extremely slow DNS lookups with OSX and airport express

[dfinn]

You are absolutely correct about the cable modem being a bridge. It's not a router at all.

Counting the hops may or may not be 2 or 3. My guess is it may be more, as most networks aren't flat. Test it with traceroute. For example, on Windows:

tracert -d ns1.yourisp.com

Most Unix, and I think OS X:

tracroute -d ns1.yourisp.com

It will count out the number of hops for you. In addition, if the packet spends any lengthy time at one hop, you'll definitely see where the problem lies.

EDIT: Here's the output from mine. Notice the line with asterisks (*) and "Request timed out". That's nothing to worry about here. It simply means ICMP packets are being dropped and we're not getting a response. If the numbers are extremely high, say 2 or 3 seconds (not ms), then that's your issue:

C:\>tracert -d 216.68.4.10

Tracing route to 216.68.4.10 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  10.236.238.1
  3     8 ms     9 ms     8 ms  216.68.54.92
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     8 ms     7 ms     8 ms  216.68.4.10

I should've been more clear, I was talking about the numbers of times the DNS request was getting forwarded, and I referred to it as hops.

 

[belvdr]

I should've been more clear, I was talking about the numbers of times the DNS request was getting forwarded, and I referred to it as hops.

Ahhh.. got ya.. In networking jargon, hops refers to the number of routers a packet crosses before reaching its intended destination, hence my confusion.

 

[TyWahn]

Oh Help

OK .. I have been experiencing the same exact problem for about a week or two now. It really happened out of the blue. So so frustrating. Sometimes hitting STOP loading, then return again helps.... Could somebody please give me some suggestions in EASY SPEAK please. I read this thread, and all I see or read is manamana!
THANKS!!

iMac G4
Airport Extreme/AirPort Express
Cable Modem


p.s. How do I check the firmware version of my AirprtExpress? I tried looking in Profiler, and saw nothing. Same goes for Airport Version.
Thanks!

 

[osxmusic]

I have been experiencing super slow DNS lookup as well. It started when something happened and I think dns poisoned google to a SoGo search engine. I could surf to google by IP, but not by URL... I couldn't get rid of it, but manually entering in my isp's DNS servers did the trick.

Now it works either way, but I am experiencing slow DNS lookup. About 10 seconds of lookup before xfer from a page begins. I've gone back and forth from manual and auto DHCP in the system prefs, both allowing me online but slow lookup. traceroute -d gives me a traceroute to my router but times out every request after that. I cannot figure out what is going on....

I'm on 10.4.2 on a DP powermac connected to a cable modem through a DI-604 router.