Xtra DNS servers, AWOL or what?

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cyril7

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#10970 22-Dec-2006 14:34

Is just me or are other on Xtra broadband in the lower NI finding Xtras DNS servers are either dead slow or out to lunch for long periods of time. Seems to be like this for the last couple of days.

Cyril

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#56183 22-Dec-2006 14:48

glad it's not just me either. installed bind (with orsn) to get to this site

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tallPete

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#56186 22-Dec-2006 15:01

I'm in Christchurch, and right now is the first time I've noticed it. They are out for the count at the moment - about 50% of website accesses I make fail DNS lookups.

cyril7

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#56187 22-Dec-2006 15:07

Yeah currently I have locked my router to paradise's DNS to get anywhere, naturally Xtras network status page has rose tinted glass. Glad to see its not me.

Cyril

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#56193 22-Dec-2006 17:17

I was having problems earlier around lunch time but it seems to be working ok now.

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dan

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#56200 22-Dec-2006 19:14

sigh, this would be why our mail server is failing to send and coming back with DNS error messages today

bitserf

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#56658 31-Dec-2006 14:19

Confirmed, XTRA's DNS servers are a POS.

I installed djbdns (http://cr.yp.to/djbdns.html) to make lookups directly to root name servers, and what do you know, it's heaps faster.

They need some more competencies in their core business I reckon.

(Moderator edit (BG) - Added hyperlink to URL)

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juha

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#56660 31-Dec-2006 16:43

$ dig @alien.xtra.co.nz. geekzone.co.nz. any +short
210.48.73.74
ns1.iconz.co.nz.
ns2.iconz.co.nz.

$ dig @terminator.xtra.co.nz. geekzone.co.nz. any +short
210.48.73.74
ns2.iconz.co.nz.
ns1.iconz.co.nz.

What lookups are failing for you?

Juha

bitserf

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#58518 22-Jan-2007 21:25

juha: $ dig @alien.xtra.co.nz. geekzone.co.nz. any +short
210.48.73.74
ns1.iconz.co.nz.
ns2.iconz.co.nz.

$ dig @terminator.xtra.co.nz. geekzone.co.nz. any +short
210.48.73.74
ns2.iconz.co.nz.
ns1.iconz.co.nz.

What lookups are failing for you?

Hi Juha, love the column :)

None of them fail, per se, but I find the performance quite lacking. Quite often lookups take anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute, per lookup, for any TLD, nz or otherwise. I'm not quite sure where the problem lies, as this is the 3rd router I am on. Maybe I just have a very low tolerance for subjective lag but that amount of time seems excessive.

Regardless, installing my own caching DNS resolver that talks directly to the root nameservers fixed it for me.

juha

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#58525 22-Jan-2007 21:40

Thirty seconds or more is definitely excessive... lookups should be measured in milliseconds. Interesting, will dig into this some more.

And thanks for the kind words :)

Juha

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#58539 23-Jan-2007 07:59

I'm also having the same problem with the DNS servers (happening for the last 2-3 weeks).

DNS lookups for xtra.co.nz often fail completely - even when I extend the default lookup time on nslookup.

I've emailed xtra but haven't heard anything yet.

Nigel H.

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#58542 23-Jan-2007 08:34

Constant problems for the last fortnight. I thought it may have been me resetting my router, but from reading here apprarently not.

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juha

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#58543 23-Jan-2007 08:36

I'll contact Xtra to see if there's any official information to be had.

Juha

juha

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#58544 23-Jan-2007 08:38

I presume you're all Xtra customers? Don't think Xtra allows customers on other providers to use their DNS servers (and that's fair enough).

Juha

cyril7

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#58545 23-Jan-2007 08:47

I can confirm that this poor DNS service continues, with the same 30sec or more waits for lookup results that bitsef and others have seen. Tryed to get some answers from the help desk, didnt take long to realise that my oncoming headache was caused by Xtra. If this continues I will need to change providers. However I am reluctant as its all just time I dont want to spend.

Cyril

bitserf

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#58548 23-Jan-2007 09:08

Yep, XTRA customer. The problem I am sure is their DNS servers - Apart from the occasional hiccup the speed of traffic once the lookup has succeeded is the usual speed.

I called them up last night after switching back from my own caching resolver (encountering the same issues again), and they claimed there wasn't an issue or they would have received thousands of calls. Though I was talking to front-line support so they probably don't have much of an idea what is actually going on.

I'd be very interested to know what software they're using for their servers if anyone knows.

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