached multiple times.
>

Thanks everybody, It came good when I power cycled the 2nd USR
wireless router, which I hadn't previously done.

DG