DNS problem or a Router Problem?

[bingefeller]

Hi again,

I can't figure out if this is a DNS problem with BT Internet or a problem with my Netgear DG834G router.

So, every now and again I can't load websites when I type in the address, but if I type in the IP address it works perfectly. Tonight it was particularly slow, with lots of sites not loading, but IRC was running in the background and I didn't get disconnected from there.

I called BT customer support and they said that there was a power outage in Glasgow and that was probably causing the DNS problems. I'm in Northern Ireland, so would something in Glasgow have an effect on me? I'm guessing it would, but not 100% sure.

I accepted this explanation and I decided to reboot my router. It now seems to be working fine, which kind of makes me think it's been the router all along. I now have a new IP address, if the IP is indeed anything to do with the original problem.. Is it?

Can anyone offer me advice on this? Do I need a new router? I've had the Netgear for 3 years now, not that that's a long time by any means, but you never know.

Thanks!

 

[blodwyn]

Hi again,

I can't figure out if this is a DNS problem with BT Internet or a problem with my Netgear DG834G router.

So, every now and again I can't load websites when I type in the address, but if I type in the IP address it works perfectly. Tonight it was particularly slow, with lots of sites not loading, but IRC was running in the background and I didn't get disconnected from there.

I called BT customer support and they said that there was a power outage in Glasgow and that was probably causing the DNS problems. I'm in Northern Ireland, so would something in Glasgow have an effect on me? I'm guessing it would, but not 100% sure.

I accepted this explanation and I decided to reboot my router. It now seems to be working fine, which kind of makes me think it's been the router all along. I now have a new IP address, if the IP is indeed anything to do with the original problem.. Is it?

Can anyone offer me advice on this? Do I need a new router? I've had the Netgear for 3 years now, not that that's a long time by any means, but you never know.

Thanks!

I've added the DNS server addresses listed on opendns, specifically 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220, in my network preference pane. This seems to have fixed some slow connection issues I've been having recently

 

[bingefeller]

I've added the DNS server addresses listed on opendns, specifically 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220, in my network preference pane. This seems to have fixed some slow connection issues I've been having recently

thanks, Blodwyn. Say, do you just need to add them in the network preference thing? Or do you need to add them to your router preferences too?

 

[blodwyn]

thanks, Blodwyn. Say, do you just need to add them in the network preference thing? Or do you need to add them to your router preferences too?

I just added them into the preference pane for each of my systems, takes a few seconds for each. I'm wary of changing my router settings, I have a nice stable setup at the moment that isn't broke, and I don't want to fix it

 

[bingefeller]

I just added them into the preference pane for each of my systems, takes a few seconds for each. I'm wary of changing my router settings, I have a nice stable setup at the moment that isn't broke, and I don't want to fix it

Thanks again.

So, with the information given in my original post, do you reckon I need a new router?

 

[blodwyn]

Thanks again.

So, with the information given in my original post, do you reckon I need a new router?

Probably not, it seems to be functioning OK except for the DNS side. I would add the OpenDNS server addresses and see how it goes. Getting a new IP address when you rebooted your router probably didn't do anything, but it may have refreshed the DNS server addresses which was what helped it work better afterwards

 

[bingefeller]

Probably not, it seems to be functioning OK except for the DNS side. I would add the OpenDNS server addresses and see how it goes. Getting a new IP address when you rebooted your router probably didn't do anything, but it may have refreshed the DNS server addresses which was what helped it work better afterwards

OK cool! Thanks for all your help.