WARNING: ISP Rant enclosed! Handle with care!

For the last 4 months, I've been having these weird intermittant DNS issues with my internet connection. For about 2 minutes at a time, no new DNS lookups will be processed. They just stop. Internet connectivity seems fine, data transfer thats been initiated previously keeps going, for example downloads, but if I try to lookup a domain name, it will just time out.

I told my ISP about this, apparently its very unlikley its a DNS issue (lol), since other people would have reported similar problems. They suggested restarting my modem, typing in the DNS servers they supplied me with on my router and my PC, restarting both and see how it goes.

I did all of this, guess what, no difference. So, I got some logs. I made a batch file that output a ping of my ISP's webservers, google.com and an IP, and nslookup of those two domain names. During normal activity, all of them complete sucessfully. However, when I'm having problems, the pings to domains do not resolve, but the ping to the IP works fine, and the nslookups timeout.

So, they came to the conclusion it must be my router! I hard reset my router, load on the latest firmware, reset all the settings, set the MTU to my MaxMTU. Guess what. No difference.

I've tried resetting my connection and it does indeed fix the problem, for about 10 minutes. There are no such problems reported with my model of router, and a diagnostic shows that all parts of the router are working fine. I've tried plugging the phone line into the second modem port... nope, ive tried unplugging all but one of the network cables... nope... I've tried every single port individually and every single cable individually, nope!

My ISPs advice? Try using a different modem/router. Where am I going to get THAT from??? The whole point of getting a router is I don't need loads of modems!

So I've decided that I've had it with their silly ticket system, and I want to phone them up and talk to a person in REAL TIME. But guess what? The phone number isn't listed on their website !!! *groan* Why??? I just want to talk to a real person and get this issue sorted out!

Every query I've logged in the ticket system has been escalated almost immediatley, and further escalations suggest that the support staff don't get more knowlegable going up the chain, they simply read from a different book!

GAaah!!!

 

yeah, I spent about two hours on the phone with my ISP once because service was down. After all that time of being transfered around, they told me the router at my local branch was down. I later found out that it was the router there at the main office, they just wanted me off the phone. Sadly enough they have the best customer support of the high-speed ISP's around here.

 

I had a similar problem with my DSL and linksys router and affected my second computer as well, that I could not figure out for weeks!!!

I was lucky to get a guy by phone that really new his stuff at earthlink tek help...
In a half hour all my problems were solved and both computers working and all links and favoites back, connected to the DSL without the router...the day before one of those teks told me my system had a major problem...
Turns out it was my router and I think, some tweaks on their end...
Two days later he helped me re-connect the router in about 15 min. everything as it was...for 2 weeks now!!!
I think it was a couple of outages 2 weeks in a row, for 2 days, from earthlink that started the whole thing???

Just a tip for you,
Tinkertoy

 

I managed to get their phone number. From the phone directory. Phoned them up, explained my situation, woman on the other side gave me some hints, and basically what the tickets told me. She said it may be somthing interfering with my DSL line somewhere.

I've tried putting ferrite beads on my phone line to the DSL modem. I can't tell whether thats helped or not yet... I've done countless line quality tests, hardly any packet loss anywhere.. however there is a bad router on the west coast of the USA which is giving me jip.

 

That explains my problems!




Seriously, I feel your pain, the ISP in Las Vegas I used outsourced to a call center where they read answers. I used to call and ask where they were at. I would insist I be transferred to Level 2 back at the ISP or hangup and call back to ask someone new. I got almost rude, that I was not going to explain, I was a problem and they could do themselves a favor to just transfer me. The ISP reran fiber for about 4 miles to a bad switch. Worked like a charm for the next 3 yrs until I moved.